What Helps You Get Through Dark Times?
An invitation to share your experience, strength, and hope with other FSA survivors...
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Our community affirmation theme for this week addressed embracing the ebbs and flows of recovery. I will be writing a full-length public post on this same topic soon, and I’d like to invite paid subscribers to contribute to my article via your comments.
As my most recent affirmation affirmed, healing from abuse and trauma is not a linear process. There are times when we may feel hopeful, energized, and seem to be making progress in our recovery. During such times, we experience a state of psycho-emotional / psycho-spiritual expansion and increased well-being.
Alternatively, there can be times when we feel stuck, hopeless, depressed, fearful, and lost in the dark. During such times, we are in a state of psycho-emotional / psycho-spiritual contraction and may believe that healing from the effects of FSA and attendant trauma is not possible.
I view both of these states (expansion and contraction) as being necessary for deep and sustained healing, integration, and growth, but of course, when we are in a ‘contracted’ state (which some of you might equate with a “dark night of the soul”), it can seem like we will remain in this dark place forever, with no relief.