92be70d
|
Power is confusing for us, perhaps even terrifying, because our relationship with it had an unfortunate beginning. Someone in a position of power over us used and abused us...It seems as if power were something to be wielded, always at someone's expense, usually our own.
|
|
abuse-survivors
abuse-of-authority
abuse-of-power
abuse-of-trust
abusive-parenting
misuse-of-power
parental-authority
survivor-of-abuse
child-sexual-abuse-survivor
child-abuse
survivor
healing
powerlessness
powerless
power
child-sexual-abuse
|
Maureen Brady |
ec52b84
|
When we are ready to let go of our old controls, we admit that we were powerless over the incest or abuse...We have often thought, 'If only I could have stopped it,' but we could not have stopped it. We let go of the 'if only' now and sit still with our stark powerlessness...In our surrender to powerlessness, we touch ourselves with the gift of truth.
|
|
abuse-survivors
letting-go
truth
survivor-of-abuse
survivors-of-abuse
child-sexual-abuse-survivor
if-only
child-abuse
survivor
healing
abuse-recovery
powerlessness
powerless
child-sexual-abuse
incest
|
Maureen Brady |
ead270a
|
"Our need to be "greater than" or "less than" has been a defense against toxic shame. A shameful act was committed upon us. The perpetrator walked away, leaving us with the shame. We absorbed the notion that we are somehow defective. To cover for this we constructed a false self, a masked self. And it is this self that is the overachiever or the dunce, the tramp or the puritan, the powermonger or the pathetic loser."
|
|
ashamed
coverup
defective
defective-humans
false-self
feeling-bad
hidden-feelings
hidden-pain
hidden-self
overachiever
power-trip
toxic-shame
child-sexual-abuse-survivor
recovery-from-abuse
dunce
loser
healing-insights
survivor
puritan
healing
true-self
shame
child-sexual-abuse
incest
|
Maureen Brady |
7240f03
|
When we first begin to take power more directly, after long having kept our relationship to it underground...it is natural that we experience anxiety, even guilt, at putting ourselves first. These feeling let us know we are taking action; they do not need to stop us.
|
|
assertiveness
child-sexual-abuse-survivor
false-guilt
empowering
healing-insights
healing
anxiety
power
guilt
survivors
|
Maureen Brady |