Trauma survival toolkit #2 | Healing is the Best Revenge episode #9 transcript
This is a transcript of episode 9 of my podcast, Healing is the Best Revenge.
Hi, I’m Karina Hagelin and this is Healing is the Best Revenge, a podcast for survivors and the folks who love us, to discuss the politics of survivorship, healing, and community care. This is a space where we reject pedestals & perfectionism, instead honoring the messy and complex realities of healing from trauma.
Before we start, a quick reminder that if you love this podcast, please take a moment to rate, review, subscribe, & to share this show with a friend. Your support means the world to me & keeps this podcast going. I really really REALLY appreciate every review and rating.
Now, a note from this show’s sponsor: Me! The Survivor Affirmation Deck is now available for preorder.
This deck is a beautiful, inspiring, & uplifting collection of 40 vibrant affirmation cards for survivors of abuse and violence who are healing from trauma. Each colorful card features a supportive & loving affirmation for survivors, written by a survivor who gets it, not a rando love n (gas)lighter. Cards have a rainbow gradient on the back & come packaged in a lovely pink box.
The Survivor Affirmation Deck is a great gift for loved ones healing from trauma, therapists, mental health workers, folks who work with survivors of violence and abuse, and for yourself and/or your bestie.
Onto today’s episode, the second part of a new series on coping skills for CPTSD.
Welcome to your Trauma Survival Toolkit, a series in which I’ll share a few of my go-to coping skills for living with CPTSD with you.
For those of you who don’t know me - yet - I’m Karina and I’ve been intentionally working on healing from trauma for over a decade at this point in my life. And my life? Is so much better than I ever imagined it could me. I have moments where I move from surviving to truly thriving. And I spend less time struggling to survive.
And while I’ve come such a long way, I still have bad days, bad weeks. Sometimes, bad months. There are times when my CPTSD is all consuming and I’m fighting for my life, all over again.
But! I have a decade’s worth of coping skills, techniques, and tools that have supported me on this journey. I’m not alone, ever, and neither are you, even if we sometimes feel like it. I hope this podcast & this skill share series is supportive for you & helps you feel less alone.
As always, take what works. Leave the rest behind. Now, let’s talk about some of my go-to coping skills. Today, I’m going to cover 3: connection, journaling, & gratitude.
Connection
When my first impulse is to disconnect and isolate, there’s a good chance what I actually need is to connect.
Staying connected to my loved ones, to my communities, to my friends & family, to my animal animal companions, &/also to nature has been crucial to my survival. Like Grace Lee Boggs said, “We need each other to survive.”
Some ways I practice connection include:
Small talk with strangers
Chatting with my neighbors
Texting a friend
Playing with my cats
Visiting my favorite Sycamore tree
Watching the clouds
Tending to my garden
Feeding the local blue jays
These things are all good reminders of how we need each other. None of us are islands, nor are we supposed to be.
I want to remind you that connecting with non-human beings is definitely a form of connection. My three rescue cats, Boo, Cashew, and Chickpea, are literal lifesavers. If you don’t have an animal companion, you might try volunteering at a local animal shelter or simply going to visit the animals there.
Journaling
Journaling helps me process, reflect, & decompress. It’s a valuable tool that doesn’t have to be perfect, pretty, or fancy - or even analog. I love using my Notes app to journal; you could also use a word document. When I don’t know what to write, I look up journaling prompts online; there are sooo many to choose from! I really love doing a daily check-in with my diary. It also helps keep me grounded and generally less dissociative.
Gratitude
Practicing gratitude can sound & feel SOOO cheesy but I’ve found that for me, it actually does help. Gratitude helps me interrupt these spiraling negative self-talk loops I can get stuck in, allowing me to see the joy in life, live in the moment, and be thankful for the little things too. This might look like naming or writing down, in my journal or on a sticky note, three things I’m grateful for, like actually grateful for, not aspirationally grateful for. Today, those things are:
That my desk is organized & tidied up
Diet Coke
My yellow kitchen
What about you?
Okay, that’s all I’ve got for you today but before I go, if you’d like to receive notes on radical self-love, healing, & affirmations, you can find a link to subscribe to my newsletter in the show notes. I’d love to have you on the list! Until next time, sweet friend. & as always, I believe you.
