This is a workbook designed to help survivors of sexual assault heal from their trauma.
This workbook is being used in women's shelters and at YWCA's across the country. The book is designed to help survivors find peace, heal, and to be able to move on with their lives. There is a variety of exercises in this book, all designed to help heal and empower survivors of sexual assault/abuse.
Excerpt
The healing process is by all accounts, an infinite process. As we heal from past wounds, new ones are always sure to arise. That’s life. The most important thing is, no matter how difficult things may seem, no matter how much we may get slowed or bogged down, we cannot stop in the midst of our healing process, or we’ll just get stuck – or even worse, regress!
It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.
-Confucius, Chinese philosopher & reformer (551 BC - 479 BC)
This quote from Confucius is pretty self-explanatory. Keep going with your life. Do not stop. It’s ok to move slowly. Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare? Who won? Was it the insanely hyper, egotistical & easily distracted hare? No! It was the slow-going, through, and concentrated tortoise. Here, Confucius is telling us to be the tortoise.
There can and will be times in your healing that you will want to stop. You can slow down, but if you stop, you’ll get stuck. Have there been times in your life when you wanted to stop? Did you? What happened?
If you stopped, was it easy to get going again?
Were there any particular people in your life at that time, which inspired you to keep going, or helped you to start again?
Who were they?
What was it about them that stimulated you to go on with your life?
Did they say anything in particular that really motivated you? If so, what was it?
Often, our wounds can trip us up in life. We are all going to stumble and fall at times. That is ok. That is natural. What we do, though, during those times we fall, and how we recover is completely up to us.
Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do.
-Confucius, Chinese philosopher & reformer (551 BC - 479 BC)
Here, Confucius is flat out telling us that we will fall. We will stumble as we go through this process. He’s also telling us that is ok. He is reminding us that everyone trips up. I love the fact that he calls it our greatest glory every time we get up. Think on that for a minute. What does that mean to you?
Did you ever consider it a glory to pick yourself back up (let alone your GREATEST glory)? Why or why not?
How does this make you feel about falling as you go through the healing process? Why does it make you feel that way?
A self-affirmation from www.somethingfishy.org states:
I will hold on. I will be brave. I am almost there. I will never give up.
This is an important affirmation for all of us to have. We all get so overwhelmed at times, that we easily forget this & we don't necessarily hold on. And you ARE brave, and you can't give up. You've already survived!! Why give up now? Yes, healing can be VERY difficult at times, but you cannot give up! Don’t lose everything that you worked so hard for! You must ALWAYS hang on.
Through insightful and thought-provoking writing, the author encourages readers to embark on a journey of self-reflection, guiding them to access inner wisdom and cultivate a mindset conducive to a better understanding of our world.
This is your journal, for your writing. An interactive journal with historical tidbits designed to nurture creativity and self-motivation, features one side for drawings, sketches, or pasting personal pictures, and the other side lined for notes or j
