TRAPPED.
Feeling as if there is no way out of your own personal hell is exhausting, incredibly lonely and demoralizing. You feel less than a person. It feels as if everything is rotting away from the inside and there is no way to stop the blackness that is taking over.
I began to let the light inside when I started sharing my words through blogging. I began to feel less alone and I was “alone” for 11 years. There is something that I have never shared before and I am not sure if I am going to be able to put it in words for everyone to understand.
I have shared my story about my sexual assault before. Deep down I knew that I was not the only woman to ever be attacked in this way before BUT I lived every day of my life in those 11 years as I was. Not speaking to anyone about how I felt, about what had happened. Keeping it locked in because it was my dirty little secret.
I felt alone and like no one would understand how I was feeling. I blamed myself for everything that had happened to me. I kept it a secret because I didn’t want anyone to feel the anger and shame that I had felt. I wanted to PROTECT THEM from the pain and darkness that I was feeling.
And so I stayed complicit. Every morning I woke up wondering if that was the day I was going to end things because I truly wanted to. I wanted to walk away from everything that was dragging me under. The only thing that was stopping me…
I didn’t want my parents or sisters to find me like that. So every morning, I crawled out of bed, secretly hoping that it was going to be the day that someone would look at me and just know. Know what had happened without me having to say the words out loud. That day NEVER arrived.
MY STORY IS YOUR STORY
I had to learn to take back my power and I will admit, this was the SCARIEST part of the whole journey. The only way that I could achieve that was by admitting what had happened to me. I didn’t want people to think less of me. I didn’t want the world to judge me. I was still broken and barely holding on despite my life looking fantastic from the outside.
It seems crazy, even 6 years after the fact, that I used blogging as a way to share my story. It somehow felt safer for me to tell the world all at once what had happened versus telling a few people at a time. It made me feel more anonymous.
You are probably wondering what I mean by, my story is your story, and no I don’t mean it literally.
We all have a story. We all have moments in our lives that we have overcome something. It doesn’t need to be tragic. All it needs to be is a moment where we were able to grow and expand in new ways. It is in that growth when we learn the most. Most of the time, we don’t even realize that we are learning something. It isn’t until we look back that we realize the gravity of that moment.
Your story matters. We are all walking around this planet growing and experiencing life in a different way than other people are. Imagine the possibilities of being able to share your experience with the world. Imagine knowing that by sharing your story, you are giving hope to someone else who is struggling with something that you already survived.
JUST IMAGINE HOW YOUR ONE STORY CAN CHANGE THE WORLD
I started to feel less alone after that first blog post was published. I started to feel braver when I began to receive messages from other women thanking me for sharing my story. They thanked me for being brave and for making them feel less alone but the thing that I never told them…
It was because of their messages that I began to heal. It wasn’t about feeling worthy in those moments. It was about knowing that I wasn’t alone and that for those 11 years, I was NEVER alone. I was suffering alone but there were women all around me who were feeling the ways that I was feeling. We were suffering in silence. They thought that it was because of me that they could find their voice. But really…
It was because of them that I found mine.
STORYTELLING IS A WAY TO CHANGE THE WORLD
We all experience life differently. We can’t know what it is like to experience life in someone else’s place unless they begin to tell us what it is like.
Storytelling opens up a way to communicate with each other while helping each other grow. Storytelling allows us to share how we overcame moments of our life when we maybe didn’t think survival was an option.
Storytelling is our contribution to society and to give back to this world.
If you are ready to dig deeper into learning how to add authentic storytelling into your blog and brand, for Cyber Monday you can grab my live Blog Ignited course for ONLY $50.
Words make an impact on us more than we care to admit. Someone out there is waiting for your story.
Blogging saved my life. It took me from being a victim to stepping into survivorhood. I began blogging as a way to share my story but it soon became the catalyst for my healing journey.
I want every woman to know that there is power in her past and that it deserves to be told from her perspective. Blogging is your way to share your story with the world.
My friend once reminded me that it may not feel like I am making an impact because I am doing it with one woman at a time. BUT that woman then impacts another woman AND that woman impacts another woman. I started the compound effect and because of me, women are being impacted all over the world. (Thank you for that reminder, Jody.)
If you are ready to take the step into blogging, let me help you get started on the right foot. I have 6 years of blogging experience to help you along the way. The difference between other coaches and myself…
I cover more than just blogging. We dig deep into your why. We talk about using your blog content on all aspects of your social media. I help you build a solid foundation from the start. That is what you need to succeed.
It is more than just giving you the steps. It is about showing you how to implement them into your daily life. That is why I teach women to blog.
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