“Post Traumatic Growth”

Trauma can be very destructive to one’s mental, physical, and spiritual health. It can take a lot from you and have you wondering if life is even worth living. But the beautiful thing is that you can reverse engineer it. If you are brave enough to do the work, trauma can be a doorway to a more beautiful life if we can identify it and learn from it.  

The seed of trauma is usually planted early in our childhoods. The trauma gets stored in our nervous system and psyche and before we know it, we become what we once hated. On a subconscious level we live out the very trauma that was done to us. So, identifying what is occurring can be a little tricky because it’s all we’ve ever known. The earlier it can be identified the easier it is to overcome.  

For me, I didn’t identify my trauma until my late 30’s. Even coming to the realization of what occurred in my childhood was a very scary process for me. Opening doors in my psyche to shed light on the darkness that was in there was not an easy process. Some call it shadow work, others call it the dark night of the soul. If anyone has ever done shadow work, you know that it is not an easy process.  

As Carl Jung quoted, “The psychological rules say that when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside as fate. That is to say, when the individual remains undivided and does not become conscious of his inner opposite, the world must perforce act out the conflict and be torn into opposing halves. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.” Shadow work is not the easiest but the way to a better world for us inside and out. Basically, it gives an overlay of how trauma can be transmuted to evolve into something better but first it must be identified.  

I am still in the process of my shadow work. Like I’ve stated above, it is not an easy task. Most people are unable to acknowledge the darkness that lies within. For looking at their own shadow would terrify most. So, it isn’t for the faint of heart.  

Learning to integrate my own shadow and my own trauma has required a lot of patience from me as I am not the most patient person, but I know this process is needed for me to become a better me. If I can stay dedicated and patient in the process, I know beautiful things are to come. Diamonds always start out as lumps of coal. Sometimes intense pressure is needed to become.  

Post traumatic growth may not be easy but I do believe we have the power to overcome anything that we can first identify as a problem. As Captain Kirk from Star Trek quoted, “I do not believe in a no-win situation”.  

“A man who seeks only the light and hands all his responsibilities to others will never find enlightenment. A man who keeps his eyes fixed only on the sun will end up blind” 

 

“One Day The World Will You Through My Lenses”

They say there’s two sides to a story and then there’s the truth. Often our perception of what we experience differs from what the other person experiences. Our truth of the matter isn’t always their truth. But where does the actual truth come in? Does the “truth” go by some standard? Or is it measured by our perception of the situation or matter? Is the other person lying when their perception of the matter differs from mine? 

I am going to piggy back off my last blog. I want the world to see through my lens for a moment. My truth, so to speak.  

When my whole world fell apart over a year or so ago, there were many around me who just did not see things through my perspective, my lenses. Maybe they were lying. Maybe they were the crazy ones. Maybe they were just merely looking through their lens and couldn’t possibly see what I saw or experienced. Whatever the truth of the matter is, all I can do is try to get the world to see through my lenses. Writing about my life experiences is a big form of catharsis for me. So, I’m happy to share my life with you all. 

Over a year ago, I had to make some serious life changes as I stated in my previous blog. It all started in the middle of 2022. I remember going on a trip to Mexico and when I got back nothing would ever be the same. On my trip to Mexico, I had left my child in the care of someone close. That was the first time my son had ever been away from me. I remember the day I came back; I was so happy to see my then 4-year-old son. But I knew immediately that something was not right. To spare specifics, all I will say is that I knew my son had been damaged. He started showing alarming signs and I knew that I had made the biggest mistake of my life by leaving him with someone who I thought I could trust.  

 

During this time, I was also trying to keep a failing marriage alive. Things just were not the same. I wasn’t getting the help I needed and when alcohol is involved, it’s never a good thing. It seemed like I had a ton of bricks on my back and the burden was heavy.  

As my son continued to show alarming signs of something not being right, I just knew something wrong in the state of Denmark as they say. At this time, I was struggling with decision making as a mother. Coming to the realization of some harsh truths, I knew I had to get my son and I out of a situation. I knew it would change my life forever.  

At the time all this was going on, I reached out to so many people, so many organizations, but it seemed like help was nowhere to be found. I started to doubt my truth and my instinct as a woman. It was as if I was the only one who could “see”. People just were not seeing my truth. But does that mean that what was happening was not the actual truth? I struggled with this.  

As I stated in my previous blog, I even reached out to my father at the time. At the time my father was in law enforcement. I thought surely, I could get some help there. That even though my father was not there for me when I was a little girl that he surely would see my truth and help his daughter, as well as his grandson.  

I was so wrong.  

 

I called him the day before Thanksgiving to come pick me up to give me a place to stay because I didn’t feel safe. I remember being in the living room when he and my stepmother questioned me about my life. They even ridiculed me on the fact that I had lost weight which I couldn’t help because of all the stress. I remember them waking me up on Thanksgiving telling me they had to drop me back off at home because they were upset at the fact that I still communicated with my other stepmother, who I love dearly. I just didn’t understand all the craziness happening all around me or their reasoning.  

I struggled even more. I even thought I might be experiencing some type of psychosis or craziness. I thought that maybe what I was experiencing was not real. That my perception might be off. Maybe the lenses I was wearing weren’t the right prescription.  

At the time I remember a very close friend gave me a place to stay while I tried to work out the craziness in my life. I remember crying all night and praying to God to give me some clarification. I remember holding my son’s hand as he lay next to me promising him that I would do whatever I needed to do to get him out of this.  

 

That morning when I woke up, I felt confidence come over me. I knew what I had experienced was my truth and I had to move on that. What I was experiencing was MY truth. And the truth of the matter is everything did happen as I experienced it. It wasn’t about my side of the story versus theirs. This was the truth. Whatever story they were telling, I definitely did not fit into it. We were in two different worlds.  

 

Who was telling the truth? Who was right?

 

Well, these are my lenses and I’m sticking to it. 

 

More to come  

 

Introducing myself

Hello, my name is Mona Lucia and I am a reiki practitioner 

Hello, my name is Mona Lucia and welcome to my site. It’s a pleasure to be able to join the collective and to offer my services to people who are on the journey of self-discovery. People who are dedicated to shifting their current paradigm into a more beautiful one. Since I am multi-dimensional, I hope to offer more than just my services to you. I also want to be able to share my World, my thoughts, my creations and visions for the future with you all.  I love music, journaling, singing, creating art and helping others are their journey. I hope to create a more beautiful World by sharing these things about myself and my life by blogging to connect with others. Hopefully my story helps others feel like they’re not alone in this vast Universe. I am going through my own journey, and I welcome you to follow along. More to come ……,