I am an often invited speaker at numerous organizations and one of the keynote speeches I give is titled, “How to Step into Your Greatness to Be All You Are Called to Be.”
As part of that speech, I talk about knowing your identity and where your identity is rooted. I then often zoom in on the concept of an identity rooted in trauma.
From my personal and professional experiences, many people anchor their identities in trauma: divorce, abandonment, childhood trauma of all types, career disappointments, car accidents etc. In fact, take away the trauma, and they have no identity. So they hug, obsess, and regenerate the trauma a million times over in their heads, which in turn manifests itself in the physical realm, by attracting like-minded persons who validate their trauma-based identities or inflict more trauma on them. The result is a life of depression, hopelessness, a constant state of restlessness, feeling overwhelmed, anxiety, addictions, and all around sickness of the mind.
If you are someone who has experienced trauma, and many years later, you continue to hug that trauma so tightly that it is suffocating you in the physical, mental and spiritual realm, I want you to repeat after me, “I am NOT my trauma.” Say it as many times as possible and make it your mantra if you have to. Hey, it really is time to let go because you are really not your trauma.
And the truth is everything that is preventing you from your next level of greatness, in all aspects of your life, has a direct correlation with your insistence on hanging on to your past trauma(s) with that all too familiar deathly but deadly grip. Let go and take the courageous journey towards living the life you deserve.
Cheers,
~Ms. Uduak