Today, I’d like to introduce us to some resources about a beautiful, strength-filled phenomenon called Post-Traumatic Growth.
Sometimes, people who experience the upheaval of trauma are able to remake their lives and live them more deeply, often with a greater sense of love and meaning than they might have had before. This is in no way to suggest that the trauma is somehow a good thing or a blessing in disguise. Certainly not. But Post-Traumatic Growth can happen alongside the pain of traumatic experiences.
Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun, two psychologists and researchers, did a great deal of studies surrounding Post-Traumatic Growth, and they have identified five common themes in people who have experienced Post-Traumatic Growth. These include,
- Changes in how they relate to other people
- Recognition of new opportunities, priorities or pathways in life
- Greater appreciation for the value of one’s own life, and life in general
- Recognition of one’s own strength
- Spiritual or existential development
In light of these, here’s a video about Post-Traumatic Growth from Dr. Nicole LePera, also known as The Holistic Psychologist on social media:
In addition to sharing these, I’d like to close with a poem from Alice Walker. I wonder, does any part or resources of today’s blog resonate with you?
Hope to Sin Only in the Service of Waking Up
by Alice Walker
Hope never to believe it is your duty or right to harm another simply because you mistakenly believe they are not you.
Hope to understand suffering as the hard assignment even in school you wished to avoid. But could not.
Hope to be imperfect in all the ways that keep you growing.
Hope never to see another not even a blade of grass that is beyond your joy.
Hope not to be a snob the very day Love shows up in love’s work clothes.
Hope to see your own skin in the wood grains of your house.
Hope to talk to trees & at last tell them everything you’ve always thought.
Hope at the end to enter the Unknown knowing yourself. Forgetting yourself also.
Hope to be consumed to disappear into your own Love.
Hope to know where you are –Paradise–if nobody else does.
Hope that every failure is an arrow pointing toward enlightenment.
Hope to sin only in the service of waking up.
Smuggling Grace 