Trauma survival toolkit #3 | Healing is the Best Revenge episode #10 transcript

Sep 28

This is a transcript of episode #10 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, and subscribe to this show. Your support means the world to me & keeps this podcast going. I really really REALLY appreciate every review and rating y’all leave.

Now, a note from this show’s sponsor: Me! The Survivor Affirmation Deck is available exclusively for preorder until October 31st.

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, has been there, and IS there. Cards feature 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 your bestie.

I’ve put my heart and soul into creating this deck and I’m so excited to share it with you. You can find a link to purchase it in the show notes.

Now onto today’s episode, the third part of a 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. I’m an artist, educator, and speaker - and I’m also a disabled nonbinary queer femme survivor whose been working deliberately on healing from trauma for over a decade.

While I’ve come a really long, long, LONG, way, with moments where I’m truly thriving instead of struggling to survive, I still have bad days, bad weeks, sometimes bad months. There are times when my CPTSD is all-consuming and I’m fighting to keep going moment to moment, all over again.

And/also I have a decade’s worth of coping skills, techniques, and tools that have supported me on this journey. I hope that this podcast and this skill share series is supportive for you and helps you feel less alone. Sweet friend, I know it’s so hard so much of the time. I’m here. I believe you and I’m rooting for you.

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 three: affirmations, peer support, and making art.

Affirmations

So y’all know I LOVE affirmations. Affirmations are phrases you can personally craft to help support you in your healing journey. The idea being that repeating these affirmations helps create new neuropathways and stories about ourselves, resulting in less self-destruction and suffering. That’s the big picture, at least. Kind of incredible, right? Let me tell you about how using affirmations have helped me this week.

I often get overwhelmed, overstimulated, & super activated by everyday errands. Like, it’s just too much for my nervous system. One of the affirmations I use is, “I am safe.” I usually repeat these words anywhere from 3-5 times, under my breath or out loud, because I don’t give a crap about what other people think of me.

Anyways, using this affirmation really does help bring me back to myself and into my body, grounding me and helping me feel safer in the moment.

Want to try it out? Craft a phrase that feels positive, powerful, and believable to you. Try using it as an anchor to hold onto when things are hard. I highly recommend with any new coping skill to use it when you’re starting to notice yourself get triggered instead of when you’re having full-fledged flashbacks. It can take time and a lot of practice, honestly.

If you need help creating your own affirmations, check out episodes number 1 and 7 for dozens of affirmations for survivors.

Peer Support

If you’re not familiar with peer support, basically it’s when folks with lived experience help support one another. And by lived experience, I mean personal experiences of trauma or grief or depression or anxiety or substance use or OCD and so on.

One organization I love who offers peer support is Peer Support Space. They’re a grassroots org based in Orlando, Florida and are “led by and for those in recovery from mental illness, substance abuse, trauma, grief, etc.”

I live in Ithaca, New York which is hours & hours & hours away from their physical location, but I am able to attend their community gatherings online. They usually have them twice daily, Monday thru Saturday, offered over Zoom. Attending these peer-led spaces has been so helpful & supportive in my own healing process. In these spaces, folks get it; they really do.

I can show up & share space, without speaking at all or use the chat to participate instead. I can vent or ask for practical support or words of affirmation and so on, whatever I need. The folks who attend are incredible at making new folks feel included & welcome.

Of course, peer support exists in many forms. Since I’ve benefited from and used Peer Support Space’s offerings, I wanted to highlight one of their many resources.

I encourage you to check out Peer Support Space’s website; I’ll link it in the show notes. Or to research another form of or option for peer support and maybe to try it ouu when you’re ready.

Making Art

Making art has been a great outlet for my emotions. I enjoy making collages and zines; they allow me to tell my story on my own terms, process my feelings, express my emotions and experiences, and connect with my bodymind on a more embodied level.

There are so many different ways you can make art; experiment with different mediums until you find one you enjoy. Off the top of my head, I think of:

Zines, collages, writing, poetry
Drawing, doodling, coloring
Graphic design
Painting, from acrylic paints to watercolors & everything in between & beyond
Ceramics & clay
Embroidery, sewing, crochet, knitting, and other fiber arts
Playing an instrument, singing, writing songs and composing music,

PS: You don’t have to be artistic or an artist to make art. If you feel intimated, try it as an experiment. You don’t have to show anyone else what you make or even save it. I throw many, if not most, of my doodles away. You can also try safely burning it, shredding or ripping it up, whatever you need.

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.