We Are Not Victims

A manifesto for strong women who feel like they’re not.

…

This post is not intended in any way to offend or belittle. On the contrary. I hope this post empowers and unites. This post refers to emotional battles/trauma/abuse and is based on my own personal experiences. I wrote it as a letter to myself, and for anyone else who has experienced something similar, as a reminder and symbol of my fighting spirit and strength. This is something different for me, but I felt like it was something that needed to be said.

If you need to talk, please reach out and email me. You are not alone. x

…

We’ve all been through our own unique version of shit. But despite it all…

We are strong.

We do not linger in denial to escape the truth — we are self-aware. We do not blame others, or ourselves. We are not defensive or closed-minded. We are doing our best to let go of the anger and resentment. We don’t expect others to pick up our broken pieces, but we will open our heart to those that want to help. We focus on the things that are within our control. We are not trapped by our circumstance. Sometimes we have to distance ourselves from the ones that hurt us — even if they love us. And yes, sometimes that means family too.

We are love.

We bring light to as many as possible. We let go of the bitterness to allow ourselves to grow into the person that we wish we had to guide us all along. We are compassion. We forgive those who were, or are still, cruel to us and those who have said hurtful things to us because of their own pain. We acknowledge that they are fighting their own battle and are dealing with it the only way that they know how. But we have a choice to not tolerate it.

We are united.

This is not a competition. It doesn’t matter if my heart, or your heart, hurts more. We are both hurting. We heal by helping, not by keeping score and comparing. We do not hurt others to feel better about ourselves. We do not project our pain. We also do not sacrifice ourselves just to save others.

We are not victims.

We are survivors. We’ll keep falling down, and it’ll hurt like hell, but we’ll brush ourselves off and keep going. We’ve come this far… we won’t give up.

Jess.

Find me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter + Bloglovin'.