you hold the key

If you hear the song I sing
You will understand, listen
You hold the key to love and fear
All in your trembling hand
Just one key unlocks them both
It’s there at your command

Youngbloods Get Together

Time to take the power away from PTSD! You do “hold the key to love and fear all in your trembling hand.”

Keys unlock the door to your house, the door to your car and anything else that is locked behind the door. Keys can also lock things up to keep them in place. All too often, bad memories have been locked in your mind. Did you know you had the key to letting them out?

PTSD cannot trap anyone who has the key to unlock the door of your mind to release them. Once you do, then you have room to let new memories find a home within you.

Every bad thing that happened setting off PTSD, was terrible. Those memories were stronger than anything else that happened during the event.

What else? The people who came to help you are part of those memories. The people in your life who were relieved you survived and thanked God you returned to them, are part of those memories. PTSD fed the bad memories but did not destroy the good ones.

As time goes by, it continues to feed off the bad memories until you convince yourself those are the only memories you are allowed to have. The good ones are still there, waiting for you to remember them.

Change the conversation you have been having with yourself

• You are not a victim. You became a survivor of the event that happened. Key word is that it “happened” and while your memories replay it over and over again, you can change what you allow it to do right now.
• Survivors have nothing to be ashamed of. If people do not understand you, then understand them by acknowledging that if you did not have PTSD, you wouldn’t understand what it does to others. Don’t expect them to understand if they did not survive something in their own life.
• You are not trapped. You have the power within you to heal.
• Learn to love yourself again. Until you learn what makes you “you” there is a sense that you are living in a strangers body. Everything that was good and wonderful within you is all still there. PTSD has taken dominence over all your qualities and fed what was negative traits in your personality. We all have traits we wish we didn’t have, say things we wish we didn’t say and many regrets. It does not want you to acknowledge anything that was good within you because those traits are much stronger than what PTSD needs to live off of.
• There are things you can do on your own. Once you discover what PTSD is, then you remove the thought that it is anything other than what it is. It strikes the emotional part of your brain. While there is the rumor that it means it is a sign of weakness, it is actually a sign of strength. The stronger your emotional core is, the more you will feel it. Once you are no longer afraid that “there is something wrong with you” then you begin to open up to possibilities.
• There are things you may need help with. Sometimes you may need therapy, or medication. Sometimes you may need one-on-one therapy, other times you may need to be part of a group. Sometimes you may need help to care for your body and teach it how to calm down again. Sometimes you may need someone to guide you, encourage you or teach you.
• Then there are things you can help others with too. When you begin to heal, then you are able to understand how others feel when they are lost and on their own. As you help guide them, you are healing more.

So, yes, you do “hold the keys to love and fear, all in your trembling hands!”

Remember, it’s your life…get in and drive it!

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD