Book Commentary: “What Happened To You?”
Chapter 1: Making Sense of The World by Oprah Winfrey & Dr. Perry
Greetings, my fellow followers, and welcome to “Writer’s Harmony”.
During my absence, I started reading a book that captivated me in terms of what happened to me as a child growing up. The book is called “What Happened To You?”, which is co-written by Oprah Winfrey and well-known brain specialist, Dr. Bruce D. Perry.
The book started off with the introduction to Oprah’s traumatic relationship with her abusive grandmother. This short story about Oprah’s endured beating from her grandmothers was a bit hard to read and digest. As the reading continued, I finally understood what Oprah was feeling and how she coped with it as a young girl.
The first chapter, I read was about “Making Sense of The World”, which started off with a short story about Oprah’s traumatic childhood. In this chapter, Oprah explained that she never felt loved from the day she was born into this world.
Never built a healthy relationship with her parents, who chose work over nurturing young Oprah. As the story continues, Oprah sheds light on how she hasn’t experienced feeling “needed, validated, and valued” during her traumatic moments. This brings true to everyone who experienced it and sharing their stories to others who needs feel loved, validated and valued.
What brought this topic to light was when Dr. Perry explained the structure of the brain and how we absorb traumatic moments in our life.
The Brain Model
Cortex — Creativity, Thinking, Language, Values, Time, Hope
Limbic — Reward, Memory, Bonding, Emotions
Diencephalon — Arousal, Sleep, Appetite, Movement
Brainstem — Temperature, Respiration, Cardiac
As detailed by Dr. Perry, these are the four interconnected areas of the brain that develops emotional stability for
My Experience
Growing up, the feeling of being needed, validated, and valued by my father, who neglected me as a toddler, never came to fruition. The only people who loved and valued me were my beloved grandmother, hard-working mother, and loving uncle at the time. My mother had to be the provider for the family and there was no bond until we got got older.
Looking back as a little boy, I didn’t grasp what was happening around me. There was no feeling of sadness or even anger. There was only numbness and loneliness within me. As a result, I didn’t trust anyone and went through life with no passion or purpose to live.
Since then, I began to trust more and my mind became open to various possibilities of what my life could look like. Although no feelings were being needed, validated, and valued by my father, I feel loved and valued by my loved ones and God himself.
When God is in your life, you are already feel needed, validated, and valued. There was no need for me to look elsewhere when I have God as my only father in this world.
What I Learned
What I learned from this chapter is that not feeling needed, validated, and valued by abusive or neglected loved ones can hurt future relationships and support by children. As it pertains to me, this chapter taught me the value of accepting flaws and speaking my truth.
Explaining your traumatic experience, will not only help save your well-being but inspire others to share their stories.
For those who haven’t read this book and would get an insight into your childhood traumatic experience, you can purchase this book below and be free.
‘What Happened To You?’ — https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1250223180?ie=UTF8&tag=themichaelrey-20&camp=1789&linkCode=xm2&creativeASIN=1250223180
This concludes the first chapter of “Making Sense Of The World”.
I hope that this chapter resonates with you and that it is important to talk about your trauma experience instead of hiding it as a safety blanket to escape life.
It is never too late to free yourself from past trauma and become who God wanted you to be. That is to be a servant for Him and share your story.
Are you willing to learn from your past and move on? Or are you still that person living in that trauma you cannot escape from?
Remember, God is always with you, and lean on Him for strength when facing trauma.
Stay tuned for the next post and have a blessed week!
Stay blessed!
XOXO
Michael Rey
Michael Reynoso is a blogger who writes daily wisdom devotionals for men everywhere. Furthermore, Michael encourages men to be their best self daily with scriptures and motivation. View all posts by Michael Reynoso
Originally published at https://speaknowministries.wordpress.com on February 21, 2022.
