Reframing Trauma — We Have Wisdom Not Fear
We learn through experience. The more experiences we have, the wiser we become.
When we are toddlers, we only have to touch something hot once before we learn not to do that again. Everyone experiences this, and although we will cry because it hurts, the pain serves as a valuable, memorable lesson.
Getting attacked by a dog once can leave a man afraid of dogs for life. It doesn’t take a lot of empathy to understand his hesitation.
I once met a woman who was terrified of birds, but after further conversation, she revealed that a bird had flown into her hair as a child and it got stuck. That would be a horrific experience for anyone.
Pain teaches us all. It took my dog stepping on a cactus once before he developed “terminator vision” and learned to avoid them.
We don’t all have the same experiences, we don’t all experience the same hardships or lessons, but we all evolve because of the experiences we do have.
We learn from pain and trauma.
Reframing the Narrative
I was diagnosed with complex PTSD at 43 — something that I had been coping with for the better part of my life, but had gone misdiagnosed as chronic anxiety and…
