I know what it feels like to go through rough times, and man, when I was going through those times, things seemed dreadful. I just remember trying to survive day-to-day. My flight, fight, freeze, fawn, fine, flock, and flop trauma responses became a constant state of my being (especially the flight, fight, and fine responses). What I didn’t know at the time was that there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and hard times wouldn’t last.
Although I’m still receiving help to process my past traumas, I have to say that today I’m doing better than I was. I feel, and like to think, that because of what I went through, I’m stronger, wiser, and more equipped for what may lie ahead. My traumas made me more aware of what I’m capable of, and that brings me to tonight’s post.
I never heard of the idiom “Hair of the dog that bit you”, and quite honestly, upon reading it, I thought it had something to do with magic…(it just seems ominous, doesn’t it?) But actually, it’s a saying that means using something that harmed you to help you. I think that’s pretty cool! It’s like using snake venom to combat a snake bite. The idiom itself means drinking alcohol to cure a hangover, but the point of the message is still relevant and can apply to many things in life.
Living brings an array of lessons, and it’s up to each of us to not only overcome those lessons but also learn from them and apply what we’ve learned. Otherwise, we’ll just keep making the same poor decisions that led us into a mess in the first place. Something that harms you that seems like it was going to take you down for the count doesn’t necessarily mean that it was meant for your demise. Once you get past the shock and go through the process of dealing with it all, you can use it to your advantage if you allow yourself to, and I’m a firm believer you’ll be better for it in the end. Using something that harmed me to help me recover and grow is a wonderful way for me to process what happened and why. It helps me move beyond being bitter to being grateful.
No, I don’t want to act like it’s easy to go through and learn from bad experiences, because it’s not. And speaking from experience, for a long, long time, I was stuck in those bad experiences. But with my faith and having people in my corner supporting me, things slowly began to improve. I learned more about myself and saw things I needed to work on. If it hadn’t been for those bad experiences, I would have never changed for the better. Using the very thing that harmed me to help me is a way for me to move forward in life. “Hair of the dog that bit you” is a perfect example of how we can take those downright dreadful experiences and turn them to work in our favor.