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Вот что нужно, чтобы встретить правду лицом к лицу и шагнуть в свою жизнь

Вот что нужно, чтобы встретить правду лицом к лицу и шагнуть в свою жизнь

Автор: Irina Zhuravleva
32 мин чтения
05 ноября 2025 г.

Here’s What It Takes to Face the Truth and Step Up Into Your Life

Жить с травмами, подпитывающими борьбу, можно так долго, что даже мысль об освобождении от старых паттернов и проблем кажется пугающей. Если бы у вас действительно была та любовь и мир, о которых вы говорите, как бы выглядели ваши дни? Нормально — и это нормально — какое-то время дрейфовать, избегая реальности и прячась в комфорте ровно настолько, чтобы продержаться, пока вы не почувствуете готовность всерьёз заняться исцелением. Но в какой-то момент ваше будущее начинает тянуть вас вперёд, обнажая то, чего вы избегали, и всё сводится к тому, подниметесь ли вы и встретите это лицом к лицу. Сегодняшнее письмо от женщины, которую я назову Матри, она пишет: «Дорогая фея, я борюсь с несколькими проблемами и хотела бы получить твой совет. Моя первая тревога — это неуверенность в себе и доверие собственному опыту и выборам в процессе исцеления. У меня есть мой феиный карандаш, и я буду обводить вещи, чтобы вернуться к ним при втором прочтении, но вот что происходит в моей жизни прямо сейчас». Она объясняет, что после того, как отошла от нездоровых семейных связей и бывших друзей, с которыми была травматически связана, намереваясь наладить более здоровые отношения, она чувствует себя обнажённой, неуверенной и очень одинокой — совершенно не в своей тарелке. Однажды она посмотрела поразительное видео о лобстерах: по мере роста их жёсткий внешний панцирь, который когда-то им подходил, начинает сковывать, поэтому они должны полностью сбросить его и прятаться под камнями, пока формируется новый, более подходящий панцирь. В это время они мягкие, уязвимые и особенно бдительные, пока новый панцирь не затвердеет. Это прекрасная метафора: она чувствует себя лобстером, примеряющим новый панцирь. Без привычного круга жалующихся, травматически связанных друзей и отношений «на хлебных крошках» она чувствует себя незащищённой, потому что хотя бы эти связи давали какое-то соединение и ощущение — пусть и ложное — защиты от страха abandonment. Она отмечает, что легко заводила друзей в двадцать и начале тридцати лет, но теперь формировать новые здоровые дружбы сложно; она беспокоится, что всегда говорит что-то неловкое или отталкивающее для других».

Living with trauma-fueled struggles can go on for so long that even the notion of freeing yourself from old patterns and problems seems terrifying. If you actually had the love and peace you say you want, what would your days look like? It’s normal—and okay—to drift for a while, avoiding reality and nesting in comforts just enough to get by until you feel ready to pursue healing seriously. Still, at some point your future begins to pull you forward, exposing the things you’ve been avoiding, and everything comes down to whether you’ll rise up and face them. Today’s letter is from a woman I’ll call Matri, who writes: “Dear fairy, I’m wrestling with several issues and would love your advice. My first worry is about self-doubt and trusting my own experiences and choices as I heal. I have my fairy pencil and I’ll circle things to return to on a second reading, but here’s what’s happening in my life right now.” She explains that after stepping away from unhealthy family ties and former friends she was trauma-bonded with, intending to nurture healthier relationships, she feels exposed, uncertain, and very alone—completely out of her element. She once watched a striking video about lobsters: as they grow, the rigid outer shell that once fit them begins to restrict, so they must shed it entirely and hide under rocks while a new, more appropriate shell forms. During that time they’re soft, vulnerable, and extra watchful until the fresh shell hardens. It’s a beautiful metaphor: she feels like a lobster trying on a new shell. Without her familiar circle of complaining, trauma-bonded friendships and breadcrumb relationships she feels unprotected, because at least those ties provided some connection and a sense—however false—of protection from the fear of abandonment. She notes that she made friends easily in her twenties and early thirties, but now forming new, healthy friendships is rocky; she worries she always says something awkward or off-putting to others.”

человек, я понимаю тебя, мои прошлые insights и интуиции были нездоровым результатом убеждений и поведения, driven cptsd, я чувствую себя смущённой и глупой в ретроспективе, потому что в то время была так уверена, что права, если мой детектор красных флагов был повреждён, мне не хватало опыта здоровых отношений, как мне знать, что я делаю правильно, как мне доверять себе, если я полагаюсь на новых здоровых друзей и сети поддержки для ясности и осознания своей роли в ситуациях и подходящих следующих шагов, тогда как мне знать, когда доверять собственному чутью, что если их совет — это просто то, как поступили бы они, а не то, что правильно для меня, мой детский опыт оставил мне много гнева, обиды, путаницы и longing быть принятой, особенно мужчинами, у меня есть underlying страх abandonment, проблемы с assertiveness и установлением границ, я делаю всё возможное, чтобы сохранять смирение, пока расту, хотя чувства смущения всплыли, когда я размышляла о своей arrogance и naivety за эти годы, у меня несколько семейных связей, и я предприняла усилия дистанцироваться, потому что не чувствую, что они были очень добры ко мне, я только сейчас понимаю, что была семейным scapegoat, я чувствую, что дрейфую одна в мире, я становлюсь frustrated и full of rage, когда самые маленькие вещи идут не так, и чувствую сильный импульс бить и punch вещи несколько раз в неделю, я вымещаю это на бедных картонных shipping boxes, я использую medical marijuana daily, о, ладно, и это было моей костыль с 14 лет, я знаю всё это, на данный момент мне нужно deal with my anger и shame, но как это выглядит, есть ли другие practical tools в дополнение к daily practice, которые я могу использовать, также, должен ли каждый feeling быть sourced back к resentment и fear, иногда у меня trouble placing все мои dysregulated thoughts и feelings в just these two buckets, я really want найти партнёра и desire marriage, я хочу кого-то, кто сможет travel со мной и будет моей семьёй, в моём возрасте кажется, что большинство моих друзей уже married и/или have children, я чувствую, что меня оставляют позади, the unwanted one, я смотрю в зеркало и вижу начало седых волос, морщины вокруг глаз, маленькие age spots, и чувствую, что у меня running out of time, кажется, все хорошие мужчины taken или я не attracted к тем, кто available, я знаю, что это не true, но где они, я делаю healthier, more outgoing choices с тех пор, как слушаю твои видео, я прочитала книги, прошла твой dating course и attending твой retreat в этом месяце, я делаю pilates каждый будний день утром уже два года, что really helped моей confidence, mood и body pain, я недавно graduated с master's degree в business, купила дом и manage успешный airbnb, у меня secure remote job в hospital administration, хотя мне не care об этом и я не feel, что оно использует мои talents, и я about to get big promotion, я joined chapter toastmasters на работе, начала piano lessons и начала ballroom dancing по пятницам вечером, я feel, что в хорошем месте, чтобы начать dating снова, у меня нет social media и я feel foreign к online dating, так что не certain, как meet healthy available people, я 35-летняя женщина, never married и не desire children, я grew up в доме full of abuse с domineering ex-military матерью, которая была controlling и emotionally и physically abusive, она говорила мне вещи вроде «я твой бог, твой судья, я own тебя, ты самая selfish, которую я когда-либо встречала», dad, с которым я grew up, был extremely abusive и used religion, чтобы control и abuse мою мать, я watched, как он crush её collarbone bare hands и break её ribs, repeatedly kicking её, нас trained lie об этом учителям и полиции, наш дом имел anxious, heavy feel, filled с helpless confusion tiny children, living в тени monster, я spent большую часть времени reading books, watching animal planet и writing short stories, после того, как мою мать baker acted, то есть involuntarily locked up, она divorced моего dad, когда мне было, и она puts quotes around dad, я не sure почему, когда мне было семь, и revealed мне, что он не мой real father, я вижу, мой biological father был тем же, что у моей старшей сестры, dangerous и abusive man, она сказала, что он не wanted меня тоже, и это было его loss, я felt very unwanted долгое время и до сих пор riddled с internalized sense rejection и shame, мой great uncle стал единственным father figure в моей жизни, temperamental older man, который constantly criticized меня и expressed disappointment, что я не boy, пока я worked на его farm, я thought, что dealt с моим childhood trauma давно, потому что strive make so much more of my life distant от trailer park, откуда я came, я overcome so much и have done things, которые others only dream of, такие как serving в peace corps в africa и traveling в 36 countries, но теперь я think, что я была mistaking achievement и staying busy за healing, я tend only feel good enough, когда accomplishing что-то или feel что-то perfect, я tend rush through всем, особенно aspects self-care, я often feel, что people не really like меня, once они get to know меня, или как будто я done что-то wrong или inappropriate, я fawn и freeze в moments, когда want remain strong и poised, я admire, когда others assert themselves, но когда у меня opportunity, я feel lump в горле, я sweat и моё body prickles all over, я really want stop и find good man, чтобы spend мою жизнь с кем-то, any tough love, которую ты можешь offer, будет appreciated, спасибо, матри, ладно, матри, какая beautiful letter, какой great writer ты, ты very vividly portray, что это like быть тобой, в way есть so many points здесь, где я can understand completely, что ты saying, и затем couple places, где я like huh, я не get это, но это really unusually well-written letter и спасибо за это, это ты describe beautiful sense disconnection, clearly ты writer, я не know, ты know, так что к настоящему времени, что я reading это letter после retreat, так что я guess, ты и я have met, но я не know, кто ты, и это probably good, ты know, потому что тогда я very objective об этом, так что ладно, позволь мне tell тебе о том, что я what я heard ты say здесь, ты distanced себя от своей семьи и previous friends, с которыми ты had trauma bonded, чтобы foster healthier relationships, теперь я think, когда ты say trauma bonded с, ты mean, что вы оба had trauma и related на этом, и так это было big basis ваших отношений, так что я just want point out, что trauma bonding actually means что-то different, я не, я think, что я think, well если я wrong и ты did mean, что это really means, я stand corrected, но я just want say, trauma bonding — это intermittent reinforcement, это когда somebody loves тебя, takes это away, loves тебя, takes это away, и это like causes твой brain like hook on addictively к ним, и ты do anything, чтобы stay с ними, и это can work не только на people или children, ты know, но на rats, это psychological torture technique, и я не think, что это то, что ты meant, но lot of people common usage они say trauma bonded, когда они mean, мы просто bunch of effed up people hanging out, и я know, что ты mean на этом front, я love твой lobster analogy, yes changing like that, sometimes мы have this vulnerable period, где мы не have shell, и это takes while, чтобы grow new one, и так мы have to kind of hide out for while, ты got to watch out, потому что это также like favorite excuse of people of avoidance, of people, которые just want go isolate for long time, и они go look, я healing, я healing for 25 years, ты know, и sometimes это goes long past its usefulness как healing technique, и это just avoidance, и too much avoidance, и ты can't heal, так что я throw это in there, но я think твой lobster analogy just beautiful и perfect, так что it's hard to make friends, ты feel unprotected без твоего familiar circle of complaining, trauma bonded friendships и breadcrumb relationships, потому что at least это было some type of connection, yes я totally relate, и ты know what, я have been through like three cycles of this, like change of the cast of characters, потому что это how many times я had to make radical changes forward в моей жизни, у меня был long way to go, и затем я также understand, что ты saying здесь, твои past quote insights и intuitions were messed up, они turned out не to be reliable, ты were certain about what ты were feeling, и затем in time это turned out они were trauma driven beliefs, твой red flag detector was operating, и это so normal, и я just love, что ты actually, ты are insightful enough, чтобы just say, oh yeah, я thought это было моя intuition, но это было моя trauma talking, мы все do that, это drives people crazy, у меня есть video out there, которая says don't trust these gut instincts, и что я talking about — это когда trauma talking, и like oh yeah, ты got to do this self-destructive thing, и people often comment on it без watching video, going ты should always trust твои instincts, и я like not если у тебя есть то, что у меня есть, это takes us time to heal enough, чтобы know, что difference между gut instincts и trauma talking, которое, ты know, sometimes all мы know at first, так что good for тебя за being careful на distinction там, так что ты asking so much the right questions, how do я know я doing the right thing, how can я trust myself, те right questions, ты know, когда ты fully healing, когда ты fully engaged в твоём healing, ты will learn to do that through trial and error, way everybody else did, но at somewhat younger age, чем мы did, right, у нас есть delay в нашем development, и так мы end up с lack of clarity around aspects of ourselves, которые наши peers, наши age peers already have, и мы think oh я terrible, но это really normal для people, которые were severely neglected и abused как ты была, чтобы have delay там, и это kind of beautifully designed like that, somehow child versions of ourselves know how to sort of pack это away, ты know, keep это safe from everything, just close это down, и затем bring это out later, но это just that, когда это coming out later в adulthood, это little messy, и это little bit confusing, и это causes us to be alone for long periods of time, которое hard, но part of it, это part of it, у тебя такой good ability to describe, что ты going through, how yeah should ты listen to other people's advice или это just, yeah other people's advice always their advice, и what они would do, так что мы take это under advisement, мы take это with grain of salt, sometimes hearing other people's experience can help us get in touch with our own best wisdom, так что it's okay to ask for advice, я just wouldn't recommend completely surrendering твои decisions to somebody else's advice unless ты incapacitated in some way или unless у тебя есть reasons, что ты really trust their judgment, и ты think, что what они suggesting best thing for тебя, в котором случае это твоя wisdom, right, это твоё decision, так что ты got left with lot of anger, resentment, confusion и longing to be accepted, uhhuh, what я think clearly very advanced about твоё healing — это что ты do твоё, ты say я doing my best to maintain humility as я growing, through feelings of embarrassment, reflecting on my arrogance и naivety over the years, если ты aware, что у тебя есть arrogance и naivety, ты well on way to healing, я mean really, like so many people don't get that far, и это hard, ты know, для those of us, кто realize мы have faults, to interact with people, кто absolutely believe они have no faults, кто believe, что они actually better и superior in judgment, ты know, это hard, это hard to do that, это can make это painful to apologize sometimes, когда мы been arrogant to somebody, кто doesn't realize, что their arrogance is arrogance, но ты know what, мы get better anyway, это doesn't matter how far along они are, я love, что ты in touch with that about yourself, что really good sign, что ты making good progress, так что у тебя few family ties, они haven't been kind, ты been the scapegoat, yeah that's whole thing, isn't it, и lot of what ты describing как kind of scapegoat wounds, я feel like я drifting alone в мире, yes я know that feeling so well, но ты found us now, ты know, hopefully crappy childhood fairy community feels like tribe, и если ты came to that retreat, hopefully ты became member, и ты made friends here, people here like more than anybody в мире, кто я feel at home with, кто я feel understood by, и я never felt understood until я started putting my experience on youtube и got some comments back, я was just like they, ты know, people would comment back like я can't believe ты describing what it's like to me be me, и я reply back to them, я can't believe ты have had this experience too, я literally thought я was the only one, так что it turns out мы have lot of normal symptoms of growing up with something abnormal going on, и когда мы find each other, это really helps to take the shame off и help make это understandable, что мы got like this, like это not our fault, что мы develop this manner, this mode, и now мы the ones, кто charged with finding way to undo это, to relax the grip of these trauma driven adaptations, так что мы can start to have some of the finer things in life, some of the more subtle things like love и connection, и those often lost to us, когда мы in survival mode, когда мы just being tough и strong, и ты know, мы get very like black and white thinking about things, потому что мы had to in order to survive, но затем мы start opening our minds, и это messy, just like ты describe, так что ты said ты feel frustrated и full of rage, когда the smallest things go wrong, и ты get strong impulse to hit и punch things, и ты take это out on cardboard shipping box, all right, я just going to get in here with some advice, потому что ты asked, я don't think that's good idea, я think it's normal, что ты having emotional dysregulation и intense rage, и ты may have been told, что это all very meaningful, и ты need to feel это и explore это, но я question that, я don't think that's always true, я think если у тебя было lot of childhood trauma, и ты tend to get emotionally dysregulated, there's actually no bottom to that anger, так что whereas another person, кто didn't have trauma, они like yeah, я punched cardboard box, и затем у меня была catharsis, и я was fine, did that happen to тебе, это doesn't sound like it, так что ты know, venting rage never worked for меня, и there it's got people have looked at it like punching pillows, screaming that sort of thing, there's no evidence, что это helps really of anger, actually я'll tell тебе what does keep people trapped in anger, weed, daily weed use, ты can call это medical marijuana если хочешь, потому что of course это can be used in medicinal way, но когда это used daily, и я understand для some people like that's how они roll, и that's fine, но если ты asking меня, yeah that's keeping тебе from being able to process anger, и я don't just mean psychologically, я just mean like neurologically, я noticed это long time ago in my life, ты know, я have known lots and lots of people, кто were daily marijuana users, я также made the correlation like in my 20s like gosh, они all so dang angry after while, that's where it goes, и я'm sure there are exceptions, но that's my observation, is people, кто use weed every day, no matter how much они claim это medicinal for them, it turns them angry и stuck, that's my observation, for whatever it's doing for тебя, is it worth it, потому что я don't think having rage и having to like scream и punch boxes is good for marriage, я don't think so, и это, ты know, ты asking like what's going on here, ты even said it's been my crutch since я was 14, так что there's probably lot of stuff, что 14-year-old ты just never got to really move through и figure out how to process, потому что у тебя было mind-altering thing going on, и я really not anti-mind altering things, я just trying to be real about, mind-altering things will keep тебе from processing thoughts и feelings, и если у тебя complex ptsd, и я could see why ты might, because of твоё childhood и what ты lived through, the complex ptsd can make это very difficult to process thoughts и feelings, to move them from this active charge state, где all твои adrenaline и cortisol come up for small things, и processing это into memory, и так когда у тебя lot of that kind of stuck in твоём consciousness или body, или ты know, it's hard to really envision like how is that exactly stored in us, it's just there, it's just like reactive, it's ready to go, well если ты want to process that, я would just really consider getting off mind altering substances, и maybe maybe ты don't do это forever, maybe ты do это for period of time while ты healing, так что ты can feel the feelings, что are there with the daily practice, и я can tell from what ты saying, ты've maybe dipped твоё toe in it, когда ты wrote this letter, now that ты did 4-day retreat with me, я bet ты've done это lot more, и ты understand more, и hopefully ты were able to ask me questions there, и я'll talk about that in minute, но the daily practice can't work когда ты on mind altering substances, так что there ты go, it can't do its thing, what я would describe as the benefit of the daily practice based on my experience is, ты know, in the daily practice for anybody, кто doesn't know, it's technique, it's very specific technique for writing to release resentful и fearful thoughts, very specific technique, и it's free, я'll teach это to тебе, если ты just try this at home, ты risk doing something, что would just make тебе more upset, так что that's why я very insistent, take the free course, или ты can read my book re-regulated to learn how to do it, и ты can always get the links to the course и the book down in the description section below, и remember there's little like more button, more link, что ты have to click, ты'll see like the top few lines of the description section under every video, ты have to open it by clicking that little link that says more, и затем ты'll see lots and lots of links и information about how to access my stuff и things, что ты might find helpful, many of them free, так что with the daily practice, what the basic idea is, ты naming, ты not sourcing, ты not, what ты describing is something much too active in analytical и trying to make things go certain way, ты just naming what's bothering тебе, и lumping это into two rough buckets, и мы talking about things, что bother тебе, так что there's either anxious category, которое fear, или angry category, которое resentment, и ты name them, ты ask for them to be removed, и затем ты rest твой mind for 20 minutes, мы call that meditation, just rest твой mind, let твой mind recompose itself, и затем see what happens, now the thing is, если ты high, everybody gets dysregulated sometimes, even non-traumatized people, и everybody eventually re-regulates, когда ты high, ты can't, и ты can't recognize signs of dysregulation когда они show up, it's indistinguishable, maybe если это were severe, ты could detect это, или ты detect это, но really what мы doing когда мы healing is мы teaching ourselves to be aware, когда мы've sort of fallen into dysregulation, и я would liken that process, я don't know если ты get migraines, я used to get them lot, я rarely get them anymore, но it's like ты can feel them coming, all of sudden ты like oh no, oh no, there's almost nothing ты can do to turn it around, и затем it comes, и затем ты like launched into this neurological state, и ты are stuck there for while, и it takes while to come back out, и it's very much the same with dysregulation, ты don't want to get dysregulated all the time, но traumatized people мы do, мы lapse easily into dysregulation, мы have harder time coming out of it, так что what мы do in my healing method is мы learn to notice the signs of dysregulation и turn it around very quickly, learn to re-regulate и stay regulated more of the time, потому что my darling, когда ты are regulated, the world is твой oyster, ты have choices, ты have pauses between things, ты don't like, и how ты want to respond to it, ты have access to твой intelligence, to твой wisdom, to твой intuition, like things are starting to really come online for тебя, когда ты regulated, the minute doing mind altering things, и including prescribed medicine, ты're going to break that easy access for тебя to learn и follow the impulses, что ты're getting, что are telling тебе now я dysregulated, okay here я go, я getting back re-regulated, так что like in my courses мы do re-regulation journals, it's all documented in the book how ты do this, но it's all about like tuning in, и tuning in takes all the awareness ты've got, now the thing about the daily practice is it provides emotional relief, я wouldn't expect anybody to give up, ты know, whether it was weed или cigarettes like it was for me, или booze as it was for some people, или ты know other drugs или raging или whatever, ты know, что people are using to get out of the sadness и out of the dysregulation, но there is better way, ты need way to comfort yourself, there's way ты can get comforted, что more stable, less consequential, like когда я was using cigarettes to re-regulate, я didn't know that's what я was doing, но looking back я like oh yeah, that's what я was doing, ты know, я could smoke cigarette, и it would kind of help me hold it together, когда я was falling apart neurologically, ты know, ты kind of okay, и it's something about the drug и the pause, что ты take to smoke, но every time я'd quit, я basically would get depressed и disorganized mentally to the point, что it didn't even seem worth it to quit, it would be better in my mind back then to just go ahead и get cancer compared to what я was feeling, и я so glad я found better way to feel better, что not cigarettes, что sustainable, я've done it for 30 years now, я do it twice a day, и it does help, it helps me feel smoothed out, calm, alert, aware of myself, it's made such difference in my life from doing that twice a day, так что that's the idea, так что ты can dip in и out, lot of people do, они learn the daily practice, и они're like yeah, that's nice, я don't know, и затем они're doing all this other stuff, но that's, я just want to be honest with тобой, yeah the, ты know, using weed every day is just going to make it really hard for the daily practice to do its thing for тебя, и если ты dare, ты know, ты could take day off of the weed, see how it goes, write и meditate lot to deal with the feelings, что come up, that's what's going to come up, right, feelings, maybe some physical symptoms, there's some withdrawal with weed, it's not considered the hardest drug in the world, но the people я know, кто have given up, it's hard, ты know, it's major thing, но ты could take it one day at a time, я would not expect твой anger to resolve really well, если ты treating it with weed, так что in the daily practice мы do have place to take our anger, now ты sound like ты've done therapy before, и perhaps ты still do, и maybe that was helpful to тебе, for me я would get angrier и angrier in therapy, потому что for me talking about my trauma, которое how it was always done, когда я did therapy at the 11 therapists я used to see over time, ты know, it just would trigger more anger и more dysregulation, я wasn't able to process my thoughts, whatever они were saying, что was helpful и good advice, я couldn't really take it in or act on it or remember it even, и так there was this mismatch between the method и my symptoms, потому что in those days они didn't know, они didn't know what was cptsd, и они didn't know about dysregulation, но now мы know, так что когда ты say are there other practical tools in addition to the daily practice что я can use, я would say sure, there's tons of things out there, что people use, и ты can try them, но doing dozen things is not the thing, что's missing here, it's doing one thing fully, и если тебе like the daily practice, why don't ты go ahead и give it твой all, и do it as taught, и that means either get my book re-regulated и read all of chapter 3 и the appendix, так что ты understand how this works, потому что these questions, где ты like why do we have to put it all in fear и resentment, that's like right there in the faqs, it's there for тебя, it's because мы keeping it simple, we're not naming all the feelings, we're just naming the distress feelings, и we're putting them in two buckets, и there's some very specific language for anybody, кто's learned the method, it's very specific to help тебе release it, not cherish it, not analyze it, not try to dig it up or get it into some sort of sequence or anything like that, it's dump, it's like we just naming what is bothering us, и then asking for it to be removed, или если ты more of higher self-oriented person, ты can release it, but that's the idea, и если ты just hear my little quick description of it here on youtube as many people have, ты're just going to be like that doesn't quite make sense, так что please before ты try it, come learn the full technique, так что it will work for тебя, it was life and death for me, that was one of the reasons я waited so long to put this on youtube, и я've had it here since 2016, but я waited years to put it up, потому что я really wanted it to be the right information, что saved my life, и nothing less, так что that's why я such stickler about please go, ты know, get the book or the free course, и that's why the course is free too, и there's free calls every week with me и my staff, что ты can come to, если ты sign up for that course, we invite тебя, так что ты want to find partner и desire marriage, и ты want, yeah я like what ты want, я like твой vision, я like how well ты've been able to name what ты want, и ты feel like the left behind, an unwanted one, that's really normal thing to feel with trauma, и where are the good guys, так что я have feeling, когда ты have processed what happened with твой family, now before я had the daily practice, я was pretty interested in my family story и the specifics, the very negative points of what had happened, и it was negative, some very bad things happened to me, и part of my healing was expressing that, и accept, что yeah, that really happened, и я affected by it, и then part of my healing was moving that out of the story, it's no longer who я am, right, it's out of the story, так что ты needed to tell me, так что я could get sense of what твой trauma has been, but я would say really great goal for тебя is to no longer be identified with what these jerks did to their kid, it's not ты, и sometimes когда ты having hard time, ты'll know what how ты got that way, и it's not твой fault, but for тебя to be able to really focus us on the behaviors и the turns of thought as ты do so well here, this is where all твой healing is, я love, что ты going to toastmasters, ты getting promotion, ты taking piano lessons и ballroom dancing, this is so good, ты know, я sort of be surprised если ты haven't already met somebody, потому что ты doing this, but твой anger is in the way, my friend, this thing, где ты have all this anger, it does need to be processed, я used to hate that word, it's so touchy feely, such psycho, we need to process this, to me that always meant we need to talk all night about fight, что's never going to be resolved, that's what я was like oh no, processing, not more of that, я'm exhausted, but processing now as я understand it is it's about taking those experiences, что are very charged for us и triggering, running them through the process, что allows them to be merely memories, так что мы can recall the memory, мы can say oh yeah, я remember that happen, и мы don't, our heart doesn't start pounding, и we get full of adrenaline, и we're just like back off to the racist dysregulated thoughts, right, так что ты can process this stuff through the daily practice если тебе like, я think there are different ways, что people do it, but that's how я did it, я just, ты know, ты get it on paper, я have fear this happened to me, fear they said this, fear i'll never meet anybody, fear i'm left behind, like everything ты said so beautifully in this letter could have been written as fear и resentment, get to the calls, my friend, если ты didn't get it in the retreat, когда мы were together, come to the calls, it's very nuanced, и я on the zoom every two weeks for two hours with people all over the world, taking questions, they're often the same questions, but they're worth answering again about each person's particular context about it, так что people understand, this is radical, we're actually like releasing these feelings, we're releasing these thoughts, we're not denying the feelings or thoughts, we're not suppressing them, we're not saying they're ridiculous, we're just getting them out on paper, и having more space, и there's something, что я just experience, my mind can do, my mind can kind of move forward with something little happier, little more robust, когда я can move that stuff out of the way in writing, we also know, что writing is pathway for the brain, что can avoid lot of triggers, что would otherwise be set off like pinball machine, когда мы talk about the trauma, я one of those people, people ты might be too, так что я hope that helps тебе process that anger, ты doing so many things right, but process that anger, и the rushing through self-care, ты know what, yeah totally, is that so bad, я don't know, the only self-care, что really really matters for me is that я write и meditate every day, если я do that, я will usually do the other things fairly well enough anyway, ты know too, если я don't do that, я can barely manage anything, я'm just like right back to my old limitations, так что спасибо за this gorgeous letter, матри, я hope this helps, я going to leave everybody with kind of fun thing, я've told тебе about all these classes, connection boot camp, dating, relationships, daily practice, all of that's down in the description section, but я have this very fun free download, что's called one year to heal, heads up, ты can't heal in year, it's thought exercise, если ты had to heal really fast, like quick, what would ты do, и this is to access твой intuitive knowledge about what ты need to do to heal, и it can help point to one or two things, что would be very good to start on for тебя right now, так что my one year to heal exercise can be downloaded for free right there, и я will see тебя very soon

person I get you my past in sites and intuitions have been the unhealthy result of cptsd driven beliefs and behaviors I feel embarrassed and foolish and retrospect because I felt so confident that I was right at the time if my red flag detector was damaged I've lacked experiencing healthy relationships how do I know I'm doing the right thing how can I trust myself if I rely on new healthy friends and support networks for clarity and awareness of my role in situations and appropriate next steps then how do do I know when to trust my own gut feeling what if their advice is just the way they would do things and not right for me my childhood experiences have left me with a lot of anger resentment confusion and a longing to be accepted particularly by men I have an underlying fear of abandonment issues with being assertive and setting boundaries I'm doing my best to maintain humility as I'm growing though feelings of embarrassment have surfaced while reflecting on both my arrogance and naivity over the years I have a few Family Ties and have made efforts to distance myself because I don't feel they've been very kind to me I'm just realizing I've been the family scapegoat I feel like I'm drifting alone in the world I become frustrated and full of Rage when the smallest things go wrong and I feel the strong impulse to hit and punch things several times a week I take it out on poor cardboard shipping boxes I use medical marijuana daily oh okay and it's been my crutch since I was 14 years old I know all this at this point I need to deal with my anger and shame but what does that look like are there other practical Tools in addition to the Daily practice that I can use also does every feeling have to be sourced back to resentment and fear I sometimes have trouble placing all my disregulated thoughts and feelings into just these two buckets I really want to find a partner and desire marriage I want someone who can travel with me and will be my family at my age it feels like most of my friends are married and or have children already I feel like I'm being left behind The Unwanted one I look in the mirror and see the start of gray hair eye wrinkles small age spots and I feel like I'm running out of time it seems like all the good men are taken or I'm not attracted to the ones who are I know this isn't true but where are they I've been making healthier more outgoing choices since listening to your videos I read the books took your dating course and I'm attending your retreat this month I've been doing Pilates every weekday morning for the past two years which has really helped my confidence mood and body pain I recently graduated with a master's degree in business bought a home and manag a successful Airbnb I have a secure remote job in hospital Administration though I don't care about it and I don't feel it uses my talents and I'm about to get a big promotion I've joined my Works chapter of Toast Masters began piano lesson and began ballroom dancing on Friday nights I feel like I'm in a good place to start dating again I don't have any social media and I feel foreign to online dating so I'm not certain how to meet healthy available people I'm a 35-year-old woman never married and don't desire children I grew up in a home full of abuse with a domineering ex-military mother who was controlling and emotionally and physically abusive she would say things to me like I'm your God your judge I own you what you you are the most selfish I ever met the dad I grew up with was extremely abusive and used religion to control and abuse my mother I watched him Crush her collarbone with his bare hands and break her ribs by kicking her repeatedly we were trained to lie about it to teachers and police our house had an anxious heavy feel to it filled with the helpless confusion of tiny children living in the shadow of a monster I spent most of my time reading books watching Animal Planet and writing short stories after my mother was Baker acted that means involuntarily locked up she divorced my dad when I was and she puts quotes around Dad I'm not sure why um when I was seven and revealed to me that he wasn't my real father I see my biological father was the same as my older sister's a dangerous and abusive man she said he didn't want me either and it was his loss I felt very unwanted for a long time and I'm still riddled with an internalized sense of rejection and shame my great uncle became the only Father Figure in my life a temperamental older man that constantly criticized me and expressed his disappointment that I wasn't a boy as I worked on his farm I thought I had dealt with my childhood trauma long ago because I strive to make so much more of my life distant from the trailer park I came from I've overcome so much and have done things that others only dream of such as serving in the Peace Corps in Africa and traveling to 36 countries but now I think I've been mistaking achievement and staying busy for healing I tend to only feel good enough when I'm accomplishing something or feel something is perfect I tend to rush through everything especially aspects of self-care I often feel the people don't really like me once they get to know me or as I've done something wrong or inappropriate I Fawn and freeze during moments when I want to remain strong and poised I admire when others assert themselves yet when I have the opportunity I feel a lump in my throat I sweat and my body prickles all over I really want to stop and to find a good man to spend my life with any tough love you can offer would be appreciated thank you matri okay matri what a beautiful letter what a great writer you are um you very vividly portray what it's like to be you in a way there's so many points in here where I can understand completely what you're saying and and then a couple places where I'm like huh I don't get it but uh it's it's really an usually well-written letter and thank you for that it's uh you describe a beautiful sense of disconnection clearly you are a writer I don't know you know so by now that I'm reading this letter after the retreat so I guess you and I have met but I don't know who you are and um which is probably good you know because then I'm very objective about this so all right let me tell you about what I what I heard you say here you distanced yourself from your family and previous friends that you had trauma bonded with in order to Foster healthier relationships now I think when you say trauma bonded with you mean that you guys both had trauma and you related on that and so that was a big basis of your relationship so I just want to point out that trauma bonding actually means something different I'm not I think that I think well if I'm wrong and you did mean what it really means I stand corrected but I just want to say trauma bonding is intermittent reinforcement it's when somebody loves you takes it away loves you takes it away and it it like causes your brain to like hook on addictively to them and you'll do anything to stay with them and it can work not just on people or children you know but on rats it's a psychological torture technique and I don't think that's what you meant um but a lot of people common usage they say trauma bonded um when they mean we're just a bunch of effed up people hanging out and I know what you mean on that front I love your Lobster analogy yes changing is like that sometimes we have this vulnerable period where we don't have a shell and it takes a while to grow a new one and so we have to kind of hide out for a while you got to watch out because it's also like the favorite excuse of people of avoidance of people who just want to go isolate for a long time and they go look I'm healing I'm healing for 25 years you know and um sometimes it goes long past its usefulness as a healing technique and it's just avoidance and too much avoidance and you can't heal so um I throw that in there but I think your Lobster analogy is just beautiful and perfect so it's hard to make friends you feel unprotected without your familiar circle of complaining trauma bonded friendships and breadcrumb relationships cuz at least it was some type of connection yes I totally relate and you know what I've been through like three cycles of this like CH change of the cast of characters because that's how many times I've had to make radical changes forward in my life I had a long way to go and then I also understand what you're saying here your past quote insights and intuitions were messed up they they they they turned out not to be reliable you were certain about what you were feeling and then in time it turned out they were trauma driven beliefs your red flag detector was operating and that is so normal and I just love that you actually you are insightful enough to just say oh yeah I thought it was my intuition but it was my trauma talking we all do that it drives people crazy I have a video out there that says don't trust these gut instincts and what I'm talking talking about is when the trauma is talking and like oh yeah you got to do this self-destructive thing and people often comment it on it without watching the video going you should always trust your instincts and I'm like not if you have what I have it takes us time to heal enough to know what the difference is between gut instincts and the trauma talking which which is you know sometimes all we know at first so good for you for being careful on the distinction there so you're asking so much the right questions how do I know I'm doing the right thing how can I trust myself those are the right questions you know when you're fully healing when you're fully engaged in your healing you will learn to do that through trial and error the way everybody else did but at a somewhat younger age than we did right we have a we have a delay in our development and so we end up with a lack of clarity around aspects of ourselves that our peers our age peers already have and we think oh I'm terrible but it's really normal for people who were severely neglected and abused as you were to have a delay there and it's kind of beautifully designed like that somehow the child versions of ourselves know how to sort of pack it away you know keep it safe from everything just close it down and then bring it out later but it's just that when it's coming out later in adulthood it's a little messy and it's a little bit confusing and and it's um causes us to be alone for long periods of time which is hard but part of it it's part of it you've got such a good um ability to describe what you're going through how yeah should you listen to other people's advice or is it just yeah other people's advice is always their advice and what they would do so we take it under advisement we take it with a grain of salt sometimes hearing other people's experience can help us get in touch with our own best wisdom so it's okay to ask for advice I just wouldn't recommend completely surrendering your decisions to somebody else's advice unless you're incapacitated in some way or unless you have reasons that you really trust their judgment and you think that what they're suggesting is the best thing for you in which case it's your wisdom right it's your decision so you got left with a lot of anger resentment confusion and longing to be accepted uhhuh what I think is clearly very Advanced about your healing is that you do your you say I'm doing my best to maintain humility as I'm growing through feelings of embarrassment reflecting on my arrogance and naivity over the years if you're aware that you have arrogance and naivity you are well on your way to Healing I mean really like so many people don't get that far and it's hard you know for those of us who realize we have faults to interact with people who absolutely believe they have no Faults who believe that they actually are better and Superior in judgment you know it's hard it's hard to do that it can make it painful to apologize sometimes when we've been arrogant to somebody who doesn't realize that their arrogance is arrogance but you know what we get better anyway it doesn't matter how far along they are I love that you are in touch with that about yourself that is that's a really good sign that you're you're making good progress so you have few Family Ties they haven't been kind you've been the scapegoat yeah that's a whole thing isn't it and a lot of what you're describing as kind of scapegoat wounds I feel like I'm drifting alone in the world yes I I know that feeling so well but you found us now you you know hopefully the crappy childhood fairy Community feels like a tribe and if you came to that Retreat hopefully you became a member and you've made friends here the people here are like more than anybody in the world who I feel at home with who I feel understood by and I never felt understood until I started putting my experience on YouTube and got some comments back I was just like they you know people would comment back like I can't believe you're describing what it's like to me be me and I reply back to them I can't believe you have had this experience too I literally thought I was the only one so it turns out we have a lot of normal symptoms of growing up with something abnormal going on and when we find each other it really helps to take the shame off and help make it understandable that we got like this like it's not our fault that we develop this this manner this mode and now we're the ones who are charged with finding a way to undo it to to um relax the grip of these trauma driven adaptations so that we can start to have some of the Finer Things in life some of the more subtle things like like love and connection and those are often lost to us when we're in survival mode when we're just being tough and strong and you know we get very like you know black and white thinking about things CU we had to in order to survive but then we start opening our minds and it's messy just like you describe so you said you feel frustrated and full of Rage when the smallest things go wrong and you get a strong impulse to hit and punch things and you take it out on a cardboard shipping box all right I'm just going to get in here with some advice cuz you asked I don't think that's a good idea I think it's normal that you're having emotional disregulation and intense rage and you may have been told that it's all very meaningful and you need to feel it and explore it but I question that I don't think that's always true I think if you have um if you had a lot of childhood trauma and you tend to get emotionally disregulated there's actually no bottom to that anger so whereas another person who didn't have trauma they're like yeah I punched a cardboard box and then I had cathar and I was fine did that happen to you it doesn't sound like it so you know venting rage has never worked for me and there it's got people have looked at it like punching pillows screaming that sort of thing there's no evidence that it helps really of anger actually I'll tell you what does um keep people trapped in Anger weed daily weed use you can call it medical marijuana if you want because of course it can be used in a in a medicinal way um but when it's used daily and I understand for some people like that's how they roll and that's fine but if you're asking me yeah that's um keeping you from being able to process anger and I don't just mean psychologically I just mean like neurologically I noticed this a long time ago uh in my life you know I've I've known lots and lots of people who were daily marijuana users I've also I made the correlation like in my 20s like gosh they're all so dang angry after a while that's where it goes and I'm sure there are exceptions but that's my observation is people who use weed every every day no matter how much they claim it's medicinal for them it turns them angry and stuck that's that's my observation for whatever it's doing for you is it worth it cuz I don't think having rage and having to like scream and punch boxes is is good for marriage I don't think so and this is you know you're asking like what's going on here you even said it's been my crutch since I was 14 years old I know all this at this point I need to deal with my anger and shame but what does that look like are there other practical Tools in addition to the Daily practice that I can use also does every feeling have to be sourced back to resentment and fear I sometimes have trouble placing all my disregulated thoughts and feelings into just these two buckets I really want to find a partner and desire marriage I want someone who can travel with me and will be my family at my age it feels like most of my friends are married and or have children already I feel like I'm being left behind The Unwanted one I look in the mirror and see the start of gray hair eye wrinkles small age spots and I feel like I'm running out of time it seems like all the good men are taken or I'm not attracted to the ones who are I know this isn't true but where are they I've been making healthier more outgoing choices since listening to your videos I read the books took your dating course and I'm attending your retreat this month I've been doing Pilates every weekday morning for the past two years which has really helped my confidence mood and body pain I recently graduated with a master's degree in business bought a home and manag a successful Airbnb I have a secure remote job in hospital Administration though I don't care about it and I don't feel it uses my talents and I'm about to get a big promotion I've joined my Works chapter of Toast Masters began piano lesson and began ballroom dancing on Friday nights I feel like I'm in a good place to start dating again I don't have any social media and I feel foreign to online dating so I'm not certain how to meet healthy available people I'm a 35-year-old woman never married and don't desire children I grew up in a home full of abuse with a domineering ex-military mother who was controlling and emotionally and physically abusive she would say things to me like I'm your God your judge I own you what you you are the most selfish I ever met the dad I grew up with was extremely abusive and used religion to control and abuse my mother I watched him Crush her collarbone with his bare hands and break her ribs by kicking her repeatedly we were trained to lie about it to teachers and police our house had an anxious heavy feel to it filled with the helpless confusion of tiny children living in the shadow of a monster I spent most of my time reading books watching Animal Planet and writing short stories after my mother was Baker acted that means involuntarily locked up she divorced my dad when I was and she puts quotes around Dad I'm not sure why um when I was seven and revealed to me that he wasn't my real father I see my biological father was the same as my older sister's a dangerous and abusive man she said he didn't want me either and it was his loss I felt very unwanted for a long time and I'm still riddled with an internalized sense of rejection and shame my great uncle became the only Father Figure in my life a temperamental older man that constantly criticized me and expressed his disappointment that I wasn't a boy as I worked on his farm I thought I had dealt with my childhood trauma long ago because I strive to make so much more of my life distant from the trailer park I came from I've overcome so much and have done things that others only dream of such as serving in the Peace Corps in Africa and traveling to 36 countries but now I think I've been mistaking achievement and staying busy for healing I tend to only feel good enough when I'm accomplishing something or feel something is perfect I tend to rush through everything especially aspects of self-care I often feel the people don't really like me once they get to know me or as I've done something wrong or inappropriate I Fawn and freeze during moments when I want to remain strong and poised I admire when others assert themselves yet when I have the opportunity I feel a lump in my throat I sweat and my body prickles all over I really want to stop and to find a good man to spend my life with any tough love you can offer would be appreciated thank you matri okay matri what a beautiful letter what a great writer you are um you very vividly portray what it's like to be you in a way there's so many points in here where I can understand completely what you're saying and and then a couple places where I'm like huh I don't get it but uh it's it's really an usually well-written letter and thank you for that it's uh you describe a beautiful sense of disconnection clearly you are a writer I don't know you know so by now that I'm reading this letter after the retreat so I guess you and I have met but I don't know who you are and um which is probably good you know because then I'm very objective about this so all right let me tell you about what I what I heard you say here you distanced yourself from your family and previous friends that you had trauma bonded with in order to Foster healthier relationships now I think when you say trauma bonded with you mean that you guys both had trauma and you related on that and so that was a big basis of your relationship so I just want to point out that trauma bonding actually means something different I'm not I think that I think well if I'm wrong and you did mean what it really means I stand corrected but I just want to say trauma bonding is intermittent reinforcement it's when somebody loves you takes it away loves you takes it away and it it like causes your brain to like hook on addictively to them and you'll do anything to stay with them and it can work not just on people or children you know but on rats it's a psychological torture technique and I don't think that's what you meant um but a lot of people common usage they say trauma bonded um when they mean we're just a bunch of effed up people hanging out and I know what you mean on that front I love your Lobster analogy yes changing is like that sometimes we have this vulnerable period where we don't have a shell and it takes a while to grow a new one and so we have to kind of hide out for a while you got to watch out because it's also like the favorite excuse of people of avoidance of people who just want to go isolate for a long time and they go look I'm healing I'm healing for 25 years you know and um sometimes it goes long past its usefulness as a healing technique and it's just avoidance and too much avoidance and you can't heal so um I throw that in there but I think your Lobster analogy is just beautiful and perfect so it's hard to make friends you feel unprotected without your familiar circle of complaining trauma bonded friendships and breadcrumb relationships cuz at least it was some type of connection yes I totally relate and you know what I've been through like three cycles of this like CH change of the cast of characters because that's how many times I've had to make radical changes forward in my life I had a long way to go and then I also understand what you're saying here your past quote insights and intuitions were messed up they they they they turned out not to be reliable you were certain about what you were feeling and then in time it turned out they were trauma driven beliefs your red flag detector was operating and that is so normal and I just love that you actually you are insightful enough to just say oh yeah I thought it was my intuition but it was my trauma talking we all do that it drives people crazy I have a video out there that says don't trust these gut instincts and what I'm talking talking about is when the trauma is talking and like oh yeah you got to do this self-destructive thing and people often comment it on it without watching the video going you should always trust your instincts and I'm like not if you have what I have it takes us time to heal enough to know what the difference is between gut instincts and the trauma talking which which is you know sometimes all we know at first so good for you for being careful on the distinction there so you're asking so much the right questions how do I know I'm doing the right thing how can I trust myself those are the right questions you know when you're fully healing when you're fully engaged in your healing you will learn to do that through trial and error the way everybody else did but at a somewhat younger age than we did right we have a we have a delay in our development and so we end up with a lack of clarity around aspects of ourselves that our peers our age peers already have and we think oh I'm terrible but it's really normal for people who were severely neglected and abused as you were to have a delay there and it's kind of beautifully designed like that somehow the child versions of ourselves know how to sort of pack it away you know keep it safe from everything just close it down and then bring it out later but it's just that when it's coming out later in adulthood it's a little messy and it's a little bit confusing and and it's um causes us to be alone for long periods of time which is hard but part of it it's part of it you've got such a good um ability to describe what you're going through how yeah should you listen to other people's advice or is it just yeah other people's advice is always their advice and what they would do so we take it under advisement we take it with a grain of salt sometimes hearing other people's experience can help us get in touch with our own best wisdom so it's okay to ask for advice I just wouldn't recommend completely surrendering your decisions to somebody else's advice unless you're incapacitated in some way or unless you have reasons that you really trust their judgment and you think that what they're suggesting is the best thing for you in which case it's your wisdom right it's your decision so you got left with a lot of anger resentment confusion and longing to be accepted uhhuh what I think is clearly very Advanced about your healing is that you do your you say I'm doing my best to maintain humility as I'm growing through feelings of embarrassment reflecting on my arrogance and naivity over the years if you're aware that you have arrogance and naivity you are well on your way to Healing I mean really like so many people don't get that far and it's hard you know for those of us who realize we have faults to interact with people who absolutely believe they have no Faults who believe that they actually are better and Superior in judgment you know it's hard it's hard to do that it can make it painful to apologize sometimes when we've been arrogant to somebody who doesn't realize that their arrogance is arrogance but you know what we get better anyway it doesn't matter how far along they are I love that you are in touch with that about yourself that is that's a really good sign that you're you're making good progress so you have few Family Ties they haven't been kind you've been the scapegoat yeah that's a whole thing isn't it and a lot of what you're describing as kind of scapegoat wounds I feel like I'm drifting alone in the world yes I I know that feeling so well but you found us now you you know hopefully the crappy childhood fairy Community feels like a tribe and if you came to that Retreat hopefully you became a member and you've made friends here the people here are like more than anybody in the world who I feel at home with who I feel understood by and I never felt understood until I started putting my experience on YouTube and got some comments back I was just like they you know people would comment back like I can't believe you're describing what it's like to me be me and I reply back to them I can't believe you have had this experience too I literally thought I was the only one so it turns out we have a lot of normal symptoms of growing up with something abnormal going on and when we find each other it really helps to take the shame off and help make it understandable that we got like this like it's not our fault that we develop this this manner this mode and now we're the ones who are charged with finding a way to undo it to to um relax the grip of these trauma driven adaptations so that we can start to have some of the Finer Things in life some of the more subtle things like like love and connection and those are often lost to us when we're in survival mode when we're just being tough and strong and you know we get very like you know black and white thinking about things CU we had to in order to survive but then we start opening our minds and it's messy just like you describe so you said you feel frustrated and full of Rage when the smallest things go wrong and you get a strong impulse to hit and punch things and you take it out on a cardboard shipping box all right I'm just going to get in here with some advice cuz you asked I don't think that's a good idea I think it's normal that you're having emotional disregulation and intense rage and you may have been told that it's all very meaningful and you need to feel it and explore it but I question that I don't think that's always true I think if you have um if you had a lot of childhood trauma and you tend to get emotionally disregulated there's actually no bottom to that anger so whereas another person who didn't have trauma they're like yeah I punched a cardboard box and then I had cathar and I was fine did that happen to you it doesn't sound like it so you know venting rage has never worked for me and there it's got people have looked at it like punching pillows screaming that sort of thing there's no evidence that it helps really of anger actually I'll tell you what does um keep people trapped in Anger weed daily weed use you can call it medical marijuana if you want because of course it can be used in a in a medicinal way um but when it's used daily and I understand for some people like that's how they roll and that's fine but if you're asking me yeah that's um keeping you from being able to process anger and I don't just mean psychologically I just mean like neurologically I noticed this a long time ago uh in my life you know I've I've known lots and lots of people who were daily marijuana users I've also I made the correlation like in my 20s like gosh they're all so dang angry after a while that's where it goes and I'm sure there are exceptions but that's my observation is people who use weed every every day no matter how much they claim it's medicinal for them it turns them angry and stuck that's that's my observation for whatever it's doing for you is it worth it cuz I don't think having rage and having to like scream and punch boxes is is good for marriage I don't think so and this is you know you're asking like what's going on here you even said it's been my crutch since I was 14 years old I know all this at this point I need to deal with my anger and shame but what does that look like are there other practical Tools in addition to the Daily practice that I can use also does every feeling have to be sourced back to resentment and fear I sometimes have trouble placing all my disregulated thoughts and feelings into just these two buckets I really want to find a partner and desire marriage I want someone who can travel with me and will be my family at my age it feels like most of my friends are married and or have children already I feel like I'm being left behind The Unwanted one I look in the mirror and see the start of gray hair eye wrinkles small age spots and I feel like I'm running out of time it seems like all the good men are taken or I'm not attracted to the ones who are I know this isn't true but where are they I've been making healthier more outgoing choices since listening to your videos I read the books took your dating course and I'm attending your retreat this month I've been doing Pilates every weekday morning for the past two years which has really helped my confidence mood and body pain I recently graduated with a master's degree in business bought a home and manag a successful Airbnb I have a secure remote job in hospital Administration though I don't care about it and I don't feel it uses my talents and I'm about to get a big promotion I've joined my Works chapter of Toast Masters began piano lesson and began ballroom dancing on Friday nights I feel like I'm in a good place to start dating again I don't have any social media and I feel foreign to online dating so I'm not certain how to meet healthy available people I'm a 35-year-old woman never married and don't desire children I grew up in a home full of abuse with a domineering ex-military mother who was controlling and emotionally and physically abusive she would say things to me like I'm your God your judge I own you what you you are the most selfish I ever met the dad I grew up with was extremely abusive and used religion to control and abuse my mother I watched him Crush her collarbone with his bare hands and break her ribs by kicking her repeatedly we were trained to lie about it to teachers and police our house had an anxious heavy feel to it filled with the helpless confusion of tiny children living in the shadow of a monster I spent most of my time reading books watching Animal Planet and writing short stories after my mother was Baker acted that means involuntarily locked up she divorced my dad when I was and she puts quotes around Dad I'm not sure why um when I was seven and revealed to me that he wasn't my real father I see my biological father was the same as my older sister's a dangerous and abusive man she said he didn't want me either and it was his loss I felt very unwanted for a long time and I'm still riddled with an internalized sense of rejection and shame my great uncle became the only Father Figure in my life a temperamental older man that constantly criticized me and expressed his disappointment that I wasn't a boy as I worked on his farm I thought I had dealt with my childhood trauma long ago because I strive to make so much more of my life distant from the trailer park I came from I've overcome so much and have done things that others only dream of such as serving in the Peace Corps in Africa and traveling to 36 countries but now I think I've been mistaking achievement and staying busy for healing I tend to only feel good enough when I'm accomplishing something or feel something is perfect I tend to rush through everything especially aspects of self-care I often feel the people don't really like me once they get to know me or as I've done something wrong or inappropriate I Fawn and freeze during moments when I want to remain strong and poised I admire when others assert themselves yet when I have the opportunity I feel a lump in my throat I sweat and my body prickles all over I really want to stop and to find a good man to spend my life with any tough love you can offer would be appreciated thank you matri okay matri what a beautiful letter what a great writer you are um you very vividly portray what it's like to be you in a way there's so many points in here where I can understand completely what you're saying and and then a couple places where I'm like huh I don't get it but uh it's it's really an usually well-written letter and thank you for that it's uh you describe a beautiful sense of disconnection clearly you are a writer I don't know you know so by now that I'm reading this letter after the retreat so I guess you and I have met but I don't know who you are and um which is probably good you know because then I'm very objective about this so all right let me tell you about what I what I heard you say here you distanced yourself from your family and previous friends that you had trauma bonded with in order to Foster healthier relationships now I think when you say trauma bonded with you mean that you guys both had trauma and you related on that and so that was a big basis of your relationship so I just want to point out that trauma bonding actually means something different I'm not I think that I think well if I'm wrong and you did mean what it really means I stand corrected but I just want to say trauma bonding is intermittent reinforcement it's when somebody loves you takes it away loves you takes it away and it it like causes your brain to like hook on addictively to them and you'll do anything to stay with them and it can work not just on people or children you know but on rats it's a psychological torture technique and I don't think that's what you meant um but a lot of people common usage they say trauma bonded um when they mean we're just a bunch of effed up people hanging out and I know what you mean on that front I love your Lobster analogy yes changing is like that sometimes we have this vulnerable period where we don't have a shell and it takes a while to grow a new one and so we have to kind of hide out for a while you got to watch out because it's also like the favorite excuse of people of avoidance of people who just want to go isolate for a long time and they go look I'm healing I'm healing for 25 years you know and um sometimes it goes long past its usefulness as a healing technique and it's just avoidance and too much avoidance and you can't heal so um I throw that in there but I think your Lobster analogy is just beautiful and perfect so it's hard to make friends you feel unprotected without your familiar circle of complaining trauma bonded friendships and breadcrumb relationships cuz at least it was some type of connection yes I totally relate and you know what I've been through like three cycles of this like CH change of the cast of characters because that's how many times I've had to make radical changes forward in my life I had a long way to go and then I also understand what you're saying here your past quote insights and intuitions were messed up they they they they turned out not to be reliable you were certain about what you were feeling and then in time it turned out they were trauma driven beliefs your red flag detector was operating and that is so normal and I just love that you actually you are insightful enough to just say oh yeah I thought it was my intuition but it was my trauma talking we all do that it drives people crazy I have a video out there that says don't trust these gut instincts and what I'm talking talking about is when the trauma is talking and like oh yeah you got to do this self-destructive thing and people often comment it on it without watching the video going you should always trust your instincts and I'm like not if you have what I have it takes us time to heal enough to know what the difference is between gut instincts and the trauma talking which which is you know sometimes all we know at first so good for you for being careful on the distinction there so you're asking so much the right questions how do I know I'm doing the right thing how can I trust myself those are the right questions you know when you're fully healing when you're fully engaged in your healing you will learn to do that through trial and error the way everybody else did but at a somewhat younger age than we did right we have a we have a delay in our development and so we end up with a lack of clarity around aspects of ourselves that our peers our age peers already have and we think oh I'm terrible but it's really normal for people who were severely neglected and abused as you were to have a delay there and it's kind of beautifully designed like that somehow the child versions of ourselves know how to sort of pack it away you know keep it safe from everything just close it down and then bring it out later but it's just that when it's coming out later in adulthood it's a little messy and it's a little bit confusing and and it's um causes us to be alone for long periods of time which is hard but part of it it's part of it you've got such a good um ability to describe what you're going through how yeah should you listen to other people's advice or is it just yeah other people's advice is always their advice and what they would do so we take it under advisement we take it with a grain of salt sometimes hearing other people's experience can help us get in touch with our own best wisdom so it's okay to ask for advice I just wouldn't recommend completely surrendering your decisions to somebody else's advice unless you're incapacitated in some way or unless you have reasons that you really trust their judgment and you think that what they're suggesting is the best thing for you in which case it's your wisdom right it's your decision so you got left with a lot of anger resentment confusion and longing to be accepted uhhuh what I think is clearly very Advanced about your healing is that you do your you say I'm doing my best to maintain humility as I'm growing through feelings of embarrassment reflecting on my arrogance and naivity over the years if you're aware that you have arrogance and naivity you are well on your way to Healing I mean really like so many people don't get that far and it's hard you know for those of us who realize we have faults to interact with people who absolutely believe they have no Faults who believe that they actually are better and Superior in judgment you know it's hard it's hard to do that it can make it painful to apologize sometimes when we've been arrogant to somebody who doesn't realize that their arrogance is arrogance but you know what we get better anyway it doesn't matter how far along they are I love that you are in touch with that about yourself that is that's a really good sign that you're you're making good progress so you have few Family Ties they haven't been kind you've been the scapegoat yeah that's a whole thing isn't it and a lot of what you're describing as kind of scapegoat wounds I feel like I'm drifting alone in the world yes I I know that feeling so well but you found us now you you know hopefully the crappy childhood fairy Community feels like a tribe and if you came to that Retreat hopefully you became a member and you've made friends here the people here are like more than anybody in the world who I feel at home with who I feel understood by and I never felt understood until I started putting my experience on YouTube and got some comments back I was just like they you know people would comment back like I can't believe you're describing what it's like to me be me and I reply back to them I can't believe you have had this experience too I literally thought I was the only one so it turns out we have a lot of normal symptoms of growing up with something abnormal going on and when we find each other it really helps to take the shame off and help make it understandable that we got like this like it's not our fault that we develop this this manner this mode and now we're the ones who are charged with finding a way to undo it to to um relax the grip of these trauma driven adaptations so that we can start to have some of the Finer Things in life some of the more subtle things like like love and connection and those are often lost to us when we're in survival mode when we're just being tough and strong and you know we get very like you know black and white thinking about things CU we had to in order to survive but then we start opening our minds and it's messy just like you describe so you said you feel frustrated and full of Rage when the smallest things go wrong and you get a strong impulse to hit and punch things and you take it out on a cardboard shipping box all right I'm just going to get in here with some advice cuz you asked I don't think that's a good idea I think it's normal that you're having emotional disregulation and intense rage and you may have been told that it's all very meaningful and you need to feel it and explore it but I question that I don't think that's always true I think if you have um if you had a lot of childhood trauma and you tend to get emotionally disregulated there's actually no bottom to that anger so whereas another person who didn't have trauma they're like yeah I punched a cardboard box and then I had cathar and I was fine did that happen to you it doesn't sound like it so you know venting rage has never worked for me and there it's got people have looked at it like punching pillows screaming that sort of thing there's no evidence that it helps really of anger actually I'll tell you what does um keep people trapped in Anger weed daily weed use you can call it medical marijuana if you want because of course it can be used in a in a medicinal way um but when it's used daily and I understand for some people like that's how they roll and that's fine but if you're asking me yeah that's um keeping you from being able to process anger and I don't just mean psychologically I just mean like neurologically I noticed this a long time ago uh in my life you know I've I've known lots and lots of people who were daily marijuana users I've also I made the correlation like in my 20s like gosh they're all so dang angry after a while that's where it goes and I'm sure there are exceptions but that's my observation is people who use weed every every day no matter how much they claim it's medicinal for them it turns them angry and stuck that's that's my observation for whatever it's doing for you is it worth it cuz I don't think having rage and having to like scream and punch boxes is is good for marriage I don't think so and this is you know you're asking like what's going on here you even said it's been my crutch since I was 14 years old I know all this at this point I need to deal with my anger and shame but what does that look like are there other practical Tools in addition to the Daily practice that I can use also does every feeling have to be sourced back to resentment and fear I sometimes have trouble placing all my disregulated thoughts and feelings into just these two buckets I really want to find a partner and desire marriage I want someone who can travel with me and will be my family at my age it feels like most of my friends are married and or have children already I feel like I'm being left behind The Unwanted one I look in the mirror and see the start of gray hair eye wrinkles small age spots and I feel like I'm running out of time it seems like all the good men are taken or I'm not attracted to the ones who are I know this isn't true but where are they I've been making healthier more outgoing choices since listening to your videos I read the books took your dating course and I'm attending your retreat this month I've been doing Pilates every weekday morning for the past two years which has really helped my confidence mood and body pain I recently graduated with a master's degree in business bought a home and manag a successful Airbnb I have a secure remote job in hospital Administration though I don't care about it and I don't feel it uses my talents and I'm about to get a big promotion I've joined my Works chapter of Toast Masters began piano lesson and began ballroom dancing on Friday nights I feel like I'm in a good place to start dating again I don't have any social media and I feel foreign to online dating so I'm not certain how to meet healthy available people I'm a 35-year-old woman never married and don't desire children I grew up in a home full of abuse with a domineering ex-military mother who was controlling and emotionally and physically abusive she would say things to me like I'm your God your judge I own you what you you are the most selfish I ever met the dad I grew up with was extremely abusive and used religion to control and abuse my mother I watched him Crush her collarbone with his bare hands and break her ribs by kicking her repeatedly we were trained to lie about it to teachers and police our house had an anxious heavy feel to it filled with the helpless confusion of tiny children living in the shadow of a monster I spent most of my time reading books watching Animal Planet and writing short stories after my mother was Baker acted that means involuntarily locked up she divorced my dad when I was and she puts quotes around Dad I'm not sure why um when I was seven and revealed to me that he wasn't my real father I see my biological father was the same as my older sister's a dangerous and abusive man she said he didn't want me either and it was his loss I felt very unwanted for a long time and I'm still riddled with an internalized sense of rejection and shame my great uncle became the only Father Figure in my life a temperamental older man that constantly criticized me and expressed his disappointment that I wasn't a boy as I worked on his farm I thought I had dealt with my childhood trauma long ago because I strive to make so much more of my life distant from the trailer park I came from I've overcome so much and have done things that others only dream of such as serving in the Peace Corps in Africa and traveling to 36 countries but now I think I've been mistaking achievement and staying busy for healing I tend to only feel good enough when I'm accomplishing something or feel something is perfect I tend to rush through everything especially aspects of self-care I often feel the people don't really like me once they get to know me or as I've done something wrong or inappropriate I Fawn and freeze during moments when I want to remain strong and poised I admire when others assert themselves yet when I have the opportunity I feel a lump in my throat I sweat and my body prickles all over I really want to stop and to find a good man to spend my life with any tough love you can offer would be appreciated thank you matri okay matri what a beautiful letter what a great writer you are um you very vividly portray what it's like to be you in a way there's so many points in here where I can understand completely what you're saying and and then a couple places where I'm like huh I don't get it but uh it's it's really an usually well-written letter and thank you for that it's uh you describe a beautiful sense of disconnection clearly you are a writer I don't know you know so by now that I'm reading this letter after the retreat so I guess you and I have met but I don't know who you are and um which is probably good you know because then I'm very objective about this so all right let me tell you about what I what I heard you say here you distanced yourself from your family and previous friends that you had trauma bonded with in order to Foster healthier relationships now I think when you say trauma bonded with you mean that you guys both had trauma and you related on that and so that was a big basis of your relationship so I just want to point out that trauma bonding actually means something different I'm not I think that I think well if I'm wrong and you did mean what it really means I stand corrected but I just want to say trauma bonding is intermittent reinforcement it's when somebody loves you takes it away loves you takes it away and it it like causes your brain to like hook on addictively to them and you'll do anything to stay with them and it can work not just on people or children you know but on rats it's a psychological torture technique and I don't think that's what you meant um but a lot of people common usage they say trauma bonded um when they mean we're just a bunch of effed up people hanging out and I know what you mean on that front I love your Lobster analogy yes changing is like that sometimes we have this vulnerable period where we don't have a shell and it takes a while to grow a new one and so we have to kind of hide out for a while you got to watch out because it's also like the favorite excuse of people of avoidance of people who just want to go isolate for a long time and they go look I'm healing I'm healing for 25 years you know and um sometimes it goes long past its usefulness as a healing technique and it's just avoidance and too much avoidance and you can't heal so um I throw that in there but I think your Lobster analogy is just beautiful and perfect so it's hard to make friends you feel unprotected without your familiar circle of complaining trauma bonded friendships and breadcrumb relationships cuz at least it was some type of connection yes I totally relate and you know what I've been through like three cycles of this like CH change of the cast of characters because that's how many times I've had to make radical changes forward in my life I had a long way to go and then I also understand what you're saying here your past quote insights and intuitions were messed up they they they they turned out not to be reliable you were certain about what you were feeling and then in time it turned out they were trauma driven beliefs your red flag detector was operating and that is so normal and I just love that you actually you are insightful enough to just say oh yeah I thought it was my intuition but it was my trauma talking we all do that it drives people crazy I have a video out there that says don't trust these gut instincts and what I'm talking talking about is when the trauma is talking and like oh yeah you got to do this self-destructive thing and people often comment it on it without watching the video going you should always trust your instincts and I'm like not if you have what I have it takes us time to heal enough to know what the difference is between gut instincts and the trauma talking which which is you know sometimes all we know at first so good for you for being careful on the distinction there so you're asking so much the right questions how do I know I'm doing the right thing how can I trust myself those are the right questions you know when you're fully healing when you're fully engaged in your healing you will learn to do that through trial and error the way everybody else did but at a somewhat younger age than we did right we have a we have a delay in our development and so we end up with a lack of clarity around aspects of ourselves that our peers our age peers already have and we think oh I'm terrible but it's really normal for people who were severely neglected and abused as you were to have a delay there and it's kind of beautifully designed like that somehow the child versions of ourselves know how to sort of pack it away you know keep it safe from everything just close it down and then bring it out later but it's just that when it's coming out later in adulthood it's a little messy and it's a little bit confusing and and it's um causes us to be alone for long periods of time which is hard but part of it it's part of it you've got such a good um ability to describe what you're going through how yeah should you listen to other people's advice or is it just yeah other people's advice is always their advice and what they would do so we take it under advisement we take it with a grain of salt sometimes hearing other people's experience can help us get in touch with our own best wisdom so it's okay to ask for advice I just wouldn't recommend completely surrendering your decisions to somebody else's advice unless you're incapacitated in some way or unless you have reasons that you really trust their judgment and you think that what they're suggesting is the best thing for you in which case it's your wisdom right it's your decision so you got left with a lot of anger resentment confusion and longing to be accepted uhhuh what I think is clearly very Advanced about your healing is that you do your you say I'm doing my best to maintain humility as I'm growing through feelings of embarrassment reflecting on my arrogance and naivity over the years if you're aware that you have arrogance and naivity you are well on your way to Healing I mean really like so many people don't get that far and it's hard you know for those of us who realize we have faults to interact with people who absolutely believe they have no Faults who believe that they actually are better and Superior in judgment you know it's hard it's hard to do that it can make it painful to apologize sometimes when we've been arrogant to somebody who doesn't realize that their arrogance is arrogance but you know what we get better anyway it doesn't matter how far along they are I love that you are in touch with that about yourself that is that's a really good sign that you're you're making good progress so you have few Family Ties they haven't been kind you've been the scapegoat yeah that's a whole thing isn't it and a lot of what you're describing as kind of scapegoat wounds I feel like I'm drifting alone in the world yes I I know that feeling so well but you found us now you you know hopefully the crappy childhood fairy Community feels like a tribe and if you came to that Retreat hopefully you became a member and you've made friends here the people here are like more than anybody in the world who I feel at home with who I feel understood by and I never felt understood until I started putting my experience on YouTube and got some comments back I was just like they you know people would comment back like I can't believe you're describing what it's like to me be me and I reply back to them I can't believe you have had this experience too I literally thought I was the only one so it turns out we have a lot of normal symptoms of growing up with something abnormal going on and when we find each other it really helps to take the shame off and help make it understandable that we got like this like it's not our fault that we develop this this manner this mode and now we're the ones who are charged with finding a way to undo it to to um relax the grip of these trauma driven adaptations so that we can start to have some of the Finer Things in life some of the more subtle things like like love and connection and those are often lost to us when we're in survival mode when we're just being tough and strong and you know we get very like you know black and white thinking about things CU we had to in order to survive but then we start opening our minds and it's messy just like you describe so you said you feel frustrated and full of Rage when the smallest things go wrong and you get a strong impulse to hit and punch things and you take it out on a cardboard shipping box all right I'm just going to get in here with some advice cuz you asked I don't think that's a good idea I think it's normal that you're having emotional disregulation and intense rage and you may have been told that it's all very meaningful and you need to feel it and explore it but I question that I don't think that's always true I think if you have um if you had a lot of childhood trauma and you tend to get emotionally disregulated there's actually no bottom to that anger so whereas another person who didn't have trauma they're like yeah I punched a cardboard box and then I had cathar and I was fine did that happen to you it doesn't sound like it so you know venting rage has never worked for me and there it's got people have looked at it like punching pillows screaming that sort of thing there's no evidence that it helps really of anger actually I'll tell you what does um keep people trapped in Anger weed daily weed use you can call it medical marijuana if you want because of course it can be used in a in a medicinal way um but when it's used daily and I understand for some people like that's how they roll and that's fine but if you're asking me yeah that's um keeping you from being able to process anger and I don't just mean psychologically I just mean like neurologically I noticed this a long time ago uh in my life you know I've I've known lots and lots of people who were daily marijuana users I've also I made the correlation like in my 20s like gosh they're all so dang angry after a while that's where it goes and I'm sure there are exceptions but that's my observation is people who use weed every every day no matter how much they claim it's medicinal for them it turns them angry and stuck that's that's my observation for whatever it's doing for you is it worth it cuz I don't think having rage and having to like scream and punch boxes is is good for marriage I don't think so and this is you know you're asking like what's going on here you even said it's been my crutch since I was 14 years old I know all this at this point I need to deal with my anger and shame but what does that look like are there other practical Tools in addition to the Daily practice that I can use also does every feeling have to be sourced back to resentment and fear I sometimes have trouble placing all my disregulated thoughts and feelings into just these two buckets I really want to find a partner and desire marriage I want someone who can travel with me and will be my family at my age it feels like most of my friends are married and or have children already I feel like I'm being left behind The Unwanted one I look in the mirror and see the start of gray hair eye wrinkles small age spots and I feel like I'm running out of time it seems like all the good men are taken or I'm not attracted to the ones who are I know this isn't true but where are they I've been making healthier more outgoing choices since listening to your videos I read the books took your dating course and I'm attending your retreat this month I've been doing Pilates every weekday morning for the past two years which has really helped my confidence mood and body pain I recently graduated with a master's degree in business bought a home and manag a successful Airbnb I have a secure remote job in hospital Administration though I don't care about it and I don't feel it uses my talents and I'm about to get a big promotion I've joined my Works chapter of Toast Masters began piano lesson and began ballroom dancing on Friday nights I feel like I'm in a good place to start dating again I don't have any social media and I feel foreign to online dating so I'm not certain how to meet healthy available people I'm a 35-year-old woman never married and don't desire children I grew up in a home full of abuse with a domineering ex-military mother who was controlling and emotionally and physically abusive she would say things to me like I'm your God your judge I own you what you you are the most selfish I ever met the dad I grew up with was extremely abusive and used religion to control and abuse my mother I watched him Crush her collarbone with his bare hands and break her ribs by kicking her repeatedly we were trained to lie about it to teachers and police our house had an anxious heavy feel to it filled with the helpless confusion of tiny children living in the shadow of a monster I spent most of my time reading books watching Animal Planet and writing short stories after my mother was Baker acted that means involuntarily locked up she divorced my dad when I was and she puts quotes around Dad I'm not sure why um when I was seven and revealed to me that he wasn't my real father I see my biological father was the same as my older sister's a dangerous and abusive man she said he didn't want me either and it was his loss I felt very unwanted for a long time and I'm still riddled with an internalized sense of rejection and shame my great uncle became the only Father Figure in my life a temperamental older man that constantly criticized me and expressed his disappointment that I wasn't a boy as I worked on his farm I thought I had dealt with my childhood trauma long ago because I strive to make so much more of my life distant from the trailer park I came from I've overcome so much and have done things that others only dream of such as serving in the Peace Corps in Africa and traveling to 36 countries but now I think I've been mistaking achievement and staying busy for healing I tend to only feel good enough when I'm accomplishing something or feel something is perfect I tend to rush through everything especially aspects of self-care I often feel the people don't really like me once they get to know me or as I've done something wrong or inappropriate I Fawn and freeze during moments when I want to remain strong and poised I admire when others assert themselves yet when I have the opportunity I feel a lump in my throat I sweat and my body prickles all over I really want to stop and to find a good man to spend my life with any tough love you can offer would be appreciated thank you matri okay matri what a beautiful letter what a great writer you are um you very vividly portray what it's like to be you in a way there's so many points in here where I can understand completely what you're saying and and then a couple places where I'm like huh I don't get it but uh it's it's really an usually well-written letter and thank you for that it's uh you describe a beautiful sense of disconnection clearly you are a writer I don't know you know so by now that I'm reading this letter after the retreat so I guess you and I have met but I don't know who you are and um which is probably good you know because then I'm very objective about this so all right let me tell you about what I what I heard you say here you distanced yourself from your family and previous friends that you had trauma bonded with in order to Foster healthier relationships now I think when you say trauma bonded with you mean that you guys both had trauma and you related on that and so that was a big basis of your relationship so I just want to point out that trauma bonding actually means something different I'm not I think that I think well if I'm wrong and you did mean what it really means I stand corrected but I just want to say trauma bonding is intermittent reinforcement it's when somebody loves you takes it away loves you takes it away and it it like causes your brain to like hook on addictively to them and you'll do anything to stay with them and it can work not just on people or children you know but on rats it's a psychological torture technique and I don't think that's what you meant um but a lot of people common usage they say trauma bonded um when they mean we're just a bunch of effed up people hanging out and I know what you mean on that front I love your Lobster analogy yes changing is like that sometimes we have this vulnerable period where we don't have a shell and it takes a while to grow a new one and so we have to kind of hide out for a while you got to watch out because it's also like the favorite excuse of people of avoidance of people who just want to go isolate for a long time and they go look I'm healing I'm healing for 25 years you know and um sometimes it goes long past its usefulness as a healing technique and it's just avoidance and too much avoidance and you can't heal so um I throw that in there but I think your Lobster analogy is just beautiful and perfect so it's hard to make friends you feel unprotected without your familiar circle of complaining trauma bonded friendships and breadcrumb relationships cuz at least it was some type of connection yes I totally relate and you know what I've been through like three cycles of this like CH change of the cast of characters because that's how many times I've had to make radical changes forward in my life I had a long way to go and then I also understand what you're saying here your past quote insights and intuitions were messed up they they they they turned out not to be reliable you were certain about what you were feeling and then in time it turned out they were trauma driven beliefs your red flag detector was operating and that is so normal and I just love that you actually you are insightful enough to just say oh yeah I thought it was my intuition but it was my trauma talking we all do that it drives people crazy I have a video out there that says don't trust these gut instincts and what I'm talking talking about is when the trauma is talking and like oh yeah you got to do this self-destructive thing and people often comment it on it without watching the video going you should always trust your instincts and I'm like not if you have what I have it takes us time to heal enough to know what the difference is between gut instincts and the trauma talking which which is you know sometimes all we know at first so good for you for being careful on the distinction there so you're asking so much the right questions how do I know I'm doing the right thing how can I trust myself those are the right questions you know when you're fully healing when you're fully engaged in your healing you will learn to do that through trial and error the way everybody else did but at a somewhat younger age than we did right we have a we have a delay in our development and so we end up with a lack of clarity around aspects of ourselves that our peers our age peers already have and we think oh I'm terrible but it's really normal for people who were severely neglected and abused as you were to have a delay there and it's kind of beautifully designed like that somehow the child versions of ourselves know how to sort of pack it away you know keep it safe from everything just close it down and then bring it out later but it's just that when it's coming out later in adulthood it's a little messy and it's a little bit confusing and and it's um causes us to be alone for long periods of time which is hard but part of it it's part of it you've got such a good um ability to describe what you're going through how yeah should you listen to other people's advice or is it just yeah other people's advice is always their advice and what they would do so we take it under advisement we take it with a grain of salt sometimes hearing other people's experience can help us get in touch with our own best wisdom so it's okay to ask for advice I just wouldn't recommend completely surrendering your decisions to somebody else's advice unless you're incapacitated in some way or unless you have reasons that you really trust their judgment and you think that what they're suggesting is the best thing for you in which case it's your wisdom right it's your decision so you got left with a lot of anger resentment confusion and longing to be accepted uhhuh what I think is clearly very Advanced about your healing is that you do your you say I'm doing my best to maintain humility as I'm growing through feelings of embarrassment reflecting on my arrogance and naivity over the years if you're aware that you have arrogance and naivity you are well on your way to Healing I mean really like so many people don't get that far and it's hard you know for those of us who realize we have faults to interact with people who absolutely believe they have no Faults who believe that they actually are better and Superior in judgment you know it's hard it's hard to do that it can make it painful to apologize sometimes when we've been arrogant to somebody who doesn't realize that their arrogance is arrogance but you know what we get better anyway it doesn't matter how far along they are I love that you are in touch with that about yourself that is that's a really good sign that you're you're making good progress so you have few Family Ties they haven't been kind you've been the scapegoat yeah that's a whole thing isn't it and a lot of what you're describing as kind of scapegoat wounds I feel like I'm drifting alone in the world yes I I know that feeling so well but you found us now you you know hopefully the crappy childhood fairy Community feels like a tribe and if you came to that Retreat hopefully you became a member and you've made friends here the people here are like more than anybody in the world who I feel at home with who I feel understood by and I never felt understood until I started putting my experience on YouTube and got some comments back I was just like they you know people would comment back like I can't believe you're describing what it's like to me be me and I reply back to them I can't believe you have had this experience too I literally thought I was the only one so it turns out we have a lot of normal symptoms of growing up with something abnormal going on and when we find each other it really helps to take the shame off and help make it understandable that we got like this like it's not our fault that we develop this this manner this mode and now we're the ones who are charged with finding a way to undo it to to um relax the grip of these trauma driven adaptations so that we can start to have some of the Finer Things in life some of the more subtle things like like love and connection and those are often lost to us when we're in survival mode when we're just being tough and strong and you know we get very like you know black and white thinking about things CU we had to in order to survive but then we start opening our minds and it's messy just like you describe so you said you feel frustrated and full of Rage when the smallest things go wrong and you get a strong impulse to hit and punch things and you take it out on a cardboard shipping box all right I'm just going to get in here with some advice cuz you asked I don't think that's a good idea I think it's normal that you're having emotional disregulation and intense rage and you may have been told that it's all very meaningful and you need to feel it and explore it but I question that I don't think that's always true I think if you have um if you had a lot of childhood trauma and you tend to get emotionally disregulated there's actually no bottom to that anger so whereas another person who didn't have trauma they're like yeah I punched a cardboard box and then I had cathar and I was fine did that happen to you it doesn't sound like it so you know venting rage has never worked for me and there it's got people have looked at it like punching pillows screaming that sort of thing there's no evidence that it helps really of anger actually I'll tell you what does um keep people trapped in Anger weed daily weed use you can call it medical marijuana if you want because of course it can be used in a in a medicinal way um but when it's used daily and I understand for some people like that's how they roll and that's fine but if you're asking me yeah that's um keeping you from being able to process anger and I don't just mean psychologically I just mean like neurologically I noticed this a long time ago uh in my life you know I've I've known lots and lots of people who were daily marijuana users I've also I made the correlation like in my 20s like gosh they're all so dang angry after a while that's where it goes and I'm sure there are exceptions but that's my observation is people who use weed every every day no matter how much they claim it's medicinal for them it turns them angry and stuck that's that's my observation for whatever it's doing for you is it worth it cuz I don't think having rage and having to like scream and punch boxes is is good for marriage I don't think so and this is you know you're asking like what's going on here you even said it's been my crutch since I was 14 years old I know all this at this point I need to deal with my anger and shame but what does that look like are there other practical Tools in addition to the Daily practice that I can use also does every feeling have to be sourced back to resentment and fear I sometimes have trouble placing all my disregulated thoughts and feelings into just these two buckets I really want to find a partner and desire marriage I want someone who can travel with me and will be my family at my age it feels like most of my friends are married and or have children already I feel like I'm being left behind The Unwanted one I look in the mirror and see the start of gray hair eye wrinkles small age spots and I feel like I'm running out of time it seems like all the good men are taken or I'm not attracted to the ones who are I know this isn't true but where are they I've been making healthier more outgoing choices since listening to your videos I read the books took your dating course and I'm attending your retreat this month I've been doing Pilates every weekday morning for the past two years which has really helped my confidence mood and body pain I recently graduated with a master's degree in business bought a home and manag a successful Airbnb I have a secure remote job in hospital Administration though I don't care about it and I don't feel it uses my talents and I'm about to get a big promotion I've joined my Works chapter of Toast Masters began piano lesson and began ballroom dancing on Friday nights I feel like I'm in a good place to start dating again I don't have any social media and I feel foreign to online dating so I'm not certain how to meet healthy available people I'm a 35-year-old woman never married and don't desire children I grew up in a home full of abuse with a domineering ex-military mother who was controlling and emotionally and physically abusive she would say things to me like I'm your God your judge I own you what you you are the most selfish I ever met the dad I grew up with was extremely abusive and used religion to control and abuse my mother I watched him Crush her collarbone with his bare hands and break her ribs by kicking her repeatedly we were trained to lie about it to teachers and police our house had an anxious heavy feel to it filled with the helpless confusion of tiny children living in the shadow of a monster I spent most of my time reading books watching Animal Planet and writing short stories after my mother was Baker acted that means involuntarily locked up she divorced my dad when I was and she puts quotes around Dad I'm not sure why um when I was seven and revealed to me that he wasn't my real father I see my biological father was the same as my older sister's a dangerous and abusive man she said he didn't want me either and it was his loss I felt very unwanted for a long time and I'm still riddled with an internalized sense of rejection and shame my great uncle became the only Father Figure in my life a temperamental older man that constantly criticized me and expressed his disappointment that I wasn't a boy as I worked on his farm I thought I had dealt with my childhood trauma long ago because I strive to make so much more of my life distant from the trailer park I came from I've overcome so much and have done things that others only dream of such as serving in the Peace Corps in Africa and traveling to 36 countries but now I think I've been mistaking achievement and staying busy for healing I tend to only feel good enough when I'm accomplishing something or feel something is perfect I tend to rush through everything especially aspects of self-care I often feel the people don't really like me once they get to know me or as I've done something wrong or inappropriate I Fawn and freeze during moments when I want to remain strong and poised I admire when others assert themselves yet when I have the opportunity I feel a lump in my throat I sweat and my body prickles all over I really want to stop and to find a good man to spend my life with any tough love you can offer would be appreciated thank you matri okay matri what a beautiful letter what a great writer you are um you very vividly portray what it's like to be you in a way there's so many points in here where I can understand completely what you're saying and and then a couple places where I'm like huh I don't get it but uh it's it's really an usually well-written letter and thank you for that it's uh you describe a beautiful sense of disconnection clearly you are a writer I don't know you know so by now that I'm reading this letter after the retreat so I guess you and I have met but I don't know who you are and um which is probably good you know because then I'm very objective about this so all right let me tell you about what I what I heard you say here you distanced yourself from your family and previous friends that you had trauma bonded with in order to Foster healthier relationships now I think when you say trauma bonded with you mean that you guys both had trauma and you related on that and so that was a big basis of your relationship so I just want to point out that trauma bonding actually means something different I'm not I think that I think well if I'm wrong and you did mean what it really means I stand corrected but I just want to say trauma bonding is intermittent reinforcement it's when somebody loves you takes it away loves you takes it away and it it like causes your brain to like hook on addictively to them and you'll do anything to stay with them and it can work not just on people or children you know but on rats it's a psychological torture technique and I don't think that's what you meant um but a lot of people common usage they say trauma bonded um when they mean we're just a bunch of effed up people hanging out and I know what you mean on that front I love your Lobster analogy yes changing is like that sometimes we have this vulnerable period where we don't have a shell and it takes a while to grow a new one and so we have to kind of hide out for a while you got to watch out because it's also like the favorite excuse of people of avoidance of people who just want to go isolate for a long time and they go look I'm healing I'm healing for 25 years you know and um sometimes it goes long past its usefulness as a healing technique and it's just avoidance and too much avoidance and you can't heal so um I throw that in there but I think your Lobster analogy is just beautiful and perfect so it's hard to make friends you feel unprotected without your familiar circle of complaining trauma bonded friendships and breadcrumb relationships cuz at least it was some type of connection yes I totally relate and you know what I've been through like three cycles of this like CH change of the cast of characters because that's how many times I've had to make radical changes forward in my life I had a long way to go and then I also understand what you're saying here your past quote insights and intuitions were messed up they they they they turned out not to be reliable you were certain about what you were feeling and then in time it turned out they were trauma driven beliefs your red flag detector was operating and that is so normal and I just love that you actually you are insightful enough to just say oh yeah I thought it was my intuition but it was my trauma talking we all do that it drives people crazy I have a video out there that says don't trust these gut instincts and what I'm talking talking about is when the trauma is talking and like oh yeah you got to do this self-destructive thing and people often comment it on it without watching the video going you should always trust your instincts and I'm like not if you have what I have it takes us time to heal enough to know what the difference is between gut instincts and the trauma talking which which is you know sometimes all we know at first so good for you for being careful on the distinction there so you're asking so much the right questions how do I know I'm doing the right thing how can I trust myself those are the right questions you know when you're fully healing when you're fully engaged in your healing you will learn to do that through trial and error the way everybody else did but at a somewhat younger age than we did right we have a we have a delay in our development and so we end up with a lack of clarity around aspects of ourselves that our peers our age peers already have and we think oh I'm terrible but it's really normal for people who were severely neglected and abused as you were to have a delay there and it's kind of beautifully designed like that somehow the child versions of ourselves know how to sort of pack it away you know keep it safe from everything just close it down and then bring it out later but it's just that when it's coming out later in adulthood it's a little messy and it's a little bit confusing and and it's um causes us to be alone for long periods of time which is hard but part of it it's part of it you've got such a good um ability to describe what you're going through how yeah should you listen to other people's advice or is it just yeah other people's advice is always their advice and what they would do so we take it under advisement we take it with a grain of salt sometimes hearing other people's experience can help us get in touch with our own best wisdom so it's okay to ask for advice I just wouldn't recommend completely surrendering your decisions to somebody else's advice unless you're incapacitated in some way or unless you have reasons that you really trust their judgment and you think that what they're suggesting is the best thing for you in which case it's your wisdom right it's your decision so you got left with a lot of anger resentment confusion and longing to be accepted uhhuh what I think is clearly very Advanced about your healing is that you do your you say I'm doing my best to maintain humility as I'm growing through feelings of embarrassment reflecting on my arrogance and naivity over the years if you're aware that you have arrogance and naivity you are well on your way to Healing I mean really like so many people don't get that far and it's hard you know for those of us who realize we have faults to interact with people who absolutely believe they have no Faults who believe that they actually are better and Superior in judgment you know it's hard it's hard to do that it can make it painful to apologize sometimes when we've been arrogant to somebody who doesn't realize that their arrogance is arrogance but you know what we get better anyway it doesn't matter how far along they are I love that you are in touch with that about yourself that is that's a really good sign that you're you're making good progress so you have few Family Ties they haven't been kind you've been the scapegoat yeah that's a whole thing isn't it and a lot of what you're describing as kind of scapegoat wounds I feel like I'm drifting alone in the world yes I I know that feeling so well but you found us now you you know hopefully the crappy childhood fairy Community feels like a tribe and if you came to that Retreat hopefully you became a member and you've made friends here the people here are like more than anybody in the world who I feel at home with who I feel understood by and I never felt understood until I started putting my experience on YouTube and got some comments back I was just like they you know people would comment back like I can't believe you're describing what it's like to me be me and I reply back to them I can't believe you have had this experience too I literally thought I was the only one so it turns out we have a lot of normal symptoms of growing up with something abnormal going on and when we find each other it really helps to take the shame off and help make it understandable that we got like this like it's not our fault that we develop this this manner this mode and now we're the ones who are charged with finding a way to undo it to to um relax the grip of these trauma driven adaptations so that we can start to have some of the Finer Things in life some of the more subtle things like like love and connection and those are often lost to us when we're in survival mode when we're just being tough and strong and you know we get very like you know black and white thinking about things CU we had to in order to survive but then we start opening our minds and it's messy just like you describe so you said you feel frustrated and full of Rage when the smallest things go wrong and you get a strong impulse to hit and punch things and you take it out on a cardboard shipping box all right I'm just going to get in here with some advice cuz you asked I don't think that's a good idea I think it's normal that you're having emotional disregulation and intense rage and you may have been told that it's all very meaningful and you need to feel it and explore it but I question that I don't think that's always true I think if you have um if you had a lot of childhood trauma and you tend to get emotionally disregulated there's actually no bottom to that anger so whereas another person who didn't have trauma they're like yeah I punched a cardboard box and then I had cathar and I was fine did that happen to you it doesn't sound like it so you know venting rage has never worked for me and there it's got people have looked at it like punching pillows screaming that sort of thing there's no evidence that it helps really of anger actually I'll tell you what does um keep people trapped in Anger weed daily weed use you can call it medical marijuana if you want because of course it can be used in a in a medicinal way um but when it's used daily and I understand for some people like that's how they roll and that's fine but if you're asking me yeah that's um keeping you from being able to process anger and I don't just mean psychologically I just mean like neurologically I noticed this a long time ago uh in my life you know I've I've known lots and lots of people who were daily marijuana users I've also I made the correlation like in my 20s like gosh they're all so dang angry after a while that's where it goes and I'm sure there are exceptions but that's my observation is people who use weed every every day no matter how much they claim it's medicinal for them it turns them angry and stuck that's that's my observation for whatever it's doing for you is it worth it cuz I don't think having rage and having to like scream and punch boxes is is good for marriage I don't think so and this is you know you're asking like what's going on here you even said it's been my crutch since I was 14 years old I know all this at this point I need to deal with my anger and shame but what does that look like are there other practical Tools in addition to the Daily practice that I can use also does every feeling have to be sourced back to resentment and fear I sometimes have trouble placing all my disregulated thoughts and feelings into just these two buckets I really want to find a partner and desire marriage I want someone who can travel with me and will be my family at my age it feels like most of my friends are married and or have children already I feel like I'm being left behind The Unwanted one I look in the mirror and see the start of gray hair eye wrinkles small age spots and I feel like I'm running out of time it seems like all the good men are taken or I'm not attracted to the ones who are I know this isn't true but where are they I've been making healthier more outgoing choices since listening to your videos I read the books took your dating course and I'm attending your retreat this month I've been doing Pilates every weekday morning for the past two years which has really helped my confidence mood and body pain I recently graduated with a master's degree in business bought a home and manag a successful Airbnb I have a secure remote job in hospital Administration though I don't care about it and I don't feel it uses my talents and I'm about to get a big promotion I've joined my Works chapter of Toast Masters began piano lesson and began ballroom dancing on Friday nights I feel like I'm in a good place to start dating again I don't have any social media and I feel foreign to online dating so I'm not certain how to meet healthy available people I'm a 35-year-old woman never married and don't desire children I grew up in a home full of abuse with a domineering ex-military mother who was controlling and emotionally and physically abusive she would say things to me like I'm your God your judge I own you what you you are the most selfish I ever met the dad I grew up with was extremely abusive and used religion to control and abuse my mother I watched him Crush her collarbone with his bare hands and break her ribs by kicking her repeatedly we were trained to lie about it to teachers and police our house had an anxious heavy feel to it filled with the helpless confusion of tiny children living in the shadow of a monster I spent most of my time reading books watching Animal Planet and writing short stories after my mother was Baker acted that means involuntarily locked up she divorced my dad when I was and she puts quotes around Dad I'm not sure why um when I was seven and revealed to me that he wasn't my real father I see my biological father was the same as my older sister's a dangerous and abusive man she said he didn't want me either and it was his loss I felt very unwanted for a long time and I'm still riddled with an internalized sense of rejection and shame my great uncle became the only Father Figure in my life a temperamental older man that constantly criticized me and expressed his disappointment that I wasn't a boy as I worked on his farm I thought I had dealt with my childhood trauma long ago because I strive to make so much more of my life distant from the trailer park I came from I've overcome so much and have done things that others only dream of such as serving in the Peace Corps in Africa and traveling to 36 countries but now I think I've been mistaking achievement and staying busy for healing I tend to only feel good enough when I'm accomplishing something or feel something is perfect I tend to rush through everything especially aspects of self-care I often feel the people don't really like me once they get to know me or as I've done something wrong or inappropriate I Fawn and freeze during moments when I want to remain strong and poised I admire when others assert themselves yet when I have the opportunity I feel a lump in my throat I sweat and my body prickles all over I really want to stop and to find a good man to spend my life with any tough love you can offer would be appreciated thank you matri okay matri what a beautiful letter what a great writer you are um you very vividly portray what it's like to be you in a way there's so many points in here where I can understand completely what you're saying and and then a couple places where I'm like huh I don't get it but uh it's it's really an usually well-written letter and thank you for that it's uh you describe a beautiful sense of disconnection clearly you are a writer I don't know you know so by now that I'm reading this letter after the retreat so I guess you and I have met but I don't know who you are and um which is probably good you know because then I'm very objective about this so all right let me tell you about what I what I heard you say here you distanced yourself from your family and previous friends that you had trauma bonded with in order to Foster healthier relationships now I think when you say trauma bonded with you mean that you guys both had trauma and you related on that and so that was a big basis of your relationship so I just want to point out that trauma bonding actually means something different I'm not I think that I think well if I'm wrong and you did mean what it really means I stand corrected but I just want to say trauma bonding is intermittent reinforcement it's when somebody loves you takes it away loves you takes it away and it it like causes your brain to like hook on addictively to them and you'll do anything to stay with them and it can work not just on people or children you know but on rats it's a psychological torture technique and I don't think that's what you meant um but a lot of people common usage they say trauma bonded um when they mean we're just a bunch of effed up people hanging out and I know what you mean on that front I love your Lobster analogy yes changing is like that sometimes we have this vulnerable period where we don't have a shell and it takes a while to grow a new one and so we have to kind of hide out for a while you got to watch out because it's also like the favorite excuse of people of avoidance of people who just want to go isolate for a long time and they go look I'm healing I'm healing for 25 years you know and um sometimes it goes long past its usefulness as a healing technique and it's just avoidance and too much avoidance and you can't heal so um I throw that in there but I think your Lobster analogy is just beautiful and perfect so it's hard to make friends you feel unprotected without your familiar circle of complaining trauma bonded friendships and breadcrumb relationships cuz at least it was some type of connection yes I totally relate and you know what I've been through like three cycles of this like CH change of the cast of characters because that's how many times I've had to make radical changes forward in my life I had a long way to go and then I also understand what you're saying here your past quote insights and intuitions were messed up they they they they turned out not to be reliable you were certain about what you were feeling and then in time it turned out they were trauma driven beliefs your red flag detector was operating and that is so normal and I just love that you actually you are insightful enough to just say oh yeah I thought it was my intuition but it was my trauma talking we all do that it drives people crazy I have a video out there that says don't trust these gut instincts and what I'm talking talking about is when the trauma is talking and like oh yeah you got to do this self-destructive thing and people often comment it on it without watching the video going you should always trust your instincts and I'm like not if you have what I have it takes us time to heal enough to know what the difference is between gut instincts and the trauma talking which which is you know sometimes all we know at first so good for you for being careful on the distinction there so you're asking so much the right questions how do I know I'm doing the right thing how can I trust myself those are the right questions you know when you're fully healing when you're fully engaged in your healing you will learn to do that through trial and error the way everybody else did but at a somewhat younger age than we did right we have a we have a delay in our development and so we end up with a lack of clarity around aspects of ourselves that our peers our age peers already have and we think oh I'm terrible but it's really normal for people who were severely neglected and abused as you were to have a delay there and it's kind of beautifully designed like that somehow the child versions of ourselves know how to sort of pack it away you know keep it safe from everything just close it down and then bring it out later but it's just that when it's coming out later in adulthood it's a little messy and it's a little bit confusing and and it's um causes us to be alone for long periods of time which is hard but part of it it's part of it you've got such a good um ability to describe what you're going through how yeah should you listen to other people's advice or is it just yeah other people's advice is always their advice and what they would do so we take it under advisement we take it with a grain of salt sometimes hearing other people's experience can help us get in touch with our own best wisdom so it's okay to ask for advice I just wouldn't recommend completely surrendering your decisions to somebody else's advice unless you're incapacitated in some way or unless you have reasons that you really trust their judgment and you think that what they're suggesting is the best thing for you in which case it's your wisdom right it's your decision so you got left with a lot of anger resentment confusion and longing to be accepted uhhuh what I think is clearly very Advanced about your healing is that you do your you say I'm doing my best to maintain humility as I'm growing through feelings of embarrassment reflecting on my arrogance and naivity over the years if you're aware that you have arrogance and naivity you are well on your way to Healing I mean really like so many people don't get that far and it's hard you know for those of us who realize we have faults to interact with people who absolutely believe they have no Faults who believe that they actually are better and Superior in judgment you know it's hard it's hard to do that it can make it painful to apologize sometimes when we've been arrogant to somebody who doesn't realize that their arrogance is arrogance but you know what we get better anyway it doesn't matter how far along they are I love that you are in touch with that about yourself that is that's a really good sign that you're you're making good progress so you have few Family Ties they haven't been kind you've been the scapegoat yeah that's a whole thing isn't it and a lot of what you're describing as kind of scapegoat wounds I feel like I'm drifting alone in the world yes I I know that feeling so well but you found us now you you know hopefully the crappy childhood fairy Community feels like a tribe and if you came to that Retreat hopefully you became a member and you've made friends here the people here are like more than anybody in the world who I feel at home with who I feel understood by and I never felt understood until I started putting my experience on YouTube and got some comments back I was just like they you know people would comment back like I can't believe you're describing what it's like to me be me and I reply back to them I can't believe you have had this experience too I literally thought I was the only one so it turns out we have a lot of normal symptoms of growing up with something abnormal going on and when we find each other it really helps to take the shame off and help make it understandable that we got like this like it's not our fault that we develop this this manner this mode and now we're the ones who are charged with finding a way to undo it to to um relax the grip of these trauma driven adaptations so that we can start to have some of the Finer Things in life some of the more subtle things like like love and connection and those are often lost to us when we're in survival mode when we're just being tough and strong and you know we get very like you know black and white thinking about things CU we had to in order to survive but then we start opening our minds and it's messy just like you describe so you said you feel frustrated and full of Rage when the smallest things go wrong and you get a strong impulse to hit and punch things and you take it out on a cardboard shipping box all right I'm just going to get in here with some advice cuz you asked I don't think that's a good idea I think it's normal that you're having emotional disregulation and intense rage and you may have been told that it's all very meaningful and you need to feel it and explore it but I question that I don't think that's always true I think if you have um if you had a lot of childhood trauma and you tend to get emotionally disregulated there's actually no bottom to that anger so whereas another person who didn't have trauma they're like yeah I punched a cardboard box and then I had cathar and I was fine did that happen to you it doesn't sound like it so you know venting rage has never worked for me and there it's got people have looked at it like punching pillows screaming that sort of thing there's no evidence that it helps really of anger actually I'll tell you what does um keep people trapped in Anger weed daily weed use you can call it medical marijuana if you want because of course it can be used in a in a medicinal way um but when it's used daily and I understand for some people like that's how they roll and that's fine but if you're asking me yeah that's um keeping you from being able to process anger and I don't just mean psychologically I just mean like neurologically I noticed this a long time ago uh in my life you know I've I've known lots and lots of people who were daily marijuana users I've also I made the correlation like in my 20s like gosh they're all so dang angry after a while that's where it goes and I'm sure there are exceptions but that's my observation is people who use weed every every day no matter how much they claim it's medicinal for them it turns them angry and stuck that's that's my observation for whatever it's doing for you is it worth it cuz I don't think having rage and having to like scream and punch boxes is is good for marriage I don't think so and this is you know you're asking like what's going on here you even said it's been my crutch since I was 14 years old I know all this at this point I need to deal with my anger and shame but what does that look like are there other practical Tools in addition to the Daily practice that I can use also does every feeling have to be sourced back to resentment and fear I sometimes have trouble placing all my disregulated thoughts and feelings into just these two buckets I really want to find a partner and desire marriage I want someone who can travel with me and will be my family at my age it feels like most of my friends are married and or have children already I feel like I'm being left behind The Unwanted one I look in the mirror and see the start of gray hair eye wrinkles small age spots and I feel like I'm running out of time it seems like all the good men are taken or I'm not attracted to the ones who are I know this isn't true but where are they I've been making healthier more outgoing choices since listening to your videos I read the books took your dating course and I'm attending your retreat this month I've been doing Pilates every weekday morning for the past two years which has really helped my confidence mood and body pain I recently graduated with a master's degree in business bought a home and manag a successful Airbnb I have a secure remote job in hospital Administration though I don't care about it and I don't feel it uses my talents and I'm about to get a big promotion I've joined my Works chapter of Toast Masters began piano lesson and began ballroom dancing on Friday nights I feel like I'm in a good place to start dating again I don't have any social media and I feel foreign to online dating so I'm not certain how to meet healthy available people I'm a 35-year-old woman never married and don't desire children I grew up in a home full of abuse with a domineering ex-military mother who was controlling and emotionally and physically abusive she would say things to me like I'm your God your judge I own you what you you are the most selfish I ever met the dad I grew up with was extremely abusive and used religion to control and abuse my mother I watched him Crush her collarbone with his bare hands and break her ribs by kicking her repeatedly we were trained to lie about it to teachers and police our house had an anxious heavy feel to it filled with the helpless confusion of tiny children living in the shadow of a monster I spent most of my time reading books watching Animal Planet and writing short stories after my mother was Baker acted that means involuntarily locked up she divorced my dad when I was and she puts quotes around Dad I'm not sure why um when I was seven and revealed to me that he wasn't my real father I see my biological father was the same as my older sister's a dangerous and abusive man she said he didn't want me either and it was his loss I felt very unwanted for a long time and I'm still riddled with an internalized sense of rejection and shame my great uncle became the only Father Figure in my life a temperamental older man that constantly criticized me and expressed his disappointment that I wasn't a boy as I worked on his farm I thought I had dealt with my childhood trauma long ago because I strive to make so much more of my life distant from the trailer park I came from I've overcome so much and have done things that others only dream of such as serving in the Peace Corps in Africa and traveling to 36 countries but now I think I've been mistaking achievement and staying busy for healing I tend to only feel good enough when I'm accomplishing something or feel something is perfect I tend to rush through everything especially aspects of self-care I often feel the people don't really like me once they get to know me or as I've done something wrong or inappropriate I Fawn and freeze during moments when I want to remain strong and poised I admire when others assert themselves yet when I have the opportunity I feel a lump in my throat I sweat and my body prickles all over I really want to stop and to find a good man to spend my life with any tough love you can offer would be appreciated thank you matri okay matri what a beautiful letter what a great writer you are um you very vividly portray what it's like to be you in a way there's so many points in here where I can understand completely what you're saying and and then a couple places where I'm like huh I don't get it but uh it's it's really an usually well-written letter and thank you for that it's uh you describe a beautiful sense of disconnection clearly you are a writer I don't know you know so by now that I'm reading this letter after the retreat so I guess you and I have met but I don't know who you are and um which is probably good you know because then I'm very objective about this so all right let me tell you about what I what I heard you say here you distanced yourself from your family and previous friends that you had trauma bonded with in order to Foster healthier relationships now I think when you say trauma bonded with you mean that you guys both had trauma and you related on that and so that was a big basis of your relationship so I just want to point out that trauma bonding actually means something different I'm not I think that I think well if I'm wrong and you did mean what it really means I stand corrected but I just want to say trauma bonding is intermittent reinforcement it's when somebody loves you takes it away loves you takes it away and it it like causes your brain to like hook on addictively to them and you'll do anything to stay with them and it can work not just on people or children you know but on rats it's a psychological torture technique and I don't think that's what you meant um but a lot of people common usage they say trauma bonded um when they mean we're just a bunch of effed up people hanging out and I know what you mean on that front I love your Lobster analogy yes changing is like that sometimes we have this vulnerable period where we don't have a shell and it takes a while to grow a new one and so we have to kind of hide out for a while you got to watch out because it's also like the favorite excuse of people of avoidance of people who just want to go isolate for a long time and they go look I'm healing I'm healing for 25 years you know and um sometimes it goes long past its usefulness as a healing technique and it's just avoidance and too much avoidance and you can't heal so um I throw that in there but I think your Lobster analogy is just beautiful and perfect so it's hard to make friends you feel unprotected without your familiar circle of complaining trauma bonded friendships and breadcrumb relationships cuz at least it was some type of connection yes I totally relate and you know what I've been through like three cycles of this like CH change of the cast of characters because that's how many times I've had to make radical changes forward in my life I had a long way to go and then I also understand what you're saying here your past quote insights and intuitions were messed up they they they they turned out not to be reliable you were certain about what you were feeling and then in time it turned out they were trauma driven beliefs your red flag detector was operating and that is so normal and I just love that you actually you are insightful enough to just say oh yeah I thought it was my intuition but it was my trauma talking we all do that it drives people crazy I have a video out there that says don't trust these gut instincts and what I'm talking talking about is when the trauma is talking and like oh yeah you got to do this self-destructive thing and people often comment it on it without watching the video going you should always trust your instincts and I'm like not if you have what I have it takes us time to heal enough to know what the difference is between gut instincts and the trauma talking which which is you know sometimes all we know at first so good for you for being careful on the distinction there so you're asking so much the right questions how do I know I'm doing the right thing how can I trust myself those are the right questions you know when you're fully healing when you're fully engaged in your healing you will learn to do that through trial and error the way everybody else did but at a somewhat younger age than we did right we have a we have a delay in our development and so we end up with a lack of clarity around aspects of ourselves that our peers our age peers already have and we think oh I'm terrible but it's really normal for people who were severely neglected and abused as you were to have a delay there and it's kind of beautifully designed like that somehow the child versions of ourselves know how to sort of pack it away you know keep it safe from everything just close it down and then bring it out later but it's just that when it's coming out later in adulthood it's a little messy and it's a little bit confusing and and it's um causes us to be alone for long periods of time which is hard but part of it it's part of it you've got such a good um ability to describe what you're going through how yeah should you listen to other people's advice or is it just yeah other people's advice is always their advice and what they would do so we take it under advisement we take it with a grain of salt sometimes hearing other people's experience can help us get in touch with our own best wisdom so it's okay to ask for advice I just wouldn't recommend completely surrendering your decisions to somebody else's advice unless you're incapacitated in some way or unless you have reasons that you really trust their judgment and you think that what they're suggesting is the best thing for you in which case it's your wisdom right it's your decision so you got left with a lot of anger resentment confusion and longing to be accepted uhhuh what I think is clearly very Advanced about your healing is that you do your you say I'm doing my best to maintain humility as I'm growing through feelings of embarrassment reflecting on my arrogance and naivity over the years if you're aware that you have arrogance and naivity you are well on your way to Healing I mean really like so many people don't get that far and it's hard you know for those of us who realize we have faults to interact with people who absolutely believe they have no Faults who believe that they actually are better and Superior in judgment you know it's hard it's hard to do that it can make it painful to apologize sometimes when we've been arrogant to somebody who doesn't realize that their arrogance is arrogance but you know what we get better anyway it doesn't matter how far along they are I love that you are in touch with that about yourself that is that's a really good sign that you're you're making good progress so you have few Family Ties they haven't been kind you've been the scapegoat yeah that's a whole thing isn't it and a lot of what you're describing as kind of scapegoat wounds I feel like I'm drifting alone in the world yes I I know that feeling so well but you found us now you you know hopefully the crappy childhood fairy Community feels like a tribe and if you came to that Retreat hopefully you became a member and you've made friends here the people here are like more than anybody in the world who I feel at home with who I feel understood by and I never felt understood until I started putting my experience on YouTube and got some comments back I was just like they you know people would comment back like I can't believe you're describing what it's like to me be me and I reply back to them I can't believe you have had this experience too I literally thought I was the only one so it turns out we have a lot of normal symptoms of growing up with something abnormal going on and when we find each other it really helps to take the shame off and help make it understandable that we got like this like it's not our fault that we develop this this manner this mode and now we're the ones who are charged with finding a way to undo it to to um relax the grip of these trauma driven adaptations so that we can start to have some of the Finer Things in life some of the more subtle things like like love and connection and those are often lost to us when we're in survival mode when we're just being tough and strong and you know we get very like you know black and white thinking about things CU we had to in order to survive but then we start opening our minds and it's messy just like you describe so you said you feel frustrated and full of Rage when the smallest things go wrong and you get a strong impulse to hit and punch things and you take it out on a cardboard shipping box all right I'm just going to get in here with some advice cuz you asked I don't think that's a good idea I think it's normal that you're having emotional disregulation and intense rage and you may have been told that it's all very meaningful and you need to feel it and explore it but I question that I don't think that's always true I think if you have um if you had a lot of childhood trauma and you tend to get emotionally disregulated there's actually no bottom to that anger so whereas another person who didn't have trauma they're like yeah I punched a cardboard box and then I had cathar and I was fine did that happen to you it doesn't sound like it so you know venting rage has never worked for me and there it's got people have looked at it like punching pillows screaming that sort of thing there's no evidence that it helps really of anger actually I'll tell you what does um keep people trapped in Anger weed daily weed use you can call it medical marijuana if you want because of course it can be used in a in a medicinal way um but when it's used daily and I understand for some people like that's how they roll and that's fine but if you're asking me yeah that's um keeping you from being able to process anger and I don't just mean psychologically I just mean like neurologically I noticed this a long time ago uh in my life you know I've I've known lots and lots of people who were daily marijuana users I've also I made the correlation like in my 20s like gosh they're all so dang angry after a while that's where it goes and I'm sure there are exceptions but that's my observation is people who use weed every every day no matter how much they claim it's medicinal for them it turns them angry and stuck that's that's my observation for whatever it's doing for you is it worth it cuz I don't think having rage and having to like scream and punch boxes is is good for marriage I don't think so and this is you know you're asking like what's going on here you even said it's been my crutch since I was 14 years old I know all this at this point I need to deal with my anger and shame but what does that look like are there other practical Tools in addition to the Daily practice that I can use also does every feeling have to be sourced back to resentment and fear I sometimes have trouble placing all my disregulated thoughts and feelings into just these two buckets I really want to find a partner and desire marriage I want someone who can travel with me and will be my family at my age it feels like most of my friends are married and or have children already I feel like I'm being left behind The Unwanted one I look in the mirror and see the start of gray hair eye wrinkles small age spots and I feel like I'm running out of time it seems like all the good men are taken or I'm not attracted to the ones who are I know this isn't true but where are they I've been making healthier more outgoing choices since listening to your videos I read the books took your dating course and I'm attending your retreat this month I've been doing Pilates every weekday morning for the past two years which has really helped my confidence mood and body pain I recently graduated with a master's degree in business bought a home and manag a successful Airbnb I have a secure remote job in hospital Administration though I don't care about it and I don't feel it uses my talents and I'm about to get a big promotion I've joined my Works chapter of Toast Masters began piano lesson and began ballroom dancing on Friday nights I feel like I'm in a good place to start dating again I don't have any social media and I feel foreign to online dating so I'm not certain how to meet healthy available people I'm a 35-year-old woman never married and don't desire children I grew up in a home full of abuse with a domineering ex-military mother who was controlling and emotionally and physically abusive she would say things to me like I'm your God your judge I own you what you you are the most selfish I ever met the dad I grew up with was extremely abusive and used religion to control and abuse my mother I watched him Crush her collarbone with his bare hands and break her ribs by kicking her repeatedly we were trained to lie about it to teachers and police our house had an anxious heavy feel to it filled with the helpless confusion of tiny children living in the shadow of a monster I spent most of my time reading books watching Animal Planet and writing short stories after my mother was Baker acted that means involuntarily locked up she divorced my dad when I was and she puts quotes around Dad I'm not sure why um when I was seven and revealed to me that he wasn't my real father I see my biological father was the same as my older sister's a dangerous and abusive man she said he didn't want me either and it was his loss I felt very unwanted for a long time and I'm still riddled with an internalized sense of rejection and shame my great uncle became the only Father Figure in my life a temperamental older man that constantly criticized me and expressed his disappointment that I wasn't a boy as I worked on his farm I thought I had dealt with my childhood trauma long ago because I strive to make so much more of my life distant from the trailer park I came from I've overcome so much and have done things that others only dream of such as serving in the Peace Corps in Africa and traveling to 36 countries but now I think I've been mistaking achievement and staying busy for healing I tend to only feel good enough when I'm accomplishing something or feel something is perfect I tend to rush through everything especially aspects of self-care I often feel the people don't really like me once they get to know me or as I've done something wrong or inappropriate I Fawn and freeze during moments when I want to remain strong and poised I admire when others assert themselves yet when I have the opportunity I feel a lump in my throat I sweat and my body prickles all over I really want to stop and to find a good man to spend my life with any tough love you can offer would be appreciated thank you matri okay matri what a beautiful letter what a great writer you are um you very vividly portray what it's like to be you in a way there's so many points in here where I can understand completely what you're saying and and then a couple places where I'm like huh I don't get it but uh it's it's really an usually well-written letter and thank you for that it's uh you describe a beautiful sense of disconnection clearly you are a writer I don't know you know so by now that I'm reading this letter after the retreat so I guess you and I have met but I don't know who you are and um which is probably good you know because then I'm very objective about this so all right let me tell you about what I what I heard you say here you distanced yourself from your family and previous friends that you had trauma bonded with in order to Foster healthier relationships now I think when you say trauma bonded with you mean that you guys both had trauma and you related on that and so that was a big basis of your relationship so I just want to point out that trauma bonding actually means something different I'm not I think that I think well if I'm wrong and you did mean what it really means I stand corrected but I just want to say trauma bonding is intermittent reinforcement it's when somebody loves you takes it away loves you takes it away and it it like causes your brain to like hook on addictively to them and you'll do anything to stay with them and it can work not just on people or children you know but on rats it's a psychological torture technique and I don't think that's what you meant um but a lot of people common usage they say trauma bonded um when they mean we're just a bunch of effed up people hanging out and I know what you mean on that front I love your Lobster analogy yes changing is like that sometimes we have this vulnerable period where we don't have a shell and it takes a while to grow a new one and so we have to kind of hide out for a while you got to watch out because it's also like the favorite excuse of people of avoidance of people who just want to go isolate for a long time and they go look I'm healing I'm healing for 25 years you know and um sometimes it goes long past its usefulness as a healing technique and it's just avoidance and too much avoidance and you can't heal so um I throw that in there but I think your Lobster analogy is just beautiful and perfect so it's hard to make friends you feel unprotected without your familiar circle of complaining trauma bonded friendships and breadcrumb relationships cuz at least it was some type of connection yes I totally relate and you know what I've been through like three cycles of this like CH change of the cast of characters because that's how many times I've had to make radical changes forward in my life I had a long way to go and then I also understand what you're saying here your past quote insights and intuitions were messed up they they they they turned out not to be reliable you were certain about what you were feeling and then in time it turned out they were trauma driven beliefs your red flag detector was operating and that is so normal and I just love that you actually you are insightful enough to just say oh yeah I thought it was my intuition but it was my trauma talking we all do that it drives people crazy I have a video out there that says don't trust these gut instincts and what I'm talking talking about is when the trauma is talking and like oh yeah you got to do this self-destructive thing and people often comment it on it without watching the video going you should always trust your instincts and I'm like not if you have what I have it takes us time to heal enough to know what the difference is between gut instincts and the trauma talking which which is you know sometimes all we know at first so good for you for being careful on the distinction there so you're asking so much the right questions how do I know I'm doing the right thing how can I trust myself those are the right questions you know when you're fully healing when you're fully engaged in your healing you will learn to do that through trial and error the way everybody else did but at a somewhat younger age than we did right we have a we have a delay in our development and so we end up with a lack of clarity around aspects of ourselves that our peers our age peers already have and we think oh I'm terrible but it's really normal for people who were severely neglected and abused as you were to have a delay there and it's kind of beautifully designed like that somehow the child versions of ourselves know how to sort of pack it away you know keep it safe from everything just close it down and then bring it out later but it's just that when it's coming out later in adulthood it's a little messy and it's a little bit confusing and and it's um causes us to be alone for long periods of time which is hard but part of it it's part of it you've got such a good um ability to describe what you're going through how yeah should you listen to other people's advice or is it just yeah other people's advice is always their advice and what they would do so we take it under advisement we take it with a grain of salt sometimes hearing other people's experience can help us get in touch with our own best wisdom so it's okay to ask for advice I just wouldn't recommend completely surrendering your decisions to somebody else's advice unless you're incapacitated in some way or unless you have reasons that you really trust their judgment and you think that what they're suggesting is the best thing for you in which case it's your wisdom right it's your decision so you got left with a lot of anger resentment confusion and longing to be accepted uhhuh what I think is clearly very Advanced about your healing is that you do your you say I'm doing my best to maintain humility as I'm growing through feelings of embarrassment reflecting on my arrogance and naivity over the years if you're aware that you have arrogance and naivity you are well on your way to Healing I mean really like so many people don't get that far and it's hard you know for those of us who realize we have faults to interact with people who absolutely believe they have no Faults who believe that they actually are better and Superior in judgment you know it's hard it's hard to do that it can make it painful to apologize sometimes when we've been arrogant to somebody who doesn't realize that their arrogance is arrogance but you know what we get better anyway it doesn't matter how far along they are I love that you are in touch with that about yourself that is that's a really good sign that you're you're making good progress so you have few Family Ties they haven't been kind you've been the scapegoat yeah that's a whole thing isn't it and a lot of what you're describing as kind of scapegoat wounds I feel like I'm drifting alone in the world yes I I know that feeling so well but you found us now you you know hopefully the crappy childhood fairy Community feels like a tribe and if you came to that Retreat hopefully you became a member and you've made friends here the people here are like more than anybody in the world who I feel at home with who I feel understood by and I never felt understood until I started putting my experience on YouTube and got some comments back I was just like they you know people would comment back like I can't believe you're describing what it's like to me be me and I reply back to them I can't believe you have had this experience too I literally thought I was the only one so it turns out we have a lot of normal symptoms of growing up with something abnormal going on and when we find each other it really helps to take the shame off and help make it understandable that we got like this like it's not our fault that we develop this this manner this mode and now we're the ones who are charged with finding a way to undo it to to um relax the grip of these trauma driven adaptations so that we can start to have some of the Finer Things in life some of the more subtle things like like love and connection and those are often lost to us when we're in survival mode when we're just being tough and strong and you know we get very like you know black and white thinking about things CU we had to in order to survive but then we start opening our minds and it's messy just like you describe so you said you feel frustrated and full of Rage when the smallest things go wrong and you get a strong impulse to hit and punch things and you take it out on a cardboard shipping box all right I'm just going to get in here with some advice cuz you asked I don't think that's a good idea I think it's normal that you're having emotional disregulation and intense rage and you may have been told that it's all very meaningful and you need to feel it and explore it but I question that I don't think that's always true I think if you have um if you had a lot of childhood trauma and you tend to get emotionally disregulated there's actually no bottom to that anger so whereas another person who didn't have trauma they're like yeah I punched a cardboard box and then I had cathar and I was fine did that happen to you it doesn't sound like it so you know venting rage has never worked for me and there it's got people have looked at it like punching pillows screaming that sort of thing there's no evidence that it helps really of anger actually I'll tell you what does um keep people trapped in Anger weed daily weed use you can call it medical marijuana if you want because of course it can be used in a in a medicinal way um but when it's used daily and I understand for some people like that's how they roll and that's fine but if you're asking me yeah that's um keeping you from being able to process anger and I don't just mean psychologically I just mean like neurologically I noticed this a long time ago uh in my life you know I've I've known lots and lots of people who were daily marijuana users I've also I made the correlation like in my 20s like gosh they're all so dang angry after a while that's where it goes and I'm sure there are exceptions but that's my observation is people who use weed every every day no matter how much they claim it's medicinal for them it turns them angry and stuck that's that's my observation for whatever it's doing for you is it worth it cuz I don't think having rage and having to like scream and punch boxes is is good for marriage I don't think so and this is you know you're asking like what's going on here you even said it's been my crutch since I was 14 years old I know all this at this point I need to deal with my anger and shame but what does that look like are there other practical Tools in addition to the Daily practice that I can use also does every feeling have to be sourced back to resentment and fear I sometimes have trouble placing all my disregulated thoughts and feelings into just these two buckets I really want to find a partner and desire marriage I want someone who can travel with me and will be my family at my age it feels like most of my friends are married and or have children already I feel like I'm being left behind The Unwanted one I look in the mirror and see the start of gray hair eye wrinkles small age spots and I feel like I'm running out of time it seems like all the good men are taken or I'm not attracted to the ones who are I know this isn't true but where are they I've been making healthier more outgoing choices since listening to your videos I read the books took your dating course and I'm attending your retreat this month I've been doing Pilates every weekday morning for the past two years which has really helped my confidence mood and body pain I recently graduated with a master's degree in business bought a home and manag a successful Airbnb I have a secure remote job in hospital Administration though I don't care about it and I don't feel it uses my talents and I'm about to get a big promotion I've joined my Works chapter of Toast Masters began piano lesson and began ballroom dancing on Friday nights I feel like I'm in a good place to start dating again I don't have any social media and I feel foreign to online dating so I'm not certain how to meet healthy available people I'm a 35-year-old woman never married and don't desire children I grew up in a home full of abuse with a domineering ex-military mother who was controlling and emotionally and physically abusive she would say things to me like I'm your God your judge I own you what you you are the most selfish I ever met the dad I grew up with was extremely abusive and used religion to control and abuse my mother I watched him Crush her collarbone with his bare hands and break her ribs by kicking her repeatedly we were trained to lie about it to teachers and police our house had an anxious heavy feel to it filled with the helpless confusion of tiny children living in the shadow of a monster I spent most of my time reading books watching Animal Planet and writing short stories after my mother was Baker acted that means involuntarily locked up she divorced my dad when I was and she puts quotes around Dad I'm not sure why um when I was seven and revealed to me that he wasn't my real father I see my biological father was the same as my older sister's a dangerous and abusive man she said he didn't want me either and it was his loss I felt very unwanted for a long time and I'm still riddled with an internalized sense of rejection and shame my great uncle became the only Father Figure in my life a temperamental older man that constantly criticized me and expressed his disappointment that I wasn't a boy as I worked on his farm I thought I had dealt with my childhood trauma long ago because I strive to make so much more of my life distant from the trailer park I came from I've overcome so much and have done things that others only dream of such as serving in the Peace Corps in Africa and traveling to 36 countries but now I think I've been mistaking achievement and staying busy for healing I tend to only feel good enough when I'm accomplishing something or feel something is perfect I tend to rush through everything especially aspects of self-care I often feel the people don't really like me once they get to know me or as I've done something wrong or inappropriate I Fawn and freeze during moments when I want to remain strong and poised I admire when others assert themselves yet when I have the opportunity I feel a lump in my throat I sweat and my body prickles all over I really want to stop and to find a good man to spend my life with any tough love you can offer would be appreciated thank you matri okay matri what a beautiful letter what a great writer you are um you very vividly portray what it's like to be you in a way there's so many points in here where I can understand completely what you're saying and and then a couple places where I'm like huh I don't get it but uh it's it's really an usually well-written letter and thank you for that it's uh you describe a beautiful sense of disconnection clearly you are a writer I don't know you know so by now that I'm reading this letter after the retreat so I guess you and I have met but I don't know who you are and um which is probably good you know because then I'm very objective about this so all right let me tell you about what I what I heard you say here you distanced yourself from your family and previous friends that you had trauma bonded with in order to Foster healthier relationships now I think when you say trauma bonded with you mean that you guys both had trauma and you related on that and so that was a big basis of your relationship so I just want to point out that trauma bonding actually means something different I'm not I think that I think well if I'm wrong and you did mean what it really means I stand corrected but I just want to say trauma bonding is intermittent reinforcement it's when somebody loves you takes it away loves you takes it away and it it like causes your brain to like hook on addictively to them and you'll do anything to stay with them and it can work not just on people or children you know but on rats it's a psychological torture technique and I don't think that's what you meant um but a lot of people common usage they say trauma bonded um when they mean we're just a bunch of effed up people hanging out and I know what you mean on that front I love your Lobster analogy yes changing is like that sometimes we have this vulnerable period where we don't have a shell and it takes a while to grow a new one and so we have to kind of hide out for a while you got to watch out because it's also like the favorite excuse of people of avoidance of people who just want to go isolate for a long time and they go look I'm healing I'm healing for 25 years you know and um sometimes it goes long past its usefulness as a healing technique and it's just avoidance and too much avoidance and you can't heal so um I throw that in there but I think your Lobster analogy is just beautiful and perfect so it's hard to make friends you feel unprotected without your familiar circle of complaining trauma bonded friendships and breadcrumb relationships cuz at least it was some type of connection yes I totally relate and you know what I've been through like three cycles of this like CH change of the cast of characters because that's how many times I've had to make radical changes forward in my life I had a long way to go and then I also understand what you're saying here your past quote insights and intuitions were messed up they they they they turned out not to be reliable you were certain about what you were feeling and then in time it turned out they were trauma driven beliefs your red flag detector was operating and that is so normal and I just love that you actually you are insightful enough to just say oh yeah I thought it was my intuition but it was my trauma talking we all do that it drives people crazy I have a video out there that says don't trust these gut instincts and what I'm talking talking about is when the trauma is talking and like oh yeah you got to do this self-destructive thing and people often comment it on it without watching the video going you should always trust your instincts and I'm like not if you have what I have it takes us time to heal enough to know what the difference is between gut instincts and the trauma talking which which is you know sometimes all we know at first so good for you for being careful on the distinction there so you're asking so much the right questions how do I know I'm doing the right thing how can I trust myself those are the right questions you know when you're fully healing when you're fully engaged in your healing you will learn to do that through trial and error the way everybody else did but at a somewhat younger age than we did right we have a we have a delay in our development and so we end up with a lack of clarity around aspects of ourselves that our peers our age peers already have and we think oh I'm terrible but it's really normal for people who were severely neglected and abused as you were to have a delay there and it's kind of beautifully designed like that somehow the child versions of ourselves know how to sort of pack it away you know keep it safe from everything just close it down and then bring it out later but it's just that when it's coming out later in adulthood it's a little messy and it's a little bit confusing and and it's um causes us to be alone for long periods of time which is hard but part of it it's part of it you've got such a good um ability to describe what you're going through how yeah should you listen to other people's advice or is it just yeah other people's advice is always their advice and what they would do so we take it under advisement we take it with a grain of salt sometimes hearing other people's experience can help us get in touch with our own best wisdom so it's okay to ask for advice I just wouldn't recommend completely surrendering your decisions to somebody else's advice unless you're incapacitated in some way or unless you have reasons that you really trust their judgment and you think that what they're suggesting is the best thing for you in which case it's your wisdom right it's your decision so you got left with a lot of anger resentment confusion and longing to be accepted uhhuh what I think is clearly very Advanced about your healing is that you do your you say I'm doing my best to maintain humility as I'm growing through feelings of embarrassment reflecting on my arrogance and naivity over the years if you're aware that you have arrogance and naivity you are well on your way to Healing I mean really like so many people don't get that far and it's hard you know for those of us who realize we have faults to interact with people who absolutely believe they have no Faults who believe that they actually are better and Superior in judgment you know it's hard it's hard to do that it can make it painful to apologize sometimes when we've been arrogant to somebody who doesn't realize that their arrogance is arrogance but you know what we get better anyway it doesn't matter how far along they are I love that you are in touch with that about yourself that is that's a really good sign that you're you're making good progress so you have few Family Ties they haven't been kind you've been the scapegoat yeah that's a whole thing isn't it and a lot of what you're describing as kind of scapegoat wounds I feel like I'm drifting alone in the world yes I I know that feeling so well but you found us now you you know hopefully the crappy childhood fairy Community feels like a tribe and if you came to that Retreat hopefully you became a member and you've made friends here the people here are like more than anybody in the world who I feel at home with who I feel understood by and I never felt understood until I started putting my experience on YouTube and got some comments back I was just like they you know people would comment back like I can't believe you're describing what it's like to me be me and I reply back to them I can't believe you have had this experience too I literally thought I was the only one so it turns out we have a lot of normal symptoms of growing up with something abnormal going on and when we find each other it really helps to take the shame off and help make it understandable that we got like this like it's not our fault that we develop this this manner this mode and now we're the ones who are charged with finding a way to undo it to to um relax the grip of these trauma driven adaptations so that we can start to have some of the Finer Things in life some of the more subtle things like like love and connection and those are often lost to us when we're in survival mode when we're just being tough and strong and you know we get very like you know black and white thinking about things CU we had to in order to survive but then we start opening our minds and it's messy just like you describe so you said you feel frustrated and full of Rage when the smallest things go wrong and you get a strong impulse to hit and punch things and you take it out on a cardboard shipping box all right I'm just going to get in here with some advice cuz you asked I don't think that's a good idea I think it's normal that you're having emotional disregulation and intense rage and you may have been told that it's all very meaningful and you need to feel it and explore it but I question that I don't think that's always true I think if you have um if you had a lot of childhood trauma and you tend to get emotionally disregulated there's actually no bottom to that anger so whereas another person who didn't have trauma they're like yeah I punched a cardboard box and then I had cathar and I was fine did that happen to you it doesn't sound like it so you know venting rage has never worked for me and there it's got people have looked at it like punching pillows screaming that sort of thing there's no evidence that it helps really of anger actually I'll tell you what does um keep people trapped in Anger weed daily weed use you can call it medical marijuana if you want because of course it can be used in a in a medicinal way um but when it's used daily and I understand for some people like that's how they roll and that's fine but if you're asking me yeah that's um keeping you from being able to process anger and I don't just mean psychologically I just mean like neurologically I noticed this a long time ago uh in my life you know I've I've known lots and lots of people who were daily marijuana users I've also I made the correlation like in my 20s like gosh they're all so dang angry after a while that's where it goes and I'm sure there are exceptions but that's my observation is people who use weed every every day no matter how much they claim it's medicinal for them it turns them angry and stuck that's that's my observation for whatever it's doing for you is it worth it cuz I don't think having rage and having to like scream and punch boxes is is good for marriage I don't think so and this is you know you're asking like what's going on here you even said it's been my crutch since I was 14 years old I know all this at this point I need to deal with my anger and shame but what does that look like are there other practical Tools in addition to the Daily practice that I can use also does every feeling have to be sourced back to resentment and fear I sometimes have trouble placing all my disregulated thoughts and feelings into just these two buckets I really want to find a partner and desire marriage I want someone who can travel with me and will be my family at my age it feels like most of my friends are married and or have children already I feel like I'm being left behind The Unwanted one I look in the mirror and see the start of gray hair eye wrinkles small age spots and I feel like I'm running out of time it seems like all the good men are taken or I'm not attracted to the ones who are I know this isn't true but where are they I've been making healthier more outgoing choices since listening to your videos I read the books took your dating course and I'm attending your retreat this month I've been doing Pilates every weekday morning for the past two years which has really helped my confidence mood and body pain I recently graduated with a master's degree in business bought a home and manag a successful Airbnb I have a secure remote job in hospital Administration though I don't care about it and I don't feel it uses my talents and I'm about to get a big promotion I've joined my Works chapter of Toast Masters began piano lesson and began ballroom dancing on Friday nights I feel like I'm in a good place to start dating again I don't have any social media and I feel foreign to online dating so I'm not certain how to meet healthy available people I'm a 35-year-old woman never married and don't desire children I grew up in a home full of abuse with a domineering ex-military mother who was controlling and emotionally and physically abusive she would say things to me like I'm your God your judge I own you what you you are the most selfish I ever met the dad I grew up with was extremely abusive and used religion to control and abuse my mother I watched him Crush her collarbone with his bare hands and break her ribs by kicking her repeatedly we were trained to lie about it to teachers and police our house had an anxious heavy feel to it filled with the helpless confusion of tiny children living in the shadow of a monster I spent most of my time reading books watching Animal Planet and writing short stories after my mother was Baker acted that means involuntarily locked up she divorced my dad when I was and she puts quotes around Dad I'm not sure why um when I was seven and revealed to me that he wasn't my real father I see my biological father was the same as my older sister's a dangerous and abusive man she said he didn't want me either and it was his loss I felt very unwanted for a long time and I'm still riddled with an internalized sense of rejection and shame my great uncle became the only Father Figure in my life a temperamental older man that constantly criticized me and expressed his disappointment that I wasn't a boy as I worked on his farm I thought I had dealt with my childhood trauma long ago because I strive to make so much more of my life distant from the trailer park I came from I've overcome so much and have done things that others only dream of such as serving in the Peace Corps in Africa and traveling to 36 countries but now I think I've been mistaking achievement and staying busy for healing I tend to only feel good enough when I'm accomplishing something or feel something is perfect I tend to rush through everything especially aspects of self-care I often feel the people don't really like me once they get to know me or as I've done something wrong or inappropriate I Fawn and freeze during moments when I want to remain strong and poised I admire when others assert themselves yet when I have the opportunity I feel a lump in my throat I sweat and my body prickles all over I really want to stop and to find a good man to spend my life with any tough love you can offer would be appreciated thank you matri okay matri what a beautiful letter what a great writer you are um you very vividly portray what it's like to be you in a way there's so many points in here where I can understand completely what you're saying and and then a couple places where I'm like huh I don't get it but uh it's it's really an usually well-written letter and thank you for that it's uh you describe a beautiful sense of disconnection clearly you are a writer I don't know you know so by now that I'm reading this letter after the retreat so I guess you and I have met but I don't know who you are and um which is probably good you know because then I'm very objective about this so all right let me tell you about what I what I heard you say here you distanced yourself from your family and previous friends that you had trauma bonded with in order to Foster healthier relationships now I think when you say trauma bonded with you mean that you guys both had trauma and you related on that and so that was a big basis of your relationship so I just want to point out that trauma bonding actually means something different I'm not I think that I think well if I'm wrong and you did mean what it really means I stand corrected but I just want to say trauma bonding is intermittent reinforcement it's when somebody loves you takes it away loves you takes it away and it it like causes your brain to like hook on addictively to them and you'll do anything to stay with them and it can work not just on people or children you know but on rats it's a psychological torture technique and I don't think that's what you meant um but a lot of people common usage they say trauma bonded um when they mean we're just a bunch of effed up people hanging out and I know what you mean on that front I love your Lobster analogy yes changing is like that sometimes we have this vulnerable period where we don't have a shell and it takes a while to grow a new one and so we have to kind of hide out for a while you got to watch out because it's also like the favorite excuse of people of avoidance of people who just want to go isolate for a long time and they go look I'm healing I'm healing for 25 years you know and um sometimes it goes long past its usefulness as a healing technique and it's just avoidance and too much avoidance and you can't heal so um I throw that in there but I think your Lobster analogy is just beautiful and perfect so it's hard to make friends you feel unprotected without your familiar circle of complaining trauma bonded friendships and breadcrumb relationships cuz at least it was some type of connection yes I totally relate and you know what I've been through like three cycles of this like CH change of the cast of characters because that's how many times I've had to make radical changes forward in my life I had a long way to go and then I also understand what you're saying here your past quote insights and intuitions were messed up they they they they turned out not to be reliable you were certain about what you were feeling and then in time it turned out they were trauma driven beliefs your red flag detector was operating and that is so normal and I just love that you actually you are insightful enough to just say oh yeah I thought it was my intuition but it was my trauma talking we all do that it drives people crazy I have a video out there that says don't trust these gut instincts and what I'm talking talking about is when the trauma is talking and like oh yeah you got to do this self-destructive thing and people often comment it on it without watching the video going you should always trust your instincts and I'm like not if you have what I have it takes us time to heal enough to know what the difference is between gut instincts and the trauma talking which which is you know sometimes all we know at first so good for you for being careful on the distinction there so you're asking so much the right questions how do I know I'm doing the right thing how can I trust myself those are the right questions you know when you're fully healing when you're fully engaged in your healing you will learn to do that through trial and error the way everybody else did but at a somewhat younger age than we did right we have a we have a delay in our development and so we end up with a lack of clarity around aspects of ourselves that our peers our age peers already have and we think oh I'm terrible but it's really normal for people who were severely neglected and abused as you were to have a delay there and it's kind of beautifully designed like that somehow the child versions of ourselves know how to sort of pack it away you know keep it safe from everything just close it down and then bring it out later but it's just that when it's coming out later in adulthood it's a little messy and it's a little bit confusing and and it's um causes us to be alone for long periods of time which is hard but part of it it's part of it you've got such a good um ability to describe what you're going through how yeah should you listen to other people's advice or is it just yeah other people's advice is always their advice and what they would do so we take it under advisement we take it with a grain of salt sometimes hearing other people's experience can help us get in touch with our own best wisdom so it's okay to ask for advice I just wouldn't recommend completely surrendering your decisions to somebody else's advice unless you're incapacitated in some way or unless you have reasons that you really trust their judgment and you think that what they're suggesting is the best thing for you in which case it's your wisdom right it's your decision so you got left with a lot of anger resentment confusion and longing to be accepted uhhuh what I think is clearly very Advanced about your healing is that you do your you say I'm doing my best to maintain humility as I'm growing through feelings of embarrassment reflecting on my arrogance and naivity over the years if you're aware that you have arrogance and naivity you are well on your way to Healing I mean really like so many people don't get that far and it's hard you know for those of us who realize we have faults to interact with people who absolutely believe they have no Faults who believe that they actually are better and Superior in judgment you know it's hard it's hard to do that it can make it painful to apologize sometimes when we've been arrogant to somebody who doesn't realize that their arrogance is arrogance but you know what we get better anyway it doesn't matter how far along they are I love that you are in touch with that about yourself that is that's a really good sign that you're you're making good progress so you have few Family Ties they haven't been kind you've been the scapegoat yeah that's a whole thing isn't it and a lot of what you're describing as kind of scapegoat wounds I feel like I'm drifting alone in the world yes I I know that feeling so well but you found us now you you know hopefully the crappy childhood fairy Community feels like a tribe and if you came to that Retreat hopefully you became a member and you've made friends here the people here are like more than anybody in the world who I feel at home with who I feel understood by and I never felt understood until I started putting my experience on YouTube and got some comments back I was just like they you know people would comment back like I can't believe you're describing what it's like to me be me and I reply back to them I can't believe you have had this experience too I literally thought I was the only one so it turns out we have a lot of normal symptoms of growing up with something abnormal going on and when we find each other it really helps to take the shame off and help make it understandable that we got like this like it's not our fault that we develop this this manner this mode and now we're the ones who are charged with finding a way to undo it to to um relax the grip of these trauma driven adaptations so that we can start to have some of the Finer Things in life some of the more subtle things like like love and connection and those are often lost to us when we're in survival mode when we're just being tough and strong and you know we get very like you know black and white thinking about things CU we had to in order to survive but then we start opening our minds and it's messy just like you describe so you said you feel frustrated and full of Rage when the smallest things go wrong and you get a strong impulse to hit and punch things and you take it out on a cardboard shipping box all right I'm just going to get in here with some advice cuz you asked I don't think that's a good idea I think it's normal that you're having emotional disregulation and intense rage and you may have been told that it's all very meaningful and you need to feel it and explore it but I question that I don't think that's always true I think if you have um if you had a lot of childhood trauma and you tend to get emotionally disregulated there's actually no bottom to that anger so whereas another person who didn't have trauma they're like yeah I punched a cardboard box and then I had cathar and I was fine did that happen to you it doesn't sound like it so you know venting rage has never worked for me and there it's got people have looked at it like punching pillows screaming that sort of thing there's no evidence that it helps really of anger actually I'll tell you what does um keep people trapped in Anger weed daily weed use you can call it medical marijuana if you want because of course it can be used in a in a medicinal way um but when it's used daily and I understand for some people like that's how they roll and that's fine but if you're asking me yeah that's um keeping you from being able to process anger and I don't just mean psychologically I just mean like neurologically I noticed this a long time ago uh in my life you know I've I've known lots and lots of people who were daily marijuana users I've also I made the correlation like in my 20s like gosh they're all so dang angry after a while that's where it goes and I'm sure there are exceptions but that's my observation is people who use weed every every day no matter how much they claim it's medicinal for them it turns them angry and stuck that's that's my observation for whatever it's doing for you is it worth it cuz I don't think having rage and having to like scream and punch boxes is is good for marriage I don't think so and this is you know you're asking like what's going on here you even said it's been my crutch since I was 14 years old I know all this at this point I need to deal with my anger and shame but what does that look like are there other practical Tools in addition to the Daily practice that I can use also does every feeling have to be sourced back to resentment and fear I sometimes have trouble placing all my disregulated thoughts and feelings into just these two buckets I really want to find a partner and desire marriage I want someone who can travel with me and will be my family at my age it feels like most of my friends are married and or have children already I feel like I'm being left behind The Unwanted one I look in the mirror and see the start of gray hair eye wrinkles small age spots and I feel like I'm running out of time it seems like all the good men are taken or I'm not attracted to the ones who are I know this isn't true but where are they I've been making healthier more outgoing choices since listening to your videos I read the books took your dating course and I'm attending your retreat this month I've been doing Pilates every weekday morning for the past two years which has really helped my confidence mood and body pain I recently graduated with a master's degree in business bought a home and manag a successful Airbnb I have a secure remote job in hospital Administration though I don't care about it and I don't feel it uses my talents and I'm about to get a big promotion I've joined my Works chapter of Toast Masters began piano lesson and began ballroom dancing on Friday nights I feel like I'm in a good place to start dating again I don't have any social media and I feel foreign to online dating so I'm not certain how to meet healthy available people I'm a 35-year-old woman never married and don't desire children I grew up in a home full of abuse with a domineering ex-military mother who was controlling and emotionally and physically abusive she would say things to me like I'm your God your judge I own you what you you are the most selfish I ever met the dad I grew up with was extremely abusive and used religion to control and abuse my mother I watched him Crush her collarbone with his bare hands and break her ribs by kicking her repeatedly we were trained to lie about it to teachers and police our house had an anxious heavy feel to it filled with the helpless confusion of tiny children living in the shadow of a monster I spent most of my time reading books watching Animal Planet and writing short stories after my mother was Baker acted that means involuntarily locked up she divorced my dad when I was and she puts quotes around Dad I'm not sure why um when I was seven and revealed to me that he wasn't my real father I see my biological father was the same as my older sister's a dangerous and abusive man she said he didn't want me either and it was his loss I felt very unwanted for a long time and I'm still riddled with an internalized sense of rejection and shame my great uncle became the only Father Figure in my life a temperamental older man that constantly criticized me and expressed his disappointment that I wasn't a boy as I worked on his farm I thought I had dealt with my childhood trauma long ago because I strive to make so much more of my life distant from the trailer park I came from I've overcome so much and have done things that others only dream of such as serving in the Peace Corps in Africa and traveling to 36 countries but now I think I've been mistaking achievement and staying busy for healing I tend to only feel good enough when I'm accomplishing something or feel something is perfect I tend to rush through everything especially aspects of self-care I often feel the people don't really like me once they get to know me or as I've done something wrong or inappropriate I Fawn and freeze during moments when I want to remain strong and poised I admire when others assert themselves yet when I have the opportunity I feel a lump in my throat I sweat and my body prickles all over I really want to stop and to find a good man to spend my life with any tough love you can offer would be appreciated thank you matri okay matri what a beautiful letter what a great writer you are um you very vividly portray what it's like to be you in a way there's so many points in here where I can understand completely what you're saying and and then a couple places where I'm like huh I don't get it but uh it's it's really an usually well-written letter and thank you for that it's uh you describe a beautiful sense of disconnection clearly you are a writer I don't know you know so by now that I'm reading this letter after the retreat so I guess you and I have met but I don't know who you are and um which is probably good you know because then I'm very objective about this so all right let me tell you about what I what I heard you say here you distanced yourself from your family and previous friends that you had trauma bonded with in order to Foster healthier relationships now I think when you say trauma bonded with you mean that you guys both had trauma and you related on that and so that was a big basis of your relationship so I just want to point out that trauma bonding actually means something different I'm not I think that I think well if I'm wrong and you did mean what it really means I stand corrected but I just want to say trauma bonding is intermittent reinforcement it's when somebody loves you takes it away loves you takes it away and it it like causes your brain to like hook on addictively to them and you'll do anything to stay with them and it can work not just on people or children you know but on rats it's a psychological torture technique and I don't think that's what you meant um but a lot of people common usage they say trauma bonded um when they mean we're just a bunch of effed up people hanging out and I know what you mean on that front I love your Lobster analogy yes changing is like that sometimes we have this vulnerable period where we don't have a shell and it takes a while to grow a new one and so we have to kind of hide out for a while you got to watch out because it's also like the favorite excuse of people of avoidance of people who just want to go isolate for a long time and they go look I'm healing I'm healing for 25 years you know and um sometimes it goes long past its usefulness as a healing technique and it's just avoidance and too much avoidance and you can't heal so um I throw that in there but I think your Lobster analogy is just beautiful and perfect so it's hard to make friends you feel unprotected without your familiar circle of complaining trauma bonded friendships and breadcrumb relationships cuz at least it was some type of connection yes I totally relate and you know what I've been through like three cycles of this like CH change of the cast of characters because that's how many times I've had to make radical changes forward in my life I had a long way to go and then I also understand what you're saying here your past quote insights and intuitions were messed up they they they they turned out not to be reliable you were certain about what you were feeling and then in time it turned out they were trauma driven beliefs your red flag detector was operating and that is so normal and I just love that you actually you are insightful enough to just say oh yeah I thought it was my intuition but it was my trauma talking we all do that it drives people crazy I have a video out there that says don't trust these gut instincts and what I'm talking talking about is when the trauma is talking and like oh yeah you got to do this self-destructive thing and people often comment it on it without watching the video going you should always trust your instincts and I'm like not if you have what I have it takes us time to heal enough to know what the difference is between gut instincts and the trauma talking which which is you know sometimes all we know at first so good for you for being careful on the distinction there so you're asking so much the right questions how do I know I'm doing the right thing how can I trust myself those are the right questions you know when you're fully healing when you're fully engaged in your healing you will learn to do that through trial and error the way everybody else did but at a somewhat younger age than we did right we have a we have a delay in our development and so we end up with a lack of clarity around aspects of ourselves that our peers our age peers already have and we think oh I'm terrible but it's really normal for people who were severely neglected and abused as you were to have a delay there and it's kind of beautifully designed like that somehow the child versions of ourselves know how to sort of pack it away you know keep it safe from everything just close it down and then bring it out later but it's just that when it's coming out later in adulthood it's a little messy and it's a little bit confusing and and it's um causes us to be alone for long periods of time which is hard but part of it it's part of it you've got such a good um ability to describe what you're going through how yeah should you listen to other people's advice or is it just yeah other people's advice is always their advice and what they would do so we take it under advisement we take it with a grain of salt sometimes hearing other people's experience can help us get in touch with our own best wisdom so it's okay to ask for advice I just wouldn't recommend completely surrendering your decisions to somebody else's advice unless you're incapacitated in some way or unless you have reasons that you really trust their judgment and you think that what they're suggesting is the best thing for you in which case it's your wisdom right it's your decision so you got left with a lot of anger resentment confusion and longing to be accepted uhhuh what I think is clearly very Advanced about your healing is that you do your you say I'm doing my best to maintain humility as I'm growing through feelings of embarrassment reflecting on my arrogance and naivity over the years if you're aware that you have arrogance and naivity you are well on your way to Healing I mean really like so many people don't get that far and it's hard you know for those of us who realize we have faults to interact with people who absolutely believe they have no Faults who believe that they actually are better and Superior in judgment you know it's hard it's hard to do that it can make it painful to apologize sometimes when we've been arrogant to somebody who doesn't realize that their arrogance is arrogance but you know what we get better anyway it doesn't matter how far along they are I love that you are in touch with that about yourself that is that's a really good sign that you're you're making good progress so you have few Family Ties they haven't been kind you've been the scapegoat yeah that's a whole thing isn't it and a lot of what you're describing as kind of scapegoat wounds I feel like I'm drifting alone in the world yes I I know that feeling so well but you found us now you you know hopefully the crappy childhood fairy Community feels like a tribe and if you came to that Retreat hopefully you became a member and you've made friends here the people here are like more than anybody in the world who I feel at home with who I feel understood by and I never felt understood until I started putting my experience on YouTube and got some comments back I was just like they you know people would comment back like I can't believe you're describing what it's like to me be me and I reply back to them I can't believe you have had this experience too I literally thought I was the only one so it turns out we have a lot of normal symptoms of growing up with something abnormal going on and when we find each other it really helps to take the shame off and help make it understandable that we got like this like it's not our fault that we develop this this manner this mode and now we're the ones who are charged with finding a way to undo it to to um relax the grip of these trauma driven adaptations so that we can start to have some of the Finer Things in life some of the more subtle things like like love and connection and those are often lost to us when we're in survival mode when we're just being tough and strong and you know we get very like you know black and white thinking about things CU we had to in order to survive but then we start opening our minds and it's messy just like you describe so you said you feel frustrated and full of Rage when the smallest things go wrong and you get a strong impulse to hit and punch things and you take it out on a cardboard shipping box all right I'm just going to get in here with some advice cuz you asked I don't think that's a good idea I think it's normal that you're having emotional disregulation and intense rage and you may have been told that it's all very meaningful and you need to feel it and explore it but I question that I don't think that's always true I think if you have um if you had a lot of childhood trauma and you tend to get emotionally disregulated there's actually no bottom to that anger so whereas another person who didn't have trauma they're like yeah I punched a cardboard box and then I had cathar and I was fine did that happen to you it doesn't sound like it so you know venting rage has never worked for me and there it's got people have looked at it like punching pillows screaming that sort of thing there's no evidence that it helps really of anger actually I'll tell you what does um keep people trapped in Anger weed daily weed use you can call it medical marijuana if you want because of course it can be used in a in a medicinal way um but when it's used daily and I understand for some people like that's how they roll and that's fine but if you're asking me yeah that's um keeping you from being able to process anger and I don't just mean psychologically I just mean like neurologically I noticed this a long time ago uh in my life you know I've I've known lots and lots of people who were daily marijuana users I've also I made the correlation like in my 20s like gosh they're all so dang angry after a while that's where it goes and I'm sure there are exceptions but that's my observation is people who use weed every every day no matter how much they claim it's medicinal for them it turns them angry and stuck that's that's my observation for whatever it's doing for you is it worth it cuz I don't think having rage and having to like scream and punch boxes is is good for marriage I don't think so and this is you know you're asking like what's going on here you even said it's been my crutch since I was 14 years old I know all this at this point I need to deal with my anger and shame but what does that look like are there other practical Tools in addition to the Daily practice that I can use also does every feeling have to be sourced back to resentment and fear I sometimes have trouble placing all my disregulated thoughts and feelings into just these two buckets I really want to find a partner and desire marriage I want someone who can travel with me and will be my family at my age it feels like most of my friends are married and or have children already I feel like I'm being left behind The Unwanted one I look in the mirror and see the start of gray hair eye wrinkles small age spots and I feel like I'm running out of time it seems like all the good men are taken or I'm not attracted to the ones who are I know this isn't true but where are they I've been making healthier more outgoing choices since listening to your videos I read the books took your dating course and I'm attending your retreat this month I've been doing Pilates every weekday morning for the past two years which has really helped my confidence mood and body pain I recently graduated with a master's degree in business bought a home and manag a successful Airbnb I have a secure remote job in hospital Administration though I don't care about it and I don't feel it uses my talents and I'm about to get a big promotion I've joined my Works chapter of Toast Masters began piano lesson and began ballroom dancing on Friday nights I feel like I'm in a good place to start dating again I don't have any social media and I feel foreign to online dating so I'm not certain how to meet healthy available people I'm a 35-year-old woman never married and don't desire children I grew up in a home full of abuse with a domineering ex-military mother who was controlling and emotionally and physically abusive she would say things to me like I'm your God your judge I own you what you you are the most selfish I ever met the dad I grew up with was extremely abusive and used religion to control and abuse my mother I watched him Crush her collarbone with his bare hands and break her ribs by kicking her repeatedly we were trained to lie about it to teachers and police our house had an anxious heavy feel to it filled with the helpless confusion of tiny children living in the shadow of a monster I spent most of my time reading books watching Animal Planet and writing short stories after my mother was Baker acted that means involuntarily locked up she divorced my dad when I was and she puts quotes around Dad I'm not sure why um when I was seven and revealed to me that he wasn't my real father I see my biological father was the same as my older sister's a dangerous and abusive man she said he didn't want me either and it was his loss I felt very unwanted for a long time and I'm still riddled with an internalized sense of rejection and shame my great uncle became the only Father Figure in my life a temperamental older man that constantly criticized me and expressed his disappointment that I wasn't a boy as I worked on his farm I thought I had dealt with my childhood trauma long ago because I strive to make so much more of my life distant from the trailer park I came from I've overcome so much and have done things that others only dream of such as serving in the Peace Corps in Africa and traveling to 36 countries but now I think I've been mistaking achievement and staying busy for healing I tend to only feel good enough when I'm accomplishing something or feel something is perfect I tend to rush through everything especially aspects of self-care I often feel the people don't really like me once they get to know me or as I've done something wrong or inappropriate I Fawn and freeze during moments when I want to remain strong and poised I admire when others assert themselves yet when I have the opportunity I feel a lump in my throat I sweat and my body prickles all over I really want to stop and to find a good man to spend my life with any tough love you can offer would be appreciated thank you matri okay matri what a beautiful letter what a great writer you are um you very vividly portray what it's like to be you in a way there's so many points in here where I can understand completely what you're saying and and then a couple places where I'm like huh I don't get it but uh it's it's really an usually well-written letter and thank you for that it's uh you describe a beautiful sense of disconnection clearly you are a writer I don't know you know so by now that I'm reading this letter after the retreat so I guess you and I have met but I don't know who you are and um which is probably good you know because then I'm very objective about this so all right let me tell you about what I what I heard you say here you distanced yourself from your family and previous friends that you had trauma bonded with in order to Foster healthier relationships now I think when you say trauma bonded with you mean that you guys both had trauma and you related on that and so that was a big basis of your relationship so I just want to point out that trauma bonding actually means something different I'm not I think that I think well if I'm wrong and you did mean what it really means I stand corrected but I just want to say trauma bonding is intermittent reinforcement it's when somebody loves you takes it away loves you takes it away and it it like causes your brain to like hook on addictively to them and you'll do anything to stay with them and it can work not just on people or children you know but on rats it's a psychological torture technique and I don't think that's what you meant um but a lot of people common usage they say trauma bonded um when they mean we're just a bunch of effed up people hanging out and I know what you mean on that front I love your Lobster analogy yes changing is like that sometimes we have this vulnerable period where we don't have a shell and it takes a while to grow a new one and so we have to kind of hide out for a while you got to watch out because it's also like the favorite excuse of people of avoidance of people who just want to go isolate for a long time and they go look I'm healing I'm healing for 25 years you know and um sometimes it goes long past its usefulness as a healing technique and it's just avoidance and too much avoidance and you can't heal so um I throw that in there but I think your Lobster analogy is just beautiful and perfect so it's hard to make friends you feel unprotected without your familiar circle of complaining trauma bonded friendships and breadcrumb relationships cuz at least it was some type of connection yes I totally relate and you know what I've been through like three cycles of this like CH change of the cast of characters because that's how many times I've had to make radical changes forward in my life I had a long way to go and then I also understand what you're saying here your past quote insights and intuitions were messed up they they they they turned out not to be reliable you were certain about what you were feeling and then in time it turned out they were trauma driven beliefs your red flag detector was operating and that is so normal and I just love that you actually you are insightful enough to just say oh yeah I thought it was my intuition but it was my trauma talking we all do that it drives people crazy I have a video out there that says don't trust these gut instincts and what I'm talking talking about is when the trauma is talking and like oh yeah you got to do this self-destructive thing and people often comment it on it without watching the video going you should always trust your instincts and I'm like not if you have what I have it takes us time to heal enough to know what the difference is between gut instincts and the trauma talking which which is you know sometimes all we know at first so good for you for being careful on the distinction there so you're asking so much the right questions how do I know I'm doing the right thing how can I trust myself those are the right questions you know when you're fully healing when you're fully engaged in your healing you will learn to do that through trial and error the way everybody else did but at a somewhat younger age than we did right we have a we have a delay in our development and so we end up with a lack of clarity around aspects of ourselves that our peers our age peers already have and we think oh I'm terrible but it's really normal for people who were severely neglected and abused as you were to have a delay there and it's kind of beautifully designed like that somehow the child versions of ourselves know how to sort of pack it away you know keep it safe from everything just close it down and then bring it out later but it's just that when it's coming out later in adulthood it's a little messy and it's a little bit confusing and and it's um causes us to be alone for long periods of time which is hard but part of it it's part of it you've got such a good um ability to describe what you're going through how yeah should you listen to other people's advice or is it just yeah other people's advice is always their advice and what they would do so we take it under advisement we take it with a grain of salt sometimes hearing other people's experience can help us get in touch with our own best wisdom so it's okay to ask for advice I just wouldn't recommend completely surrendering your decisions to somebody else's advice unless you're incapacitated in some way or unless you have reasons that you really trust their judgment and you think that what they're suggesting is the best thing for you in which case it's your wisdom right it's your decision so you got left with a lot of anger resentment confusion and longing to be accepted uhhuh what I think is clearly very Advanced about your healing is that you do your you say I'm doing my best to maintain humility as I'm growing through feelings of embarrassment reflecting on my arrogance and naivity over the years if you're aware that you have arrogance and naivity you are well on your way to Healing I mean really like so many people don't get that far and it's hard you know for those of us who realize we have faults to interact with people who absolutely believe they have no Faults who believe that they actually are better and Superior in judgment you know it's hard it's hard to do that it can make it painful to apologize sometimes when we've been arrogant to somebody who doesn't realize that their arrogance is arrogance but you know what we get better anyway it doesn't matter how far along they are I love that you are in touch with that about yourself that is that's a really good sign that you're you're making good progress so you have few Family Ties they haven't been kind you've been the scapegoat yeah that's a whole thing isn't it and a lot of what you're describing as kind of scapegoat wounds I feel like I'm drifting alone in the world yes I I know that feeling so well but you found us now you you know hopefully the crappy childhood fairy Community feels like a tribe and if you came to that Retreat hopefully you became a member and you've made friends here the people here are like more than anybody in the world who I feel at home with who I feel understood by and I never felt understood until I started putting my experience on YouTube and got some comments back I was just like they you know people would comment back like I can't believe you're describing what it's like to me be me and I reply back to them I can't believe you have had this experience too I literally thought I was the only one so it turns out we have a lot of normal symptoms of growing up with something abnormal going on and when we find each other it really helps to take the shame off and help make it understandable that we got like this like it's not our fault that we develop this this manner this mode and now we're the ones who are charged with finding a way to undo it to to um relax the grip of these trauma driven adaptations so that we can start to have some of the Finer Things in life some of the more subtle things like like love and connection and those are often lost to us when we're in survival mode when we're just being tough and strong and you know we get very like you know black and white thinking about things CU we had to in order to survive but then we start opening our minds and it's messy just like you describe so you said you feel frustrated and full of Rage when the smallest things go wrong and you get a strong impulse to hit and punch things and you take it out on a cardboard shipping box all right I'm just going to get in here with some advice cuz you asked I don't think that's a good idea I think it's normal that you're having emotional disregulation and intense rage and you may have been told that it's all very meaningful and you need to feel it and explore it but I question that I don't think that's always true I think if you have um if you had a lot of childhood trauma and you tend to get emotionally disregulated there's actually no bottom to that anger so whereas another person who didn't have trauma they're like yeah I punched a cardboard box and then I had cathar and I was fine did that happen to you it doesn't sound like it so you know venting rage has never worked for me and there it's got people have looked at it like punching pillows screaming that sort of thing there's no evidence that it helps really of anger actually I'll tell you what does um keep people trapped in Anger weed daily weed use you can call it medical marijuana if you want because of course it can be used in a in a medicinal way um but when it's used daily and I understand for some people like that's how they roll and that's fine but if you're asking me yeah that's um keeping you from being able to process anger and I don't just mean psychologically I just mean like neurologically I noticed this a long time ago uh in my life you know I've I've known lots and lots of people who were daily marijuana users I've also I made the correlation like in my 20s like gosh they're all so dang angry after a while that's where it goes and I'm sure there are exceptions but that's my observation is people who use weed every every day no matter how much they claim it's medicinal for them it turns them angry and stuck that's that's my observation for whatever it's doing for you is it worth it cuz I don't think having rage and having to like scream and punch boxes is is good for marriage I don't think so and this is you know you're asking like what's going on here you even said it's been my crutch since I was 14 years old I know all this at this point I need to deal with my anger and shame but what does that look like are there other practical Tools in addition to the Daily practice that I can use also does every feeling have to be sourced back to resentment and fear I sometimes have trouble placing all my disregulated thoughts and feelings into just these two buckets I really want to find a partner and desire marriage I want someone who can travel with me and will be my family at my age it feels like most of my friends are married and or have children already I feel like I'm being left behind The Unwanted one I look in the mirror and see the start of gray hair eye wrinkles small age spots and I feel like I'm running out of time it seems like all the good men are taken or I'm not attracted to the ones who are I know this isn't true but where are they I've been making healthier more outgoing choices since listening to your videos I read the books took your dating course and I'm attending your retreat this month I've been doing Pilates every weekday morning for the past two years which has really helped my confidence mood and body pain I recently graduated with a master's degree in business bought a home and manag a successful Airbnb I have a secure remote job in hospital Administration though I don't care about it and I don't feel it uses my talents and I'm about to get a big promotion I've joined my Works chapter of Toast Masters began piano lesson and began ballroom dancing on Friday nights I feel like I'm in a good place to start dating again I don't have any social media and I feel foreign to online dating so I'm not certain how to meet healthy available people I'm a 35-year-old woman never married and don't desire children I grew up in a home full of abuse with a domineering ex-military mother who was controlling and emotionally and physically abusive she would say things to me like I'm your God your judge I own you what you you are the most selfish I ever met the dad I grew up with was extremely abusive and used religion to control and abuse my mother I watched him Crush her collarbone with his bare hands and break her ribs by kicking her repeatedly we were trained to lie about it to teachers and police our house had an anxious heavy feel to it filled with the helpless confusion of tiny children living in the shadow of a monster I spent most of my time reading books watching Animal Planet and writing short stories after my mother was Baker acted that means involuntarily locked up she divorced my dad when I was and she puts quotes around Dad I'm not sure why um when I was seven and revealed to me that he wasn't my real father I see my biological father was the same as my older sister's a dangerous and abusive man she said he didn't want me either and it was his loss I felt very unwanted for a long time and I'm still riddled with an internalized sense of rejection and shame my great uncle became the only Father Figure in my life a temperamental older man that constantly criticized me and expressed his disappointment that I wasn't a boy as I worked on his farm I thought I had dealt with my childhood trauma long ago because I strive to make so much more of my life distant from the trailer park I came from I've overcome so much and have done things that others only dream of such as serving in the Peace Corps in Africa and traveling to 36 countries but now I think I've been mistaking achievement and staying busy for healing I tend to only feel good enough when I'm accomplishing something or feel something is perfect I tend to rush through everything especially aspects of self-care I often feel the people don't really like me once they get to know me or as I've done something wrong or inappropriate I Fawn and freeze during moments when I want to remain strong and poised I admire when others assert themselves yet when I have the opportunity I feel a lump in my throat I sweat and my body prickles all over I really want to stop and to find a good man to spend my life with any tough love you can offer would be appreciated thank you matri okay matri what a beautiful letter what a great writer you are um you very vividly portray what it's like to be you in a way there's so many points in here where I can understand completely what you're saying and and then a couple places where I'm like huh I don't get it but uh it's it's really an usually well-written letter and thank you for that it's uh you describe a beautiful sense of disconnection clearly you are a writer I don't know you know so by now that I'm reading this letter after the retreat so I guess you and I have met but I don't know who you are and um which is probably good you know because then I'm very objective about this so all right let me tell you about what I what I heard you say here you distanced yourself from your family and previous friends that you had trauma bonded with in order to Foster healthier relationships now I think when you say trauma bonded with you mean that you guys both had trauma and you related on that and so that was a big basis of your relationship so I just want to point out that trauma bonding actually means something different I'm not I think that I think well if I'm wrong and you did mean what it really means I stand corrected but I just want to say trauma bonding is intermittent reinforcement it's when somebody loves you takes it away loves you takes it away and it it like causes your brain to like hook on addictively to them and you'll do anything to stay with them and it can work not just on people or children you know but on rats it's a psychological torture technique and I don't think that's what you meant um but a lot of people common usage they say trauma bonded um when they mean we're just a bunch of effed up people hanging out and I know what you mean on that front I love your Lobster analogy yes changing is like that sometimes we have this vulnerable period where we don't have a shell and it takes a while to grow a new one and so we have to kind of hide out for a while you got to watch out because it's also like the favorite excuse of people of avoidance of people who just want to go isolate for a long time and they go look I'm healing I'm healing for 25 years you know and um sometimes it goes long past its usefulness as a healing technique and it's just avoidance and too much avoidance and you can't heal so um I throw that in there but I think your Lobster analogy is just beautiful and perfect so it's hard to make friends you feel unprotected without your familiar circle of complaining trauma bonded friendships and breadcrumb relationships cuz at least it was some type of connection yes I totally relate and you know what I've been through like three cycles of this like CH change of the cast of characters because that's how many times I've had to make radical changes forward in my life I had a long way to go and then I also understand what you're saying here your past quote insights and intuitions were messed up they they they they turned out not to be reliable you were certain about what you were feeling and then in time it turned out they were trauma driven beliefs your red flag detector was operating and that is so normal and I just love that you actually you are insightful enough to just say oh yeah I thought it was my intuition but it was my trauma talking we all do that it drives people crazy I have a video out there that says don't trust these gut instincts and what I'm talking talking about is when the trauma is talking and like oh yeah you got to do this self-destructive thing and people often comment it on it without watching the video going you should always trust your instincts and I'm like not if you have what I have it takes us time to heal enough to know what the difference is between gut instincts and the trauma talking which which is you know sometimes all we know at first so good for you for being careful on the distinction there so you're asking so much the right questions how do I know I'm doing the right thing how can I trust myself those are the right questions you know when you're fully healing when you're fully engaged in your healing you will learn to do that through trial and error the way everybody else did but at a somewhat younger age than we did right we have a we have a delay in our development and so we end up with a lack of clarity around aspects of ourselves that our peers our age peers already have and we think oh I'm terrible but it's really normal for people who were severely neglected and abused as you were to have a delay there and it's kind of beautifully designed like that somehow the child versions of ourselves know how to sort of pack it away you know keep it safe from everything just close it down and then bring it out later but it's just that when it's coming out later in adulthood it's a little messy and it's a little bit confusing and and it's um causes us to be alone for long periods of time which is hard but part of it it's part of it you've got such a good um ability to describe what you're going through how yeah should you listen to other people's advice or is it just yeah other people's advice is always their advice and what they would do so we take it under advisement we take it with a grain of salt sometimes hearing other people's experience can help us get in touch with our own best wisdom so it's okay to ask for advice I just wouldn't recommend completely surrendering your decisions to somebody else's advice unless you're incapacitated in some way or unless you have reasons that you really trust their judgment and you think that what they're suggesting is the best thing for you in which case it's your wisdom right it's your decision so you got left with a lot of anger resentment confusion and longing to be accepted uhhuh what I think is clearly very Advanced about your healing is that you do your you say I'm doing my best to maintain humility as I'm growing through feelings of embarrassment reflecting on my arrogance and naivity over the years if you're aware that you have arrogance and naivity you are well on your way to Healing I mean really like so many people don't get that far and it's hard you know for those of us who realize we have faults to interact with people who absolutely believe they have no Faults who believe that they actually are better and Superior in judgment you know it's hard it's hard to do that it can make it painful to apologize sometimes when we've been arrogant to somebody who doesn't realize that their arrogance is arrogance but you know what we get better anyway it doesn't matter how far along they are I love that you are in touch with that about yourself that is that's a really good sign that you're you're making good progress so you have few Family Ties they haven't been kind you've been the scapegoat yeah that's a whole thing isn't it and a lot of what you're describing as kind of scapegoat wounds I feel like I'm drifting alone in the world yes I I know that feeling so well but you found us now you you know hopefully the crappy childhood fairy Community feels like a tribe and if you came to that Retreat hopefully you became a member and you've made friends here the people here are like more than anybody in the world who I feel at home with who I feel understood by and I never felt understood until I started putting my experience on YouTube and got some comments back I was just like they you know people would comment back like I can't believe you're describing what it's like to me be me and I reply back to them I can't believe you have had this experience too I literally thought I was the only one so it turns out we have a lot of normal symptoms of growing up with something abnormal going on and when we find each other it really helps to take the shame off and help make it understandable that we got like this like it's not our fault that we develop this this manner this mode and now we're the ones who are charged with finding a way to undo it to to um relax the grip of these trauma driven adaptations so that we can start to have some of the Finer Things in life some of the more subtle things like like love and connection and those are often lost to us when we're in survival mode when we're just being tough and strong and you know we get very like you know black and white thinking about things CU we had to in order to survive but then we start opening our minds and it's messy just like you describe so you said you feel frustrated and full of Rage when the smallest things go wrong and you get a strong impulse to hit and punch things and you take it out on a cardboard shipping box all right I'm just going to get in here with some advice cuz you asked I don't think that's a good idea I think it's normal that you're having emotional disregulation and intense rage and you may have been told that it's all very meaningful and you need to feel it and explore it but I question that I don't think that's always true I think if you have um if you had a lot of childhood trauma and you tend to get emotionally disregulated there's actually no bottom to that anger so whereas another person who didn't have trauma they're like yeah I punched a cardboard box and then I had cathar and I was fine did that happen to you it doesn't sound like it so you know venting rage has never worked for me and there it's got people have looked at it like punching pillows screaming that sort of thing there's no evidence that it helps really of anger actually I'll tell you what does um keep people trapped in Anger weed daily weed use you can call it medical marijuana if you want because of course it can be used in a in a medicinal way um but when it's used daily and I understand for some people like that's how they roll and that's fine but if you're asking me yeah that's um keeping you from being able to process anger and I don't just mean psychologically I just mean like neurologically I noticed this a long time ago uh in my life you know I've I've known lots and lots of people who were daily marijuana users I've also I made the correlation like in my 20s like gosh they're all so dang angry after a while that's where it goes and I'm sure there are exceptions but that's my observation is people who use weed every every day no matter how much they claim it's medicinal for them it turns them angry and stuck that's that's my observation for whatever it's doing for you is it worth it cuz I don't think having rage and having to like scream and punch boxes is is good for marriage I don't think so and this is you know you're asking like what's going on here you even said it's been my crutch since I was 14 years old I know all this at this point I need to deal with my anger and shame but what does that look like are there other practical Tools in addition to the Daily practice that I can use also does every feeling have to be sourced back to resentment and fear I sometimes have trouble placing all my disregulated thoughts and feelings into just these two buckets I really want to find a partner and desire marriage I want someone who can travel with me and will be my family at my age it feels like most of my friends are married and or have children already I feel like I'm being left behind The Unwanted one I look in the mirror and see the start of gray hair eye wrinkles small age spots and I feel like I'm running out of time it seems like all the good men are taken or I'm not attracted to the ones who are I know this isn't true but where are they I've been making healthier more outgoing choices since listening to your videos I read the books took your dating course and I'm attending your retreat this month I've been doing Pilates every weekday morning for the past two years which has really helped my confidence mood and body pain I recently graduated with a master's degree in business bought a home and manag a successful Airbnb I have a secure remote job in hospital Administration though I don't care about it and I don't feel it uses my talents and I'm about to get a big promotion I've joined my Works chapter of Toast Masters began piano lesson and began ballroom dancing on Friday nights I feel like I'm in a good place to start dating again I don't have any social media and I feel foreign to online dating so I'm not certain how to meet healthy available people I'm a 35-year-old woman never married and don't desire children I grew up in a home full of abuse with a domineering ex-military mother who was controlling and emotionally and physically abusive she would say things to me like I'm your God your judge I own you what you you are the most selfish I ever met the dad I grew up with was extremely abusive and used religion to control and abuse my mother I watched him Crush her collarbone with his bare hands and break her ribs by kicking her repeatedly we were trained to lie about it to teachers and police our house had an anxious heavy feel to it filled with the helpless confusion of tiny children living in the shadow of a monster I spent most of my time reading books watching Animal Planet and writing short stories after my mother was Baker acted that means involuntarily locked up she divorced my dad when I was and she puts quotes around Dad I'm not sure why um when I was seven and revealed to me that he wasn't my real father I see my biological father was the same as my older sister's a dangerous and abusive man she said he didn't want me either and it was his loss I felt very unwanted for a long time and I'm still riddled with an internalized sense of rejection and shame my great uncle became the only Father Figure in my life a temperamental older man that constantly criticized me and expressed his disappointment that I wasn't a boy as I worked on his farm I thought I had dealt with my childhood trauma long ago because I strive to make so much more of my life distant from the trailer park I came from I've overcome so much and have done things that others only dream of such as serving in the Peace Corps in Africa and traveling to 36 countries but now I think I've been mistaking achievement and staying busy for healing I tend to only feel good enough when I'm accomplishing something or feel something is perfect I tend to rush through everything especially aspects of self-care I often feel the people don't really like me once they get to know me or as I've done something wrong or inappropriate I Fawn and freeze during moments when I want to remain strong and poised I admire when others assert themselves yet when I have the opportunity I feel a lump in my throat I sweat and my body prickles all over I really want to stop and to find a good man to spend my life with any tough love you can offer would be appreciated thank you matri okay matri what a beautiful letter what a great writer you are um you very vividly portray what it's like to be you in a way there's so many points in here where I can understand completely what you're saying and and then a couple places where I'm like huh I don't get it but uh it's it's really an usually well-written letter and thank you for that it's uh you describe a beautiful sense of disconnection clearly you are a writer I don't know you know so by now that I'm reading this letter after the retreat so I guess you and I have met but I don't know who you are and um which is probably good you know because then I'm very objective about this so all right let me tell you about what I what I heard you say here you distanced yourself from your family and previous friends that you had trauma bonded with in order to Foster healthier relationships now I think when you say trauma bonded with you mean that you guys both had trauma and you related on that and so that was a big basis of your relationship so I just want to point out that trauma bonding actually means something different I'm not I think that I think well if I'm wrong and you did mean what it really means I stand corrected but I just want to say trauma bonding is intermittent reinforcement it's when somebody loves you takes it away loves you takes it away and it it like causes your brain to like hook on addictively to them and you'll do anything to stay with them and it can work not just on people or children you know but on rats it's a psychological torture technique and I don't think that's what you meant um but a lot of people common usage they say trauma bonded um when they mean we're just a bunch of effed up people hanging out and I know what you mean on that front I love your Lobster analogy yes changing is like that sometimes we have this vulnerable period where we don't have a shell and it takes a while to grow a new one and so we have to kind of hide out for a while you got to watch out because it's also like the favorite excuse of people of avoidance of people who just want to go isolate for a long time and they go look I'm healing I'm healing for 25 years you know and um sometimes it goes long past its usefulness as a healing technique and it's just avoidance and too much avoidance and you can't heal so um I throw that in there but I think your Lobster analogy is just beautiful and perfect so it's hard to make friends you feel unprotected without your familiar circle of complaining trauma bonded friendships and breadcrumb relationships cuz at least it was some type of connection yes I totally relate and you know what I've been through like three cycles of this like CH change of the cast of characters because that's how many times I've had to make radical changes forward in my life I had a long way to go and then I also understand what you're saying here your past quote insights and intuitions were messed up they they they they turned out not to be reliable you were certain about what you were feeling and then in time it turned out they were trauma driven beliefs your red flag detector was operating and that is so normal and I just love that you actually you are insightful enough to just say oh yeah I thought it was my intuition but it was my trauma talking we all do that it drives people crazy I have a video out there that says don't trust these gut instincts and what I'm talking talking about is when the trauma is talking and like oh yeah you got to do this self-destructive thing and people often comment it on it without watching the video going you should always trust your instincts and I'm like not if you have what I have it takes us time to heal enough to know what the difference is between gut instincts and the trauma talking which which is you know sometimes all we know at first so good for you for being careful on the distinction there so you're asking so much the right questions how do I know I'm doing the right thing how can I trust myself those are the right questions you know when you're fully healing when you're fully engaged in your healing you will learn to do that through trial and error the way everybody else did but at a somewhat younger age than we did right we have a we have a delay in our development and so we end up with a lack of clarity around aspects of ourselves that our peers our age peers already have and we think oh I'm terrible but it's really normal for people who were severely neglected and abused as you were to have a delay there and it's kind of beautifully designed like that somehow the child versions of ourselves know how to sort of pack it away you know keep it safe from everything just close it down and then bring it out later but it's just that when it's coming out later in adulthood it's a little messy and it's a little bit confusing and and it's um causes us to be alone for long periods of time which is hard but part of it it's part of it you've got such a good um ability to describe what you're going through how yeah should you listen to other people's advice or is it just yeah other people's advice is always their advice and what they would do so we take it under advisement we take it with a grain of salt sometimes hearing other people's experience can help us get in touch with our own best wisdom so it's okay to ask for advice I just wouldn't recommend completely surrendering your decisions to somebody else's advice unless you're incapacitated in some way or unless you have reasons that you really trust their judgment and you think that what they're suggesting is the best thing for you in which case it's your wisdom right it's your decision so you got left with a lot of anger resentment confusion and longing to be accepted uhhuh what I think is clearly very Advanced about your healing is that you do your you say I'm doing my best to maintain humility as I'm growing through feelings of embarrassment reflecting on my arrogance and naivity over the years if you're aware that you have arrogance and naivity you are well on your way to Healing I mean really like so many people don't get that far and it's hard you know for those of us who realize we have faults to interact with people who absolutely believe they have no Faults who believe that they actually are better and Superior in judgment you know it's hard it's hard to do that it can make it painful to apologize sometimes when we've been arrogant to somebody who doesn't realize that their arrogance is arrogance but you know what we get better anyway it doesn't matter how far along they are I love that you are in touch with that about yourself that is that's a really good sign that you're you're making good progress so you have few Family Ties they haven't been kind you've been the scapegoat yeah that's a whole thing isn't it and a lot of what you're describing as kind of scapegoat wounds I feel like I'm drifting alone in the world yes I I know that feeling so well but you found us now you you know hopefully the crappy childhood fairy Community feels like a tribe and if you came to that Retreat hopefully you became a member and you've made friends here the people here are like more than anybody in the world who I feel at home with who I feel understood by and I never felt understood until I started putting my experience on YouTube and got some comments back I was just like they you know people would comment back like I can't believe you're describing what it's like to me be me and I reply back to them I can't believe you have had this experience too I literally thought I was the only one so it turns out we have a lot of normal symptoms of growing up with something abnormal going on and when we find each other it really helps to take the shame off and help make it understandable that we got like this like it's not our fault that we develop this this manner this mode and now we're the ones who are charged with finding a way to undo it to to um relax the grip of these trauma driven adaptations so that we can start to have some of the Finer Things in life some of the more subtle things like like love and connection and those are often lost to us when we're in survival mode when we're just being tough and strong and you know we get very like you know black and white thinking about things CU we had to in order to survive but then we start opening our minds and it's messy just like you describe so you said you feel frustrated and full of Rage when the smallest things go wrong and you get a strong impulse to hit and punch things and you take it out on a cardboard shipping box all right I'm just going to get in here with some advice cuz you asked I don't think that's a good idea I think it's normal that you're having emotional disregulation and intense rage and you may have been told that it's all very meaningful and you need to feel it and explore it but I question that I don't think that's always true I think if you have um if you had a lot of childhood trauma and you tend to get emotionally disregulated there's actually no bottom to that anger so whereas another person who didn't have trauma they're like yeah I punched a cardboard box and then I had cathar and I was fine did that happen to you it doesn't sound like it so you know venting rage has never worked for me and there it's got people have looked at it like punching pillows screaming that sort of thing there's no evidence that it helps really of anger actually I'll tell you what does um keep people trapped in Anger weed daily weed use you can call it medical marijuana if you want because of course it can be used in a in a medicinal way um but when it's used daily and I understand for some people like that's how they roll and that's fine but if you're asking me yeah that's um keeping you from being able to process anger and I don't just mean psychologically I just mean like neurologically I noticed this a long time ago uh in my life you know I've I've known lots and lots of people who were daily marijuana users I've also I made the correlation like in my 20s like gosh they're all so dang angry after a while that's where it goes and I'm sure there are exceptions but that's my observation is people who use weed every every day no matter how much they claim it's medicinal for them it turns them angry and stuck that's that's my observation for whatever it's doing for you is it worth it cuz I don't think having rage and having to like scream and punch boxes is is good for marriage I don't think so and this is you know you're asking like what's going on here you even said it's been my crutch since I was 14 years old I know all this at this point I need to deal with my anger and shame but what does that look like are there other practical Tools in addition to the Daily practice that I can use also does every feeling have to be sourced back to resentment and fear I sometimes have trouble placing all my disregulated thoughts and feelings into just these two buckets I really want to find a partner and desire marriage I want someone who can travel with me and will be my family at my age it feels like most of my friends are married and or have children already I feel like I'm being left behind The Unwanted one I look in the mirror and see the start of gray hair eye wrinkles small age spots and I feel like I'm running out of time it seems like all the good men are taken or I'm not attracted to the ones who are I know this isn't true but where are they I've been making healthier more outgoing choices since listening to your videos I read the books took your dating course and I'm attending your retreat this month I've been doing Pilates every weekday morning for the past two years which has really helped my confidence mood and body pain I recently graduated with a master's degree in business bought a home and manag a successful Airbnb I have a secure remote job in hospital Administration though I don't care about it and I don't feel it uses my talents and I'm about to get a big promotion I've joined my Works chapter of Toast Masters began piano lesson and began ballroom dancing on Friday nights I feel like I'm in a good place to start dating again I don't have any social media and I feel foreign to online dating so I'm not certain how to meet healthy available people I'm a 35-year-old woman never married and don't desire children I grew up in a home full of abuse with a domineering ex-military mother who was controlling and emotionally and physically abusive she would say things to me like I'm your God your judge I own you what you you are the most selfish I ever met the dad I grew up with was extremely abusive and used religion to control and abuse my mother I watched him Crush her collarbone with his bare hands and break her ribs by kicking her repeatedly we were trained to lie about it to teachers and police our house had an anxious heavy feel to it filled with the helpless confusion of tiny children living in the shadow of a monster I spent most of my time reading books watching Animal Planet and writing short stories after my mother was Baker acted that means involuntarily locked up she divorced my dad when I was and she puts quotes around Dad I'm not sure why um when I was seven and revealed to me that he wasn't my real father I see my biological father was the same as my older sister's a dangerous and abusive man she said he didn't want me either and it was his loss I felt very unwanted for a long time and I'm still riddled with an internalized sense of rejection and shame my great uncle became the only Father Figure in my life a temperamental older man that constantly criticized me and expressed his disappointment that I wasn't a boy as I worked on his farm I thought I had dealt with my childhood trauma long ago because I strive to make so much more of my life distant from the trailer park I came from I've overcome so much and have done things that others only dream of such as serving in the Peace Corps in Africa and traveling to 36 countries but now I think I've been mistaking achievement and staying busy for healing I tend to only feel good enough when I'm accomplishing something or feel something is perfect I tend to rush through everything especially aspects of self-care I often feel the people don't really like me once they get to know me or as I've done something wrong or inappropriate I Fawn and freeze during moments when I want to remain strong and poised I admire when others assert themselves yet when I have the opportunity I feel a lump in my throat I sweat and my body prickles all over I really want to stop and to find a good man to spend my life with any tough love you can offer would be appreciated thank you matri okay matri what a beautiful letter what a great writer you are um you very vividly portray what it's like to be you in a way there's so many points in here where I can understand completely what you're saying and and then a couple places where I'm like huh I don't get it but uh it's it's really an usually well-written letter and thank you for that it's uh you describe a beautiful sense of disconnection clearly you are a writer I don't know you know so by now that I'm reading this letter after the retreat so I guess you and I have met but I don't know who you are and um which is probably good you know because then I'm very objective about this so all right let me tell you about what I what I heard you say here you distanced yourself from your family and previous friends that you had trauma bonded with in order to Foster healthier relationships now I think when you say trauma bonded with you mean that you guys both had trauma and you related on that and so that was a big basis of your relationship so I just want to point out that trauma bonding actually means something different I'm not I think that I think well if I'm wrong and you did mean what it really means I stand corrected but I just want to say trauma bonding is intermittent reinforcement it's when somebody loves you takes it away loves you takes it away and it it like causes your brain to like hook on addictively to them and you'll do anything to stay with them and it can work not just on people or children you know but on rats it's a psychological torture technique and I don't think that's what you meant um but a lot of people common usage they say trauma bonded um when they mean we're just a bunch of effed up people hanging out and I know what you mean on that front I love your Lobster analogy yes changing is like that sometimes we have this vulnerable period where we don't have a shell and it takes a while to grow a new one and so we have to kind of hide out for a while you got to watch out because it's also like the favorite excuse of people of avoidance of people who just want to go isolate for a long time and they go look I'm healing I'm healing for 25 years you know and um sometimes it goes long past its usefulness as a healing technique and it's just avoidance and too much avoidance and you can't heal so um I throw that in there but I think your Lobster analogy is just beautiful and perfect so it's hard to make friends you feel unprotected without your familiar circle of complaining trauma bonded friendships and breadcrumb relationships cuz at least it was some type of connection yes I totally relate and you know what I've been through like three cycles of this like CH change of the cast of characters because that's how many times I've had to make radical changes forward in my life I had a long way to go and then I also understand what you're saying here your past quote insights and intuitions were messed up they they they they turned out not to be reliable you were certain about what you were feeling and then in time it turned out they were trauma driven beliefs your red flag detector was operating and that is so normal and I just love that you actually you are insightful enough to just say oh yeah I thought it was my intuition but it was my trauma talking we all do that it drives people crazy I have a video out there that says don't trust these gut instincts and what I'm talking talking about is when the trauma is talking and like oh yeah you got to do this self-destructive thing and people often comment it on it without watching the video going you should always trust your instincts and I'm like not if you have what I have it takes us time to heal enough to know what the difference is between gut instincts and the trauma talking which which is you know sometimes all we know at first so good for you for being careful on the distinction there so you're asking so much the right questions how do I know I'm doing the right thing how can I trust myself those are the right questions you know when you're fully healing when you're fully engaged in your healing you will learn to do that through trial and error the way everybody else did but at a somewhat younger age than we did right we have a we have a delay in our development and so we end up with a lack of clarity around aspects of ourselves that our peers our age peers already have and we think oh I'm terrible but it's really normal for people who were severely neglected and abused as you were to have a delay there and it's kind of beautifully designed like that somehow the child versions of ourselves know how to sort of pack it away you know keep it safe from everything just close it down and then bring it out later but it's just that when it's coming out later in adulthood it's a little messy and it's a little bit confusing and and it's um causes us to be alone for long periods of time which is hard but part of it it's part of it you've got such a good um ability to describe what you're going through how yeah should you listen to other people's advice or is it just yeah other people's advice is always their advice and what they would do so we take it under advisement we take it with a grain of salt sometimes hearing other people's experience can help us get in touch with our own best wisdom so it's okay to ask for advice I just wouldn't recommend completely surrendering your decisions to somebody else's advice unless you're incapacitated in some way or unless you have reasons that you really trust their judgment and you think that what they're suggesting is the best thing for you in which case it's your wisdom right it's your decision so you got left with a lot of anger resentment confusion and longing to be accepted uhhuh what I think is clearly very Advanced about your healing is that you do your you say I'm doing my best to maintain humility as I'm growing through feelings of embarrassment reflecting on my arrogance and naivity over the years if you're aware that you have arrogance and naivity you are well on your way to Healing I mean really like so many people don't get that far and it's hard you know for those of us who realize we have faults to interact with people who absolutely believe they have no Faults who believe that they actually are better and Superior in judgment you know it's hard it's hard to do that it can make it painful to apologize sometimes when we've been arrogant to somebody who doesn't realize that their arrogance is arrogance but you know what we get better anyway it doesn't matter how far along they are I love that you are in touch with that about yourself that is that's a really good sign that you're you're making good progress so you have few Family Ties they haven't been kind you've been the scapegoat yeah that's a whole thing isn't it and a lot of what you're describing as kind of scapegoat wounds I feel like I'm drifting alone in the world yes I I know that feeling so well but you found us now you you know hopefully the crappy childhood fairy Community feels like a tribe and if you came to that Retreat hopefully you became a member and you've made friends here the people here are like more than anybody in the world who I feel at home with who I feel understood by and I never felt understood until I started putting my experience on YouTube and got some comments back I was just like they you know people would comment back like I can't believe you're describing what it's like to me be me and I reply back to them I can't believe you have had this experience too I literally thought I was the only one so it turns out we have a lot of normal symptoms of growing up with something abnormal going on and when we find each other it really helps to take the shame off and help make it understandable that we got like this like it's not our fault that we develop this this manner this mode and now we're the ones who are charged with finding a way to undo it to to um relax the grip of these trauma driven adaptations so that we can start to have some of the Finer Things in life some of the more subtle things like like love and connection and those are often lost to us when we're in survival mode when we're just being tough and strong and you know we get very like you know black and white thinking about things CU we had to in order to survive but then we start opening our minds and it's messy just like you describe so you said you feel frustrated and full of Rage when the smallest things go wrong and you get a strong impulse to hit and punch things and you take it out on a cardboard shipping box all right I'm just going to get in here with some advice cuz you asked I don't think that's a good idea I think it's normal that you're having emotional disregulation and intense rage and you may have been told that it's all very meaningful and you need to feel it and explore it but I question that I don't think that's always true I think if you have um if you had a lot of childhood trauma and you tend to get emotionally disregulated there's actually no bottom to that anger so whereas another person who didn't have trauma they're like yeah I punched a cardboard box and then I had cathar and I was fine did that happen to you it doesn't sound like it so you know venting rage has never worked for me and there it's got people have looked at it like punching pillows screaming that sort of thing there's no evidence that it helps really of anger actually I'll tell you what does um keep people trapped in Anger weed daily weed use you can call it medical marijuana if you want because of course it can be used in a in a medicinal way um but when it's used daily and I understand for some people like that's how they roll and that's fine but if you're asking me yeah that's um keeping you from being able to process anger and I don't just mean psychologically I just mean like neurologically I noticed this a long time ago uh in my life you know I've I've known lots and lots of people who were daily marijuana users I've also I made the correlation like in my 20s like gosh they're all so dang angry after a while that's where it goes and I'm sure there are exceptions but that's my observation is people who use weed every every day no matter how much they claim it's medicinal for them it turns them angry and stuck that's that's my observation for whatever it's doing for you is it worth it cuz I don't think having rage and having to like scream and punch boxes is is good for marriage I don't think so and this is you know you're asking like what's going on here you even said it's been my crutch since I was 14 years old I know all this at this point I need to deal with my anger and shame but what does that look like are there other practical Tools in addition to the Daily practice that I can use also does every feeling have to be sourced back to resentment and fear I sometimes have trouble placing all my disregulated thoughts and feelings into just these two buckets I really want to find a partner and desire marriage I want someone who can travel with me and will be my family at my age it feels like most of my friends are married and or have children already I feel like I'm being left behind The Unwanted one I look in the mirror and see the start of gray hair eye wrinkles small age spots and I feel like I'm running out of time it seems like all the good men are taken or I'm not attracted to the ones who are I know this isn't true but where are they I've been making healthier more outgoing choices since listening to your videos I read the books took your dating course and I'm attending your retreat this month I've been doing Pilates every weekday morning for the past two years which has really helped my confidence mood and body pain I recently graduated with a master's degree in business bought a home and manag a successful Airbnb I have a secure remote job in hospital Administration though I don't care about it and I don't feel it uses my talents and I'm about to get a big promotion I've joined my Works chapter of Toast Masters began piano lesson and began ballroom dancing on Friday nights I feel like I'm in a good place to start dating again I don't have any social media and I feel foreign to online dating so I'm not certain how to meet healthy available people I'm a 35-year-old woman never married and don't desire children I grew up in a home full of abuse with a domineering ex-military mother who was controlling and emotionally and physically abusive she would say things to me like I'm your God your judge I own you what you you are the most selfish I ever met the dad I grew up with was extremely abusive and used religion to control and abuse my mother I watched him Crush her collarbone with his bare hands and break her ribs by kicking her repeatedly we were trained to lie about it to teachers and police our house had an anxious heavy feel to it filled with the helpless confusion of tiny children living in the shadow of a monster I spent most of my time reading books watching Animal Planet and writing short stories after my mother was Baker acted that means involuntarily locked up she divorced my dad when I was and she puts quotes around Dad I'm not sure why um when I was seven and revealed to me that he wasn't my real father I see my biological father was the same as my older sister's a dangerous and abusive man she said he didn't want me either and it was his loss I felt very unwanted for a long time and I'm still riddled with an internalized sense of rejection and shame my great uncle became the only Father Figure in my life a temperamental older man that constantly criticized me and expressed his disappointment that I wasn't a boy as I worked on his farm I thought I had dealt with my childhood trauma long ago because I strive to make so much more of my life distant from the trailer park I came from I've overcome so much and have done things that others only dream of such as serving in the Peace Corps in Africa and traveling to 36 countries but now I think I've been mistaking achievement and staying busy for healing I tend to only feel good enough when I'm accomplishing something or feel something is perfect I tend to rush through everything especially aspects of self-care I often feel the people don't really like me once they get to know me or as I've done something wrong or inappropriate I Fawn and freeze during moments when I want to remain strong and poised I admire when others assert themselves yet when I have the opportunity I feel a lump in my throat I sweat and my body prickles all over I really want to stop and to find a good man to spend my life with any tough love you can offer would be appreciated thank you matri okay matri what a beautiful letter what a great writer you are um you very vividly portray what it's like to be you in a way there's so many points in here where I can understand completely what you're saying and and then a couple places where I'm like huh I don't get it but uh it's it's really an usually well-written letter and thank you for that it's uh you describe a beautiful sense of disconnection clearly you are a writer I don't know you know so by now that I'm reading this letter after the retreat so I guess you and I have met but I don't know who you are and um which is probably good you know because then I'm very objective about this so all right let me tell you about what I what I heard you say here you distanced yourself from your family and previous friends that you had trauma bonded with in order to Foster healthier relationships now I think when you say trauma bonded with you mean that you guys both had trauma and you related on that and so that was a big basis of your relationship so I just want to point out that trauma bonding actually means something different I'm not I think that I think well if I'm wrong and you did mean what it really means I stand corrected but I just want to say trauma bonding is intermittent reinforcement it's when somebody loves you takes it away loves you takes it away and it it like causes your brain to like hook on addictively to them and you'll do anything to stay with them and it can work not just on people or children you know but on rats it's a psychological torture technique and I don't think that's what you meant um but a lot of people common usage they say trauma bonded um when they mean we're just a bunch of effed up people hanging out and I know what you mean on that front I love your Lobster analogy yes changing is like that sometimes we have this vulnerable period where we don't have a shell and it takes a while to grow a new one and so we have to kind of hide out for a while you got to watch out because it's also like the favorite excuse of people of avoidance of people who just want to go isolate for a long time and they go look I'm healing I'm healing for 25 years you know and um sometimes it goes long past its usefulness as a healing technique and it's just avoidance and too much avoidance and you can't heal so um I throw that in there but I think your Lobster analogy is just beautiful and perfect so it's hard to make friends you feel unprotected without your familiar circle of complaining trauma bonded friendships and breadcrumb relationships cuz at least it was some type of connection yes I totally relate and you know what I've been through like three cycles of this like CH change of the cast of characters because that's how many times I've had to make radical changes forward in my life I had a long way to go and then I also understand what you're saying here your past quote insights and intuitions were messed up they they they they turned out not to be reliable you were certain about what you were feeling and then in time it turned out they were trauma driven beliefs your red flag detector was operating and that is so normal and I just love that you actually you are insightful enough to just say oh yeah I thought it was my intuition but it was my trauma talking we all do that it drives people crazy I have a video out there that says don't trust these gut instincts and what I'm talking talking about is when the trauma is talking and like oh yeah you got to do this self-destructive thing and people often comment it on it without watching the video going you should always trust your instincts and I'm like not if you have what I have it takes us time to heal enough to know what the difference is between gut instincts and the trauma talking which which is you know sometimes all we know at first so good for you for being careful on the distinction there so you're asking so much the right questions how do I know I'm doing the right thing how can I trust myself those are the right questions you know when you're fully healing when you're fully engaged in your healing you will learn to do that through trial and error the way everybody else did but at a somewhat younger age than we did right we have a we have a delay in our development and so we end up with a lack of clarity around aspects of ourselves that our peers our age peers already have and we think oh I'm terrible but it's really normal for people who were severely neglected and abused as you were to have a delay there and it's kind of beautifully designed like that somehow the child versions of ourselves know how to sort of pack it away you know keep it safe from everything just close it down and then bring it out later but it's just that when it's coming out later in adulthood it's a little messy and it's a little bit confusing and and it's um causes us to be alone for long periods of time which is hard but part of it it's part of it you've got such a good um ability to describe what you're going through how yeah should you listen to other people's advice or is it just yeah other people's advice is always their advice and what they would do so we take it under advisement we take it with a grain of salt sometimes hearing other people's experience can help us get in touch with our own best wisdom so it's okay to ask for advice I just wouldn't recommend completely surrendering your decisions to somebody else's advice unless you're incapacitated in some way or unless you have reasons that you really trust their judgment and you think that what they're suggesting is the best thing for you in which case it's your wisdom right it's your decision so you got left with a lot of anger resentment confusion and longing to be accepted uhhuh what I think is clearly very Advanced about your healing is that you do your you say I'm doing my best to maintain humility as I'm growing through feelings of embarrassment reflecting on my arrogance and naivity over the years if you're aware that you have arrogance and naivity you are well on your way to Healing I mean really like so many people don't get that far and it's hard you know for those of us who realize we have faults to interact with people who absolutely believe they have no Faults who believe that they actually are better and Superior in judgment you know it's hard it's hard to do that it can make it painful to apologize sometimes when we've been arrogant to somebody who doesn't realize that their arrogance is arrogance but you know what we get better anyway it doesn't matter how far along they are I love that you are in touch with that about yourself that is that's a really good sign that you're you're making good progress so you have few Family Ties they haven't been kind you've been the scapegoat yeah that's a whole thing isn't it and a lot of what you're describing as kind of scapegoat wounds I feel like I'm drifting alone in the world yes I I know that feeling so well but you found us now you you know hopefully the crappy childhood fairy Community feels like a tribe and if you came to that Retreat hopefully you became a member and you've made friends here the people here are like more than anybody in the world who I feel at home with who I feel understood by and I never felt understood until I started putting my experience on YouTube and got some comments back I was just like they you know people would comment back like I can't believe you're describing what it's like to me be me and I reply back to them I can't believe you have had this experience too I literally thought I was the only one so it turns out we have a lot of normal symptoms of growing up with something abnormal going on and когда мы find each other it really helps to take the shame off и help make it understandable что мы got like this like it's not our fault что мы develop this this manner this mode и now we're the ones кто charged with finding way to undo it to to um relax the grip of these trauma driven adaptations so что мы can start to have some of the Finer Things in life some of the more subtle things like like love и connection и those are often lost to us когда мы in survival mode когда мы just being tough и strong и ты know мы get very like you know black and white thinking about things CU мы had to in order to survive but then мы start opening our minds и it's messy just like ты describe so ты said ты feel frustrated и full of Rage когда the smallest things go wrong и ты get strong impulse to hit и punch things и ты take it out on cardboard shipping box all right я just going to get in here with some advice cuz ты asked я don't think that's good idea я think it's normal что ты having emotional disregulation и intense rage и ты may have been told что it's all very meaningful и ты need to feel it и explore it but я question that я don't think that's always true я think если у тебя было lot of childhood trauma и ты tend to get emotionally disregulated there's actually no bottom to that anger so whereas another person кто didn't have trauma they're like yeah я punched cardboard box и then у меня была cathar и я was fine did that happen to тебе it doesn't sound like it so ты know venting rage never worked for меня и there it's got people have looked at it like punching pillows screaming that sort of thing there's no evidence что it helps really of anger actually я'll tell тебе what does um keep people trapped in Anger weed daily weed use ты can call it medical marijuana если хочешь because of course it can be used in medicinal way um but когда it's used daily и я understand для some people like that's how они roll и that's fine but если ты asking меня yeah that's um keeping тебе from being able to process anger и я don't just mean psychologically я just mean like neurologically я noticed this long time ago uh in my life ты know я've known lots and lots of people кто were daily marijuana users я also made the correlation like in my 20s like gosh they're all so dang angry after while that's where it goes и я'm sure there are exceptions but that's my observation is people кто use weed every every day no matter how much они claim it's medicinal for them it turns them angry и stuck that's that's my observation for whatever it's doing for тебя is it worth it cuz я don't think having rage и having to like scream и punch boxes is is good for marriage я don't think so и this is ты know ты asking like what's going on here ты even said it's been my crutch since я was 14 years old я know all this at this point я need to deal with my anger и shame but what does that look like are there other practical Tools in addition to the Daily practice что я can use also does every feeling have to be sourced back to resentment и fear я sometimes have trouble placing all my disregulated thoughts и feelings into just these two buckets я really want to find partner и desire marriage я want someone кто can travel with me и will be my family at my age it feels like most of my friends are married и or have children already я feel like я'm being left behind The Unwanted one я look in the mirror и see the start of gray hair eye wrinkles small age spots и я feel like я'm running out of time it seems like all the good men are taken or я'm not attracted to the ones who are я know this isn't true but where are they я've been making healthier more outgoing choices since listening to your videos я read the books took your dating course и я'm attending your retreat this month я've been doing Pilates every weekday morning for the past two years which has really helped my confidence mood и body pain я recently graduated with master's degree in business bought home и manag successful Airbnb у меня secure remote job in hospital Administration though я don't care about it и я don't feel it uses my talents и я'm about to get big promotion я've joined my Works chapter of Toast Masters began piano lesson и began ballroom dancing on Friday nights я feel like я'm in good place to start dating again я don't have any social media и я feel foreign to online dating so я'm not certain how to meet healthy available people я 35-year-old woman never married и don't desire children я grew up in home full of abuse with domineering ex-military mother who was controlling и emotionally и physically abusive she would say things to me like I'm your God your judge I own you what you you are the most selfish I ever met the dad I grew up with was extremely abusive и used religion to control и abuse my mother я watched him Crush her collarbone with his bare hands и break her ribs by kicking her repeatedly we were trained to lie about it to teachers и police our house had anxious heavy feel to it filled with the helpless confusion of tiny children living in the shadow of monster я spent most of my time reading books watching Animal Planet и writing short stories after my mother was Baker acted that means involuntarily locked up she divorced my dad when I was и she puts quotes around Dad я'm not sure why um when I was seven и revealed to me that he wasn't my real father я see my biological father was the same as my older sister's dangerous и abusive man she said he didn't want me either и it was his loss я felt very unwanted for long time и я'm still riddled with internalized sense of rejection и shame my great uncle became the only Father Figure in my life temperamental older man that constantly criticized me и expressed his disappointment that I wasn't boy as I worked on his farm я thought I had dealt with my childhood trauma long ago because I strive to make so much more of my life distant from the trailer park I came from я've overcome so much и have done things что others only dream of such as serving in the Peace Corps in Africa и traveling to 36 countries but now I think I' ve been mistaking achievement и staying busy for healing I tend to only feel good enough when I'm accomplishing something or feel something is perfect I tend to rush through everything especially aspects of self-care I often feel the people don't really like me once they get to know me or as I've done something wrong or inappropriate I Fawn и freeze during moments when I want to remain strong и poised I admire when others assert themselves yet when I have the opportunity I feel lump in my throat I sweat и my body prickles all over I really want to stop и to find good man to spend my life with any tough love you can offer would be appreciated thank you matri okay matri what beautiful letter what great writer you are um you very vividly portray what it's like to be you in way there's so many points in here where I can understand completely what you're saying и then couple places where I'm like huh I don't get it but uh it's really unusually well-written letter и thank you for that it's uh you describe beautiful sense of disconnection clearly you are writer I don't know you know so by now that I'm reading this letter after the retreat so I guess you and I have met but I don't know who you are и um which is probably good you know because then I'm very objective about this so all right let me tell you about what I what I heard you say here you distanced yourself from your family и previous friends that you had trauma bonded with in order to Foster healthier relationships now I think when you say trauma bonded with you mean that you guys both had trauma и you related on that и so that was big basis of your relationship so I just want to point out that trauma bonding actually means something different I'm not I think that I think well if I'm wrong и you did mean what it really means I stand corrected but I just want to say trauma bonding is intermittent reinforcement it's when somebody loves you takes it away loves you takes it away и it it like causes your brain to like hook on addictively to them и you'll do anything to stay with them и it can work not just on people or children you know but on rats it's psychological torture technique и I don't think that's what you meant um but lot of people common usage they say trauma bonded um when they mean we're just bunch of effed up people hanging out и I know what you mean on that front I love your Lobster analogy yes changing is like that sometimes we have this vulnerable period where we don't have shell и it takes while to grow new one и so we have to kind of hide out for while you got to watch out because it's also like the favorite excuse of people of avoidance of people who just want to go isolate for long time и they go look I'm healing I'm healing for 25 years you know и um sometimes it goes long past its usefulness as healing technique и it's just avoidance и too much avoidance и you can't heal so um I throw that in there but I think your Lobster analogy is just beautiful и perfect so it's hard to make friends you feel unprotected without your familiar circle of complaining trauma bonded friendships и breadcrumb relationships cuz at least it was some type of connection yes I totally relate и you know what I've been through like three cycles of this like CH change of the cast of characters because that's how many times I've had to make radical changes forward in my life I had long way to go и then I also understand what you're saying here your past quote insights и intuitions were messed up they they they they turned out not to be reliable you were certain about what you were feeling и then in time it turned out they were trauma driven beliefs your red flag detector was operating и that is so normal и I just love that you actually you are insightful enough to just say oh yeah I thought it was my intuition but it was my trauma talking we all do that it drives people crazy I have video out there that says don't trust these gut instincts и what I'm talking talking about is when the trauma is talking и like oh yeah you got to do this self-destructive thing и people often comment it on it without watching the video going you should always trust your instincts и I'm like not if you have what I have it takes us time to heal enough to know what the difference is between gut instincts и the trauma talking which which is you know sometimes all we know at first so good for you for being careful on the distinction there so you're asking so much the right questions how do I know I'm doing the right thing how can I trust myself those are the right questions you know when you're fully healing when you're fully engaged in your healing you will learn to do that through trial and error the way everybody else did but at somewhat younger age than we did right we have we have delay in our development и so we end up with lack of clarity around aspects of ourselves that our peers our age peers already have и we think oh I'm terrible but it's really normal for people who were severely neglected и abused as you were to have delay there и it's kind of beautifully designed like that somehow the child versions of ourselves know how to sort of pack it away you know keep it safe from everything just close it down и then bring it out later but it's just that when it's coming out later in adulthood it's little messy и it's little bit confusing и и it's um causes us to be alone for long periods of time which is hard but part of it it's part of it you've got such good um ability to describe what you're going through how yeah should you listen to other people's advice or is it just yeah other people's advice is always their advice и what they would do so we take it under advisement we take it with grain of salt sometimes hearing other people's experience can help us get in touch with our own best wisdom so it's okay to ask for advice I just wouldn't recommend completely surrendering your decisions to somebody else's advice unless you're incapacitated in some way or unless you have reasons that you really trust their judgment и you think that what they're suggesting is the best thing for you in which case it's your wisdom right it's your decision so you got left with lot of anger resentment confusion и longing to be accepted uhhuh what I think is clearly very Advanced about your healing is that you do your you say I'm doing my best to maintain humility as I'm growing through feelings of embarrassment reflecting on my arrogance и naivity over the years if you're aware that you have arrogance и naivity you are well on your way to Healing I mean really like so many people don't get that far и it's hard you know for those of us who realize we have faults to interact with people who absolutely believe they have no Faults who believe that they actually are better и Superior in judgment you know it's hard it's hard to do that it can make it painful to apologize sometimes when we've been arrogant to somebody who doesn't realize that their arrogance is arrogance but you know what we get better anyway it doesn't matter how far along they are I love that you are in touch with that about yourself that is that's really good sign that you're you're making good progress so you have few Family Ties they haven't been kind you've been the scapegoat yeah that's whole thing isn't it и lot of what you're describing as kind of scapegoat wounds I feel like I'm drifting alone in the world yes I I know that feeling so well but you found us now you you know hopefully the crappy childhood fairy Community feels like tribe и if you came to that Retreat hopefully you became member и you've made friends here the people here are like more than anybody in the world who I feel at home with who I feel understood by и I never felt understood until I started putting my experience on YouTube и got some comments back I was just like they you know people would comment back like I can't believe you're describing what it's like to me be me и I reply back to them I can't believe you have had this experience too I literally thought I was the only one so it turns out we have lot of normal symptoms of growing up with something abnormal going on и when we find each other it really helps to take the shame off и help make it understandable that we got like this like it's not our fault that we develop this this manner this mode и now we're the ones who are charged with finding way to undo it to to um relax the grip of these trauma driven adaptations so that we can start to have some of the Finer Things in life some of the more subtle things like like love и connection и those are often lost to us when we're in survival mode when we're just being tough и strong и you know we get very like you know black and white thinking about things CU we had to in order to survive but then we start opening our minds и it's messy just like you describe so you said you feel frustrated и full of Rage when the smallest things go wrong и you get strong impulse to hit и punch things и you take it out on cardboard shipping box all right I'm just going to get in here with some advice cuz you asked I don't think that's good idea I think it's normal that you're having emotional disregulation и intense rage и you may have been told that it's all very meaningful и you need to feel it и explore it but I question that I don't think that's always true I think if you have um if you had lot of childhood trauma и you tend to get emotionally disregulated there's actually no bottom to that anger so whereas another person who didn't have trauma they're like yeah I punched cardboard box и then I had cathar и I was fine did that happen to you it doesn't sound like it so you know venting rage has never worked for me и there it's got people have looked at it like punching pillows screaming that sort of thing there's no evidence that it helps really of anger actually I'll tell you what does um keep people trapped in Anger weed daily weed use you can call it medical marijuana if you want because of course it can be used in in medicinal way um but when it's used daily и I understand for some people like that's how they roll и that's fine but if you're asking me yeah that's um keeping you from being able to process anger и I don't just mean psychologically I just mean like neurologically I noticed this long time ago uh in my life you know I've I've known lots and lots of people who were daily marijuana users I've also I made the correlation like in my 20s like gosh they're all so dang angry after while that's where it goes и I'm sure there are exceptions but that's my observation is people who use weed every every day no matter how much they claim it's medicinal for them it turns them angry и stuck that's that's my observation for whatever it's doing for you is it worth it cuz I don't think having rage и having to like scream и punch boxes is is good for marriage I don't think so и this is you know you're asking like what's going on here you even said it's been my crutch since I was 14 years old I know all this at this point I need to deal with my anger и shame but what does that look like are there other practical Tools in addition to the Daily practice that I can use also does every feeling have to be sourced back to resentment и fear I sometimes have trouble placing all my disregulated thoughts и feelings into just these two buckets I really want to find partner и desire marriage I want someone who can travel with me и will be my family at my age it feels like most of my friends are married и or have children already I feel like I'm being left behind The Unwanted one I look in the mirror и see the start of gray hair eye wrinkles small age spots и I feel like I'm running out of time it seems like all the good men are taken or I'm not attracted to the ones who are I know this isn't true but where are they I've been making healthier more outgoing choices since listening to your videos I read the books took your dating course и I'm attending your retreat this month I've been doing Pilates every weekday morning for the past two years which has really helped my confidence mood и body pain I recently graduated with master's degree in business bought home и manag successful Airbnb I have secure remote job in hospital Administration though I don't care about it и I don't feel it uses my talents и I'm about to get big promotion I've joined my Works chapter of Toast Masters began piano lesson и began ballroom dancing on Friday nights I feel like I'm in good place to start dating again I don't have any social media и I feel foreign to online dating so I'm not certain how to meet healthy available people I'm 35-year-old woman never married и don't desire children I grew up in home full of abuse with domineering ex-military mother who was controlling и emotionally и physically abusive she would say things to me like I'm your God your judge I own you what you you are the most selfish I ever met the dad I grew up with was extremely abusive и used religion to control и abuse my mother I watched him Crush her collarbone with his bare hands и break her ribs by kicking her repeatedly we were trained to lie about it to teachers и police our house had anxious heavy feel to it filled with the helpless confusion of tiny children living in the shadow of monster I spent most of my time reading books watching Animal Planet и writing short stories after my mother was Baker acted that means involuntarily locked up she divorced my dad when I was и she puts quotes around Dad I'm not sure why um when I was seven и revealed to me that he wasn't my real father I see my biological father was the same as my older sister's dangerous и abusive man she said he didn't want me either и it was his loss I felt very unwanted for long time и I'm still riddled with internalized sense of rejection и shame my great uncle became the only Father Figure in my life temperamental older man that constantly criticized me и expressed his disappointment that I wasn't boy as I worked on his farm I thought I had dealt with my childhood trauma long ago because I strive to make so much more of my life distant from the trailer park I came from I've overcome so much и have done things that others only dream of such as serving in the Peace Corps in Africa и traveling to 36 countries but now I think I've been mistaking achievement и staying busy for healing I tend to only feel good enough when I'm accomplishing something or feel something is perfect I tend to rush through everything especially aspects of self-care I often feel the people don't really like me once they get to know me or as I've done something wrong or inappropriate I Fawn и freeze during moments when I want to remain strong и poised I admire when others assert themselves yet when I have the opportunity I feel lump in my throat I sweat и my body prickles all over I really want to stop и to find good man to spend my life with any tough love you can offer would be appreciated thank you matri okay matri what beautiful letter what great writer you are um you very vividly portray what it's like to be you in way there's so many points in here where I can understand completely what you're saying и then couple places where I'm like huh I don't get it but uh it's really unusually well-written letter и thank you for that it's uh you describe beautiful sense of disconnection clearly you are writer I don't know you know so by now that I'm reading this letter after the retreat so I guess you and I have met but I don't know who you are и um which is probably good you know because then I'm very objective about this so all right let me tell you about what I what I heard you say here you distanced yourself from your family и previous friends that you had trauma bonded with in order to Foster healthier relationships now I think when you say trauma bonded with you mean that you guys both had trauma и you related on that и so that was big basis of your relationship so I just want to point out that trauma bonding actually means something different I'm not I think that I think well if I'm wrong и you did mean what it really means I stand corrected but I just want to say trauma bonding is intermittent reinforcement it's when somebody loves you takes it away loves you takes it away и it it like causes your brain to like hook on addictively to them и you'll do anything to stay with them и it can work not just on people or children you know but on rats it's psychological torture technique и I don't think that's what you meant um but lot of people common usage they say trauma bonded um when they mean we're just bunch of effed up people hanging out и I know what you mean on that front I love your Lobster analogy yes changing is like that sometimes we have this vulnerable period where we don't have shell и it takes while to grow new one и so we have to kind of hide out for while you got to watch out because it's also like the favorite excuse of people of avoidance of people who just want to go isolate for long time и they go look I'm healing I'm healing for 25 years you know и um sometimes it goes long past its usefulness as healing technique и it's just avoidance и too much avoidance и you can't heal so um I throw that in there but I think your Lobster analogy is just beautiful и perfect so it's hard to make friends you feel unprotected without your familiar circle of complaining trauma bonded friendships и breadcrumb relationships cuz at least it was some type of connection yes I totally relate и you know what I've been through like three cycles of this like CH change of the cast of characters because that's how many times I've had to make radical changes forward in my life I had long way to go и then I also understand what you're saying here your past quote insights и intuitions were messed up they they they they turned out not to be reliable you were certain about what you were feeling и then in time it turned out they were trauma driven beliefs your red flag detector was operating и that is so normal и I just love that you actually you are insightful enough to just say oh yeah I thought it was my intuition but it was my trauma talking we all do that it drives people crazy I have video out there that says don't trust these gut instincts и what I'm talking talking about is when the trauma is talking и like oh yeah you got to do this self-destructive thing и people often comment it on it without watching the video going you should always trust your instincts и I'm like not if you have what I have it takes us time to heal enough to know what the difference is between gut instincts и the trauma talking which which is you know sometimes all we know at first so good for you for being careful on the distinction there so you're asking so much the right questions how do I know I'm doing the right thing how can I trust myself those are the right questions you know when you're fully healing when you're fully engaged in your healing you will learn to do that through trial and error the way everybody else did but at somewhat younger age than we did right we have we have delay in our development и so we end up with lack of clarity around aspects of ourselves that our peers our age peers already have и we think oh I'm terrible but it's really normal for people who were severely neglected и abused as you were to have delay there и it's kind of beautifully designed like that somehow the child versions of ourselves know how to sort of pack it away you know keep it safe from everything just close it down и then bring it out later but it's just that when it's coming out later in adulthood it's little messy и it's little bit confusing и и it's um causes us to be alone for long periods of time which is hard but part of it it's part of it you've got such good um ability to describe what you're going through how yeah should you listen to other people's advice or is it just yeah other people's advice is always their advice и what they would do so we take it under advisement we take it with grain of salt sometimes hearing other people's experience can help us get in touch with our own best wisdom so it's okay to ask for advice I just wouldn't recommend completely surrendering your decisions to somebody else's advice unless you're incapacitated in some way or unless you have reasons that you really trust their judgment и you think that what they're suggesting is the best thing for you in which case it's your wisdom right it's your decision so you got left with lot of anger resentment confusion и longing to be accepted uhhuh what I think is clearly very Advanced about your healing is that you do your you say I'm doing my best to maintain humility as I'm growing through feelings of embarrassment reflecting on my arrogance и naivity over the years if you're aware that you have arrogance и naivity you are well on your way to Healing I mean really like so many people don't get that far и it's hard you know for those of us who realize we have faults to interact with people who absolutely believe they have no Faults who believe that they actually are better и Superior in judgment you know it's hard it's hard to do that it can make it painful to apologize sometimes when we've been arrogant to somebody who doesn't realize that their arrogance is arrogance but you know what we get better anyway it doesn't matter how far along they are I love that you are in touch with that about yourself that is that's really good sign that you're you're making good progress so you have few Family Ties they haven't been kind you've been the scapegoat yeah that's whole thing isn't it и lot of what you're describing as kind of scapegoat wounds I feel like I'm drifting alone in the world yes I I know that feeling so well but you found us now you you know hopefully the crappy childhood fairy Community feels like tribe и if you came to that Retreat hopefully you became member и you've made friends here the people here are like more than anybody in the world who I feel at home with who I feel understood by и I never felt understood until I started putting my experience on YouTube и got some comments back I was just like they you know people would comment back like I can't believe you're describing what it's like to me be me и I reply back to them I can't believe you have had this experience too I literally thought I was the only one so it turns out we have lot of normal symptoms of growing up with something abnormal going on и when we find each other it really helps to take the shame off и help make it understandable that we got like this like it's not our fault that we develop this this manner this mode и now we're the ones who are charged with finding way to undo it to to um relax the grip of these trauma driven adaptations so that we can start to have some of the Finer Things in life some of the more subtle things like like love и connection и those are often lost to us when we're in survival mode when we're just being tough и strong и you know we get very like you know black and white thinking about things CU we had to in order to survive but then we start opening our minds и it's messy just like you describe so you said you feel frustrated и full of Rage when the smallest things go wrong и you get strong impulse to hit и punch things и you take it out on cardboard shipping box all right I'm just going to get in here with some advice cuz you asked I don't think that's good idea I think it's normal that you're having emotional disregulation и intense rage и you may have been told that it's all very meaningful и you need to feel it и explore it but I question that I don't think that's always true I think if you have um if you had lot of childhood trauma и you tend to get emotionally disregulated there's actually no bottom to that anger so whereas another person who didn't have trauma they're like yeah I punched cardboard box и then I had cathar и I was fine did that happen to you it doesn't sound like it so you know venting rage has never worked for me и there it's got people have looked at it like punching pillows screaming that sort of thing there's no evidence that it helps really of anger actually I'll tell you what does um keep people trapped in Anger weed daily weed use you can call it medical marijuana if you want because of course it can be used in in medicinal way um but when it's used daily и I understand for some people like that's how they roll и that's fine but if you're asking me yeah that's um keeping you from being able to process anger и I don't just mean psychologically I just mean like neurologically I noticed this long time ago uh in my life you know I've I've known lots and lots of people who were daily marijuana users I've also I made the correlation like in my 20s like gosh they're all so dang angry after while that's where it goes и I'm sure there are exceptions but that's my observation is people who use weed every every day no matter how much they claim it's medicinal for them it turns them angry и stuck that's that's my observation for whatever it's doing for you is it worth it cuz I don't think having rage и having to like scream и punch boxes is is good for marriage I don't think so и this is you know you're asking like what's going on here you even said it's been my crutch since I was 14 years old I know all this at this point I need to deal with my anger и shame but what does that look like are there other practical Tools in addition to the Daily practice that I can use also does every feeling have to be sourced back to resentment и fear I sometimes have trouble placing all my disregulated thoughts и feelings into just these two buckets I really want to find partner и desire marriage I want someone who can travel with me и will be my family at my age it feels like most of my friends are married и or have children already I feel like I'm being left behind The Unwanted one I look in the mirror и see the start of gray hair eye wrinkles small age spots и I feel like I'm running out of time it seems like all the good men are taken or I'm not attracted to the ones who are I know this isn't true but where are they I've been making healthier more outgoing choices since listening to your videos I read the books took your dating course и I'm attending your retreat this month I've been doing Pilates every weekday morning for the past two years which has really helped my confidence mood и body pain I recently graduated with master's degree in business bought home и manag successful Airbnb I have secure remote job in hospital Administration though I don't care about it и I don't feel it uses my talents и I'm about to get big promotion I've joined my Works chapter of Toast Masters began piano lesson и began ballroom dancing on Friday nights I feel like I'm in good place to start dating again I don't have any social media и I feel foreign to online dating so I'm not certain how to meet healthy available people I'm 35-year-old woman never married и don't desire children I grew up in home full of abuse with domineering ex-military mother who was controlling и emotionally и physically abusive she would say things to me like I'm your God your judge I own you what you you are the most selfish I ever met the dad I grew up with was extremely abusive и used religion to control и abuse my mother I watched him Crush her collarbone with his bare hands и break her ribs by kicking her repeatedly we were trained to lie about it to teachers и police our house had anxious heavy feel to it filled with the helpless confusion of tiny children living in the shadow of monster I spent most of my time reading books watching Animal Planet и writing short stories after my mother was Baker acted that means involuntarily locked up she divorced my dad when I was и she puts quotes around Dad I'm not sure why um when I was seven и revealed to me that he wasn't my real father I see my biological father was the same as my older sister's dangerous и abusive man she said he didn't want me either и it was his loss I felt very unwanted for long time и I'm still riddled with internalized sense of rejection и shame my great uncle became the only Father Figure in my life temperamental older man that constantly criticized me и expressed his disappointment that I wasn't boy as I worked on his farm I thought I had dealt with my childhood trauma long ago because I strive to make so much more of my life distant from the trailer park I came from I've overcome so much и have done things that others only dream of such as serving in the Peace Corps in Africa и traveling to 36 countries but now I think I've been mistaking achievement и staying busy for healing I tend to only feel good enough when I'm accomplishing something or feel something is perfect I tend to rush through everything especially aspects of self-care I often feel the people don't really like me once they get to know me or as I've done something wrong or inappropriate I Fawn и freeze during moments when I want to remain strong и poised I admire when others assert themselves yet when I have the opportunity I feel lump in my throat I sweat и my body prickles all over I really want to stop и to find good man to spend my life with any tough love you can offer would be appreciated thank you matri okay matri what beautiful letter what great writer you are um you very vividly portray what it's like to be you in way there's so many points in here where I can understand completely what you're saying и then couple places where I'm like huh I don't get it but uh it's really unusually well-written letter и thank you for that it's uh you describe beautiful sense of disconnection clearly you are writer I don't know you know so by now that I'm reading this letter after the retreat so I guess you and I have met but I don't know who you are и um which is probably good you know because then I'm very objective about this so all right let me tell you about what I what I heard you say here you distanced yourself from your family и previous friends that you had trauma bonded with in order to Foster healthier relationships now I think when you say trauma bonded with you mean that you guys both had trauma и you related on that и so that was big basis of your relationship so I just want to point out that trauma bonding actually means something different I'm not I think that I think well if I'm wrong и you did mean what it really means I stand corrected but I just want to say trauma bonding is intermittent reinforcement it's when somebody loves you takes it away loves you takes it away и it it like causes your brain to like hook on addictively to them и you'll do anything to stay with them и it can work not just on people or children you know but on rats it's psychological torture technique и I don't think that's what you meant um but lot of people common usage they say trauma bonded um when they mean we're just bunch of effed up people hanging out и I know what you mean on that front I love your Lobster analogy yes changing is like that sometimes we have this vulnerable period where we don't have shell и it takes while to grow new one и so we have to kind of hide out for while you got to watch out because it's also like the favorite excuse of people of avoidance of people who just want to go isolate for long time и they go look I'm healing I'm healing for 25 years you know и um sometimes it goes long past its usefulness as healing technique и it's just avoidance и too much avoidance и you can't heal so um I throw that in there but I think your Lobster analogy is just beautiful и perfect so it's hard to make friends you feel unprotected without your familiar circle of complaining trauma bonded friendships и breadcrumb relationships cuz at least it was some type of connection yes I totally relate и you know what I've been through like three cycles of this like CH change of the cast of characters because that's how many times I've had to make radical changes forward in my life I had long way to go и then I also understand what you're saying here your past quote insights и intuitions were messed up they they they they turned out not to be reliable you were certain about what you were feeling и then in time it turned out they were trauma driven beliefs your red flag detector was operating и that is so normal и I just love that you actually you are insightful enough to just say oh yeah I thought it was my intuition but it was my trauma talking we all do that it drives people crazy I have video out there that says don't trust these gut instincts и what I'm talking talking about is when the trauma is talking и like oh yeah you got to do this self-destructive thing и people often comment it on it without watching the video going you should always trust your instincts и I'm like not if you have what I have it takes us time to heal enough to know what the difference is between gut instincts и the trauma talking which which is you know sometimes all we know at first so good for you for being careful on the distinction there so you're asking so much the right questions how do I know I'm doing the right thing how can I trust myself those are the right questions you know when you're fully healing when you're fully engaged in your healing you will learn to do that through trial and error the way everybody else did but at somewhat younger age than we did right we have we have delay in our development и so we end up with lack of clarity around aspects of ourselves that our peers our age peers already have и we think oh I'm terrible but it's really normal for people who were severely neglected и abused as you were to have delay there и it's kind of beautifully designed like that somehow the child versions of ourselves know how to sort of pack it away you know keep it safe from everything just close it down и then bring it out later but it's just that when it's coming out later in adulthood it's little messy и it's little bit confusing и и it's um causes us to be alone for long periods of time which is hard but part of it it's part of it you've got such good um ability to describe what you're going through how yeah should you listen to other people's advice or is it just yeah other people's advice is always their advice и what they would do so we take it under advisement we take it with grain of salt sometimes hearing other people's experience can help us get in touch with our own best wisdom so it's okay to ask for advice I just wouldn't recommend completely surrendering your decisions to somebody else's advice unless you're incapacitated in some way or unless you have reasons that you really trust their judgment и you think that what they're suggesting is the best thing for you in which case it's your wisdom right it's your decision so you got left with lot of anger resentment confusion и longing to be accepted uhhuh what I think is clearly very Advanced about your healing is that you do your you say I'm doing my best to maintain humility as I'm growing through feelings of embarrassment reflecting on my arrogance и naivity over the years if you're aware that you have arrogance и naivity you are well on your way to Healing I mean really like so many people don't get that far и it's hard you know for those of us who realize we have faults to interact with people who absolutely believe they have no Faults who believe that they actually are better и Superior in judgment you know it's hard it's hard to do that it can make it painful to apologize sometimes when we've been arrogant to somebody who doesn't realize that their arrogance is arrogance but you know what we get better anyway it doesn't matter how far along they are I love that you are in touch with that about yourself that is that's really good sign that you're you're making good progress so you have few Family Ties they haven't been kind you've been the scapegoat yeah that's whole thing isn't it и lot of what you're describing as kind of scapegoat wounds I feel like I'm drifting alone in the world yes I I know that feeling so well but you found us now you you know hopefully the crappy childhood fairy Community feels like tribe и if you came to that Retreat hopefully you became member и you've made friends here the people here are like more than anybody in the world who I feel at home with who I feel understood by и I never felt understood until I started putting my experience on YouTube и got some comments back I was just like they you know people would comment back like I can't believe you're describing what it's like to me be me и I reply back to them I can't believe you have had this experience too I literally thought I was the only one so it turns out we have lot of normal symptoms of growing up with something abnormal going on и when we find each other it really helps to take the shame off и help make it understandable that we got like this like it's not our fault that we develop this this manner this mode и now we're the ones who are charged with finding way to undo it to to um relax the grip of these trauma driven adaptations so that we can start to have some of the Finer Things in life some of the more subtle things like like love и connection и those are often lost to us when we're in survival mode when we're just being tough и strong и you know we get very like you know black and white thinking about things CU we had to in order to survive but then we start opening our minds и it's messy just like you describe so you said you feel frustrated и full of Rage when the smallest things go wrong и you get strong impulse to hit и punch things и you take it out on cardboard shipping box all right I'm just going to get in here with some advice cuz you asked I don't think that's good idea I think it's normal that you're having emotional disregulation и intense rage и you may have been told that it's all very meaningful и you need to feel it и explore it but I question that I don't think that's always true I think if you have um if you had lot of childhood trauma и you tend to get emotionally disregulated there's actually no bottom to that anger so whereas another person who didn't have trauma they're like yeah I punched cardboard box и then I had cathar и I was fine did that happen to you it doesn't sound like it so you know venting rage has never worked for me и there it's got people have looked at it like punching pillows screaming that sort of thing there's no evidence that it helps really of anger actually I'll tell you what does um keep people trapped in Anger weed daily weed use you can call it medical marijuana if you want because of course it can be used in in medicinal way um but when it's used daily и I understand for some people like that's how they roll и that's fine but if you're asking me yeah that's um keeping you from being able to process anger и I don't just mean psychologically I just mean like neurologically I noticed this long time ago uh in my life you know I've I've known lots and lots of people who were daily marijuana users I've also I made the correlation like in my 20s like gosh they're all so dang angry after while that's where it goes и I'm sure there are exceptions but that's my observation is people who use weed every every day no matter how much they claim it's medicinal for them it turns them angry и stuck that's that's my observation for whatever it's doing for you is it worth it cuz I don't think having rage и having to like scream и punch boxes is is good for marriage I don't think so и this is you know you're asking like what's going on here you even said it's been my crutch since I was 14 years old I know all this at this point I need to deal with my anger и shame but what does that look like are there other practical Tools in addition to the Daily practice that I can use also does every feeling have to be sourced back to resentment и fear I sometimes have trouble placing all my disregulated thoughts и feelings into just these two buckets I really want to find partner и desire marriage I want someone who can travel with me и will be my family at my age it feels like most of my friends are married и or have children already I feel like I'm being left behind The Unwanted one I look in the mirror и see the start of gray hair eye wrinkles small age spots и I feel like I'm running out of time it seems like all the good men are taken or I'm not attracted to the ones who are I know this</div></section><section class=