I’ve spent the past several months learning to love this sweet girl – little Sahar – realizing it’s the only path to the self love I’ve struggled to reach for so long.
I’ve been talking to her, listening to her, squeezing her tight.
It’s part of the inner child work I’ve been doing in therapy, and quite honestly, it’s as if I learned a new language. Inner child, unprocessed trauma, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) are just a few terms that were new to me, and are now a huge part of my healing journey.
EMDR was how I started to discover a whole world inside me that I didn’t know existed. Slowly, we peeled back the layers, finding memories I never knew I had. Months of processing those memories and feelings has been excruciating, but so worth it.
Physically, my body had been holding on to the trauma and expressed it as illness. A severe panic attack last year, four months of subsequent vertigo, and the discovery of my upper cervical injury were the loud signs that my body was overwhelmed.
At the time, I knew something was wrong – I knew I had been triggered and that I was hurting mentally and emotionally… I just had no idea about the physical connection. And I certainly had no clue that it would lead me on this path to healing that little girl.
It’s all been a huge reminder how critical it is to really listen to your body. If something seems off, know that it’s okay to get help. A good place to start is with a mental health screening from my partner, Mental Health America. It’s a quick and easy way to determine whether you’re experiencing symptoms of a mental health condition. It’s free, confidential, and anonymous. Click here to get started.