My first memory is not a happy one.

And that single moment set the tone and trajectory of my entire life. Everything from my personality type to my ‘winning strategy’ to the types of relationships I’ve chosen, as well as how I’m able and unable to show up inside of them.

One. Single. Moment.

I’ve struggled with the question of how to heal in different ways and for different reasons many times over the last several years. Because how do you learn to let go of the strategies, ways of being, and coping mechanisms that have kept you safe—literally, actually, physically—for your entire life? How do you learn to trust that the world and love and showing up is safe, when life has given you many reasons to believe anything but?

Awareness is one of the first steps to healing. 
Tracing the storyline can be key to resolving complex trauma.
There are many modalities that can assist with the process.

But one thing is certain:

You must resolve what was never dealt with, put back together what became fragmented, and face into what needs to be felt all the way through.

And you must forgive.

Not just those outside you, but yourself. For believing the lies. For allowing the hurt. For making the choices you made, even if you didn’t know any better.

Healing is often harder and more heartbreaking than we like to talk about. It’s not all soft and gentle and simple loving self-care. Sometimes it’s about breaking what didn’t break all the way through, so we can put things back together the way they’re meant to be. So that we can stand more firmly on our own two feet as we navigate an entirely different path. As we rewrite the storyline and change the trajectory.

Keep showing up.
Keep doing the work.
Keep feeling it fully.

You’ll get to the other side of it.
One step at a time.

Stephenie Zamora is an author and life coach, business and marketing strategist, and founder of CallOfTheVoid.tv., where she merges the worlds of personal development, energy healing, intuitive coaching, writing, and mixed media art to help individuals rise up and come back from the darkest, hardest chapters of life. She guides her clients through the challenging process of re-orienting to their lives, relationships, and work in a way that’s fully aligned with who they’ve become in the aftermath of loss, trauma, depression, and big life changes. After struggling with PTSD, grief, and anxiety from a sudden and traumatic loss, she navigated her own difficult healing journey, and has set out to help others find the purpose of their own path using The Hero’s Journey as a framework. She is also the founder of Stephenie Zamora Media, the author of Awesome Life Tips®, creator of Journey Mapping Sessions™, and is currently working on a second book, Unravel. Her work has been featured on The Huffington Post, Yahoo Shine, Elite Daily, Positively Positive, and many other publications over the years. Connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or at www.CallOfTheVoid.tv.