In The Face of Tragedy

In The Face of Tragedy

By: Angela Englander March 30, 2015

In our lives there are moments that change us forever, huge moments and small moments. Some of the events have very positive effects such as meeting someone you fall in love with or getting into college. Other events have a very negative influence over our lives such as break-ups, death of a loved one, or abuse. How we experience our tragedies and the supports that fall into place after (short term and long term) make all the difference.

A variety of short term feelings, thoughts, and experiences may happen following a tragedy including intense feelings of fear, anger, sadness, confusion, being disoriented, and feeling helpless. Many people also feel guilty or blame themselves, believing they could have stopped the tragedy from occurring or prevented the damage. What happens if you don’t get the support you need though and these feelings don’t go away?

For many people trauma becomes another aspect of their day to day experience, through flashbacks, nightmares, phobias, anxiety, panic attacks, and memories playing in their head. Unfortunately the more these thoughts and feelings are pushed away the stronger they get. Through working through and talking about the events and learning healthy coping mechanisms you can gain your life back. Healing does not erase the pain that was felt or bring back the loss but it gives validation to the experience. Healing allows us to accept the situation and forgive ourselves and be at peace. This internal peace is worth the temporary pain and suffering. You deserve to be happy and healthy and continue to live your life.

Every day we continue to heal and get stronger, we learn about ourselves and our journey in this life. Another way to heal is to focus your traumatic experiences into advocacy and making a difference. This change allows people to become more connected and make a huge difference in the lives of people who have experienced similar events. There are a variety of advocacy initiatives currently happening all over the world, if there isn’t one happening that helps you heal from your experience you can always create one. The power is in your hands!

As always, if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions please feel free to e-mail angela@waystowellbeing.ca and I will get back to you. Today is a day of healing.