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It was two in the morning. I was folding laundry warm out of the dryer. My 6-month-old daughter had finally fallen asleep snuggled up to my chest in her baby wrap. I was listening to a podcast of Dr. Brené Brown speaking with Jonathan Fields about the importance of creating cultures of vulnerability, compassion, and wholeheartedness in the workplace.
Posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is a collection of negative behaviors, symptoms, and moods triggered by a traumatic experience. PTSD can also be triggered by an ongoing event. The event can occur over a matter of days, weeks, months, or even years. This is known as complex posttraumatic stress disorder or C-PTSD. Experiences associated with posttraumatic stress disorder are abuse, terrorism, natural disasters, violence, and illness.
Loss is an inevitable part of life that impacts everyone in different ways. Loss can come in various forms, from the passing of a spouse, to the loss of a friendship, even to the termination of employment. As we have pushed through the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, we come to a terrifying realization of how quickly life, relationships, and/or jobs can be taken out of our grasp.
According to Cambridge Dictionary, healing is the process by which a bad situation or painful emotion either ends or improves (Cambridge dictionary: Find definitions, meanings & translations 2022). Growth, according to the APA Dictionary of Psychology, is a series of physical changes that occur from conception through maturity (APA Dictionary of Psychology 2022).
As we prepare to finish the chapter of this year known as “2022”, we may take time to reflect on what this year has meant. What skills did we gain, or forget? What experiences shaped us, or place us in a point of stagnation? What people stayed, or departed from our lives? Overall, these are questions that we sometimes neglect to review throughout the year until we think of goals for the following year. It is my opinion that part of our goal-building is set in our beliefs of how we have healed or grown throughout the current year. I make a distinction between the two because there is a difference between them.
