Friday, January 2, 2009

SATORI's New Mission Statement


Who Are We?
Founded by Mother Bear, Thriving Survivor Advocate, artist and writer Sarah Elise Stauffer, SATORI aims to encourage healing in those traumatized by rape, incest, sexual abuse, and parental abandonment. Satori roughly translates into individual Enlightenment, or a flash of sudden awareness. Satori is as well an intuitive experience. Healing Consciously, that's the goal. 
My personal journey has led me to this place, a whole new realm of awakening.

You have been victimized. You lived through it, so now 
You are a Survivor, but now what? 

Thrive, Flourish, Bloom, Blossom, that's what!
Sarah Elise Stauffer created SATORI, Sexual Abuse Thrivers of Rape and Incest, from her own path of healing from incest, sexual abuse, rape, kidnapping, abandonment, and emotional violence, which began as a 2 year old and lasted until the age of 11. SATORI is a state of sudden spiritual enlightenment which I experienced one night during a lucid dream. I had been thinking of ways to express my ideas about consciously healing trauma. 
SATORI believes healing is for everyone, and reclaiming our soul and our light includes all kinds of profound things, like:
feeling a sense of belonging to the planet, living in full bloom, minimizing the effects of panic, anxiety, PTSD, depression, shame, sexual issues, guilt, self-harm by way of and through negative thinking patterns. We can embrace our brilliance we have been denying to secretly stay loyal to the image of ourselves that our abuser gave us.. (fat, ugly, incapable of stability, will never find success, never attain a healthy marriage or relationship, never be a healthy parent, never be deserving of love, stupid, weak, crazy, sex-crazed, frigid, damaged, sick, weird, pick one, or a few.)
No matter where you are on your path, you can learn to welcome the experiences of burning with passion, , choosing to live with gusto, basking in our incandescence, embracing the intensity of the waves of healing, opening our hearts to our own luminosity, passion, phosphorescence, radiance, splendor, vividness, warmth.. Shall I go on? Healing is hard work and a life commitment. Healing does not include miraculous removal of your trauma. It is not a competition, least of all with yourself. You may go at your own pace. I believe YOU ARE A STAR! You need not be anyone other than yourself, for there is only one YOU! Let us strive to be our own heroine and hero. 

I believe that survival and thriving can coexist harmoniously. It's all about balance. Nothing will ever erase what happened, but we can strive for more wholeness and more light. I make no promises that anything can totally discharge the trauma anyone has endured. Such goals are counterproductive and beside the point. Thriving is the next step in healing our wounds and sending that healing to one another and into this world There is no need to push away parts of who you are or were, yes, we have been victims. Victim is not a dirty word. But we do not need to revictimize ourselves. Survivor is a beautiful thing. But there is more. Thriving is a birthright. It is for you. Everything is a line in the poem of who you are. Becoming a Thriving Survivor is my mantra! 

I want to spread healing and solace to the world. Being HEAL-THY is about healing thyself. It's up to us. I long to comfort you who have been so hurt as I too have been. I have known that I had within me an essential drive to share my story, to scream in outrage, to release fury for all the suffering of so many of us as children, and to help others heal ....transcending into THRIVING SURVIVORS.
•SATORI tells the raw truth about incest, sexual abuse, rape, and mother/father abandonment. We face the darkness and grotesque realities of what little girls and boys go through when abused. For years I could not say I was RAPED. I was KIDNAPPED. Yet, I was and just because it was my own father does not mean it was not a "real" rape or kidnapping. Saying what it is true heals. Verbalizing the truth, word by petrified word.
•We happily violate the cultural taboo of silence that surrounds incest. We believe in VERBALIZATION OF THE TRUTH, WHICH TRANSFORMS US. Verbalization equals transformation. Verbalization makes us fierce with the reality of what we endured. We must find our light so that we may illuminate the darkness of the abuse. SATORI promotes speaking out as much as possible about the attempted soul murder taking place in the lives of 1/3 girls and 1/5 boys.
•We truly believe that each person born has innate light that can never be stolen by an abuser, that we abused we end up with distorted perceptions of ourselves. We begin to believe the lie of incest, sexual abuse, rape, and parental abandonment. Our light can never be stolen, we only think it can. SATORI aims to show the way of flourishing despite trauma. Trauma shapes us profoundly. We do not have to retraumatize ourselves however. There is light in the darkness, and soon that light can fill us until the darkness is less powerful. Eventually it is only a shadow. 

Main Entry:
thrive
Part of Speech:
Verb (yes, it's a verb, and it means we have to work at it.)
Definition:
advance, arrive, batten, bear fruit, bloom, blossom, boom, burgeon, come on, develop, flourish, get on, get places, get there*, grow, grow rich, home free, increase, make hay, make it, progress, prosper, radiate, rise, shine, shoot up, succeed, wax.

HEALING IS NOT A PASSIVE THING THAT HAPPENS TO US, WE HAVE TO SOW THE SEEDS, AND HARVEST OUR HEALING.
•We speak out about the effects being abandoned by a parent, you can love your parent and still tell the truth about what happened. Many survivors have been abandoned by a Mother and then incested by Dad.
•We use art, poetry, music, and other art forms to reclaim our birthright to healthy, delicious, ecstatic sexual light. Rebirthing our light includes the blossoming of our right to a beautiful and healthy sexuality.
•Our main message is that healing is possible, it is about conscious choice, being willing to have the courage to face what has happened to you, break ties if you need to, believing in your own light, ripping out that old family tree and planting your brand new one free of secrets and lies, learning how incest family dynamics work, and rediscovering how to love the child within. We are all born with what I call our little box of light, a gem that can NEVER be stolen or snuffed out. We are abused and tortured which shifts our perception of ourselves, we see ourselves distorted, energetically we absorb the projections of our abusers as the hurt us and we turn that against ourselves. We are porous, we absorb their shame, their dirtiness, their self hatred. We can release that self-perception and rebirth our light. Survivors can absolutely thrive, create loving relationships, get married to a wonderful person, speak out, release shame, raise children well, be nourishing and connected parents, take great care of our bodies and minds, enjoy loving and reciprocal friendships, travel, dream, set and attain goals, go to school, go back to school, expect to be treated with dignity and respect, grow self esteem, accept limitations without self-criticism and self-blame, and experience immense joy in life. Namaste!

1 comment:

Emily said...

wow, again!

What a gift for writing, not to mention rising above pain, you have.

Thanks for visiting my blog too.