Bree Cunningham

Recovery ISN'T about abandoning our comfort zone. It's about USING our comfort zone INTELLIGENTLY-- to rest, regroup, get grounded-- instead of as a place to hide or live. Comfort zones & safe spaces AREN'T jokes or cliches'-- they serve a purpose & give us an edge.

Trauma gets us in our head-- second guessing ourselves, hiding who we are, hiding FROM who we are. Recovery starts to get us back into our LIFE-- but after years of struggling w/ trauma, that life can feel pretty unfamiliar. Even scary. Easy does it. You just take baby steps.

When we've experienced trauma, it might not just be our memory of the trauma that's scrambled-- our ability to retain & recall LOTS of stuff may take a hit. Where there's complex trauma, there's almost always brain fog-- not to mention chronic mental & physical fatigue-- too.

There are lots of people reading this who FEEL super fragile-- but who have had the resilience (yeah, yeah, I know) to survive their past & continue to tough it out every day. Our resilience (ugh, I know) DOESN'T mean we don't hurt-- or that our trauma "wasn't that bad."

It tends to be REAL important to complex trauma survivors to be reliable, dependable, to have integrity-- because their lives have often been shaped by people who haven't been authentic or truthful w/ them. Once you know betrayal, you never wanna make anyone else feel it.

Life after trauma is being fine one minute-- then a specific little noise, a subtle smell, some way the light happens to filter through a window in the late afternoon, can send you spiraling into a flashback. It gets better. But it can be a scary, frustrating journey. You know.

Complex trauma survivors will often bend over BACKWARDS to avoid conflict. We've had enough conflict to last a lifetime. It triggers all sorts of abandonment fears & threat cues in us. Thing is-- it's really hard to set & enforce boundaries when you're really conflict averse.

You bring more skills, tools, & useful experience to recovery than you might think. You survived so far. It may not have been pretty & it might be time to switch things up-- but you ARE skilled. Right here & now. YOU have a strong base. YOU have the will to do this. Yes, you.