“Glow in the F*cking Dark”
Oh Tara Schuster….I just love every single thing you write.
Trauma. Mental Health. Personal accounts of greatness and not so greatness. How are we laughing while discussing such heavy things? I don’t know, but I love it.
““There is nothing particularly special about me other than that I show up for myself again and again. I try. I fall down. I try again. I try so hard every day to stay curious, to remain open to possibility and growth, because if I had a fixed mindset, then I would still be convinced that I was just as worthless as my parents made me feel, believing that it would be easier to die than to take responsibility for my life, and probably still be wearing an outfit from Forever 21 that was so synthetic I could burst into flames at any minute.””
“Remember the phrase, “If it’s hysterical, it’s historical”? As I looked at my phone, going back and forth trying to decide if I could afford the Thai food, I realized that I wasn’t crying about this decision in particular. I was distraught about a lifetime of financial insecurity from which I hadn’t fully healed.”
““What makes something traumatic, then, is not the event itself but being totally overwhelmed in that moment, finding a coping mechanism to get you through it, and then using that coping mechanism in similar situations forevermore, regardless of the reality of the situation.””
“Your emotions aren’t curses to be avoided. They aren’t bombs you can drop. They won’t kill anyone. A feeling expressed calmly and without attack is SIMPLY A FEELING. It’s got no power to hurt anyone unless you bottle it up, press it way down into the well that is your soul, and let it alchemize into something that wakes you up every morning, ten-out-of-ten anxious. That is dangerous. To you, to your family, to everyone you know.”
