Best Tweets for Trauma 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 beautiful souls are they that are
universal, open, and ready for all things.” ~ Michel de Montaigne
Six Provocative Standalone Tweets to Ponder
@Tamavista “Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men.” ~ Kung Tzu
@rcinstitute “ThoughtfulThursday: 21st century sins: apathy, complacency, making assumptions, mental rigidity.”
@allgreatquotes “It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” ~ J.K. Rowling
@zebraspolkadots “In anger I let go of the past I’d had, in grief I let go of what I’ll never have, and in joy I live what I’ve got. #acceptance”
@CarePathways “Happiness is a form of courage.” ~ Holbrook Jackson
@InspirationDay “The first requisite of success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem without growing weary.” ~ Thomas Edison
Linked Tweets
@ssanquist 16 Ways Depression Is Like a Pumpkin (via Beyond Blue)
[SEO: A little humor about the overlap of depression and pumpkins. What makes humor work is that it so often reveals the truth.]@tinybuddha Discovering Happiness Through Purpose in 3 Natural Steps
[SEO: “Once you’ve found your path, the superficial destination the world defaults to becomes unimportant. Comparison disappears and all of a sudden it’s the travel itself that becomes meaningful. No longer are you trying to get somewhere. You’re there.”]@VoiceinRecovery The Power of Empathy (via @kris_burns)
[SEO: An excellent in-depth look at what empathy is, how it is beneficial, and how to become more empathic. “Empathy is not sympathy. When we’re sympathetic, we often pity someone else but maintain our distance (physically, mentally, and emotionally) from their feelings or experience. Empathy is more a sense that we can truly understand, relate to, or imagine the depth of another person’s emotional state or situation. It implies feeling with a person rather than feeling sorry for a person. And in some cases that ‘person’ is actually us.”]@MentalHealthUSA Embracing life after suicide attempt
[SEO: A tough subject, but one many trauma survivors are acquainted with: surviving a suicide attempt — and what comes next. This article, written by a suicide attempt survivor with bipolar disorder, emphasizes that speaking out about mental health and suicidal tendencies is the way forward. “The dangerous thing about silence is that it breeds shame and isolation, both of which can be much more devastating than any singular psychiatric condition alone. It’s one thing to be crazy. It’s quite another to think that you’re the only crazy person on the planet.”]@DrJennifer How do we know if what we are hearing from someone is really going to help us to grow and nourish us?
[SEO: In a world where everyone’s a “guru” or “life coach”, or even when dealing with a new therapist, how do we distinguish between hope and hype? “How do we honor our own depth and substance when we live in times that often seem to encourage exaggeration instead of honesty?”]@PalCheck How to Put Boundaries Around Worry
[SEO: A series of nine slides. “Worrying is stealing your energy, fatiguing your muscles and body, exacerbating your aches and pains, increasing your vulnerability to stress and infection, distracting you from the present, interfering with your sleep, inappropriately increasing or decreasing your appetite, and keeping you from more pleasurable or important tasks. It is time to recognize the act of worry serves no purpose and has become a bad habit. Here are 9 tips to help you put up boundaries around your worry.”]@SarahEOlson Learning How to Say ‘NO’ | The Therapist Within
[SEO: Learning how to say no is part and parcel of exercising good boundaries. This article poses the idea that saying yes and no are linked, in that if you say yes to “A”, by definition you are saying no to “B”. “So maybe it’s more the kind of ‘no’ that’s worth looking at. For if you’re saying yes to everyone else’s needs first, then you’re probably speaking a lot of big internal ‘no’s.”]@drcmblake 5 Ways to Push Through Discomfort to Make Positive Change (Via Tiny Buddha)
[SEO: “How do you separate yourself from your fears so they don’t sabotage your efforts? How do silence that inner voice and force yourself to keep taking step, after step, after step?”]@catatonickid Anxiety and PTSD: How to Set Goals, Heal Trauma and Find Anxiety Relief (via @DrKathleenYoung)
[SEO: “Each step matters. Not ‘just a choice’ but treating anxiety is definitely about choices we make. That isn’t about being hard on you. Maybe it sounds like it is? I mean that here and now, you do have the freedom, the space, the chance to be more than just fear, stress and anxiety; let yourself be more. Let go.”]@HealingPTSD A truly excellent GLOSSARY of terms related to psychological disorders
[SEO: More specifically, it’s related to Dissociative Disorders, but various terms defined crossover to other disorders as well. Sidran Foundation provides many excellent free (and paid) resources for trauma survivors.]@grace2244 Healing Body Work
[SEO: The body stores traumatic memories, too. Doing body work to release trapped tensions and pains can be a scary prospect. This post, written by a trauma survivor, explains some of the methods available, and how they are done. I admit that I’m one of those people the author mentions who cringe at the idea of a relative stranger touching me. But I’ve known many people for whom therapeutic massage and touch worked wonders.]@arttherapynews “In honor of Domestic Violence Awareness, Telling Without Talking: Breaking the Silence of Domestic Violence.”
[SEO: “…when talking about violence brings shame, ambivalence, and fear, art therapy gives survivors not only a voice, but also is a way to raise consciousness about the profound effects of battering and all forms of abuse between partners.” (Unrelated to the article, but also discussing art therapy’s role in healing, is a 1995 book similarly titled, Telling Without Talking: Art as a Window into the World of Multiple Personality. Expensive, but you may be able to request it at your library.)]@psychcentral Refusing to Forgive: 9 Steps to Break Free (via @NCFTC)
[SEO: A therapeutic (as opposed to religious) basis for forgiveness. I still resist forgiveness in certain instances. The eighth tip in this post gives me a reason to revisit this issue. “Instead of focusing on your wounded feelings, and thereby giving the person who caused you pain power over you, learn to look for the love, beauty and kindness around you. Forgiveness is about personal power.”]
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