Contributed Post
Readers who have kids will know the constant balancing act that all parents experience when introducing their kids to trauma. By and large, it goes without saying that we want to limit our kids’ exposure to trauma. We want them to become, safe, happy and healthy little people who will one day become safe, happy and healthy big people. At the same time, however, we acknowledge that a little trauma can be instructive. We know that while they may scream the house down the first time they scrape a knee or bump their heads on the coffee table, these bumps and boo boos are how we learn to build better spatial awareness.
That’s just one rudimentary way in which we can turn adversity into advantage. The sad fact is that even in the privileged and cosseted climate of living in the developed world in the 21st century, many of us experience trauma. Most readers will have their own traumatic memories and will be able to relate how they informed, for better or for worse, the person who they are today. Here, however, we’ll look at the act of putting pen to paper and how this can help us to not only deal with trauma but turn it to advantage for ourselves and others.
Blog yourself better
Some psychologists believe that writing about traumatic experiences can be extremely therapeutic. Often when bad things happen we tend not to confront them directly at the time. Just like a broken bone can cause greater problems if not allowed to set properly, so too can traumatic memories wreak further damage to our psychology if we put them in a box and bury them (metaphorically speaking). Writing about our experience in a blog can be a great form of therapy and may even provide you with a skeleton upon which you can later build a book should you so choose. Setting up a blog is easy and free and could do a whole lot of good.
Educate others
Aside from helping you to process your own emotions and facilitate better psychological wellbeing, your words, reflections and insight may well resonate with others. Writing about your trauma is likely to educate others who have similar experience. Whether it’s helping people to follow the correct procedure after a workplace injury like hiring a disability insurance attorney at https://www.longtermdisabilitylawyer.com or simply learning to move on psychologically from a traumatic event your insights can be invaluable. You can imbue them with coping strategies that they may not have considered while also providing them with an emotional outlet through which to process their own memories. Of course, it is undeniable that no one likes to think too much about the possibility of becoming disabled and therefore being unable to work. However, teaching just one other person about the importance of disability insurance could make all the difference.
Monetize your memories
The bestseller shelves are lined with true life books from people whose stories have resonated with audiences and struck a chord with people whether they have been afflicted with the same trauma or not. Even if you choose not to monetize your memories by writing a book about them, if your blog gets a lot of traffic there are a great many ways in which you can monetize it without having to subject your readership without clickbait-y ads.
Consolidate your skills while learning new ones
Finally, the process of writing, drafting, editing and redrafting your work is an important skill which you will learn, as is promoting your work and interacting with your readership. The more you write, the more you will learn new skills while consolidating your existing abilities!
