Creating collective change as survivors

Welcome to Healing is the Best Revenge, a podcast for survivors and the folks who love us, to discuss the politics of survivorship, healing, and community care. This is a space where we honor the messy and complex realities of healing from trauma, rejecting pedestals and perfectionism along the way.

Hi, I’m Karina Hagelin and I’m a survivor with complex post-traumatic stress disorder AKA CPTSD. I get it and I’m here to offer affirmations, pep talks, encouragement, support, and some radically vulnerable discussions about being in the messy murky middle of healing from trauma.

Now, a note from this show’s sponsor: me! Have you checked out my shop? I create cute, colorful zines, stickers, and affirmation prints centered around radical self-love, healing from trauma, vulnerability, friendships as resistance, and moving from surviving to thriving.

I want to recommend my Survivor Self-Love Package which is a bundle of zines, stickers, & prints. They’re bright, uplifting, and inspiring, filled with words of support and encouragement for survivors of abuse, trauma, and violence. I have 6 Survivor Self-Love Packages left at the time of recording this episode. Each Survivor Self-Love Package contains:

The first Survivor Affirmations zine;
An Affirmations for Survivors #3 mini-zine;
4 colorful postcard prints
And three glossy waterproof vinyl stickers, including:
A large pink heart sticker that says: “Someone I love has PTSD (it’s me)
A medium rainbow oval sticker that says, “if you think I’m too much, go find less”
And a small sticker of pink & white text that reads, “My inner child wants revenge”

Each order is packed with confetti, love, and a limited edition affirmation print.

Hi sweet friend! Karina here. I was planning on listing the second edition of the Survivor Affirmation Deck on Etsy last week. It didn’t happen & still hasn’t - because I’m working on a Kickstarter for the deck instead. Stay tuned for details.

I’ve been struggling with a lot of flashbacks & dissociative episodes lately. The nightmares are really bad too. I’ve been working on adding grounding rituals into my everyday routines so I’m not as dissociative.

So! Today, I want to talk about how we can meaningfully participate in activism as survivors.

Creating & sharing resources about showing up & supporting causes we care about for folks with less or varying capacity, whether it’s due to chronic illness, disability, PTSD/CPTSD, neurodivergence, & so on, is really important because let’s be real: that list includes many, if not most, of us. How do we create change, using the capacity, resources, & skills we have available to us?

That’s what I want to talk about today. I’ll be discussing how to do a skills inventory, an app I’m using to call my representatives to demand an immediate ceasefire in Palestine, & some reading and resource recommendations. As always, this episode will be a short one & as always, I’ll link any & all resources in the show notes, including a transcript of today’s episode for accessibility.

So. Let’s talk about skills inventories.

What is a skills inventory? It’s an exercise that helps you to identify your skills and how you can use those skills to support causes you care about.

You make a list of ALL of your skills. Then, you chose one skill from your list. After that, you brainstorm a list of ways in which you could offer support using the skill you chose. Finally, you take action!

I know this sounds simple & to be honest, I think it is. If you’re a visual person, @clean.air.club shared an Instagram reel where they demonstrate a skills inventory, @clean.air.club shared an Instagram reel where they demonstrate a skills inventory. I’ll link it in the show notes if you’d like to watch it.

We can also call our representatives to demand a ceasefire now. Of course, this isn’t the end-all-be-all of activism but it’s an important aspect of it.

There’s even an app for that. 5calls provides you with a list of up to 5 representatives in your area you can call to make the most impact. You enter your area code & they provide the names & phone numbers of those representatives, along with a short 1-minute sample script to use and simple, straightforward instructions.

I’ve been calling my representatives daily, urging them to support an immediate ceasefire in Palestine.

I’ll include link to the 5calls app in the show notes. I’ve also linked a few resources, including:

I hope this episode helps you feel more empowered to take action, from your bed or from the streets.

I’m sending you so much tenderness & care, sweet friend. & as always, a quick reminder that I believe you. Until next time!

Creating collective change as survivors | Healing is the Best Revenge episode #17 transcript