Our group project of building inspirational quotes has been a wonderful success. I am really enjoying this, and proud to see what we are creating here as a group. There are truly so many positive and helpful comments made on this blog! I can see this project carrying on for a long, long time, so when you find a quote or comment that is specifically inspiring, encouraging, meaningful, and uplifting, by all means, please contribute to the collection we are developing here.
The whole Discussing Dissociation Community will benefit when you send in those words that rang true for you. Chances are, they have that kind of impact on others as well. The images really do add even more power to the words, and that helps to support and encourage everyone even more. So keep’em coming!
I have bigger plans for many of the inspirational quotes we have created, and I should (and will) write some individual articles connected to the quotes, but for now, I wanted to be sure to show you the first ones that have been made.
How amazing are these??!!
Pretty strong statement there, hey ??!!! Thanks, Me+We. And you know, I couldn’t agree more. DID system work and working with your WHOLE system is absolutely essential. Everyone is there for a reason, and everyone counts. It might take courage to listen to your whole system, but each and everyone of them matters.
And of course, everyone in your system deserves the opportunity for healing, safety, support, and encouragement.
Excellent advice and insight, “ZD”. For all DID survivors, the past has been so very difficult, painful, devastating… full of heart-breaking memories. And frankly, for many folks, the present-day can be pretty rough too, hey?! There’s no doubt that all dissociative trauma survivors have seen far too many difficult times.
So the idea of knowing-planning-believing-preparing to move forward, and to make the future as fulfilling, gentle, purpose-filled, and the best possible, is very good. Like really good. Take your power back. Make new plans. Explore new options. Develop skills and abilities that you haven’t yet had the chance to develop. Figure out which dreams you can still reach, and go for those.
Life is full of choices. And you sincerely do have the freedom and the ability to choose to make your future
This quote is out there in lots of places in the world, but think about how it could really and truly change the way you relate to your internal system. Take a minute to think about that. What would it feel like, if in your internal system, if everyone was able to keep calm and cooperate?
If I can encourage you in ANY way, I certainly encourage you to make this your overall DID System goal. Learn to work together. Become friends with each other. Learn how to understand each other. Recognize the strengths in each other. Stop fighting each other, and truly learn the art of system cooperation. It can make a huge, huge difference for you.
Oh sweet little Wendy… Such wise words you’ve shared. This is exactly what it takes to reach your insiders. You’ve approached the others in your system with such gentleness, and kindness. You’ve shown them that you understand their hurt and pain. You’ve acknowledged their troubles, and also given them new and helpful information. You’re teaching them how it should be / could be for them, and you’ve so beautifully invited those other ones in your system to connect with you.
I know it takes a lot more than just one invitation, and I encourage you to keep trying to reach those others inside who are still scared, and hurting, and confused. You’ve got a beautiful way about you, Wendy…. please pass that love around to everyone inside. They most certainly need to see and feel that.
SeekingOurFreedom — I have to say, I would have picked this quote out myself because I really really really like this idea. So cool. I will most definitely be writing a new blog article featuring this, so… more to come! You’ve mentioned this as a morning game you do with your insiders, and while it can be fun, I can see that it’s truly helpful in many ways! I’ll save more of my thoughts for that upcoming blog article, and in the meantime, we’ll highlight it here for folks to see.
Once again, “ZD”, you are spot on. Sometimes it’s soooooo hard to take all the time it takes to heal, but then again… When dissociative people ask me why it takes so long, I will ask those systems if they really want to know EVERYthing all at once??!?!?!?!! Those memories are pretty rough! And you know, when folks stop and think about how difficult it is to be flooded with painful information, they realize that the slow and steady pace is much more bearable.
Just system-wise, there is so much to do. So much to learn. So many people to meet. So many gaps in time to fill by whoever knows about that particular gap in memory. Because of course someone knows ‘this’, and someone else knows ‘that’, but who are they?? It just takes a lot of time, that’s for sure.
Learning, healing, connecting, cooperating. And that’s all on the inside. Throw in the outside world, and the layers just multiply! Most DID systems have complicated outside lives and difficult family relationships, so yeah…. all those painful layers take a lot of time to sort through as well.
But hold tight, and keep at it. Because every single step counts. And it all adds up.
And the JOURNEY is important. It’s okay to stop and enjoy life once in awhile. Find some of those fun-creative-happy-beautiful moments too. They are out there, and definitely as important to healing as facing the hard stuff.
Me+We — this is such a powerful statement. I’m not done working with this quote either — I’m still working on a few other ideas. But wow — and yes absolutely. How true is this! I completely agree with what you are saying here.
It’s been so good hearing more and more survivors out in the world disclosing their truths, and exposing hidden abuses… Breaking that silence is truly freeing — and while it can be scary to do — speaking up and having the courage to talk about your life-stories in those safe warm gentle places can create deep healing experiences.
No one has to tell the whole world, but it really it okay to begin talking with each other in your system, because first and foremost, you and your system need to hear each other. That’s what matters the very most.
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I hope you enjoyed these inspirational quotes!
We have more. We’re a brilliant group here at Discussing Dissociation! Lots of wisdom here, that’s for sure!
I don’t wanna overload the page with images, so for now, I’ll pause at this point, and just let you know there are more to come. 
And please do keep sending in your favorite quotes you find here on this blog. SO many words of wisdom — let’s make the best of that!
I wish you the very very best in your healing journey…..
Warmly,
Kathy
Copyright © 2008-2018 Kathy Broady MSW and Discussing Dissociation
That was very beautiful.
oooh they’re beautiful! Well done Kathy and everyone who contributed. Can’t wait to see more.
thank you kathy🌷
WOW … thank you Kathy. What wonderful images to go with the words. Can’t wait to see more (and am inspired to go back on a treasure hunt to find more).
ME+WE
04/23/2018
Inspirational, yes. We need it. Thank you. 4/26/18
I have found over time, a bull frog can pull a loaded freight train, provided the harness fits correctly.
Hi Timothy,
Welcome to Discussing Dissociation. 🙂
It’s good to hear from you, and thanks for your comment.
That’s an interesting quote — and it certainly reminds us how even the most difficult tasks can be accomplished with the right tools!
I hope you are doing well.
Warmly,
Kathy
One of my favorite books.
My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss.
Some days are yellow. Some are blue. On different days I’m Different too. You’d be surprised how many ways I change on different colored days. On bright red days how good it feels to be a horse and kicking my heels! On other days I’m other things. On bright blue days I flap my wings. Somedays of course, feel sort of brown. Then I feel slow and low, low down. Then comes a yellow day. And, whee I am busy, buzzing bee. Gray days… Everything is gray. I watch. But nothing moves today. Then all of a sudden I’m a circus seal! On my orange days that’s how I feel. Green day’s. Deep deep in the sea. Cool and quiet fish. That’s me. On purple days I’m sad. I groan. I drag my tai.l I walk alone. But when my days are happy and pink it is great to jump and just not think. Then comes my black days. Mad. and loud. I howl. I growl at every cloud. Then comes a mixed up day.l and wham! I don’t know who or what I am! But it all turns out all right, you see. and I go back to being… Me me
Each one of my parts Karis emotions that I am not able to show.
4/27/18
Oh wow 4+me+2=me … thank you for sharing the Dr Seuss book with us. I will have to get myself a copy to keep to read to my little ones. How wonderfully expressed.
What great things we come up with as a community. I am always amazed and so very thankful.
ME+WE
04/27/2018
we like that book.
it he 1of ar fafrits.
it have ranbo pishrs.
One of my favorite sayings is: THE ONLY OUT IS THROUGH.
So many times I/we want an escape plan like we have had for all of those years. But the only REAL/LASTING escape is through the traumas.
Hi Susan,
Oh wow … well said!!! I sincerely believe that “THE ONLY OUT IS THROUGH” as well. I do not wish to struggle or to be in trauma pain but I try not to run away from it either. Certainly trauma pain can be a habit that is hard to kick in itself so one has to be careful not to get stuck in the muck. But, when I walk out of my Ts office all churned up, confused, and in pain, etc. I know that I have done good work and that makes me very happy. That may sound strange but — I invite and welcome the trauma pain because I know that it means that I have reached deeply into the darkness of my life lost and have brought out into the light of compassion and understanding one of my heart secrets. That is the first really big step to knowing — and you cannot heal until you know what you are healing from.
ME+WE
04/30/2018
Thanks Me+We – “you cannot heal until you know what you are healing from” – That is so, so where I am at – and it is a journey that at times – still – I find myself wanting to run from. So much of your insight has helped me to understand better the process of my journey…each step has a purpose – whether I “understand” it right now or not.
Sometimes I have even held on “tooth and toenail” in throwing out a “blanket” version of forgiveness by saying “I forgive whoever for whatever” – thinking THAT would take care of EVERYTHING and now I should be all well and OK – but it hasn’t seemed to work for me.
For me – it’s like a critical step of the process is still missing – and it is my journey to find it. The “blanket forgiveness” version was actually just another of my methods of denial and running away from it all. It sounded “so good and so right” on the surface – I am SUPPOSED to forgive – but MY bottom line motive for it was all wrong – I was, again, running. I am not saying that that specifically applies to everybody – maybe that would work fine for some people – if their bottom line motive was different from mine – but it didn’t for ME.
And it was a hard lesson for me to walk through – that “blanket forgiveness” was NOT going to work for me – there were other “steps” I NEEDED to take first. Do I still choose to “forgive”? YES. But for now it must sit on the “sidelines” until it’s proper time for application. I would rather apply it NOW, get it over with, and be on my way away from all this – but evidently it is not the plan that will work for me. Sooooooo – your statement helped to explain the “reason” why what I WANT to do is NOT what I NEED to do…..Such an eye-opening statement from you.
I believe forgiveness IS important and is ultimately needed as like a “permanent glue” for “holding the healing together” – but, you can’t use it to just “side-step” other steps NECESSARY for the healing. For ME – I evidently need to know what I am being healed from BEFORE I can know how or where to “apply the glue”. Don’t know if anything I just said made any sense or not – but it is where I am – so it makes sense to ME!
I know some DIDers who choose (at this point) to keep blocking stuff off – they don’t want to “know” – or to “look” at it – and I can’t fault them for that. It’s just where they are at in their journey right now – things can change. I “lived there” for a good while – but as things continued to trigger and bubble up in my face to the point of affecting my Outside life – it became useless to “deny” – I had to start being brave enough to turn and even glance at it…and the journey began.
I agree with you that some of my most INTENSE times in my T’s office are ultimately some of the most productive – no matter how scary, “weird”, “lost”, or even “out of control” I felt or “watched myself” (in varying degrees) be. There are clues all over it – as long as you are willing to acknowledge them. Still don’t know what the “trauma” was – but the “symptoms” are making more sense….the repetitive patterns are there – it must mean something.
Hi MissyMing,
Thank you for your thoughtful and inspiring comment here. We have so much to learn from one another. I am going to come back to something you have said here in a moment, but first I want assure my friends here that I am great at offering advice … not so great at taking it myself … hahahaha. So, I am speaking as much to myself in my posts here as I am to you dear friends. Thank you for indulging me in my healing quest.
I have been running from my own reality MissyMing. I know that it is there now (i.e., my childhood traumas and DID) and that fact is liberating in a way. Living for six decades with buried trauma is not an easy road to take. But, it rather feels like I have opened up Pandora’s box and peeked inside and I am not at all comfortable with what I see but … the lid is off now and it can never be put back on again. So, I have to deal with what I started. I have to think, though, that my subconscious (and my insiders) knew that the time had come. Now I have to stop running and summons the courage to see this quest through.
I am intrigued by your statement MissyMing:
“I believe forgiveness IS important and is ultimately needed as like a “permanent glue” for “holding the healing together” – but, you can’t use it to just “side-step” other steps NECESSARY for the healing.”
I struggle with the concept of forgiveness. I hear what you are saying here about forgiveness being the glue that holds the healing together but my mind cannot fathom forgiving my abusers. Oh, I have a long way to go quite obviously.
How do you see forgiveness folks?
Do you see forgiving your abusers?
I would really like to know how to get there!
ME+WE
05/04/2018
I see forgiveness as a gift I give to my self. Not to my abusers. Holding the anger, the resentment, the bitterness, the hatred does not hurt them, it only hurts me.
Forgiveness is an internal job. It is something that happens inside of me. Forgiveness can happen without me ever having to see or interact with my abusers ever again.
Forgiveness is not reconciliation. I will never reconcile with my abusers. I can forgive them, for my sake, not theirs.
Forgiveness is a process. It’s not a one time thing. Like healing or recovery, it’s something that happens in bits and pieces over time.
Forgiveness is a choice that I have to make over and over and over again. For my own well being.
From the smurfs 2 muvi. Smurfet wuz makd by a bad sosrer to help him find the smurfs, but papa smurf helpd her chang to be a gud smurf. wen she wuz sad an felt bad cuz she wuz makd by a bad man then papa smurf teld her
It duznt matr wair yu cam frum, all that matrs is wat yu chus to be now. 😊
Frum crissy
Hi crissy,
Thank you for telling us about this movie. It sure does sound like a really special one for all of us to see. Papa Smurf sure is really smart. It is important for little ones to know that they are beautiful and perfect and loved and certainly never, never bad. There may have been bad big peoples that did bad things to them or made them do things the little peoples did not want to … maybe things the little peoples thought were bad. But, the big peoples were the bad ones never the little people. Little people are extra special and good always.
Thank you crissy for sharing this movie with us.
ME+WE
04/30/2018
Lighthouse
Perfectly steadfast and unaffected,
with eyes wide open and looking around.
To help guide through overwhelming challenges,
when the unthinkable stuff happened.
Sending out a beacon of light.
so sacrifices could be made.
For this sinking mind, body, and soul.
My internal system will shine to help weather the storms.
Simply beautiful Living United … simply poignantly beautiful!
Thank you for sharing your light.
ME+WE
05/01/2018