From Hiding to Healing: Breaking Free from the Stigma of Trauma
Soul Wide Open with Michelle Renee
Release Date: 05/02/2024
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Soul Wide Open with Michelle Renee
The Mirror of Our Experiences and The Meaning We Give Them A key theme in the episode is using painful experiences as a mirror for self-reflection. Michelle describes a recent encounter with a new friend that triggered memories of being objectified in her youth. This moment served as a catalyst for her to revisit and process those past feelings. Instead of avoiding the discomfort or avoidant behavior in general, she chose to sit with it, leading to a deeper understanding of herself. This process of reflection is vital for personal growth, as it encourages individuals to confront their past...
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Soul Wide Open with Michelle Renee
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Soul Wide Open with Michelle Renee
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My Top Mental Detox Strategies for The New Year
Soul Wide Open with Michelle Renee
Mentally Detox for a New Year: A Path to Healing and Renewal Decluttering your mental space is essential for a successful mental detox, as it helps reduce distractions and promotes clarity. In this eepisod eof Soul Wide Open with host Michelle Renne, she welcomes the new year with a focus on mental detoxification and emotional regulation. As 2025 approaches, she emphasizes the importance of starting the year with a quieter mind and spirit, laying the groundwork for healing and protecting one's nervous system. Michelle shares practical tools, tactics, and steps that listeners can...
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How I Turned a Kidnapping into a New Beginning
Soul Wide Open with Michelle Renee
Healing Through Celebration: How I Turned a Kidnapping into a New Beginning In this episode of the Soul Wide Open podcast, host Michelle Renee discusses the transformative power of turning traumatic experiences into moments of celebration and rebirth. Sharing her personal journey of overcoming a kidnapping and home invasion, Michelle emphasizes the importance of modeling resilience for her daughter to ensure she does not carry forward the weight of negative experiences. With what she refers to as her 'second birthday' as a focal point, Michelle reflects on how the anniversary date of...
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Soul Wide Open with Michelle Renee
From Static to Clarity: Protecting Your Energy in a Content-Heavy Society What Are You Feeding Your Soul? In today's fast-paced world, the content we consume—whether through media, music, or conversations—plays a crucial role in shaping our mental, emotional, and physical well-being. As discussed in the podcast episode, it is essential to be mindful of what we engage with, as it can profoundly affect our overall health. The episode emphasizes that, much like tuning an old radio to find a clear signal, we must consciously choose the frequencies we tune into in our daily lives. This...
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Navigating Conversations: 10 Boundary Statements to Protect Your Peace
Soul Wide Open with Michelle Renee
Boundary statements play a crucial role in protecting one's emotional and mental well-being, particularly for individuals who have struggled with boundaries in the past. In this episode of the Soul Wide Open podcast, host Michelle Renee dives into the crucial topic of boundary statements. Drawing from her personal experiences, including a home invasion that shattereed boundaries in her personal and professional life, Michelle discusses the challenges of learning to identify and verbalize healthy boundaries. She emphasizes the significance of setting new boundaries as a vital part of...
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Unlearning Toxic Patterns: How I Overcame My Top 3
Soul Wide Open with Michelle Renee
In this episode of the Soul Wide Open podcast, host Michelle Renee reflects on her upbringing and the programming that influences our behaviors and coping mechanisms. Broadcasting from her brother's house near Lake Tahoe, she discusses the importance of unlearning unhealthy patterns that were necessary for survival in a challenging environment. Michelle emphasizes the process of unraveling unhealthy coping mechanisms, comparing it to untangling a ball of yarn. She explores how many of us operate from outdated beliefs that no longer serve us and can even be harmful. To make the topic...
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The Art of Mindful Preparation: Soulful Lessons from a Blind Man
Soul Wide Open with Michelle Renee
In this Soul Wide Open podcast episode, Michelle Renee shares a heartwarming story about her experience caring for an 80-something-year-old blind man named Jack. Despite his blindness, Jack taught Michelle a valuable lesson about serving others with joy and intention. Michelle's act of preparing visually appealing meals for Jack, even though he couldn't see them, brought immense joy to both of them. Michelle reflects on how her caregiving journey, prompted by her daughter's health issues, led her to meet Jack and learn important life lessons from him. This story highlights the profound...
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Am I Just In the Way?: Overcoming Feelings of Displacement and Overwhelm
Soul Wide Open with Michelle Renee
"Am I just in the way?" This question plagued host Michelle Renee for years. It wasn't until she wrote tthese words as a response tto a text tto heer brother thatt sparked her to llook deeply into the root of this response. Seeking self-understanding and unraveling past coping mechanisms are crucial steps in personal growth and healing, as discussed in the podcast episode. Michelle Renee shared her personal experience of realizing how her childhood experiences had shaped her responses to overwhelming situations. By acknowledging the root cause of her reactions, she was able...
info_outlineEmbracing all parts of oneself, including those considered shameful or embarrassing, is crucial for healing and living authentically. In this Soul Wide Open podcast episode, Michelle Renee shares her personal journey of concealing parts of herself due to trauma and shame. She explains how she used to hide behind her career, workaholism, and Michelle highlights the transformative power of acknowledging triggers and responding with compassion and understanding towards the wounded inner child.
Join Michelle as she opens up about vulnerability and the power of addressing trauma on the Soul Wide Open podcast.
Talking Points:
00:00:01 - Introduction to Personal Trauma
00:01:21 - Discussing Stigma Around Trauma
00:03:18 - Hiding Behind Professional Success
00:05:58 - Healing and Self-Discovery
00:06:10 - Road Trip to Alaska and Self-Realization
00:07:16 - Embracing Multidimensional Self
00:09:04 - Rejecting Stigma and Embracing All Parts of Self
00:11:01 - Liberating Experience at the Lake
00:12:15 - Continuous Self-Understanding and Healing
00:14:24 - Rejecting Labels and Embracing Past
00:16:04 - Importance of Vulnerability in Healing
00:18:03 - Addressing Internal Triggers
00:19:09 - Encouragement to Share Trauma
00:21:49 - Conclusion and Call to Action
Quotes:
"I believe that my success was tied to my hiding behind my suit that I put on every day to go to work."
"Hiding pieces of yourself, what you think is shameful and embarrassing, you also learn to hide the other parts of yourself that are really, really amazing."
"I completely abandoned huge parts of myself because I was so embarrassed and in fear that I would be judged and that no one would be proud of me."
"I am not going to allow this stigma of my trauma and the conditioning of my trauma and the behaviors that I adopted because of my childhood trauma and because of the violent crime that I survived, the kidnapping and hostage situation, to define me negatively the rest of my life."
"You've got to be really honest and really vulnerable."
Connect with Michelle:
Website: https://michelle-renee.com
Order Nine Days on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4acIkt1
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_michellerenee_
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@themichellerenee
Soul Wide Open Podcast On Spotify: https://spoti.fi/49lrveA
#trauma #traumahealing #selfimprovement