Self-Love vs. Shame

This Valentine's Day my focus is on self-love.  Shame is the tool perpetrators in our society. They create create acts of violence to shame the victim.  I refuse to be a victim any longer- I let shame go the moment I announced on my blog I was a human trafficking survivor.  Before I was worried what will my boss or my boss' boss say?  What will my husband say?  Then I stopped the moment I realized that that worry was shame- the very tool of the perpetrators in my past.  I realized I do not have anything to worry about at all- because if anybody has anything negative to say about naming the trauma, they are aligning themselves with the perpetrator.  I will not allow myself to be denied words of self-acceptance and self-love!  I will stand in my shoes and name the violence of the perpetrator- human trafficking.  Naming gives us an opportunity to do something about trauma.  Because I named this trauma I  was able to align myself with a whole group of human trafficking survivors by joining the National Survivor Network. What can one survivor do in the company of many- the sky is the limit.  Happy Valentine's Day to me!