lastchanceletters

[lastchanceletters]

The Real Remedy

Sometimes we learn from looking back, sometimes we are better served by moving on. The choices we make impact how we see ourselves and how we relate to others. Our self-images limits our ability to receive and to release compassion; we are bound by ourselves and our pain.

While it’s critical to analyze our mistakes, it’s equally critical to make plans to exit the desert of loneliness and self-criticism. At what point is it permissible to release ourselves from feelings of guilt, unworthiness, and shame? At what point do our feelings become choices, and at what point do we need help wading out of the water?

Therapy is a powerful construct that helps us navigate life’s toughest questions. Staying in sync with a neutral third-party is sometimes the only way to truly understand what steps we need to take to come out of the darkness and into the light. Honesty, openness, and vulnerability come at a cost; however, embracing them is one of the only things that allows us to heal.

If you need encouragement today, consider that you are a work in progress. You would have done it differently the second time around, you would not fall into the same traps or trip into the same deep holes. Do not let your past performance impact your hope. Do not be limited by your failures; be empowered by your strength and resilience. You are still here, and that is enough.

No matter where you find yourself — in the wake of destruction, on the path to healing, or somewhere in between; you must find peace with yourself to carry on. The only necessary element is forgiveness. Forgive yourself, forgive the ones who hurt you, whether you perceive your grievances to be the result of intentions or because of a lack thereof. There is light at the end of the tunnel, just keep going.

#self-forgiveness #hope #moving on #light in the dark #therapy #empathy #compassion

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[lastchanceletters]

You are not lesser for needing more support. Your chronic illness does not make you less valuable or lovable as a person. It’s okay if you can’t do what they can.

[lastchanceletters]

you don't have to find the positive in your trauma. you don't have to turn your trauma into beautiful art. your trauma doesn't have to be inspiring. you don't have to hold beliefs like 'harships are lessons' or 'everything happens for a reason'. you don't have to forgive your abusers. you don't have to talk about your trauma, but you also you don't have to be silent about your trauma. you don't have to be the perfect victim or the perfect survivor.

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“Hope is seeing the light when others only see the darkness of the night.”

— Unknown

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��It’s only after you’ve stepped outside your comfort zone that you begin to change, grow, and transform.”

— Roy T. Bennett

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Keep going.

“At the end of the day, you can either focus on what’s tearing you apart or what’s holding you together.”

— Unknown

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[lastchanceletters]

please, dont give up.

[lastchanceletters]

“Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.”

— Unknown

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“We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others.”

— John Lennon

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“I don’t know a perfect person. I only know flawed people who are still worth loving.”

— Unknown

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“Don’t let the concept of change scare you as much as the prospect of remaining unhappy.”

— Timber Hawkeye

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“Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.”

— Christopher Reeve

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“The greatest prison that people live in is the fear of what other people think.”

— David Icke

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“Life is too short to spend it at war with yourself.”

— Unknown

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Feeling Safety

Fear is a fire alarm in the brain; it keeps the mind active and alert long after the call has been answered. This phenomenon is often referred to as hypervigilance. It can take many forms and manifest in different ways, and it can come from all kinds of situations and experiences.

Fear is more educational than joy from the perspective of your animal mind — that is why it feels urgent and important. Your brain wants you to pay attention, so it can be sure to learn everything it can in order to prevent future harm.

Fear is is not necessarily bad, but it is uncomfortable. Fear works like a red-flag mechanism of nature that can help you avoid making the same mistakes or falling into the same traps. However, feelings that are born out of a lack of safety prevent us from thinking clearly.

Too much mental attention on fear can cause anxiety. If fear is fueling anxiety, it is counterproductive to healing. Anxiety is like static in the line of interpretation; it’s noise that increases stress in your body and mind.

One of the most effective ways to manage anxiety and fear is to address the source. Working through “triggers” (things in our world that re-traumatize or cause intense or vivid recollection of a traumatic or otherwise painful event) is one of the best ways to mitigate stress that can come from rumination, or unsolved pain we tend to revisit in order to resolve the parts that still bother us or that we don’t understand.

You are worthy of compassion, empathy, and wholeness. No two people overcome the same. Taking time and space to heal is critically important. Recovery is not selfish.

No matter where you find yourself on the road to healing — just keep going.

#fear #anxiety #how to heal #hypervigilance #compassion #empathy #healing #worth