You’re on your best game, flying high, socialising like a rockstar, life is great… until you’re crashing down, into a sea of self doubt, crippling fear, unable to face the well of feelings inside. You hide away, cancel plans, staying solitary and safe. You were happily building your dream life but now tying your shoelaces is a mission. Welcome to the adult symptoms of Adverse Childhood Experiences.
ACE makes you sick, prevents healing & self care and numbs us, making us distracted and detached.
Headaches and stomach issues are the norm, we’re bored with feeling like a complainer – but the aches and pains and a general sense that something internally just isn’t right, make it hard to be on fleek.
We can be really nice but when triggered become prickly and/or introverted. Attacking or hiding. Unable to express what’s inside because it doesn’t make sense. You put on a good show but it takes a lot of effort. God forbid someone sees past the mask. You look fine, sometimes you look great, you have created pockets of life that are incredible. But you’re stuck, going around in circles. You think you’ve cracked it and start living life to the full and then bosh, life’s become a surreal game of Snakes and Ladders and you’re sliding back to first rung. Fuck! But you read a book, listen to a podcast, dance with wonderful people on an amazingly connected retreat – you’re healed… until the next time.
Today’s pic – a 58 year old woman riddled with ACE trauma, living her best life. Full of gratitude, she likes who she’s become, knows she can be an utter pain in the arse and still has the propensity to wobble like a well jellied eel but each time she also learns a new way to manage and thrive against the odds. Hundreds of hours of therapy hardly touched the sides, she realises why. Trauma is a little about understanding the roots but a lot about releasing stuck energies, patterns and wounding.
It’s time to get wise about the real price of ACE. You are not alone, there are a lot of us out there, really good peeps, suffering, silent and bemused.
SOS Live Coaching coming soon.
