Hola Sober Sunday

Online Class Wisdom

I have acknowledged the traumatic events I experienced in my childhood and young adulthood and have moved on to healing. I also blamed myself for everything, big M on my back too. Once I put the drink down, and laser- focused on the hard events in my life that truly caused me emotional pain, I was able to see how alcohol helped me ‘cope’, or so I thought, as I did not know of ‘tools’ or ‘emotional sobriety’ at the time. I have yet to meet a woman that has not experienced some kind of trauma in her life, whether in childhood or adulthood, or both. Knowing I wasn’t alone in experiencing trauma, after connecting with other women who spoke openly about this, made me feel strong enough to examine, forgive (myself for my coping mechanisms) and move on. It has taken me a year and a half to actually get to this point but I can honestly say I’m ready to move on. It doesn’t mean the pain has completely left but I can see it as something in my past and not allow it to control my future.

”We own our emotions, they don't own us. When we internalize the difference between how I feel in all my wisdom and what I do in a values-aligned action, we generate the pathway to our best selves via our emotions.” My Auntie recently told me to think with my heart, and I think this is what she meant. I see this as a way to both move forward into my present and future, but also as a way to hug the little version of me, acknowledge the feelings that I couldn’t articulate, and begin to heal those past hurts.

H.M.

Yes, I do think I have to acknowledge things in order to heal. I think of them as two types of life events to acknowledge. What leads me to want to numb and all the consequences of numbing. I have been thinking and journaling about the first type of events.. I think I had a huge amount of pain and anxiety from a very young age. My parents sent me to a child psychologist when I was 9 years old. I know this feeling of being uneasy, sad, anxious, awkward, insecure, and not fitting in, started way back then. I was numbed with food. Then with alcohol. I have numbed with overworking, getting into obsessive relationships with men, shopping, traveling, and dieting. Everything or anything that would hide the pain. The contortions we go through just to forget about ourselves for a few hours..this is a quote from Keith Richards although I know it is not exactly right but it is along those lines. So yes, I am in the process of acknowledging all the pain I have so desperately tried to escape from in order to heal it and move on.

-Shana E.-

-A.C.-

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