The Post-Trauma Blueprint: How To Discover Your Future Self When Everything Falls Apart

What emerges from the ashes of trauma? A powerful new identity waiting to be discovered through intentional rest and reflection. Trauma fundamentally changes us – there's no going back to who we were before. But in this transformative episode, we explore how that reality becomes an invitation to something greater: the emergence of your future self. 

First, we dive deep into the uncomfortable but liberating process of recognizing your changed identity. Next, we explore the concept of "raising your floor" – establishing new minimum standards that honor your future self. Finally, we unpack how creating simple daily systems brings order to chaos. 

Whether you're healing from personal trauma, navigating major life changes, or simply feeling the weight of daily pressures, this episode offers a roadmap for transformation. With faith as your foundation and small, consistent actions as your method, you'll discover how to move forward one degree at a time. Your future self is waiting – and she's ready to rise.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introducing One Degree to Victory

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

You're listening to One Degree to Victory, the space where stories, strategies and soul connect Together. We take one small step each week toward the life you know you're called to live. I'm your hostess, nalita Hollis, and today's story and conversation just might change your life, your life. What happens when you pause and choose rest as an intentional act of self-discovery? First, you realize you are not and you will never be again the same person you were before the trauma. Second, to protect your new and future becoming self, you raise standards and set new boundaries. And third, you create life systems to help you sustain and bring into the now, your future self. That's a mouthful. Let's talk about not being the same person before the trauma. You're either going to grow as a result of the trauma or you're going to stagnate and succumb to its pressures. That's exciting and terrifying right. The process of growing after post-trauma is uncomfortable. The person you were simply doesn't exist anymore more. And when you finally accept this reality, you realize the only path from the devastation is to actually move forward, to transform, to become someone new who can carry this experience, not be defined by it. And so, in order to get a glimpse, a vision of this new you, you will have to sit with her. It's in these moments of sitting and resting that the residue, the skin layers of the old you begin to fall away. Your thoughts become different, your emotions become regulated, your spirit settles and then you look in the mirror of your soul and she's looking back. My God, that's your future self. It won't matter the amount of setbacks you have after the trauma. After glimpsing your future self, she can never be hidden. You can't deny her because you now know she exists. She is the representation of all you can be. She represents the potential you have within if you just keep moving forward. Second, once you make the decision to step fully into your potential, to experience the manifestation of your soul's mirror in the physical realm, to really glimpse the future you in the mirror, in your bathroom, in your bedroom, in your compact, in the reflection of the store window that's when you'll make the commitment to raise your floor.

Speaker 1: 2:54

Now, what do I mean by that? We love to talk about raising the ceiling. The ceiling is your highest point. The dream job, the business, the financial freedom, the love, the peace. That's the vision board stuff. But before you start reaching for the ceiling, you have to take a hard look at your floor. That's the lowest you'll allow yourself to go. Ask yourself, how low is your floor right now? Are you still going to be gossiping on the phone, still popping pills, drinking, numbing out, scrolling for hours watching other people create and live out their potential, while yours sits in the dark corner of neglect? If your floor is cluttered with old habits, old excuses, old mindsets, you'll never have the stability to push for the ceiling. Raising your floor means deciding. I don't go below this anymore. This is my new baseline for how I think, how I treat myself, how I show up in the world. Sister girl, you can't raise the ceiling until you stabilize and raise your floor.

Speaker 1: 4:09

The late Dr EB McGee used to say in his sermons when you know that you know and so let me tell you this constant listener when you know that you know, you've glimpsed your future self. When you've seen her on the vision board of your heart, in your spirit, you ought to want to become powerful enough, intentional enough. You ought to want to not care enough to see her come through. I don't care what your circumstances look like right now. After you've survived trauma, after the storm has swept through your life, nothing looks the same, not even you. One day I woke up in a five-bedroom house. The next I was waking up in an extended stay hotel room. Your situation might be dire, my God, and it doesn't get much worse than that. But your vision doesn't have to be Rest, breathe, get a picture of what's possible, get a picture of who you're becoming. Then raise your floor for her. Once you've raised your floor, the third shift is this you have to build systems, life systems, daily rhythms, ways of moving through your day that shut the door on stress, chaos and distractions, because those things will rob you blind if you let them, and your future self deserves for. And so get a vision, raise your floor for the woman you're becoming. Then create systems that give her peace, systems that protect her time, her energy, her focus, so she can actually grow into the future. You glimpsed and what do I mean by systems. Start at home.

Speaker 1: 6:01

When chaos hit my life and even before then, I didn't start with big changes. I started with what I could control. So, in our home, instead of my kids cleaning their whole room once a week, we broke it down Every day. We had one small, simple focus Wednesday organize the dresser. Thursday clean the closet. Friday wipe down the windowsills and every single day was make the bed. These were non-negotiable. It's how we kept that very large home clean and in order. Now it sounds small, but those tiny, consistent systems created stability. And even in the extended stay hotel room we had a system, a place for luggage, a system for the bathroom and for the pets. Now I can reminisce and laugh now, but back then we were surviving, one day at a time right, and those systems made survival possible. They turned the chaos into something we could manage, even within that tight, small space. So, even with the systems though reflection and rest, none of it would have worked without my faith. My relationship with my Lord and Savior held me together when everything around me was falling apart.

Speaker 1: 7:22

If you don't have that relationship yet, I encourage you to seek him In the moments of rest. He will show up first. He will sit with you, hold you, catch every tear, he'll tell you to get up, then give you the strength to go forward. He'll plant the vision and walk beside you as you journey toward your future self. Even if you get distracted, even if you get weary, he sees you and he hears you. So, beautiful soul, constant listener, sister, girl, if pressure's got you down. Get up.

Speaker 1: 7:57

If your trauma has you running in circles, chasing deadlines, living by to-do lists, put them down for a moment. To-do lists, put them down for a moment. Silence, the notifications. Step off the hamster wheel and breathe deeply and sit with yourself, your future self, the one who rises from the ashes of what was. She is waiting. She is ready to stand tall in what will be Until next time. I'm Nelida Hollis reminding you. You've got this. I'm rooting for you. I love y'all. One degree to victory is about progression, not perfection, and that involves choosing a life that works for you now, in this season, and building from there. And, sister girl, it's going to take more than loving yourself. It's going to take vision for where you're going, hope to believe it's possible, action to make it real and love for your family to fuel every step. Take one degree forward this week and I'll see you in the next episode.