Today’s guest post is brought to you by Emily Stroia! Thanks, Emily!
Healing from trauma isn’t a straight line. For me it has and still is an ongoing journey.
We all have our scars, stories and experiences that have shaped our view of the world and of ourselves.
I have explored healing through the mystical, spiritual, self-help, therapy and emotional intelligence. You name it and I have most likely done it.
I have been in therapy since I was 5 years old when I shared with my teacher a fight my parents had. This conversation sparked my healing journey and every week I would meet with the school therapist. These sessions were my saving grace as a child.
Home life was very confusing, dark and traumatic.
My mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia and my father was abusive; mentally, physically and sexually.
One day around the age of 13, I went out on my balcony and had a serious talk with the universe. I remember asking what the purpose was for me.
I asked the big question many of us ask when bad things happen, “WHY?, WHY ME?”.
At first I heard silence.
And then I heard this intuitive voice whisper, “This isn’t happening to you. This is happening for you.” I had the faint realization that I would share my healing journey and my story with the world.
Nearly 20 years have passed since that realization. Slowly in the healing process I have been able to release the need for my story to be different. I have learned that there are gifts in the scars.
The healing journey has also inspired me to write my story in a form of raw poetry.
My new book, Into the Light explores healing from trauma and abuse through the creative art form of poetry.
This book is memoir-inspired and also has notes to the reader on healing from brokenness, finding light in the darkness and coming to peace with the past.
There is a favorite quote that still resonates with me, “Forgiveness is letting go of the past being any different”.
We may not be able to change what happened to us but we can make magic, art and beauty from the broken parts.
Healing is a personal journey of finding freedom, liberation and transcending from what once was. We are not what happens to us.
A storm may leave damage but it is up to us to repair it. I am not a victim to the circumstances I was born in.
It may not make sense and it may never make sense why people hurt us in the ways they do. We may not know how to forgive the unforgivable. But we are born with the capability to love and heal each other through the power of story-telling and sharing.
A poem from my new book, Into the Light:
When you are at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on. When you think you are at the end of your journey, reach out your hand and someone will meet you
there.
