I wrote this earlier... inspired by the following quote that came up in my news feed. Although this is a blog and not a group, it still applies... and I felt like sharing.
"The
truth is, in order to heal we need to tell our stories and have them
witnessed...The story itself becomes a vessel that holds us up, that
sustains, that allows us to order our jumbled experiences into meaning.
As I told my stories of fear, awakening, struggle, and transformation
and had them received, heard, and validated by other women, I found
healing.
I also needed to hear other women's stories in order to see
and embrace my own. Sometimes another woman's story becomes a mirror
that shows me a self I haven't seen before. When I listen to her tell
it, her experience quickens and clarifies my own. Her questions rouse
mine. Her conflicts illumine my conflicts. Her resolutions call forth my
hope. Her strengths summon my strengths. All of this can happen even
when our stories and our lives are very different."
— Sue Monk Kidd (The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine)
THIS is what my groups are all about. We may have come together
through PMDD, in the same way as new mum's get together with their
babies, or people with mutual interests or hobbies, but essentially, we
have created our own sisterhood. We share our own stories and truths,
we grow and learn from each other. We find similar traits and quirks,
we learn how similar, and at the same time, how different we all are.
We come together and a kind of magic happens. We start to heal. We
start to take our lives into our hands and deal with the things that
don't serve us, learn what we like or don't like. We learn what might
be holding us back, by listening to the words of someone else's story
and identifying with them. We connect, we feel, we support.
Through sharing we become stronger. We become more ourselves, because
we have a space to be ourselves in. Cherish it. Many women out there
don't have this. A place to talk, freely, with lots of other women.
What a wonder the internet is to be able to provide this space! The
group is your witness.
We've come together sharing a
darkness. We are women who know the shadow. We know what it feels like
to fear, to hate, to feel pain, mental and physical. We have found
each other in the dark. I merely lit a candle and waited for you all
to arrive.
There is such strength amongst us. If only each of us could see and know how strong we already are.
I had a comment from a man in the past, telling me how my groups had
made his girlfriend worse. Worse I wonder? Worse for who?
When
women come together and share and talk.. even over the internet, things
can start changing. Women might realise they are unhappy with their job
for example, or that that particular friendship is really not helping
them to heal or grow. They might realise their abusive partner is
actually out of line and decide to leave them. I know we talk a lot
about PMDD, but we also talk a lot about life and our situations. When
you start realising your truth, when you start making your own choices,
life around you changes and that might not meet with other people's
approval, it might make you seem different to real life friends or
family. In turn you may meet with resistance. This is when you call on
the collective. This is when you draw on the strength, the knowledge
and the love of your sisters.
Keep going. PMDD is challenging,
but there is so much to be gained. Whatever you feel you need to do,
to make life easier, better, change, go with it. We know ourselves
better than anyone else.
Use what you learn here. Share what you know. Know that you are loved and accepted here for ALL you are.
♥
