Your strength didn’t disappear with what you’ve lost. It is in what you have left.

"Di daakest paat a di night a when day suu light" - Jamaican Proverb

The darkest part of the night is just before dawn. – English Translation

Meaning: Your worst experience is sometimes the source of great change and a pivotal moment of your inner strength 

After experiencing trauma, loss or any life event that has left us with the residue of negative impact, it is easy to assume that we are left in a physical and emotional deficit. We might feel hopeless, inferior, used, mistreated, manipulated, and hold onto many regrets. Regrets of our choices, regrets of the event, regrets we ignored the red flags and begin to replay what we could have done differently. 

We sometimes carry feelings of disappointment in others and disappointment in ourselves. A feeling of disappointment in self can be the root or start of self-inflicted pain. Self-inflicted pain chips at our self-esteem as we count the loss and create a daily cycle of replaying the situation. This cycle is sometimes fixated on regrets and ignites feelings of hopelessness and can sometimes convince you that you have lost all strength and all hope and can never overcome what has happened. 

But guess what? Your strength didn’t disappear with what you’ve lost. It is what you have left!

Despite what happened, you are still here, and light is ahead. Make room for the triumphant person that takes it day by day, and one step at a time. You can regain your strength and some additional strength because you have overcome a situation you thought was your defeat. 

Start Here:

1.     Validate your feelings and what you have been through. Feel your feelings, and know that it is normal to feel the way you do. It is normal to feel like all strength is lost with what you have been through.

2.     Rise from it: Don't isolate yourself. Welcome environments that will help you regain your strength and develop new strengths, such as friends, family and therapeutic relationships that will help you process what you have been through as you share how you feel and rise from the situation that you once thought would have been a monument to a story centred around defeat. 

Your strength did not disappear with what you have lost; it is what you have left!

Author- Albertina Hinds