when we don't give up, we "do"

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
March 31, 2021

When I see people dancing on the ice, I am always amazed. I cannot understand how they do it. Every time I put on a pair, (when I was young) I fell way too much. Besides, I am lucky I can walk without tripping on air.

Today I am taking the day off from doing a video. As a gift, the featured video is Gladys Knight and the Pips, I Hope You Dance and they performed this while a woman dances on ice and in the air.

There are times when things are hard for us and we wish that we could do things we cannot do. Then there are things we can do if someone helps us. Someone teaches us what is hard for us to learn. Other times we understand things easily and we can teach someone else. The thing is, when we don't give up, we "do" what we can and rejoice for those who can do more.

I am not diminished by what others accomplish, nor am I uplifted because others cannot do what I do. I have learned to accept my limitations and quit turning everything into a contest.

If you are struggling with PTSD, then do not be jealous of those who were with you, or others you met later after they experienced similar events, but seem happier than you are, any more than you should look down on others struggling harder than you are. This is not a contest. This is a team effort where you get help where and when you need it, and pass on help, where and when you can.

Remember, it is your life...get in and drive it!

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD

I Hope You Dance

Gladys Knight 

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder

You get your fill to eat

But always keep that hunger

May you never take one single breath for granted

God forbid love ever leave you empty handed

I hope you still feel small

When you stand by the ocean

Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens

Promise me you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

I hope you dance

I hope you dance

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance

Never settle for the path of least resistance

Living might mean taking chances

But they're worth taking

Lovin' might be a mistake

But it's worth making

Don't let some hell bent heart

Leave you bitter

When you come close to selling out

Reconsider

Give the heavens above

More than just a passing glance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

I hope you dance

(Time is a real and constant motion always)

I hope you dance

(Rolling us along)

I hope you dance

(Tell me who)

I hope you dance

(Wants to look back on their youth and wonder)

(Where those years have gone)

I hope you still feel small

When you stand by the ocean

Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens

Promise me you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

Dance

I hope you dance

I hope you dance

(Time is a real and constant motion always)

I hope you dance

(Rolling us along)

I hope you dance

(Tell me who)

(Wants to look back on their youth and wonder)

I hope you dance

(Where those years have gone)

I hope you dance

(Wants to look back on their youth and wonder)

(Where those years have gone)

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Sanders Mark Daniel / Sillers Tia Maria

I Hope You Dance lyrics © Sony/atv Melody, Choice Is Tragic Music, Soda Creek Songs, Mca Music Publishing, A.d.o. Universal Studios

A veteran shares how music therapy has helped him live with PTSD, and how he's now hoping to give back to others that are struggling. We also learn more about what PTSD is and what symptoms someone might be struggling with.

For more on the MUSICRx Foundation: www.musicrxfoundation.org

where changes they see in you came from

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
March 30, 2021

Are you celebrating Easter this year? Are you doing the Easter Bunny and chocolate eggs kind of celebrating, or the life of Jesus, His Death and Resurrection type of celebrating? If you celebrate the rest of the year the secular way, then why not celebrate the rest of the year the Holy Way? The secular way won't keep you full, comforted and happy all year but the Holy Way will. After all, it is a happier way to live.

This is Holy Week for most Christians. I am Greek Orthodox, and our's begins May 2.  It is a time that we reflect on the life of Jesus and His Sacrifice for the rest of us. Hundreds of years before His birth, it was in the Scriptures.

Isaiah 53

Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.

9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Did he see the future in a dream, or did God tell him what he would not live long enough to see?

Today there is a special video I wanted to share. It is by the group Yes, And You And I.

Commentary on YES, And You And I

1. A man conceived a moment’s answers to the dream.
“The dream” What is “The dream?” This is the key factor in this verse.

One of the constant factors in mystical religious material across all generations, across all centuries and across all religions is the notion that the universe is God's dream, and that we all live our lives in that dream. For those of you who scoff, the Bible itself is clear about this. Before he creates the temple in the book of Exodus, Moses is taught by YHWH how to build it. YHWH shows him the real temple, the temple in Heaven, and God tells him to make the earthly temple as a copy of the real temple. In 1 Corinthians, St. Paul talks about how we now see through a glass darkly, as though we are peering through the fog and cannot truly see the real picture of truth or God. Eventually we will see him--God, face to face. It's just like being in a dream.

Formerly, we were dead in our trespasses and sins, but now we are alive. That is a more powerful image than the notion of a dream. To be dead and become alive is very similar to being asleep and becoming awake.

Now you know what the song means. 

Think of your own life. How many times have you looked at other people and thought they are dead inside? I see cranky people all the time and wonder if they are having a bad day, or if they ever had a good one in their lifetime.

I see politicians making speeches and think how horrible it is that they seem so proud of themselves, while lying and doing evil things with their power. Look at their eyes and see how they let their soul be slaughtered in exchange for power. Yet even they are not beyond redemption to God. If He will still forgive them, and love them, why would think He couldn't forgive and love you too?

If PTSD is eating up hope, then remember that. Remember the miracles Jesus delivered and the messages He came to share from God. Then remember that He came to pay for our sins so that we would find forgiveness, but also, so that we would know that we are loved!

Just because you may have been involved in something terrible, that does not make you terrible.

Because you may have terrible thoughts, that does not mean that is all you are capable of thinking.

Because you cannot feel love as deeply as you once did, that does not mean you will never be able to.

People see you've changed but they do not understand where it came from. They have no way of knowing unless you talk to them. If they are changes for the worse, like your unhappiness or anger, they wonder what they did wrong. They may not want to be around you anymore. If they see you change to be happier and more patient, then they want to be around you.

All you are going through means "for now," but does not have to be all there is for you in the next moment. It is like being asleep, walking through your life, until you can become awakened and live a happier life.

Besides, someone is praying for you right now so that you can tell others where changes they see in you came from....God's LOVE!

(I misspoke in this video and said that Isaiah wrote about it in the Bible...but I meant Scriptures. That is what happens with a no edit, no notes video. Forgive me.)

Remember, it is your life...get in and drive it! #BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD

And You And I

YES

A man conceived a moment's answer to the dream

Staying the flowers daily, sensing all the themes

As a foundation left to create the spiral aim

A movement regained and regarded both the same

All complete in the sight of seeds of life with you

Changed only for a sight of sound, the space agreed

Between the picture of time behind the face of need

Coming quickly to terms of all expression laid

Emotions revealed as the ocean maid

All complete in the sight of seeds of life with you

Coins and crosses never know their fruitless worth

Cords are broken, locked inside the mother earth

They won't hide, oh, they won't tell you

Watching the world, watching all of the world

Watching us go by

And you and I climb over the sea to the valley

And you and I reached out for reasons to call

Coming quickly to terms of all expression laid

Emotions revealed as the ocean maid

As a movement regained and regarded both the same

All complete in the sight of seeds of life with you

Sad preacher nailed upon the coloured door of time

Insane teacher be there reminded of the rhyme

There'll be no mutant enemy we shall certify

Political ends, as sad remains, will die

Reach out as forward tastes begin to enter you

I listened hard but could not see

Life tempo change out and inside me

The preacher trained in all to lose his name

The teacher travels, asking to be shown the same

In the end we'll agree, we'll accept, we'll immortalize

That the truth of man maturing in his eyes

All complete in the sight of seeds of life with you

Coming quickly to terms of all expression laid

As a moment regained and regarded both the same

Emotion revealed as the ocean maid

A clearer future, morning, evening, nights with you

And you and I climb, crossing the shapes of the morning

And you and I reach over the sun for the river

And you and I climb, clearer towards the movement

And you and I called over valleys of endless seas

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Jon Anderson / Chris Squire / Steve Howe / Bill Bruford 

Won't let life get me down

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
March 29, 2021

There are times when you are in a bad mood and others end up catching the mood from you. There are other times when you are miserable and you encounter a happy person, you catch it from them. Music has a way of changing your mood, so let this one change it to hopeful thought about your future. The featured video today is Kiki Dee, I've Got The Music In Me.

Ain't got no trouble in my life

No foolish dreams to make me cry

I'm never frightened or worried

I know I'll always get by

I heat up, I cool down

When something gets in my way I go round it

Won't let life get me down

Gonna take it the way that I found it

I've got the music in me, I've got the music in me, I've got the music in me.

Let go of whatever problems you have just for a little while and remember what feeling hopeful felt liked. Chair dance or get up on your feet and do it. Sing to it, even if you cannot sing. If you are really bad then you can hum.

If you remember what feeling happy is like, then maybe you'll want to be that way more often. The thing is, you can be if you find what you need to heal. It is great to know you can recover a happier life with PTSD,  but is even better to know it is possible! Catch a better life from others who know exactly where you are so you can get to where they are...happier.

OK, for today, just enjoy the song and let it give you some hope of better days.

Remember, it is your life...get in and drive it!

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYouLife from #PTSD

I've Got the Music in Me

The Kiki Dee Band 

Ain't got no trouble in my life

No foolish dreams to make me cry

I'm never frightened or worried

I know I'll always get by

I heat up, I cool down

When something gets in my way I go round it

Won't let life get me down

Gonna take it the way that I found it

I've got the music in me, I've got the music in me, I've got the music in me.

I've got the music in me, I've got the music in me, I've got the music in me.

Some say that life is a circle

But that ain't the way that I found it

Gonna move in a straight line

Keeping my feet firmly on the ground

I heat up, I cool down

I've got words in my head so I'll say them

Won't let life get me down

Catch a hold of my blues and just play them

I've got the music in me, I've got the music in me, I've got the music in me.

I've got the music in me, I've got the music in me, I've got the music in me.

Feel funky, feel good

Gonna tell you I'm in the neighborhood

Gonna fly like a bird on the wing

Hold onto your hat honey - sing, sing, sing, sing

I heat up, I cool down

I've got words in my head so I'll say them

Won't let life get me down

Catch a hold of my blues and you know I'll play them

I've got the music in me, I've got the music in me, I've got the music in me.

I've got the music in me, I've got the music in me, I've got the music in me.

I got music, I got music, I've got the music in me.

I've got the music in me, I've got the music in me

I've got music, pretty music, I've got the music in me.

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Bias Boshell

I've Got the Music in Me lyrics © Rocket Music Ltd. 

When I don't fit in

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
March 28, 2021

I don't fit in anywhere. I never did. When I was young, it didn't matter to me at all. I just wanted to be myself. When I got older, I wanted to fit in but I still wanted to be me. When I got a lot older, I didn't care if I fit in again. That is not always a bad thing. 

People who do not fit in are the ones who change the world. If everyone thought the same, settled for the way things were, then nothing would ever change. They are the creators of change. The dreamers, poets and writers, artist, musicians, scientists and misfits create things that were never done before.

If you have PTSD, then you may not really fit in with people who never survived anything like you did. It is OK. You do fit in with others who are trying to heal, but you can also do something different because you know things have to change to make lives better.

Today is Palm Sunday for most Christians, but not Greeks like me. It is the day Jesus road in on the donkey and the people shouted "hosanna" as he went by them. In other words, they wanted this One who did not "fit in" to save them. Jesus did not fit in with the other Hebrews and came to change the world. It is why today the featured video is Sanctus Real, Forgiven. 

Part of the lyrics is about not fitting in. 

And I don't have to carry the weight of who I've been

'Cause I'm forgiven

When I don't fit in

And I don't feel like I belong anywhere

When I don't measure up to much in this life

Oh, I'm a treasure in the arms of Christ

'Cause I'm forgiven

The rest of the world may tell you that you should hold onto anger and blaming others. It tells you to hate those who hurt you or didn't care what happened to you. The world tells you a lot of things but deep inside, it is destroying you. It is taking room in your soul where goodness belongs. Where hope should be and where dreams begin. Don't let all that negative stuff take up that much room in you.

Isn't it time to be "you" with all your flaws and gifts? Isn't it time for you to do more than settle for what "is" because people are telling you that you should, or far worse, tell you to just get over it? Be a misfit and then show others how to be happier being them!

Remember, it is your life...get in and drive it!
#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD

Forgiven

Sanctus Real

Well, the past is playing with my head

And failure knocks me down again

I'm reminded of the wrong that I have said and done

And that devil just won't let me forget

In this life, I know what I've been

But here in Your arms, I know what I am

I'm forgiven

I'm forgiven

And I don't have to carry the weight of who I've been

'Cause I'm forgiven

My mistakes are running through my mind

And I relive my days in the middle of the night

And I struggle with my pain, wrestle with my pride

Sometimes I feel alone, and I cry

And in this life, I know what I've been

But here in Your arms, I know what I am

I'm forgiven

I'm forgiven

And I don't have to carry the weight of who I've been

'Cause I'm forgiven

When I don't fit in

And I don't feel like I belong anywhere

When I don't measure up to much in this life

Oh, I'm a treasure in the arms of Christ

'Cause I'm forgiven

I'm forgiven

And I don't have to carry the weight of who I've been

'Cause I'm forgiven

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Graalman Mark Steven / Hammitt Matthew D / Rohman Christopher James / Prevost Peter Thomas / Gartley Daniel David

Forgiven lyrics © Birdwing Music, River Oaks Music Co., 1012 Rosedale Music, Toledo Tomorrow Music, Stonebrook Music Co., Eventho Publishing, Olde Irish Publishing, Look At My Beard 

As I said, not fitting in, is not always a bad thing.

I made it through the rain and so can you!

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
March 27, 2021

Think of PTSD this way. It was a storm. You survivied. Then came the rain. You can survive that too! If you know that, that is half the battle. The other half is trying to figure out how to do it. That is why there is so much information on exactly how things can get cleared up "by others who got rained on too." This is why today the featured video is Barry Manilow, I Made It Through The Rain.

If you Google Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, there are over 78 million results. If you Google PTSD, there are almost 77 million results. That is because there are over 8 million Americans with PTSD. Canada has the highest rate of PTSD, but it is helpful to consider the fact, no matter what reported numbers are, far too many do not get diagnosed because they have no idea there is a name for what happened to them after they survived. All research being done indicates an huge increase of pandemic survivors who will also need help to make it through.

The Nation Center For PTSD has this,

The fact is, help works, but there is no one size fits all.This is why there are so many different approaches to treatment. Find what works best for you and talk to your doctor. If something worked for someone you know, but does not work for you, then try something else.

Treatment works but it cannot work if you do not know for sure what is raining on your life. Isn't it time you found out for sure so that you can make it through too?

 

Remember, it is your life...get in and drive it!

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD

I Made It Through The Rain

Barry Manilow

We dreamers have our ways

Of facing rainy days

And somehow we survive

We keep the feelings warm

Protect them from the storm

Until our time arrives

Then one day the sun appears

And we come shining through those lonely years

I made it through the rain

I kept my world protected

I made it through the rain

I kept my point of view

I made it through the rain

And found myself respected

By the others who

Got rained on too

And made it through

When friends are hard to find

And life seems so unkind

Sometimes you feel afraid

Just aim beyond the clouds

And rise above the crowds

And start your own parade

'Cause when I chased my fears away

That's when I knew that I could finally say

I made it through the rain

I kept my world protected

I made it through the rain

I kept my point of view

I made it through the rain

And found myself respected

By the others who

Got rained on too

And made it through

I made it through the rain

I kept my world protected

I made it through the rain

I kept my point of view

I made it through the rain

And found myself respected

By the others who

Got rained on too

And made it through

And made it through

I made it through

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Barry Manilow / Bruce Sussman / Jack Feldman / Gerald Kenny / Drey Sheppard

I Made It Through the Rain lyrics © D And J Arlon Enterprises Ltd