Josh Mantz returns for part two of our conversation in this series about the Warrior’s Heart. Last week, we discussed why Josh became a soldier, the day he died, and the decade-long emotional struggle that inspired his mission to help veterans and non-veterans alike recover from the emotional wounds that severe trauma can cause.
Today, we dig into Josh’s imminent book: The Beauty of a Darker Soul: Overcoming Trauma Through the Power of Human Connection. Josh wrote this book to help others uncover and validate the true source of their pain, and to give them a shared language they can use to express that pain productively.
How Josh Found Meaning in the Suffering
1. Trauma is complex, cumulative, and personal.
That’s why we need to fight our natural tendency to compare ourselves to others. Your experiences are unique and powerful, and you shouldn’t invalidate your trauma by telling yourself the story that it’s less than someone else’s experience.
2. Trauma isn’t always what it seems.
The experience of dying isn’t what caused Josh’s decade of trauma, and it wasn’t the most difficult part for him – it was living with the incurable immune disorder Crohn’s Disease, going through a divorce, and other failed relationships.
That’s why it’s important that you do the deep (and, yes, difficult) forensic work necessary to uncover the root of your trauma, because it may have started 10 years ago and you didn’t notice (because, as we’ve mentioned, it’s also cumulative).
3. Suffer productively
Although trauma is a very personal experience, you don’t need to go on the journey to overcome it alone. If you try to suffer alone, the paths you take can be dangerous, and even irreversible at times.
“Every moment of my life, even times when I adamantly believed that no one could possibly understand the depths of what I was experiencing, there was always someone in my life who proved me wrong. There’s always someone who had the courage and strength to plant healing seeds inside my mind that would eventually start to grow. They had the strength to be vulnerable, and I really believe that that vulnerability is what binds us together at the core of the human experience.”
There’s nothing more powerful in the resolution of trauma than the power of human connection.
--
Resources:
--
We are brought to you by the Lawton Marketing Group, a full service advertising and design agency serving companies and entrepreneurs at all levels. The are your one stop shop for all your website, logo, social media, print, app design and reputable management needs.
Visit LawtonMG.com for more info.
--
Production & Development for The Impact Entrepreneur Show by Podcast Masters