Tagged With "Blue Zones"
Blog Post
The implicit bias of, “Mental Illness” and “mentally ill”, a lexicon of hurt.
How can we heal from the implicit bias of “ Mental Illness ” and “ mentally ill ”? I hear these words and it sounds like fingernails scraping down the chalkboard. “ The stain of dehumanization colors the mind, body and spirit and it is not so easily washed away.” - Michael Skinner Recently I read a blog post at the ACEsConnection website, “Erasing My ACES” by Sirena Wheeler. It was posted on April, 19, 2020. It struck a chord with me, many in fact and it put me on a spiral down memory lane.
Blog Post
The implicit bias of, “Mental Illness” and “mentally ill”, a lexicon of hurt.
How can we heal from the implicit bias of “ Mental Illness ” and “ mentally ill ”? I hear these words and it sounds like fingernails scraping down the chalkboard. “ The stain of dehumanization colors the mind, body and spirit and it is not so easily washed away.” - Michael Skinner Recently I read a blog post at the ACEsConnection website, “Erasing My ACES” by Sirena Wheeler. It was posted on April, 19, 2020. It struck a chord with me, many in fact and it put me on a spiral down memory lane.
Blog Post
The Self-Care Acronym You Need to Remember on Bad Mental Health Days [themighty.com]
Laura's note: While the author's example of rest includes watching television, in my opinion, true rest--the kind that is crucial to restoring us and that often is so hard to come by--does not involve screens of any kind. That is not to say that chilling in front of a screen can't be relaxing and fun--who doesn't need to zone out now and again?--but the deep rest we need to heal and fill our internal stores so we are equipped to handle stress on a bad mental health day or ANY day comes from...
Blog Post
The Surviving Spirit Newsletter April 2020
Healing the Heart Through the Creative Arts, Education & Advocacy Hope, Healing & Help for Trauma, Abuse & Mental Health “ Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars”. Kahlil Gibran The Surviving Spirit Newsletter April 2020 http://www.survivingspirit.com/ http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/pdfs/2020-04-The_Surviving_Spirit_Newsletter_April_2020.pdf Hi Folks, Obviously we are all experiencing some very trying times and...
Blog Post
The Surviving Spirit Newsletter April 2020
Healing the Heart Through the Creative Arts, Education & Advocacy Hope, Healing & Help for Trauma, Abuse & Mental Health “ Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars”. Kahlil Gibran The Surviving Spirit Newsletter April 2020 http://www.survivingspirit.com/ http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/pdfs/2020-04-The_Surviving_Spirit_Newsletter_April_2020.pdf Hi Folks, Obviously we are all experiencing some very trying times and...
Blog Post
To Heal CPTSD, Do You Need to Love Yourself?
One of the messages that’s been drilled into us by popular culture is that “you have to love yourself before you can love someone else.” This is something people tell you when you get your heart broken and you feel like you must be… no good! And for a lot of years, every time I heard this I felt like a different species than everyone else. Because there were times when I didn’t particularly love myself – and here and there when I was younger, times when I hated myself. But there was a never...
Blog Post
Webinar: Cultivating Our Best Selves in Response to COVID-19 | Tuesday, March 17 at Noon PDT
How to use the skills of the Community Resiliency Model (CRM) for self and others to be the calm in the storm as we face the unknown. Free Webinar Tuesday, March 17 at Noon PDT Speakers: Elaine Miller-Karas, LCSW Linda Grabbe, PhD, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC Zoom Webinar Registration Link: https://zoom.us/j/715837300 Additional ways to join are listed at the bottom of this post. About the webinar leaders: Elaine Miller-Karas is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Trauma Resource Institute and...
Blog Post
What is Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD)?
Most people have heard of post-traumatic stress disorder that afflicts many men and women returning from a war zone. It is characterized by flashbacks, unstable moods, and survivor’s remorse. However, many have never heard of a condition that often develops in childhood and changes the course of the child’s life forever, complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD). For a good definition of CPTSD, we turned to Beauty After Bruises, an organization that offers outreach focused on adult...
Blog Post
What Survivors of Complex Trauma Want You to Know [marieclaire.com.au]
By Grace Back, Marie Claire, October 28, 2019 The 28th of October marks the tenth anniversary of Blue Knot Day, established by the Blue Knot Foundation to raise awareness of the more than five million adult survivors of complex trauma. This year's theme was: untangle the knot of complex trauma. Blue Knot Foundation President Dr Cathy Kezelman AM said Blue Knot Day was about uniting Australians to help untangle the knot and complexities of trauma and abuse to support the recovery, resilience...
Blog Post
When Hidden Grief Gets Triggered During COVID-19 Confinement
first published by The Meadows 4/15/20 Our sense of loss during the current COVID-19 crisis can trigger hidden emotions from when we experienced a sense of loss before. Whatever early losses you have had in your life — whether they be your own divorce, your parents, or both, or the abandonment of one parent, a childhood or parental illness or death, financial upheaval, constant moving around, or growing up with parental addiction or adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) — they are likely to...
Comment
Re: What Survivors of Complex Trauma Want You to Know [marieclaire.com.au]
I can't praise this article enough. The survivor perspective is so valuable and gets far too little attention. And a knot is exactly what complex trauma feels and behaves like. Thanks for posting this here, Rafael.
Comment
Re: What Survivors of Complex Trauma Want You to Know [marieclaire.com.au]
I like that she mentions dissociation. I have been going to therapy for over 30 years and really had no idea about dissociation. I though it was something you could put a verbal memory to or just spacing out for a bit..... but dissociation is so much more. I don't think that childhood trauma can be healed until the treatment people all come to understand a whole lot more about dissociation and about how much of the symptoms of complex PTSD are really not accessible to the conscious mind.
Blog Post
Using Self Compassion and Acceptance to Heal from Trauma and PTSD (wakeup-world.com)
If you have gone through a traumatic experience, then you have experienced something that is extremely difficult and may have symptoms of PTSD. Symptoms of PTSD include: 1. Intrusive thoughts, memories, flashbacks or nightmares about the traumatic experience 2. Avoidance of internal and external reminders of the traumatic experience such as memories, feelings, people, places, or things. 3. Negative thoughts and emotions related to the traumatic experience such as believing the traumatic...
Blog Post
Tools to Build Resiliency and Aid in Healing from Complex Trauma
Resiliency can help us overcome the life-altering effects of adverse childhood experiences or repeated trauma in adulthood. It can also speed up healing and give us the strength to conquer our traumatic histories.
In this article, we shall explore together the definitions of complex trauma, resiliency, and how resiliency can help treat complex traumatic stress disorder.
Blog Post
Healthcare providers learn skills to prevent burnout, build resilience
It’s an enormous understatement to say that healthcare workers today are suffering. Every day, you hear interviews with nurses, physicians, social workers, and others in healthcare saying they’re pushed to the breaking point and beyond. But, by using skills taught in the Community Resiliency Mode l (CRM), even people under severe stress can weather the onslaught, do their work, and get along with colleagues. CRM is an evidence-based training program that’s being used by millions of people in...
Blog Post
Healing the Hidden Wounds from Childhood The Promise of Healing (Glenn R. Schiraldi, Ph.D., Lt. Col. (USAR, Ret.)
Far too many people are walking around with unhealed, hidden wounds from toxic childhood stress. For some the pain is obvious. Others might look outwardly strong, capable, and in control. However, unhealed inner wounds inevitably cause untold and needless suffering and can lead to a dizzying array of psychological, medical, and functional problems. In this three-part blog, we’ll discuss the road to recovery. This blog is Part I: The Principles of Healing. Part II will explain why traditional...
Blog Post
Healing the Hidden Wounds from Childhood: The Promise of Healing, Part III (by Glenn R. Schiraldi, Ph.D., Lt. Col., USAR, Ret.)
So many people are struggling with unhealed, hidden wounds from toxic childhood stress. For some, the pain is obvious. Others might look outwardly strong, capable, and in control. However, unhealed inner wounds cause needless suffering and can lead to a dizzying array of psychological, medical, and functional problems. Fortunately, there is hope for healing—even decades after traumatic wounding from ACEs occurs—enabling us to be 100% there for ourselves, our families, and others we work and...
Blog Post
My Biggest Insight of the Summer (Healing Complex PTSD and Chronic Illness)
Spring in my garden is a riot of color. I caught the above pic of my poppies just past their peak after deciding to replace them and wanting to document the process. Because uprooting a cheery, bright colored plant that makes me happy in order to take the chance that something else might do an even better job can feel, as a friend of mine once quipped, "fraught with peril." And that's what it can feel like when we are in the process of healing. When, instead of believing that this is the...
Blog Post
Parents and Children Can Find Courage Together
Aristotle believed, "Courage was the first of human virtues because it makes all others possible." The need for courage is paramount in today's new world. While some wish to return to 'normal' I believe it’s a time to take advantage of being out of our collective comfort zone and embrace our growth as individuals and as a society. Change takes courage and it is no coincidence that this is our first character value in the formula for Choosing Love! As American poet laureate and legend Maya...
Blog Post
Beginning the Healing Journey: Return to the Resilient Zone
Dysregulated stress is central to the ACEs/health outcomes link. The healing journey starts with regulating stress arousal that is stuck on too high or too low.
Blog Post
These students want you to find resilience, and they are on a mission to show you how [ednc.org]
By Alli Lindenberg, EducationNC, November 29, 2021 I want you to take a moment and check in with your body. How are you feeling? What do you notice? These are the questions that Elijah Sellers and Gabby Taylor want you to ask yourself. In their new podcast, The Resilience Zone, these two students take listeners on a journey of finding resilience through accessible trauma-informed tools. “Sometimes we have to go through heavy hitters, right? And we have to put our minds and our brains under...
Blog Post
Traumatic Stress, and Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises
Traumatic stress causes many problems for survivors and others. We don’t feel well enough to accomplish our life goals or to function in day-to-day routines. There is a new solution to traumatic stress, and it is called Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE®). This article and those that follow in August will outline traumatic stress and how TRE can change lives. What is traumatic stress? Traumatic stress is a process by which individual’s resources are lost or threatened beyond individuals’...
Blog Post
Adverse Childhood Experiences, the Brain, and Exercise: How exercise strengthens the brain wounded by toxic childhood stress
Even small amounts of exercise can quickly and dramatically improve mood, brain health, brain function, and the ability to cope with stress, while preparing the brain to rewire the hidden wounds from childhood.
Blog Post
A Hunger for Wholeness: Finding the Depth of Our Resilience w/ SAND & Iya Affo
From the Producers of The Wisdom of Trauma Join Iya Affo for an insightful online community conversation facilitated by Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo. Iya's passion is to cultivate intergenerational healing by connecting intuitive ancestral practices with modern neurobiology. As we delve into leveraging our neurobiology to facilitate the healing process, we will also explore re-culturing and the creation of self-harmonizing communities. Please join us and bring your questions! The gathering will...
Blog Post
Thinking About Reaching Out to Someone? Science Says Do It [greatergood.berkeley.edu]
By Kira M Newman, Greater Good Magazine, August 8, 2022 In the space between strangers and friends, there are acquaintances. They represent the gray zone of relationships: Does she want to get to know me better? Would I even enjoy spending more time with them? Without any effort, they can easily slide back into “people we used to know.” Or with a little effort, they could become real friends. Can you know if an acquaintance is worth that effort? Two new studies suggest that when we think...
Blog Post
The True Power of Community Resiliency Model (CRM) Skills for Foster Youth/Families
In 2020 when I first started working with Coastal Horizons, in the Cape Fear area of North Carolina, my co-worker Amy talked about the Community Resiliency Model (CRM) Trainings she was giving. At that point I was new and wanted to learn more about it so I went to my first 8-hour CRM training. Little did I know this training would become a new way of communicating with the children in my home. See I am a single kinship/foster/adoptive/birth mother to at least four children, all of which have...
Blog Post
Turning What We Know Into What We Do
In this day of tumultuous breaking news, Lise Van Susteren knows how to calm us down – by helping us identify and unpack our reactor types and foster better relationships by showing us how to better understand each other.
Comment
Re: Rx Healing Circle
Hello What time zone is this please? Or where are you located, so that I can convert the time zone
Blog Post
A Sound Healing Grief Ritual for the Climate Crisis with Eric Bowers
When we don’t have support and space to grieve significant losses, the grief stays stuck inside us and takes a toll on our mental and physical health.
Blog Post
The Gift of Grief: Ecological Grief in an Era of Loss and Damage with Dr. Ashlee Cunsolo
We need not carry our planetary pain and sorrow in isolation; instead, we can mobilize our grief for collective-building, for activism, and for personal and planetary healing.
Blog Post
How to Stop Running from, Neglecting, and Betraying Yourself
“Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.” ~George S. Patton Much of the difficulty and struggle that we go through in life comes from our resistance to change. At some point, we get stuck in painful circumstances, yet we fear facing our reality and doing the work required to ignite a positive change. After all, the enemy we know is better than the enemy we don’t know. “It’s not that bad”, we tell ourselves. So we settle, give up on our desires, try to make the best of what we...