Hello there, it’s nice to meet you. My name’s Matthew.
For a number of years, I have written and refined articles on the popular question-and-answer website, Quora, a platform that empowers people to “share knowledge and better understand the world.”
People come to Quora to ask questions about any subject, read answers that are personalised and relevant to them, and share their knowledge and experience with others. It is a platform whereby such content is freely shared amongst a community of ever-growing, curious readers.
One of these articles, however—an answer that I continued to pour my heart and soul into—was repeatedly subject to removal for reasons including, but not limited to, having “little to no value to the Quora Community.”
The writing itself was receiving numerous accounts of praise from people the world over, including one or two individuals who signed up to the website specifically to thank me for writing in.
With each appeal and subsequent reinstatement came another removal. Quora then began sending notifications stating that the article was “too long” before editing privileges were removed from it completely.
Having had psychotherapists, neuroscientists, entrepreneurs, fellow survivors, and many others freely acknowledge the journey it had taken to get to the point whereby one could write, in some detail, about what David J. Bookbinder himself had described a “harrowing and extraordinarily difficult experience,” it didn’t really feel very just to have policies written by someone in a suit and tie (as I liked to romanticise it for my own amusement) dictating how I should best be presenting such a story.
Emotional education is a core component of our human experience, and being true to oneself a fundamental step in our journey from the wound that is trauma, to healing.
Journeys that will, ultimately, lead us back home.
Journeys that, ultimately, lead us back to the love, sovereignty, and unity of our core selves.
To paraphrase the trauma therapist Gabor Maté, it is not the objective severity of what happens to us that dictates the continuing impact of trauma, but what happens inside us as a result.
I truly believe it is possible for anybody to overcome a deep-seated victim mentality by honouring the beautifully unique experiences they’ve had in life and move forwards with, rather than away from, them.
I truly believe it is possible for anyone to heal self-doubt by offering their layers a place at the table and extending hands of love and gratitude towards them from within the warmth of a supportive environment; by not resisting, but inviting these experiences in, dancing with them, and truly listening to what it is they’re trying to teach us on the way back to our true selves.
OUR FEAR MAY BE PREVENTING US FROM BEING OUR MOST AWAKE, INTELLIGENT, AND LOVING SELVES.
So ask yourself, “What am I unwilling to face?”
The stories we tell ourselves are continually changing, possibly due to the unconscious and unprocessed reaction to wounding which has been passed down from generation to generation.
Whilst it’s true that this trauma changes the brain, so does healing it. This is a process constantly revised throughout life based on the lessons we learn. To live deliberately is the greatest gift we can give.
We begin to get comfortable recognising our experiences, not as things we need to resist, but as circumstances that can and do shape us into who we are on our way to who we’re curious to become.
Experiences that can serve as a platform in which we can embody the qualities we choose of ourselves.
I hope this website can be a beacon of hope for anybody that is, or knows somebody that is, looking for a bit of encouragement having taken a misstep or two in the dance of life.
We’ve all got our histories. We’ve all got our traumas. The most important thing to ask ourselves is who we’re allowing them to make us. We haven’t survived what we have to let the story of how we shaped ourselves into the unique individuals we are today get censored by some faceless authority desperate to promote lives of such quiet desperation they may as well have been lifted straight from a plastic mold.
Words carry within them the gift of intent. They can be a vehicle to move us closer towards, or further away from, our ideal selves.
YOU HAVE IDENTIFIED WITH YOUR SUFFERING LONG ENOUGH
NOW IS THE TIME TO RECONNECT WITH YOUR HEALING
THE ONLY WAY WE CAN EVER HOPE TO REACH RESOLUTION OF OUR ISSUES IS BY FIRST TAKING OWNERSHIP OF THEM.
BY TAKING OWNERSHIP, WE EMPOWER OURSELVES TO MAKE CHANGE.