Best Tweets for Trauma and PTSD Survivors is a weekly Friday feature. My selections are entirely subjective, and I know it will never be possible to include every great resource tweeted. But I can try! I’ve personally read all tweeted links, and believe them to be of great value.
Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for content found on any other website. Stay safe, and don’t follow links if you believe you might be triggered by them. Also, I will not be re-checking links from older Best Tweets posts, and if the site’s archived URL is different from the one I’ve provided here, you may need to do a search on their site.
NEW and REALLY COOL: You can now “like” and “share” this post everywhere with the touch of a button or two at the end of the linked tweets! Feel free to do any or all of that! (And thanks.)
@LillyAnn “The only people with whom
you should try to get even are those
who have helped you.” ~ John Southard
Six Standalone Tweets to Ponder
@lizstrauss “Trust is believing in you. Even when I’m not there, when I’ll never know what you do, I can bet on you and win.”
@karenkmmonroy “If something is authentically yours, you can’t lose it. Let your dream be free from worry of loss.”
@PsychDigest “He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away.” ~ Raymond Hull
@MetaVisions “A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.” ~ John Quincey Adams
@AnnTran_ “To become learned, each day add something. To become enlightened, each day drop something.” ~ Lao Tzu
@DeepakChopra “EnlightenedLiving: Be comfortable with and embrace paradox, contradiction, and ambiguity. It is the womb of creativity.”
Linked Tweets
@dlhampton Neuroplasticity….The play dough in your head (via @AlwaysWellWithn)
[SEO: Neuroplasticity is the latest buzzword, but the science behind it is fascinating. “The brain is pretty much like play dough minus the funky smell. It is changeable, malleable and adaptable even into adulthood. This quality is called neuroplasticity. Technically, neuroplasticity is defined as the property of the brain to change its structure and function. We are talking real physical changes here. The changes occur in response to actions we commit, our senses and perceptions, and even our thinking and imagining. Basically, what we do and think every day in our lives.”]
@psychcentral Hate change? A story that will inspire you to embrace change, let go of the cheese, so you can move on with your life.
[SEO: I never really paid attention to the big deal made of the “who moved my cheese?” era. This article explains with humor and insight why (1) “corporate America and psych ward programs had so much in common” [my favorite line!]; and (2) that moving the cheese is really a part of life. The only aspect I find missing here is the idea that we each can, in some way, make at least some of our own cheese — rather than needing to seek it outside of ourselves. (Yes, it’s a silly metaphor, but it makes the lessons derived very clear.]
@Mindful_Living Compassion: An Increasing Global Movement (via @huffingtonpost)
[SEO: Details latest research into compassion, both inwardly and in global movements; includes video “The Charter for Compassion”. Plus, there’s more on the role of neuroplasticity. “Is there someone in your life who is suffering, maybe yourself? Can you sense what the feeling is? Is there an authentic wanting or pulling to help? What is one small thing you can do today to help out? Perhaps even just wishing the person or yourself well, safe from harm, free from whatever this suffering is. This intentional attention not only primes your mind to be more compassionate, but apparently can take advantage of your brain’s plasticity and change your brain.”]
@patriciasinglet Stigma of Child Abuse (via Blooming Lotus)
[SEO: Second of a two part series discussing the stigma of child abuse. If it sounds as though Faith is angry, well, maybe we all need to get a bit angry at people who persist in blaming the child and providing excuses for the abuser. “From what I understand, in some circles there is a stigma associated with having been abused as a child. I say that this is something that I ‘understand’ rather than ‘experience’ because I will not spend two seconds with a jack@$$ who is going to judge me because other people hurt me.” Words of wisdom, not just for child abuse survivors, but domestic violence and other violent crime survivors, and rape survivors, as well. The discussion continues in the comments.]
@therapynews Love Yourself
[SEO: It’s more than just a platitude. “If treating yourself lovingly, kindly, and patiently does not come naturally, you might want to write a list of 100 things you could do to show how much you cherish yourself. There is a special technique for this exercise.” The technique is described, and then the purpose. “What we practice we become. If you practice paying attention to what you body-mind-spirit wants or needs and provide it, not only will you get in the habit of attending to yourself, but you will notice cues sooner, be more in touch emotionally, and take time to rejuvenate before you start running on fumes.”]
@psychcentral Dealing with low self-esteem? Here’s where it may have derived from and what you can do to build it back up.
[SEO: “Regardless of their experiences, some people seem to struggle more than others with their self-esteem. Why? According to Howes, a shaming environment may be one explanation. In shaming environments, individuals internalize the idea that if they act out, they’re not just behaving badly, but they are bad. … ‘If the message that you are fundamentally bad is drilled in enough times, it tends to stick. And this belief that you’re bad at your core colors your entire perspective on life.'”]
@DrBeckerSchutte So powerful: There’s nothing fluffy about love!
[SEO: “Let’s be clear. Self-love is not the soft option. Most of the time, for me anyway, the easy option would be to blend in: to hide aspects of myself, my vulnerability, and my power so that I’ll be liked by as many people as possible. The soft option would be to alter myself, subtly or otherwise, to fit in. But as long as I keep asking myself to fit in, as long as I reject the parts of myself that I find undesirable, I’m almost certainly going to be doing the same to other people.”]
@goodthingZ Are you sabotaging your happiness? (via @positivepresent)
[SEO: I don’t often feature articles about happiness here. I suppose that discloses my own bias, in that I believe most trauma survivors, especially early in their healing, cannot grasp the concept of happiness being possible until some other basic issues are dealt with. I also find many articles about happiness seem to tritely blink away those issues, as if you can make them not relevant by just wishing it were so. This isn’t one of those articles.
“To truly love yourself, you have to support your own happiness. You have to be 100% behind yourself, supporting your own actions, choices, and decisions. If you don’t think that accurately describes you, you’ve got some work to do! First and foremost, you must believe that your happiness is worthwhile. As Buddha has said, ‘You, as much as anyone in the universe, deserve your love and affection.’ And in order to do that, you must value your own happiness.”]
@NAMIMass Tiptoeing Out of One’s Comfort Zone (and of Course, Back In)
[SEO: Interesting discussion of how people create/find their personal comfort zones, and how those constructs can help one move either forward or backwards. “So being slightly uncomfortable, whether or not by choice, can push us to achieve goals we never thought we could. But it’s important to remember that we don’t need to challenge ourselves and be productive all the time. It’s good to step out of our comfort zone. But it’s also good to be able to go back in.”]
@psychcentral Therapist Within: Evolving Your Inner-Critic: Making Self-Criticism Constructive (Part 1)
[SEO: Explores why we often don’t give ourselves internally the same respect and consideration we’d offer anyone outside of us. “What might that feel like for you? To not be singled-out for ‘special treatment’ quite so much? To have the inner-critic (or perhaps the inner-bully) pulled back into line? To escape the unjust punishment that’s maybe been reserved just for you? And yet, to still feel the constructiveness that (useful) feedback can bring?”]
The gist of it is, faking being happy when you’re not makes you feel worse, while cultivating pleasant thoughts that make you feel happier does not make you more miserable. It makes sense; it’s linked to one’s own sense of authenticity. But I’d like to see a study that works with trauma survivors instead of bus drivers because (1) there is a built-in pressure for us to “get over it” or “don’t worry, be happy” mentality; and (2) it wouldn’t be linked to a single profession, which limits the discussion pretty much to “job dissatisfaction”. Your thoughts?]
