Here’s me, doing my bit to participate weekly in Kelly’s Seven Quick Takes over at This Ain’t the Lyceum.

So here’s…

This Week’s Resources for Catholic Trauma Survivors

Takes. Best described as quick. Seven of them.

1. Looking for a reliable resource to help you start your day in a place of God’s compassion for you, so that you can go through said day with compassion for self and others? Christine Johnson is over at Catholic Mom with “The Liturgy of the Hours is Evergreen.”
2. A. K. Frailey writes about pain, isolation, and the reality of shared trauma in “We’re All on the Same Island.”
3. This one speaks so deeply to how I tend to ruminate morbidly on my failures: “Believing Mercy” by Rose Folsom.
4. I shared a video last week about gaslighting, or the technique of convincing a person she is the crazy one so you can continue deceiving or otherwise getting away with unhealthy behaviors. Here’s How to Tell If You’re Gaslighting Yourself and What to Do Instead.
5. There’s a LOT of talk out there about “toxic” people, but if you really want to have good relationships, the only toxic person you can change is you. Am I toxic? 17 Ways to Tell If You’re Toxic (+ How To Stop).
6. Ah, therapy, therapy, therapy…. that magic tool for fixing your life, right? Or that dreadful channel for trying and failing to find help that actually works? If you have goals and you can quantifiably recognize that those goals aren’t close to being met, it’s a lot easier to cut bait and fish somewhere else. Here’s one on Making Therapy Successful: Setting Goals for Therapy.
7. If you have noticed that you act traumatized (live with anxiety, depression, OCD, addiction, etc.), but you can’t for the life of you figure out why, since you can’t identify a time you were traumatized, you might be the product of intergenerational trauma.

Thanks, all for the prayers regarding my endometriosis excision surgery. I’m on the mend! I still have to go so slowly through my day, but I have stopped coughing up blood, so that’s pretty sweet. Meanwhile I’ll leave you with a TikTok I made yesterday. This one’s “Weapon of Choice,” about how the lower and higher parts of our brain offer options to tackle the stressors of life. Which weapon will you chose? Which weapon has given you the most heartache? The most peace and joy?

And now go give Kelly and her 7QTs a look see!