Warriors Within: Understanding and Overcoming PTSD

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a complex and often debilitating condition that affects individuals who have experienced or witnessed traumatic events.

Now when we look at the US Army warrior Ethos it states, "I will always place the mission first, I will never accept defeat, I will never quit, and I will never leave a fallen comrade."

Today I want you to take this ethos and live by it, because we are all warriors fighting the toughest battle that we come up against, an internal war and an external war.

The mission, if you chose to accept it (yup right out of Mission Impossible) is to be the warrior for your life, is it be the most badass person who is unstoppable and going to take control of this gift that we are given every single day.

You are not a victim, you may have been a victim during the time of your traumatic experience but not anymore, you have shed the skin of fear, the skin of regret, the skin of blame. And you are now putting on the cloak of resilience, the cloak of confidence, the cloak of belief in yourself.

But today I want to acknowledge what you have been through, I want to give you an opportunity to realize that the strength that you had in you to get through the event that tried to knock you down is still in you, you didn’t accept defeat, you didn’t quit. And you didn’t leave anyone behind.

This battle is going to be one of the hardest that you will ever fight, this battle is going to change you from the thoughts you think, the emotions that you feel and the actions that you take. But don’t take my word for it, look within yourself and see how you think, feel and act, now that you have experienced the event that you did. You are a new creation you have been through an experience that has broken people before you and will break people after you, but not you.

I want to reassure you that this battle will have an opponent who doesn’t fight fair, you will be taking a knife into a gun fight, even times it will feel that you are going into a gun fight with nothing but your fists and your belief. I want to remind you that no matter the odds you can, and you will win if you keep going and know that you aren’t going to lose, you aren’t going to quit because quitting isn’t in you.

How do I know that, well, because I know that when you look at what you have already been through and see the strength you have because of it you will see, why I see what I see. STOP, focusing on the bad, that is my first battle plan. You must begin to see the pleasures and the achievements that you have been successful at.

"Your past success should serve as a reminder of your capabilities and fuel your determination to achieve even greater accomplishments today." - Les Brown

When you look back at what has happened your mind is filled with fear, it reminds you that you failed, that you were hurt that you didn’t have what it took. That was just 1 moment in your life, and we are not here to seek perfection we are going after progression, always moving forward.

This is the moment to shift, to shift from the pain that was caused to the resilience that you have the inherent strength that warriors carry on their sleeve because my friend, you are a warrior. PTSD can and will be overwhelming it is going to try daily to knock you down and remind you what you went through. Use it, us it as a shift to say “ YES, I went through that and because of it I am stronger”

There is nothing that this world can do to you unless you let it, PTSD isn’t your identity it is an experience, just like when you went to a zoo or a parade, It was something that you experienced, but the pain has rewritten your mind, because your mind has had its reality questioned and now wants to protect you.

What you went through wasn’t supposed to happen, as a child you think that anything like this would happen to you, things like this happen to other people but not you. That isn’t a mean suggestion that is a self-protection suggestion. If we felt that everything that people go through this could happen to us and focused on that daily, we would be in the ground so fast, because of disease and fear.

That is what disease is it is DISS EASE it is showing you that there is a problem, just like the engine light on the car is there, so is this for the human body. We are all made the same, and if someone can live to 103 so can we all, but it is the choices that we make on daily basis it is the thoughts that we allow to stress us, to burden us, to worry us, that limits are life’s full potential.

As a warrior I want to remind you that you have a unique skill, that’s right you have the opportunity to make a personal choice today that you are going to put your life’s mission first, that you are never going to accept defeat, that you will never quit or leave a fallen comrade behind including your future self.

I believe that we all have thousands of future selves out there and our daily actions will determine the person that you create and the life that you live, But you will always be faced with a choice and a decision, and what you choose will determine the direction that your life is going to go.

Focus on the great experiences that you have in your past, know that you are a successful person, know that you have mission to be in charge of, don’t let the emotions of a few negative events in your past be the beacon to the future that you desire.

What is that desire for you? What are the goals and dreams that you want to go after? When you begin to see these, it will open the light in your today. Giving you purpose to push through. But push through what? I don’t know but you do.

I want to remind you that as a warrior we study our opponent and like I said before, your opponent is PTSD, your opponent in each moment are the triggers, the symptoms, the negative mindset that you are dealt each and every moment. Are you going to let your opponent win? Or are you going to take back control of your life, gain the knowledge that you need to be free from losing this battle every single day.

I have been there, I have been in the place that I lose battles, I was in a hole hiding from the shots that were being taken and I didn’t know what to do and had nowhere to go. Seek understanding my friends, know what your mind is doing, understand why in this moment your emotions are peaking and causing you to be angry or sad. When you can begin to understand, you can begin to make the changes necessary in your life. You can create the freedom that you want.

Maybe you are at a place that you need someone a captain to give you some direction or motivation and that is perfect, seek support. Rarely do we win battles alone.

A single twig breaks, but a bundle of twigs is strong.

-Tecumseh

Who are those other twigs that you need in your life to build your bundle stronger, what support do you need to seek? Is it family? Friends? Professional Help? Pastor? You know what you need and its time to lock down the pride, because we know that thinking pain is weakness will get you nothing. We ALL have moments of pain in life, because it reminds us that we are alive and helps us grow stronger.

It rains to remind us to be grateful on the sunny days. You are currently going through a storm right now, but that doesn’t mean that there is never going to be a sunny day again. I know it may feel like it but my friend I want to remind you that you have the strength, you have the ability, and you have the support around you to find those sunny days.

Begin writing about this journey and you will see the growth that you have every single day, week, month, and year.

Begin finding the things in your current reality to be grateful for, you have eyes to read this, you have a home to shelter you, you have food, you have a heartbeat, you get free oxygen every moment. Love your life again, see that what you went through is just a fraction for what your life can truly be.

Don’t let a storm be the rest of your life. Bring yourself back to each moment by reminding yourself that you are a warrior, that you are not going to be knocked down. That you have the strength to become anything that you want.

Go now and be the warrior in this battle called life, know that even though you might fail, you might fall, you will never lose, you will never quit and you will never let the battle defeat you.