Meandering Michele’s Mind: Be Your Own PTSD Ecosphere
Thursday, September 10th, 2009 • Uncategorized •
My assistant, Jessica (a really terrific organic photographer), wants a pet. However, she doesn’t want just any kind of pet. She has guidelines: Nothing that chews a bone and needs lots of exercise. Nothing that mews and makes her husband sneeze. Nothing that’s gold and swims around in a bowl (she’s read they don’t last long).
We’re at a standstill in the office. We don’t know what she should choose. And then I saw the most perfect pet for her: An African frog. Actually, in Brookstone’s Frog-o-Sphere you get not one but TWO frogs, plus a snail, living gravel, a piece of coral, a stone and a bamboo shoot.
It is, to put it succinctly, a self-contained, self-cleaning ecosystem. Encased in glass this little community is completely self-sufficient and unaffected by the outside world. I like it as a metaphor for healing.
Of course, you can’t be completely cut off from the external world during PTSD recovery but it’s not a bad idea to set up your own ecosphere — some place, some mindset, some day or week or adventure in which you are your own self-contained ecosystem: You nourish yourself, you clean your own mees, you make oxygen, you float around in the silence of peace.
If you want to throw in a splash of color, even better. What I’m thinking is that in healing you have to reach out and connect to the outside world, but it’s also important to develop within yourself that space where you are cut off, swimming around inside a place of your own making that is good for and nourishes you, where you can heal in the warmth of your own atmosphere without any negative interference from the external world.
I’m thinking that while healing requires a connection to a support system outside of yourself it also equally requires the development of a self-contained system within yourself, too. Think about that today. Be the frog.
Tags: brookstone, frog-o-sphere, healing, Meandering Michele's Mind, ptsd, recovery
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Thanks for my wonderful froggies, spot and dot. I love them already!
Are you serious?? Not that it matters but I am diagnosed with PTSD due to childhood sexual abuse. I felt completely trapped and unable to leave the situation even when I was old enough to do so. Have you given any thought to how cruel it is to have 2 frogs and a snail living in a tiny box with hardly room to move. I saw these at Hallmark recently and was outraged and heartbroken. Brookstone’s and Hallmark don’t even have licenses to sell animals. They aren’t trinkets for God’s sake. Read the reports…..many of the frogs and snails are dying simply because people are following the directions given with the “kit.” As if I was heartsick already, the fact that a website dedicated to healing and recovery is advocating this cruelty to animals blows me away. Part of recovery and healing is being free from bondage..yet you’re endorsing these poor creatures to life in a tiny death box. You should do some research.
@Hope – Thanks for sharing your perspective. I am not endorsing the Frog-o-sphere as a commercial entity. I was using it as a metaphor for how safe and secure we would all like to feel and that we can and should find a way to create that environment for ourselves.
Since we don’t know the snails or frogs or their thoughts we can’t say for sure that they’re not happy in their space. I have an entire house yet my dog’s favorite space is a tiny dark closet; not what I would have expected, wanted or imagined for him but it is the space in which he feels most at home.
It is a shame people don’t take proper care. Of course, I would wish for all survivors and all animals a life of respect, honor, support, security and joy.