Summary: Childhood Trauma: Tools For Mastery and Recovery<br> Vernon Brown - Reports that when considering childhood trauma: "everyone is looking for the magic key that will unlock their happiness, not realizing that we’ve evaded that key all of our lives. We take it for granted, getting caught up in the minutia of life, failing to stop and smell the roses and appreciate the things that are important to us. I believe your experience truly begins when you make happiness a tangible commodity that is non-negotiable.<br> <br> Why is your happi vital to me? - Because happiness evaded me most of my young life based upon my own childhood trauma. It wasn’t until I reached adulthood that I understood the value of joy, which is somewhat a backward experience. Many people experience the wonders during a childhood of imagination and innocence - and then find that they to lose it as they grow older. Not me. Childhood wonder and innocence was foreign to me from the outset."<br> <br> In this Episode Vernon articulately tell us how he overcame childhood trauma, found internal happiness and uses that discovery process to help others.<br> Vernon's Childhood Trauma Reviewed<br> "Before the age of 10, I’d experienced varying degrees of death, overdose, and abuse in my environment of repeated childhood trauma. I knew my mother loved me but she did not make smart decisions to benefit her family; she was more wrapped up in pursuing what she wanted instead of what we needed. As a result, we moved around a lot. My mother’s lifestyle alienated relationships with family and close friends, forcing us to exist in a silo, isolated from everyone else.<br> <br> It didn’t help that I was an awkward kid, overweight and just out of place. My family circumstances caused people to look down on me. The result? <a href="http://corebrainjournal.com/184" target="_blank" rel="noopener">I felt less than, broken and invisible</a>.<br> <br> One pinnacle moment stands out in my memory as a young boy. As the school bus pulled in front of my house to let me off, I noticed all my things from room lying in the street in front of my home. We’d been evicted and now everyone knew it. Everyone laughed at me, and I wanted to disappear. I could not understand what I could have done to deserve this life. I hated myself, not my mom - I hated me.<br> Recovery Perspective - Parenting Matters<br> When you shatter a vase on the floor, it takes time to pick up the pieces and put it together. And, once it is put together, it’s never the same; it’s now more fragile than it was, to begin with. I was that shattered vase. My grandmother was the glue that helped me begin to put pieces together when I moved in with her. She showed me how to be a child, something I’d never really known.<br> <br> My childhood trauma experiences taught me how to observe people, mostly as a defense mechanism to protect myself. My <a href="http://corebrainjournal.com/185" target="_blank" rel="noopener">awkward stage extended into adulthood</a>. I did not grow into the person I am today until I turned 20. At that point, I learned that being happy is not something life gives you; you have to seize it for yourself and manage it.<br> Lessons From Pain<br> That’s one of the biggest challenges people face today; <a href="http://corebrainjournal.com/178" target="_blank" rel="noopener">some allow others to hold the puppet strings</a> on what makes them happy. I share my story with you because I want you to know that no matter your circumstances, you have the power to claim happiness for yourself. My life experience has not only helped me learn the value of happiness for myself, but it has awakened a passion in me to help others claim that freedom for themselves. I work with everyone I encounter to experience a revision, perception correction regarding their view of themselves.<br> Action Matters<br> I help others move out of crisis mode and more objectively reassess themselv...
