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The Life Changing Magic of Touching Your Trauma
If you’re familiar with Marie Kondo’s The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, you know that her method of simplifying requires you to get all of one type of item together (clothing, books, toiletries, papers, etc.), touch each and every one, and decide if it gives you joy before you choose whether or not to keep it in your life.
Moving on from trauma is similar.
When I left my abusive marriage, I started processing many of my experiences on my personal Facebook page, sharing with friends and family who had only seen the pretty picture I shared for public consumption, showing them what my actual experience was like behind the mask.
At first, I shared because it was cathartic. It was validating. It was community. So many people reached out to me, via comments or private messages, to thank me for sharing my story. They shared their own. I’ve seen a ripple effect of friends beginning to publicly share their own stories of leaving abusive relationships, and even people acknowledging that their relationships are traumatic without them ever realizing it consciously before.
Sharing stories has power.
I’m also sharing my story because I have to touch it. I have to pick up the years in my hands, turn them over, look at the rough spots and the pretty spots and decide that…
