Reasons to Live While in Extreme Distress

Here is my advice to you regarding the skills I needed to survive under intense stress and in a world where I was not welcome to be me. These are lessons I learned from over 30 years in a cult.

Here is my advice to you regarding the skills I needed to survive under intense stress and in a world where I was not welcome to be me. These are lessons I learned from over 30 years in a cult, leaving and then losing everything. Times are rough, this might prove helpful.

We must find a reason to survive, and if we lose our reason, we must find another. These are our happy thoughts, and they do indeed help us stand tall when we do not have the energy to move.

When we can control nothing else in life, we can control our beliefs, we can hold them deep in our heart, sometimes privately, without anyone knowing but us!

We must reinvent the meaning of our suffering until it becomes a reason to continue on itself. We must be adaptable in our strategy to survive, but we can NEVER compromise our vision or our hope.

When we are overwhelmed, we break it down into just 5 days at a time, or 5 hours, or 5 minutes, and perhaps even just 5 seconds at a time. The point is we manage the weight of our burdens in increments, and we must celebrate our wins, no matter how small.

But most importantly, we must know deep in our soul, without a doubt, that we are not alone. We must feel it inside, no matter what anyone tells us, even if we never meet another soul, we MUST believe that we are never alone.