Post Traumatic Growth
Most of us are familiar with the term, post-traumatic syndrome. Less of us know about the term Post Traumatic Growth. It is the ladder concept that I am most interested in because of my own experiences and scientific findings that reveal its worthiness.
Post-traumatic syndrome is real and we must tend to those who are affected in an intelligent thoughtful way so that we can heal ourselves and move through life in ways that allow us to be happy again.
It is being happy again that needs to be fully addressed.
Instead of being able to be happy and thriving, we are often led to remain focused on the pain.
When we focus on something for too long, what we focus on is where we stay.
It is imperative for ourselves and our society that we place our focus on how we can truly heal and thrive.
This post is all about understanding post-traumatic growth so that you can be the best version of yourself.
Post Traumatic Growth
What is Post Traumatic Growth
- You can grow from a painful experience
- You turn your pain into something meaningful
- You can use the experience to make you even more powerful
- You can use it to help yourself and then help others (hero’s journey)
- You can learn how and what you are made of (you decide)
Martin Seligman is the father of positive psychology in America. He has been observing those who not just survive painful events but find a way to thrive in ways that are meaningful not only personally but most often to others.
While some remain stuck and sometimes get deeply stuck as time passes, some come out as a person who do extraordinary things after the traumatic event.
Seligman talks about the importance of this phenomenon for the greater healing of all and the health of our society.
I agree with him 100 percent!
Impact of not being mindful of Post Traumatic Growth as being a possibility
- harder to heal
- never truly getting better
- Stuck in misery
- Victim of life
- Lose out on potential beauty
- losing out on one’s potential
- Not seeing the possibilities of life
- unhappiness
- pain
- arrested developments
- lack of fulfillment
When you don’t see what is possible, you cannot reach it. How do you reach for what you don’t see? You can’t!
Vitor Frankl, Demsthnies, Core Tenboom, Abraham Lincoln, Epictetus, Maya Angelou, and Eleanor Roosevelt, could have gone through life, stuck in great pain with Post Traumatic Syndrome after being tortured, imprisoned, raped, beaten, or treated like they were hideous.
They all looked for what was possible and accomplished so much healing for themselves and their world because of that.
The reason why only a few live this way is not because they have special powers. They had special powers because they chose to utilize the pain of their horrific experience for the good of the world.
Carol Dweck talks about this in her book, Mindset.
How to use the concept of Post Traumatic Growth
- Study it
- See yourself in a greater context of life
- Look for gems
- Practice empowered mindset
- Know that you can only have what you see
- Discover that when you look for something good, you find it (Reticular Activating system)
I put myself through many years of suffering, long after the painful childhood was over and done. I didn’t know that I had a choice.
Now I know that I have a powerful choice and because of that I do. I am no longer the victim but a hero of my own life.
If you look at the common factor of anyone who has gone through terrible situations and ended up creating something extraordinary, they all made a clear choice to use what happened to them to make a powerful positive difference in the lives of others.
You absolutely can do the same. I know this to be true.
You can be the hero of your own life and by doing that become a hero in the lives of others!
This post was all about the Importance of knowing the concept of Post Traumatic Success so that you gain power from painful events instead of getting defeated by it.
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