How Loving-Kindness Meditation Helped Me Overcome PTSD
Had you asked me to tell my life story a few months ago, it would have gone something like this:
I was the daughter of a mentally ill mother and an absentee father. I was a foster child as a teenager, a runaway by the age of 17, and homeless by the age of 18. I’d seen violence and fought for my survival on more occasions than I’d care to remember.
Miraculously, at 18 I managed to find a full-time job at a local casino. Prior to that, I’d worked nothing but minimum wage jobs (at a staggering $8.25 an hour), and the jump to $11 an hour was enough to save my life. I went from sleeping in my 1996 Mercury Sable to living in a studio apartment in a quiet suburb of Chicago. I eventually moved to office work as an administrative assistant before working my way up to become a finance manager. I wrote a book, made friends, and lived happily ever after.
It was a real-life Cinderella story. Everything that I’d done — and everything that I will do in the future — I did in spite of my circumstances. I was a victim of unfortunate circumstances, but I’d risen above them to overcome the odds.
But I wasn’t the only victim.
