Wellspring Wednesdays|Week 26: Zeal & Zest

Author Note: If you prefer to listen or watch instead of or along with -
 Check out the YouTube video and/or the Podcast audio.

Today is our last Wellspring Wednesday for Season One. While it has been an honor for the last six months to share internal resources, self-care advice, and education about your trauma care — this week, I had the idea to share one of my own internal strengths. Zest and Zeal. What do I mean by that?

What I mean is walking my own tumultuous trauma recovery road (and still journeying), I have found my passion in advocating for others through this podcast, coaching, and being a light for trauma survivors around the globe. Having come to a place in my own recovery where I have done the work and will not stop doing the work, I found my home as a trauma recovery coach. This summer, I’ll complete my Advanced certification with the IAOTRC. By September, I’ll have completed the IFS Institutes’ Online Training Circle when I’ll be able to officially call myself an “IFS-Informed, Trauma-Trained, Advanced Recovery Coach”. I literally couldn’t be more thrilled to have found this zeal of working with other trauma survivors in their healing. I love that I am able to talk to strangers that I meet daily via work and travel about their traumas and wounds and that I can support them in finding a good regimen of care for themselves. Gaining more knowledge as I continue self-study, I am working on developing a program for “trauma prevention” by educating people on fetal stress, infant attachment, and how important a healthy foundation of life is for raising healthy humans in later years. I’m also currently obsessed with Epigenetics and Fetal/Maternal Microchimerism. More on that topic to come soon enough!

My current work receiving IFS coaching and becoming an IFS informed Coach is at the heart of everything I do and love. Inner Child Healing is SO possible, and I have fallen in love with IFS with a special sort of zest. I’ve had been years of reading and studying IFS, but now experiencing healing myself and helping guide others in their inner realm is magical. Doing IFS sessions with my clients literally feeds my soul!

I don’t say all this to be boastful, but to help others in finding their zest for life and what they can be truly zealous about. For a couple decades, I had heard so many times, “Sara, you should become a life coach.” Something about it never stuck even though it seemed really cool and a pretty good fit for my personality. The day I heard the term “Trauma Recovery Coach” that fateful day on Guy MacPherson’s podcast, my heart exploded, and I knew I had to chase it. Sitting in the right place at the right time is really possible. Chasing your dreams, finding your zeal, and moving toward your best reality is all possible. True, deep, long lasting trauma recovery (while it’s an ongoing process) is truly possible. There is nothing else I could be more zestful for — to help others hear that, believe it, and actualize it for themselves.

If you are ready to add some support to your journey, reach out. Let’s see what resources I can connect you with or find out if coaching is a next great step in your healing journey. I am here ready, working on myself, and waiting for whoever wants to cross my path next. Until next season’s Wellspring Wednesdays return — stay healthy, dig into your own Wellspring, and have a ton of great moments!

***Don’t miss out on a special discount on the final episode of Season One of Trauma Survivorhood’s Full Circle Friday called “Zig Zag” which launches on July 1st! Have a great summer!

Wellspring Wednesdays|Week 23: Wellspring

Author Note: If you prefer to listen or watch instead of or along with -
 Check out the YouTube video and/or the Podcast audio.

The reason I love the concept of the wellspring is because it means not just an abundant, continual supply, but also because it is the original, true source of that bounty. Isn’t that beautiful for trauma recovery? To know that all the work you are doing is coming from this original, authentic place inside you, to help you return to the authentic Self that trauma tried to destroy. To me, that’s majestic. Here inside of you lies this amazing wealth of resources.

You are born with this inherent deserving of love, care, attention, respect, and safety. From your inner wellspring, you created your identity by digging the hole and building the well. The trauma you suffered tried to damage or destroy this identity. (See the term for “victima” in the episode called Victimhood.) However, you have this life-giving abundance at its original source that has been with you since birth — the true and worthy Self that trauma tried to force you to surrender and lose by breaking or blocking the well that accesses the supply. And, yet, here you are. An overcomer. A marvelous feat of fate, and you are doing this arduous work.

Now is the time to fully realize and fully accept that you have all the healing inside of you, below the surface, in a beautiful, true, overflowing, natural river. Yes, you may need to unblock the dug hole, repair the old well, and even (for some of us) rebuild an entirely new one. The wellspring is in there, flowing away, deep below the surface. Your access point via the well has been altered, damaged, corrupted, dilapidated, or destroyed. But nothing, in my opinion, can poison the wellspring underneath because it is by definition a continual flow — ever replenishing itself by inherent goodness.

The work we do as trauma survivors is to first remember we have the wellspring, believe it’s there, and believe it’s your authenticity. We can learn to trust this wellspring as we dig down and create a connection from the earth to its wondrous flow. This looks like trusting yourself for your own healing and regaining connection to your body, mind, and spirit. Once you’ve dug down, you can tap into this unadulterated river of self-knowing, self-care, and self-love. From there, we can build a beautiful fountain or well, so that you can sustain the connection to the true source and have it more readily accessible anytime you need its abundance. That’s where creativity, play, and true joy can be ever present for you to use at your disposal. It’s when you start losing touch with your trauma identity and start returning, full circle, to your authentic self. Boundaries and healthy relationships will become a new normal. Trauma responses will start to be supplanted by new coping mechanisms. New habits of regular self-care can begin to flourish in your life.

And it all starts with finding and re-connecting to that authentic wellspring. It doesn’t matter where you are in this process. I am always here to support in whatever way I can. I’ll bring the shovel and some lemonade and help you dig the hole, or I’ll bring the supplies for the well building or help you map the blueprint. Whatever you need, feel free to reach out, ask any questions, give feedback, or schedule a free consult to see if coaching is a good next step for you. This is amazing and hard work, and I am definitely here for it.