The Upside To Trauma

Lately, my conversations with clients involve talk about exhaustion. There’s a general sense of burnout — a fatigue that weekends and time off no longer cures. 

It’s not just my clients. My friends, who span a 20-year age range – they also talk about feeling like they’re muscling through their days, battling brain fog. They tell me they just can’t refuel the way they used to. 

Which makes sense to me from a mental health perspective. 

Life, particularly in recent years, has felt incredibly unpredictable, and as humans, we can tolerate a lack of predictability for short periods of time, provided we return to homeostasis long enough to reset. But we haven’t been able to do that in a long time. 

And what happens to individuals — when they have to endure this rinse and repeat of uncertainty  without fully healing before the next event hits — we become vulnerable to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Because these are the circumstances that create it.

So if it’s true that we’ve been steeped in all the elements that create PTSD for years, then something else ALSO must be true: 

We, as individuals and as a society, must also be capable of experiencing something called Post Traumatic Growth (PTG), which you may not have heard of but by the end of this conversation, you’ll probably be conversant in it. 

Today I’m interviewing my first guest on We Need To Talk. And in thinking through who it should be, I knew I needed this guest to be someone who leaves ME with hope.

And suddenly I knew exactly who this guest had to be – Robert Mack.

Robert is a leading expert in the field of Positive Psychology. He holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and he’s the author of Happiness From The Inside Out. 

Robert and I met on the set of Famously Single.

I invited him here to share what Post Traumatic Growth theory says about the potential for profound personal growth following trauma. And whether it’s true or hype that individuals who recover from traumatic experiences can emerge stronger, wiser, and more resilient than before. 

In this episode you’ll learn: 

• Why some people emerge from PTSD with PTG.
• The specific traits YOU need to cultivate to increase the odds that you emerge from horrible events stronger than you were before.
• How to use principles from Positive Psychology to remain resilient and grounded as we advance further into 2024.

PS: 🙏🏼Please share this episode with someone who needs it 🙏🏼