“I used to think healing meant ridding the heart of anything that hurt. It meant putting your pain behind you, leaving it in the past. But I’m learning that’s not how it works. Healing is figuring out how to coexist with the pain that will always live inside of you, without pretending it isn’t there, or allowing it to hijack your days. It is learning to confront ghosts, and to carry what lingers.” – Suleika Jaquad

This is the reality of anyone who has lived through trauma.

Healing doesn’t mean returning to a place where you’re no longer triggered, or experience symptoms. The symptoms may fade and become less frequent – but the chances are they won’t completely disappear.

You don’t forget, and your body still remembers.

You can never go back to who you were before life changed.

But you can still find happiness, and learn to…