Becoming Trauma-Informed

S4EP19: Resilience, Identity, and the Art of Asking for Help: A Personal Story

November 14, 2023 Season 4 Episode 19
Becoming Trauma-Informed
S4EP19: Resilience, Identity, and the Art of Asking for Help: A Personal Story
Becoming Trauma-Informed
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After she launched the Institute for Trauma and Psychological Safety, Dr. Lee found herself caught up in the complex web of giving and receiving help. She knew she needed a perspective shift, and here's how she navigated through it all: with the help of her team and loved ones. 

 

This week, Dr. Lee shares the candid details of her journey, revealing how it led to a deeper understanding of her own patterns around asking for help and the importance of self-care for both herself and her team.

 

She also explores identity and its unhealthy attachment to our ability to help others. We often mix up our identity with our accomplishments and actions, a pattern which can lead to depletion and could potentially be life-threatening. Dr. Lee unravels the process of disentangling our identity from our actions, a critical step towards becoming more resilient, and thriving as opposed to just surviving.

 

Making a difference doesn't always have to involve currency. At the Institute, we value all forms of support, even those that don't bear a price tag. Dr. Lee rounds off this week’s episode by inviting you to join us in this essential conversation on seeking and providing help joining our free 3-day event Nov 20-22, 2023, Here to Help. Click the link for more information or to register: https://institutefortrauma.com/heretohelp 

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Speaker 1:

Hi and welcome to the Becoming Trauma-Informed podcast, where we help you understand how your past painful experiences are affecting your current reality and how you can shift those so you can create your desired future. I'm Dr Lee, and both myself and our team at the Institute for Trauma and Psychological Safety are excited to support you on your journey. We talk about all the things on this podcast. No topic gets left uncovered. So extending a content warning to you before we get started if you notice yourself getting activated while listening, invitation to take care of yourself and to pause, skip ahead a bit or just check out another episode, let's dive in. Hello, hello, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, whatever time you are listening to this, hello, good day. So I am really excited to go live in here today. My voice is still doing that like sexy, sultry thing it does in the morning when I'm like not quite awake yet, which I love. Hi, inside into me. This is my favorite way for my voice to be, so we're actually going to be posting this as a podcast recording too. So, for those of you who don't know, we have a podcast called Becoming Trauma Enformed and there's like over 100 episodes, and so if you're listening to this on the podcast. Hi, welcome If you're watching this on our Facebook Live, so excited to have you here with us. And I want to talk about help today. You know we've talked about help previously on the podcast. We've talked about it in the group a lot. For those of you who have been following along. We have an event called here to Help. It's a free three day virtual event that is going to start on Monday, november 20th, and the incredible Jenae Lynn and I are putting that on together along with the rest of the ITPS team, and this event something that I, if you've been around for a minute, you've heard me say this Anytime we do an event or anytime we decide we're going to do some sort of programming or some sort of offering at the institute, I personally get put through my own portal. I personally get through put through my own portal around it, and it is so annoying and also so great, and so I should have known that, like here to Help would bring out all of my own patterns around helping. You know, for those of you who are newer to the group and don't know me, I am well, my name is Dr Lee and I run the Institute for Traumatic and Psychological Safety, and you know this is a role that it requires a lot right?

Speaker 1:

When I first started the Institute, I knew that this was going to be a really big thing. It was going to be a big responsibility. You know, whether we ended up helping 100 people or a thousand people or a million people, I knew like, hey, you're going to have to hold this. This is going to require a lot of you. This is going to require you to really get to know yourself better than you've ever gotten to know yourself before. This is going to require you to really hone in on your zone of genius and like really learn the areas that you're like mediocre at. Things at best are. And this is going to require you to discern the difference between what you're good at and what you are great at, and what you are like phenomenal and singular at.

Speaker 1:

One of the things that I have learned that I am mediocre at due to past painful experiences, due to conditioning, due to trauma, is asking for help myself. I actually had a really phenomenal human reflect back to me recently. She's like look, lee, you portray that you are good Even when you're telling a story, even when you're sharing like something that's gone on like a traumatic thing you've gone through, or like an oofy moment, or you're sharing about a place you were out of integrity, or you're sharing about something kind of you know hard or wobbly that you went through. You do a really good job of sharing it after you've gone through the thing, after it's over, and so, like, you really present this very like I've got it exterior.

Speaker 1:

And so even when people know you're going through things, people often aren't going to offer up help for you. They're not going to offer up support because they just assume you're good. Like they just assume that you got what you need, that you've already tapped people in that, like can support you and nourish you. Like they just assume you're good, so they don't offer you help because the way they see you is somebody who's got it handled. So I got that piece of feedback this last week and I was like oh yeah, that's not true. I do not have it all together, right, like, I do not have it all together.

Speaker 1:

And it was such a fascinating piece of feedback because I'm like, but I'm constantly talking about the things like the mistakes that I've made and the places that I've messed up, and like the places that I still need help and the places that I've failed, and and she's like yeah, and you're talking about an past tense, you talk about it in past tense like it's already been done and it's already been handled. So of course people aren't going to offer help, up help. Of course people aren't going to be like, hey, are you good? Because they're like, well, she would tell us if she wasn't and she, she hasn't said that. And so really, what I realized was is like I really wanted people to be mind readers. I really wanted people to be able to see underneath of that exterior shell and armor of like I'm good and be like are you good though? Are you good though? So that was the first reflection that's happened this last week, like the first lesson I shouldn't say the first, actually it's the latest lesson that's happened.

Speaker 1:

So, back up, you know, the last three days, so Wednesday evening through Saturday afternoon, our entire Institute for Education was here in my home, in our home, and so they were interacting with TLC, they were interacting with our kids, like we were doing, you know, 10 to 12 hour days, really like looking at planning out our three year plan for the Institute and our one year plan for the Institute and we completely redefined roles and we looked at, like, what we want to do and how we want to grow this, and it was just one of those moments where I was like, okay, we have officially reached the point where, if I'm not asking for help or I'm not saying, I'm saying like I can do all of this myself, this is actually going to be a detriment. This is going to be a detriment to the Institute. So me, like, having this armor on and pretending I'm good all the time and presenting this handled front is going to hurt the Institute. It's going to hurt the very organization that we are trying to help, and so that was like a really hard pill to swallow. You know, I am practicing one of the things that feels like really an integrity for me right now and not telling you all any of what we've, what we came up with during our retreat, because there's still some things that get to be fleshed out and we want to present it in a way that is very clear.

Speaker 1:

Also, one of the things we realized is like I need a handler, and what I mean by that is not like I'm a toddler, and that I need somebody to manage me. What I need is somebody whose job it is to assume that I need help. So somebody that's like is not a mind reader, but basically their job is to be like hey, sometimes we forget to eat, sometimes we forget to drink water, sometimes we forget that she can't talk for 12 hours and she starts to lose her voice. Sometimes Lee pushes herself past what is actually best for her because of her past painful conditioning and also because who's going to cry, and so she cares so much about what she's doing. Like she's so in love with what she is doing at the Institute and she wants to help people so much that, like she will forget to check in with herself.

Speaker 1:

I need both my husband, you know, personally and I need a role on our team professionally. That's like, hey, I travel with you when you do big consulting things. Like I'm there with you to make sure that, like, you've got what you need. When you go speak on stage and you have 20 people afterwards wanting to talk to you, I'm watching the time and we're going to cut that off at 15 minutes and you're going to go and lay down in the back room because, like you can't just pour into people for hours after you just poured into people on stage, like you could do that, but that's actually going to take away in other places. And so, really, this shift, like do I let myself be helped? Do I let myself be helped? And so, like that is something that felt really, really scary to be. Like, are we really going to have this role on team? That is, hey, you are there to assist me, you are there to help me. And like, really, yeah, we're going to have that role and that person's also going to be there to assist other members on team as necessary to, especially when we're in person. Because guess who? Everyone else on our team is people who, again, we have been taught to sacrifice our own needs in order to put other people first and to help them. And so, like, team also needs this. So, interestingly, having the retreat at our home, I realized like that really was a thing is like I'm taking care of team and I'm making sure they're good, because I know that they they deserve to be nourished, I know that they deserve to be helped, I know that they deserve to be poured into that. And also like if you are the person in your life who is pouring into everybody else and then nobody is pouring into you. You've got a problem and guess what? We are siblings and that problem. We are siblings and that problem, and so I also.

Speaker 1:

The third part of this portal, of setting up here to help was a conversation with my husband and really recognizing that, like his role gets to be to have me and like it's like oh my gosh, we have a team of 10 women right. Oh my gosh, like somebody's period started. Like can you get stuff? Like. Oh, somebody like is having a migraine. Can you go grab some motrin? Like somebody just like this was me last year speaking like, oh my gosh, my dress keeps moving. Like can you go grab broad tape? Can you go make this, so I'm not going to flash hundreds of people from the stage Can you make sure that we have rides to and from the airport? Tlc's mom is actually a travel agent, so it's like can you go ahead and work with your mom to like do the travel accommodations for team and like for people who are coming in? And so he realized his role. He loves to provide, like that is his favorite thing to do and he's also really good at knowing, like what his capacity is. So he's like yeah, this is the way. These are the boundaries around how I love to provide. Like, please, let me do that, let me put you to bed.

Speaker 1:

When it's day three of the retreat and you're just sitting, sitting there staring at the wall like a zombie. Like let me take you upstairs and swaddle you and talk you in it. Like, make sure you get eight hours of sleep, those types of things. Let me make sure you all are fed constantly. And so you know he was making sure that we always had food and we had coffee and we had water and we had all the things that we needed.

Speaker 1:

Like he's, like I, my role gets to be provisional. That is what feels best for me. Like I want to be the doer and the the helper for all of you, because a lot of you forget to ask for help. So even allowing my husband to do that, which sounds kind of like a silly thing, but allowing my husband to do that, because that requires a lot of undoing, of conditioning. So can I allow my husband to support myself and our team in the business and then, when everybody leaves, can I still need more support? Can I still need help, can I still need provision, or am I going to do what I tried to do yesterday and like cut myself off from that because, okay, I've had enough. You helped us for three days. So like that's too much and if I need any more help from you or I need any more provision from you, then that like makes me too much. And so I tried to cut myself off from that yesterday and he's like you're adorable. And also like can we not do that? So that's another lesson that came through. And then the first lesson that came through that was probably like the biggest kick in the pants was really connected to that last or the first thing I was talking about, which is the latest thing of this friend reflecting back like you have this armor on still and you're still like really not letting people help you, you're really really not letting people see what's going on underneath the surface.

Speaker 1:

I went to do a podcast. I was a guest on a podcast and we were talking about bios beforehand. And she's like Lee, I'm reading your bio and like I have no idea who you are. Like I have no idea who you are. I like this this talks a lot about what you do and what you've accomplished, but like who are you? And I was like oh, that's a really fascinating question that I don't think anybody has ever asked me and like I'm getting emotional about this because my worth for a very long time this is a story that that got conditioned into my brain my worth is in what I do, my worth is in what I accomplished, my worth is in how well I solve problems and I fix things for other people and I come in and fix things better for other people and you can see how somebody with that belief and the education and experience that I have could like very easily end up starting a trauma Institute right, because it's like oh, I want to help people feel safe asking for help. I want to help people get what they need. I want to help people feel better. I want to help solve problems. I want to help people like release shame and guilt and all of these, these things that they've gone through, and help people be more resilient and help people thrive. Okay, guess what? Guess what needs to happen for you to be able to really really give that to other people?

Speaker 1:

And this is something we talked about in our retreat when I started the Institute. It was when and when we started this Facebook group. We the name was creating safer, more supportive spaces. And one of the things that we realized as we were talking, and one of the things that I've realized after doing this for two and a half years, is you cannot create safe spaces externally in a way that is sustainable if you don't feel like you yourself are a safe space Like, if your body does not feel home, like home, if your body does not feel like a home for your soul, if you do not feel at home with yourself, how on earth are you supposed to create a safe space for other people outside of yourself? How on earth are you supposed to walk around the earth feeling safe anywhere, if there's an externalization of your safety and your needs out? And that, my friends, is like, really, when, if I think about the definition of trauma, and I think about the definition like, like the worst thing that happens, the consequence of trauma that is just heartbreaking is that we stop being a home for ourselves or we never learn that it's like we are a safe home for ourselves and we don't have people around us that feel like they are home as well. We can't create a home where we go, wherever we go and you know I'm seeing this comment of, like, you have to put on your own oxygen mask first before you can help others.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, like we say that, we say that how many of you hear that phrase here? That that quote? And you can intellectualize yeah, you put on your own oxygen mask first before you help others. Yeah, I can intellectualize that. You don't do it, I don't. There are oftentimes I don't do it, we don't do it. We know that that's the thing that we need to do. And yet the trauma and the societal conditioning we've gotten, particularly as, depending on, like, how you've been brought up, it is, yeah, okay, I understand that intellectually, but like, emotionally, like in my body, that does not feel true and it's not something I'm going to do.

Speaker 1:

Right, there's another phrase of camp poor from an empty cup. Well, guess what? A lot of y'all are born from empty cups. Because it's this idea that we can empty our cup fully. And guess what? You know, when your cup is fully empty, I'm going to go there and this is just a just a content warning your cup is fully empty when you no longer are alive. Until that point, you can still pour out something. It's was this whole idea like well, you can't pour from an empty cup. So many of us, so many of us are like, oh well, I'll stop pouring once my cup gets empty. Well, guess when that happens?

Speaker 1:

I can't tell you how many people I have seen in my life, as a nurse practitioner, as a coach, as a teacher, as the CEO of a trauma Institute. I can't tell you how many people in my life I have seen ends up with illnesses that are that lead to the end of their life, that are caused by depletion, that are caused by the lack of nourishment that they give to themselves, that are caused by them not having their three core human needs met, the base of which is their physical safety and their how resource. They are Right, like people not sleeping, people not eating, people not nourishing their bodies, people not taking care of themselves, moving and people not like connecting with other people and laughing, people not having physical touch, people not having a safe place where other people do not hurt and harm their body, and I'm like y'all. That is what causes the cup to fully empty out. And so back to this.

Speaker 1:

You know I don't know who I am. Well, I don't know who I am because my entire life I've defined who I am based on who I help, and so in my entire life, my identity is based on am I being a helpful human right now or am I being a problem or a bother or a harmful human right now? Am I making other people's lives easier or am I making other people's lives harder? And if that is the filter through which you see your life, and if you probably went into a profession or a life role, you probably look at your life through the lens of am I making the lives of other people around me better or, my late, making the lives of other people around me worse? And when you're and, by the way, that's like a very subjective judgment Right, I can do something that feels harmful to someone and have it actually benefit them, and you can.

Speaker 1:

I tell my toddler that they can't have eight cookies. Yeah, they're going to feel harmed by that. My toddler is going to be like you're awful, right, I hate you. And also, that's me helping them, that's me taking care of them, that's me making sure they're nourished. And so this idea that we can just look out and objectively go okay, I'm helping people in this perspective and I'm and I'm not helping people in this perspective like if we externalize our identity on that which, by the way, you all I'm talking to myself as much as I'm talking to you.

Speaker 1:

If we externalize our identity on that, you're going to get to a point where you're going to go hold on hold the phone and it's not an identity. That's not an identity Right. I can't define myself by who I help, like. I can't define myself by who I help because that's about them, not about me. That means if there's no one to help, then I don't have an identity Right.

Speaker 1:

This is actually one of the biggest issues of you know, we've had this conversation of a lot of work. People have asked me the question of like, well, would you actually be happy If you completely eliminated trauma in the world? And I'm like, absolutely. They're like, but you wouldn't have a job. And I'm like, yeah, but you know, what I've been working on this last year is not making this job. My identity is not making my ability to help other people move through trauma.

Speaker 1:

My identity Right Is not saying I'm defined by my accomplishments. That has actually been a huge shift for me and, honestly, is why I believe that the Institute has been able to grow at the exponential level that it's been growing is because I detached it from me. It doesn't matter how many people we help at the Institute, I am still a worthy and deserving, deserving human Right. It doesn't matter if somebody gets mad at us in one of our social media posts and it goes super negative and people have a bunch of you know not kind things to say, critical things to say that's fine because they're talking about the Institute. And even if they try to sling insults at me, that's not how I see myself and that's not how I define myself. That's not how I identify. So, like, cool and also I am. You know, if you're saying the things that I've said are hurtful or harmful will great. Sometimes I do hurt and harm other people. I'm human. That's what happens. Right, I can totally see it from your perspective.

Speaker 1:

Okay, yeah, so back to this like, how do I actually? I like I need to detangle my identity from what I do and who I help and how I help and instead go who am I right? Who am I? And so this has been a big thing for me and who I am is a human, and humans require other humans in order to be able to survive and thrive, and so this is really, really where I landed this morning and I had started actually just recording this as like a little audio clip and I was like, no, I got to go live and talk about this here because here's the thing y'all I'm going to do, the thing that feels absolutely terrifying for me. This feels terrifying for me. I need your help. I need other people's help in order to be able to get the work that we are doing at the Institute in front of more humans. I need help and I need your help if it feels like something that you desire to do to. The vision that I and team have for our Institute is massive and and and if you came in here kind of in a random way and you don't know like what, like what the journey of the Institute has looked like, like y'all, we have reached over 5 million people this year. We've had 5 million people plus see our things, and that's a drop in the bucket in the world and I need help.

Speaker 1:

I don't want to do this alone. I don't want to do this alone. I need the help of other people who feel like what we are doing at the Institute is is helpful, is changing them, is helping them detangle their identities, is helping them, you know, detached from past painful programming and conditioning, to give themselves more grace, to be kinder to themselves, to come home to themselves, to return home to themselves. I need the help of other people who understand how this work shifts things into a more loving and kind and nourishing and restorative direction. I need y'all to share this with people like I. Need y'all to actually tell other people about what we're doing. I need y'all to come in and do the work to. I need y'all to like go. You know what I'm going to commit to this. You know what I'm actually going to to commit to this.

Speaker 1:

And and there's a great question here of like, how can we help without monetarily contributing? This has never been about money for us. I know that that seems kind of like oh, every business says that the reason we're a for profit and not a nonprofit is because this is my livelihood, right, and also I can go get a nursing job if I have to. I don't want to, but I like I can go make money another way. I'm completely open to the universe sending us money in whatever way the universe would like to us to send, like to send it to us and part of the like I get to help myself is I don't do this for free. I make sure that I am compensated in a way that is nourishing. I make sure that our team is compensated in a way that is nourishing to them, because we don't pour out more than we get poured into. That's one of our big things moving forward. I make sure that we are taking care of and other people are taking care of and that that relationship is fully mutually beneficial.

Speaker 1:

So how can you help without monetarily contributing? You can share the group, our Facebook group, with consent. Like hey, I'm sending you an invite to this group. That I think would be really great for you. Hey, I want to send you an invite to this here to help event. Okay, I want to share the podcast. Right, we have over 100 episodes on this podcast. Like, share it. We actually have a way for you to subscribe to the podcast. If you go to in the show notes that it's a dollar. I think it's a dollar $2 a month, right, like that you can be a subscriber and just like support us that way. You know, if we have 1000 people do that, that's, that is another team member salary, right, like that is us being able to bring on another human that can support y'all and that you know we don't need money. And if you've got a dollar, like that's helpful, that's helpful.

Speaker 1:

You can come in the grouping and participate more right, you can be active, you can connect with other people. If you see somebody who is struggling and also you want to know one of the best ways that you can contribute, come in here and ask for help. Come in the Becoming Trauma-Informed group and ask for help. Come in and share your experiences. Come in and say, hey, I would love somebody to talk through this with me. I would love a resource. I would love this. I would love that. Why? Why is that helpful? It is helpful when you ask for help. Right, this is the thing that I have to get into my brain. It is helpful when you publicly say I am deserving and desiring help and support Because other people go oh, it is safe for me to ask for help in here. It is safe for me to get support in here. It is good for me to make sure that I have what I need in order to be able to keep pouring into others the way that I am. Our team is super supportive. Thank you, rosie, our team. We also had this conversation and I just want to say this because I think team really deserves some recognition around this Y'all.

Speaker 1:

I'm not going to talk numbers, but I just want you to know the percentage of our resources that go to helping other people before they pay us a single cent. The amount of money and time and energy that goes into serving and supporting people before they ever pay us and most of the time they never pay us is the majority of our resources. The majority of our resources actually goes to people who have never paid us. Now we still have a really good amount of resources that go to people who do pay us. I promise you, like you're not, once you get into our spaces, you're going to go wow, this is worth 10 times what I paid. That's our goal, that's our commitment and also, like I don't know another business that does this, I don't know another business that is so focused on helping people without any expectations in return. When we support you, we do not expect you to do anything in return, and this is where I get to grow, this is where I get to shift and this is the portal that here to help us taking me through.

Speaker 1:

I am also allowed to say hey, if it feels good for you, we can use your support and we can use your help. You know, here to help is going to be a phenomenal event and other people need to be in there with us. You have people in your lives who need this. You have people in your lives that you're like wow, they are burning themselves so completely out trying to help everybody. They are identifying as helpers and they can't help. It hurts them because it's tangled up with their identity. You have people in your life who need this. You have people in your life who need our trauma informed, psychologically safe conference that we're putting on in January which you can't get yet, but we'll talk about it at the end of here to help. Like we're going to do a three day event where we literally walk you through how to be more trauma aware and trauma sensitive towards yourself and then towards others, and like, if you have people in your life who need that, like I desire your help and sharing now with them.

Speaker 1:

So there is a part of me right now that is just like contracting on the inside, saying this to you all and this is the one thing that I haven't done and I'm I'm again emotional around it is I want your help. I don't just, I don't. We let me say it this way because there's a, there's a, there's a lot of wonkiness and a lot of connotation and context and pain. Honestly, in those words want and need. Right, I do need help. Right, I can't do this alone and I want your help. If you're watching this and you are feeling called to this, I want your help. I want your help. So, if you're inviting people into our Facebook group, please let them know what you're doing, because otherwise they have those questions and then they're like wait, I can't, I'm not allowed in, but I would didn't only don't even know what this is like. Let them know you're inviting them in. I'm not even doing a podcast with a friend like. You can even say, hey, I want to. I'm looking for a specific episode about, about this, like which episode should I send people?

Speaker 1:

We have episodes on parenting and healthcare and relationships and masculinity and shame and boundaries and people and fighting and fight energy and trauma, reenactment and like. We have all sorts of episodes and content that you can share with people that could literally change their life. We have a TikTok channel and a Facebook page that you can share with people. People love our channel because a lot of times it's me answering questions that people have around trauma and resiliency and psychological safety, understanding why their bodies do what they do, understanding why their systems work the way that they do. Our Facebook page we share so much goodness there to reels and posts and our and Stephanie and our social media team. She is phenomenal.

Speaker 1:

Shannon is in here as our chief nurture, just like, so excited to pour into you and and that chief nurture role is something that's growing and like really becoming this amazing thing. It's going to have to be more than one person. There's so many people in here to nurture and we want to make sure you feel nurtured, your cupcakes poured into. So come in here and ask for your own help model, that for people. And if you do nothing with us and instead you just start telling other people when you're not okay, telling other people when you need support, telling other people when you're like you know what, I can't do this alone, even if it's just asking yourself what you need, there was a question in the comments of like but how, what?

Speaker 1:

What do you do when you don't know what you need? Well, that alone shows you that you need to start asking yourself what do I need? What would feel good here, what would feel supportive here, what would feel nourishing here, what would feel replenishing here? The reason you don't know what you need is because you spent so much time not thinking about what you need that that question feels foreign to your brain. So the answer to how do I figure out what I need when I don't know? Is to start asking yourself on a more frequent basis. So I think the thing I want to end with is you know, when I now think about who I am really, I don't tie myself to really any of my identities at this point.

Speaker 1:

Am I a woman? Yes. Am I a multiracial human? Yes. Am I a mom? Yes. Am I a wife? Yes. Am I the CEO of a business? Yes. Am I a nurse practitioner? Yes. Am I five foot six ish? Yes, am I 36? I keep on saying I'm 37. My birthday is in a month from today. Am I almost 37? Yes, okay, but like also, I'm Lee. Right, I'm Lee and that's who I am. I'm Lee.

Speaker 1:

I really like to connect with people and I really like to talk to people and I enjoy feeling love and kindness and compassion and excitement and joy, and like that's who I am. That's it. And when I define myself that way, right, I live in a state of joy and I live in a state of happiness and I live in a state of optimism and I follow my intuition and I allow myself to be supported and I really like, seek joy, I seek excitement, I seek curiosity, I love to learn, I love to explore, I love to ask questions, I love to be curious, like when I identify that way, when I define myself that way. Just, I don't know if y'all just even can hear the shift in my voice or you can see the change in my face. That is an expansive identity for me, when I can detach from all of those things and go.

Speaker 1:

You know what? I'm a human who has had the profound blessing and honor to be born and to get to experience this thing called life, and I get to learn how to connect with other people and thrive in connection with other people. I get to learn how to be at home with myself and also at home with anyone else who's around me, in any place. I'm in. Like that's who I am. I'm a person learning how to do that. I'm a soul in having a human experience of learning how to ask for help, learning how to reconnect with all of the people around me and with myself.

Speaker 1:

So if that sounds like a journey you want to go on to, then I'm so glad you're here, I'm so glad you're listening, I'm so glad you found us and hopefully you're hearing this, because someone who watched this the first time around tagged you in. Somebody who watched this or listened to this the first time around was like, hey, you know what? This is a person who needs this. Let me share this with them. Let me help Lee and help this other person and also help myself, because the more that we do this like this is such a mutually beneficial thing, the more that we learn that we are all worthy and deserving of help and connection and love, the better the world gets. It benefits us all.

Speaker 1:

So I love you all so much. Thank you for listening or watching, thank you for helping in whatever way feels right for you. Even if it's just listening to this or watching this and turning it off and going about your day, not inviting or sharing at all, that's great. Whatever feels right for you, and I am going to lean into asking y'all for help moving forward more often in sharing what we're doing. So I love you. I hope to see you in here to help next week and be well. Bye y'all. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. Invitations to head to our show notes to check out the offers and connections we mentioned, or you can just head straight over to InstituteforTraumacom and hop in our email list so that you never miss any of the cool things that we're doing over at the Institute. Invitations to be well and to take care of yourself this week and we'll see you next time.

Trauma Recovery and Seeking Help
Accepting Help and Support Importance
Creating Safe Spaces and Detangling Identity
Seeking Help and Support
Supporting and Engaging With Appreciation