A Must Read! –
March 25, 2020 – We have experienced helplessness, before, it is a natural reaction to feeling overwhelmed, it’s part of the collapse that can accompany trauma. But there is a profound, psychological shift that can bring us out of a state of helplessness and hopelessness towards surrender. This is an important shift in trauma parlance. By admitting our powerlessness, we surrender and make a conscious shift from helplessness to powerlessness. By surrendering we’re shifting from a sense of feeling like a helplessness victim, to a chosen recognition of our own powerlessness over, in this case, a virus, over unmanageability. We have learned in recovery, that while helplessness made us feel like a victim, surrender gave us hope and a sense of lifting and light entering our world. Surrender opens a path so that we can “take the next right action.” That next right action may be simply walking across the room and drinking a glass of water. It may be organizing the kitchen or making a plan for the day. It may be reaching out to talk to a friend, doing work from home. Getting dressed or exercising. Surrender brings us back into the moment where we see that doing the thing that is in front of us as well as we can, with the best attitude that we can muster, will strengthen us to take the next right action and will make doing it all the easier until it becomes habit. And in times of stress when our thoughts get muddled and we freeze in place, our good habits are our best friends, because they are a part of us and we don’t have to think about them. They are just there. They are habit.
