I have many clients who struggle with the possibility they can be loving, compassionate, grounded, patient and any other characteristic they need for recovery work. They tell me they can’t possibly be this way because they have never been shown how to be that way. Their parents didn’t behave that way, and they certainly haven’t felt any inkling of those characteristics since entering adulthood. And I really get it. When I started this journey, I felt the same way.
How in the world was I going to parent my inner and outer children when nobody ever parented me? How was I going to love myself (or anyone else) when nobody ever loved me? How was I going to be compassionate with my inner parts when nobody ever gave me the benefit of the doubt? How was I going to have patience after a lifetime of fear, of watching everything I ever loved be ripped from my grasp? That wasn’t possible. I was basically screwed. Recovery would never work for me.
But for some reason, I didn’t give up. Those beliefs were strong, but I sensed there was something else. It was a tiny something else, but it was still there. For some reason, I had a semblance of understanding that I could learn these things. I had an even smaller semblance of understanding that I already knew these things. So I stuck with the idea that something better was possible.
And as we do when we live in our heads, I spent an exorbitant amount of time researching things. I thought I could teach myself how to be what I wasn’t. I read the parenting experts. And believe me, there are some awesome parenting experts. I read the spiritual folks. I read so many spiritual books, I went in to bypass at times. I learned what it was supposed to look like. I remember thinking to myself, “Maybe I can just fake it. I know what it needs to look like, so that should be enough right?” Wrong. Love, compassion and patience cannot be faked … not forever … and certainly not in parenting.
But I didn’t know how to get there. Then something occurred to me. I wasn’t going to find these things somewhere out there. I wasn’t going to learn how to become them. I had to unearth them. They were there and I had no access to them. They didn’t need to be taught to me. I was born with them. And they weren’t something that could be taken away. As long as I walk this planet, I have them. But they were hidden from me. In childhood, they were not safe characteristics, so they were buried underneath a pile of rubble, otherwise known as unresolved trauma.
So I wasn’t supposed to become these things. I was supposed to “unbecome” the traumatized person created by my past. But of course, that brought up one extremely important question. How was I supposed to do that? And the answer was not what I expected. I had to accept all the things about me that were the opposite of what I wanted to be. If I wanted to be love and compassion, I had to embrace my hate and anger. If I wanted to be patient, I had to embrace my fear. If I wanted to be grounded, I had to embrace the memories that kept me out of my body. To become who I was meant to become, I had to accept and validate my human responses to my trauma. I had to love all of me.
If you believe there is no point to this recovery work because you don’t have what it takes, I ask you to reconsider. I ask you to take off the mask you created to be who you thought you needed to be and embrace how you feel right now. I ask you to accept all the parts you don’t want to accept, all the parts who fail to meet the image you want to have of yourself. As you do that, you will release what is not your true self. And one day, down the road in this life’s journey, you will look down at the rubble and you will see little shafts of light coming up. You will find you have compassion for yourself and others like you never did. You will find you can wait a little while for what you want. And you will feel a bit more centered in your body.
But you have to get started. If you keep telling yourself you can’t, then you won’t. And that would be a tragedy because you are amazingly compassionate, loving and patient. I just know it. And you will know it too.
Thank you. Yes, we have to take that little teeny, tiny step in front of us and let go of the “I can’t.” Someone said, “Anything worth doing, is worth doing awkwardly at first.”
I like that. It definitely can be awkward. 🙂
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I needed to hear this right now! Thank you for sharing and being so open. Lots of love. (whew! I felt some resistance there – hee! hee!)
Thank you Wendy!
As always, brilliantly written and very wise. I’m trying to embrace myself. Man is it hard. A month ago, I definitely realized I’m very human. I broke down and showed people my extreme vulnerability. I leaned on others like I never had. And it was liberating. I don’t have to be strong all the time. I embraced my weakness, my humanness.
I love that you are doing that Andrea! We often come out of traumatic childhoods feeling like we must keep up our perfection masks at all costs. It is such a relief when we can finally allow ourselves to be human. Thank you for your courage.
Beautifully said….again!!
Thank you Maria!
Thank you so much for these truly healing words! This post is such a gift! I plan to post a copy where I can read it every day.
Thank you so much Lily! I am so glad these words are helping you heal.
a BIG THANK YOU for sharing(sharing is caring)
your life journey, it help me so much to understand the inner parts
this morning article was a WOW moment for me, i didnt know the way forward, but you rescue me with the understanding: “I had to accept all the things about me that were the opposite of what I wanted to be”
Colin
Thank you so much Colin! I am so happy to hear this article helped you to see the way forward.
Elisabeth, incredible writing, again. The section on if I want to be grounded….accepting the memories,,,,,,,,,,,, wow…
Your insight and guidence is profound…..
Thank you,
yvette xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thank you Yvette! We don’t often hear this approach which is why I shout it from the rooftops. 🙂
Thanks so much for this one! When I read about embracing my negarive responses to trauma, something happened, and my body began releasing so much negativity. Now I know what to do when triggered. This is amazing!
I am so happy that you were able to use this information to manifest such a great response in your system Carla. Sending love and light to you tonight.
This is exactly what I am asking myself. How do I reconcile with the inner child. How do I heal her. Where do I start. I did not have responsible parents. I never had children because of my trauma. I have never been able to take care of anything but me and I am not so good at that. This is a very good article. I need to start somewhere.
😢
This resonates a lot with me.
For us, we did end up having/needing some -amount of outside compassion and caring to be able to know how to reflect it inward. I know it’s a controversial sort of thing, but the awesome therapist we had at the time used to sit with us and literally hold us- she said that since we’d literally never had that, we had nothing to internalize. And it helped. We were already basing a lot of our work and willingness to do the work on compassion internally/to each other- but having a- the kind of “mirror” that an infant is supposed to get- kind of flung open things wide.
That is wonderful. I am so glad you had that safe experience with your therapist.