Episode Pointers:
Post Traumatic Growth - It is positive change experienced as a result of the struggle with a major life crisis or a traumatic event.
5 General Areas of Post Traumatic Growth:
1. Develop a sense that new opportunities have emerged from the struggle.
2. Change in relationships with others.
3. Change is an increased sense of one’s own strength – “If I lived through that, I can face anything”.
4. Have a greater appreciation for life in general.
5. Deepening in spiritual or religious domain.
(Source : https://ptgi.uncc.edu/what-is-ptg/)
It’s very important to know that not everyone is going to experience post traumatic growth. And if you don’t want to, this is your choice. But I want to encourage you, that just because not everyone experiences it, doesn’t mean that has to be you.
I often use this analogy of building a house. When grief comes into your life, your whole house, foundation, everything is shattered. Everything falls apart around you.
With Post Traumatic Growth, you have the opportunity to build a more amazing, stronger, more beautiful house. The house might have some cracks, those are like the scars that you have from the things you have experienced, but with scars comes so much strength.
But here’s the thing, you have to do the work. Just like building a house is a lot of work. You cannot have that life you want without diving deep into your grief, your thoughts, your emotions, and holding space for all of them without judgement.
You get to make this choice. You get to decide.
- What do you want in your life?
- What do you want in your future?
- Do you want to learn how to live again?
- Do you want to learn from this experience and find some gifts and lessons in it?
Or not?
- What do you want?
Struggling with the emotions of anger, guilt, sadness, and anxiety after the death of your child? Come join me and other grieving mothers in a 3-day workshop, Relief in Grief to help you learn how to process the emotions and thoughts that come with grief. This will be on July 14th, 15th, and 16th. You do not need to do this alone, get on the waitlist at www.reliefingriefsupportgroup.com
If you want more tools to help you, I have a workshop called Stop Talking Start Feeling, it’s a workshop that dives into emotions, what they are, and how you can begin to feel and process them and get them out of your body instead of stuffing them down. It also goes specifically into processing and releasing the emotions of guilt and sadness. You can get access to this workshop and all the extra things I have in there for only $27. Go to www.meganhillukka.com/workshop to check it out.
If you are a grieving mother and looking for others who know the pain of child loss, come join my free Grieving Moms Community Facebook group: www.meganhillukka.com/community
