Day 4, 5, & 6 of The Survivor 21 Day Challenge

I hope the first three days you’ve felt a little bit more positivity flowing to surpass the lows. Here’s Day 4, 5, and 6. Remember this challenge is for you. It’s to remind you how incredible you are. You’ve gone through something traumatic, something that can easily lead you down a dark path, and even if it did at one point…you’re here now, and that matters. Never stop being proud of yourself.

Day 4: Write one thing you wish you could change about your past, preferably your youth, and think of something you can do to actually work towards that change now.

Day 5: What is the best experience you’ve had since you realized that you’re a survivor?

Day 6: What would you tell someone experiencing the abuse you’ve already endured?

Thank you for your efforts in expressing yourself in such a personal way!

21 Days to Build A Habit

I follow a lot of different Nike accounts via instagram, and since the beginning of January they promoted the 21 days to build a habit notion. While, scientifically speaking there might not be indefinite evidence to support the claim, it’s safe to say if you do something everyday, for 3 weeks in a row, you will make a habit of it…good or bad.

From this I wanted to build a 21 day child abuse survivor challenge, promoting healing and seeing how you’ve grown in a positive way, after getting away from your abuse. While we all deal with things differently, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel helps everyone to l ook past their darkest days. For this challenge, I’m going to give the challenges three days at a time, all involving something you need to write down.

Here’s your first three days:

Day One – Write about a bond you were able to form that came from being a survivor

Day Two- What is a positive trait you developed from being a survivor

Day Three- What is a weakness/struggle that you want to work on that you developed from abuse, and how has it already improved compared to what it was.

Keeping looking out for the next 3 day set of the survivor challenge!

Wear Tragedies Like Armor

     While everybody has experienced at least one form of tragedy, none of us experience the same tragedy. Everyone who was abused as a child has their own story, feels their own way, copes their own way, and experiences pain in their own way.

Your story can seem so similar to the person next to you, and you can tell them you understand, but unless you’re them, you can’t assume you understand exactly what it is that they’re going through.

One thing, every child abuse survivor shares, is the need to cope, the need to not just survive, but the ability to thrive. You cannot get back the childhood that’s robbed from you, that every survivor shares too, but you can live your life in such a way, that you love it enough to make up for it. Whatever you wanted to do as a child, a sport, play an instrument, get singing lessons, dance, learn to cook or sew…all of that you can still do, and you will have yourself to thank for it. If you use your pain as motivation, and go after the dream career you want, and experience all of the hobbies that so many kids are blessed to have, you’ll feel a sense of fulfillment and love for yourself, that is so much greater than your pain. Passion is powerful, and there’s nothing it can’t change. If you can survive abuse, there’s nothing you can’t do, no age that’s too old, and no difficult task that you can’t accomplish.

You do have, within you, the ability to overcome anything, and just because you were unable to experience something in your youth, doesn’t mean you don’t deserve that chance now. Try all of the hobbies you’ve ever wanted to try, and go after your dream job like you need it as bad as food and water. Never let your past weigh you down, the darker your past, the stronger you are, and the greater the person that you’re capable of being.

One

      As many of you know, in a recent post we addressed child abuse survivors and asked them to tell us what has been the most vital steps in recovering from abuse. What many of you might not be aware of, is the founder of the No Longer Silenced Movement, Nicolette Winn, recently self-published her first in a series of books, aiding child abuse survivors, too live fulfilling and empowering lives after their abuse.

This in no way is saying that anyone forgets their abuse, or miraculously forgets about it one day, and the pain ceases to exist…that doesn’t happen. The weight of tragedy and pain, stays with us for the rest of our lives, but it doesn’t mean that we have to let us destroy us.

This book is available on amazon, I’ll attach the link for your convenience, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S75J4F2 .

The book is dedicated to Winn’s younger brother, now 7, in hopes that one day they can build a loving sister-brother bond. Throughout writing the novel, our founder was threatened by both her step mother, and mother, yet she somehow found a way to gain the courage to go through with it anyway, and we couldn’t be more proud!

The book, as our post, is directed to finding ways to encourage survivors of abuse. While some might be stuck or trapped in a way that they cannot reveal the contents of the book, the cover is a way to mask what the book may be about. The book is a way to let survivors know, you’re certainly not alone. Everyone’s story is different but together, we can get through anything.

If anyone you know could use the book, recommend it, share it, let people know the contents are out there, and I hope it helps some of you heal, or someone you love recover.

Thank You

This post will be short and sweet. We just wanted to thank everyone who took the time to respond to our previous post!

All of your insights were very helpful, and we truly appreciate all of the support you give us! If you were unable to see our last blog, we reached out to our audience in order to see what helps you or anyone deal with life after abuse. Everybody deals with things differently, so getting a variety of opinions was definitely insightful. If you’d still like to respond, we would love to hear from you!