I live an empowered life where my relationships have healthy boundaries, I have renewed confidence in myself, and I am no longer dimming my light

after surviving long-term abuse.

But it hasn’t always been this way.

Growing up, I was raised to ignore & tolerate abuse. I was forced to attend family reunions, the family holiday parties, and even left alone at relatives houses where known abusers were living.

I was taught that I did not matter. What happened to me did not matter. I was downplayed, my needs were downplayed (or dismissed altogether), and over the course of my childhood I began to feel isolated, misunderstood, and loveless.

I learned to put everyone else before me, I learned not to have any needs.

I was hyper-responsible & hyper-alert. As a child I remember waking up at the first sight of sunlight through my bedroom window and feeling the waves of ANXIETY wash over my tiny body. I didn’t know what anxiety was, but I was almost always feeling it. Anxiety was the first one to greet me every morning when I woke up, and the one to keep me up at night.

When I turned 18 I moved away from my small hometown and moved to another state with two friends from childhood. I was desperate to start my new life. And desperate for love (but I wasn’t quite aware of that, yet)

I met him when I was 19. I had just finished crying in the bathroom at work and it was obvious. I stood at the hostess stand, managing a sea of people waiting to be seated during an unusually busy lunch rush. The other 2 hosts scheduled that day never showed up for their shift so I was managing the rush alone and it felt like I was drowning.

The weeks that had led up to this meltdown had finally caught up to me, I was over working myself (3 jobs, no days off, just going home to sleep, eat, and start again at 4 a.m.) and when he saw me standing there, looking so hopeless, so weak, he made his calculated move.

6 years later I found myself isolated in another country with my infant son. The life that I had worked so hard to create with this man was crumbling around me and I I could no longer ignore the abuse (it wasn’t subtle, anymore). I was seeing my life for what it really was and not the fantasy I had been holding onto for so long. I was terrified, alone in another country with no cell phone, no family, no money, no way of leaving without his written & notarized consent.

I truly felt like property.

But I am a survivor.

I got the notarized documents. 2 best friends that I had made while living there for 9 months had driven me to the ferry, after the 40 min ride I took a taxi to the airport, and my 1 year old & I safely made it through airport security and to our seats. I cried when the plane started to back away from the terminal. I made it! I was on the plane. He didn’t change his mind, he didn’t chase after me, he didn’t come drag me off the plane and tell me I can’t leave.

I am going to make it.

Landing back home in Arizona never felt so good. I cried again when we walked off the plane. I hugged my mom + my two sisters. They all showed up to get us, and I was home. I was safe.

But I didn’t feel safe. I was living in a constant state of panic and fear, at every turn afraid that my violent & vengeful husband was going to appear to drag me back against my will. My head was always on a swivel, looking this way and that, frantically scanning my surroundings because I knew he was there. I knew he was coming for me.

I survived a malignant narcissist. I survived divorce. I survived the Hague Convention & Federal Court (where I had to prove that I did not kidnap my son when bringing us both back HOME to the US)

I started working full-time again at the local credit union where I had had my first job back at age 16. I re-enrolled in community college and finally finished my Associates Degree. I moved myself & my son to Phoenix where I was enrolled in an Advanced 500 hour Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) and a Transformational Life Coaching program.

But I was still living with #ComplexPTSD and even though that part of my life “was over,” I was still living it daily. I was living in a constant state of fear, “Fight or Flight Mode”, stuck in sympathetic dominance.

But then I experienced Yoga Nidra meditation and my life was beginning to change. I was finally moving away from the sympathetic and back into restful state.

My body was re-learning how to RELAX. I was UNLEARNING tension, stress, anxiety, FEAR. My nervous system was beginning to rest for the first time in my life.

And I want to share the science & power of #YogaNidra meditation with you. Yoga Nidra improved my life. It gave me back my PEACE. From here the broken, hurt, and even forgotten pieces of my true Self began to come back together. I remembered my true essence (my Sat Nam) - that I am WHOLE exactly as I already am.

I am not broken. You are not broken.

This is where I share my story of RISING ABOVE ABUSE. This is where I share the magic of FINDING YOUR COURAGE & TRUSTING YOUR VIBES. This is where I share the RESTORATIVE HEALING PROPERTIES of guided Yoga Nidra meditation.

You can experience guided yoga nidra meditation TODAY!

>>>CLAIM YOUR FREE YOGA NIDRA HERE<<<

#gettingoveritwithkatd

@chatty.katd