-V-

“My sister and I, we were selfish. We wanted selves. There was no rage or love that could stop us.”
― Lidia Yuknavitch, The Chronology of Water

“Cleaning the wound is often more painful
than the cut itself.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Shadows of Self

“Language is a metaphor for experience. It’s as arbitrary as the mass of chaotic images we call memory–but we can put it into lines to narrativize over fear.”
― Lidia Yuknavitch, The Chronology of Water

“The job of the autonomic nervous system is to ensure we survive in moments of danger and thrive in times of safety. Survival requires threat detection and the activation of a survival response. Thriving demands the opposite—the inhibition of a survival response so that social engagement can happen. Without the capacity for activation, inhibition, and flexibility of response, we suffer.”
― Deb Dana, The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation