Posts in prevention education
Showing UP for Sophia: What is Resilience?
Showing UP for Sophia: What is Resilience?

“Kids are resilient — they can bounce back from anything.”

I’ve heard these words often. I’ve repeated them myself, especially to myself. I meant them without question. Until I started having conversations about healthy relationships with youth who were kept in cages.

Our society refers to these structures as juvenile detention centers — a facility in which inmates are forcibly confined and denied a variety of freedoms under the authority of the state as a form of punishment after being convicted of crimes. Quite a sentence for youth who don’t have fully developed brains until the age of 25 — the development of the prefrontal cortex affects how to regulate emotions, control impulsive behavior, assess risk and make long-term plans. In addition, the cerebellum affects cognitive maturity, but unlike the prefrontal cortex, the development of the cerebellum appears to largely depend on environment, as Dr. Jay Giedd at Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego told PBS.

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generational trauma, healthy relationships, prevention education, mentor, relationships, resiliency, unhealthy relationshipsMarcella MaggioACEs, trauma, child abuse, accountability, childhood trauma, relationships, resiliency, break the pattern, inner child, inside kid Comments
Showing UP for Sophia: Love in the Last Lane
Showing UP for Sophia: Love in the Last Lane

Karma is only a bitch if you are.

I thought we were rolling steady, though slow. Until I noticed he always seemed ready to get off the road. One tire in, one tire out? Dangerous, exhilarating, and exhausting. I had to decide if I was ready to ride or die. I wasn’t down for either, until I was.

After he decided to leave me in the dust and drive back to his hometown with our daughter, I picked up my bags and have been crashing on my Mom’s couch since mid-February. When I met him five Februarys ago, he was living with a longtime friend, sleeping on his couch.

Karma is only a bitch if you are.

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child abuse, co-parenting, family, generational trauma, healthy relationships, parenting, prevention education, relationships, resiliency, toxic stress, transgenerational trauma, unhealthy relationshipsMarcella MaggioIt's My Lifedrama, trauma, music, self-love, self-worth, forgiveness, freedom, karma, bitch, beliefs, behaviorsComment
Showing UP for Sophia: Duets & Debuts
Showing UP for Sophia: Duets & Debuts

“Wow, he really hurt you, didn’t he?”

I looked at her puzzled, “John?”

“Have you dealt with it? Let it go?”

That was last week. Since then, I’ve dealt with it. But not without a little help from my friends — real and surreal. For days my activities revolved around crying my face off to music, one song in particular, paying close attention to the shit talk that arose as I listened, and breathing through the passages of pain.

I listened and wrote, forgetting facts about Covid-19 and wiping tears and snot from face to sleeve. I lost my appetite, wanting to feed myself answers instead. Why was I hurt? Why was I being led to find the answers in music? Why was I unable to stop listening to the song?

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child abuse, co-parenting, family, generational trauma, healthy relationships, mentor, parenting, prevention education, relationships, resiliency, transgenerational trauma, unhealthy relationshipsMarcella MaggioIt's My Lifehealing, childhood trauma, generational trauma, lovers, friends, friendship, breakup, music, songs, therapy, hurt, happy, grateful, covidComment
Showing UP for Sophia: Oh April, What a Fool I Was
Showing UP for Sophia: Oh April, What a Fool I Was

As a survivor of child abuse and sexual assault, April 1st not only starts month-long awareness campaigns for both causes, but commemorates my three-month sobriety. I share my story to raise awareness that victims and survivors of these types of traumas are more likely to use and abuse alcohol, at times losing their lives and closest relationships.

I started drinking soon after I was raped. I was fifteen and was told booze made you feel good. I didn’t know what that meant.

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child abuse, co-parenting, family, generational trauma, healthy relationships, mentor, parenting, prevention education, relationships, resiliency, transgenerational trauma, unhealthy relationshipsMarcella MaggioIt's My Lifechild abuse, co-parenting, family, generational trauma, healthy relationship, drinking, alcohol abuse, sobriety, soberComment
Showing UP for Sophia: And Like That, She's Gone
Showing UP for Sophia: And Like That, She's Gone

I have work to do, but I can’t stop crying. I have to get it out first. I have to be with this. I have to feel it all. Even when my breath tightens, even when my legs can’t stop shaking, even when I have to pause typing for every word to cry. I have to understand why I feel like such a failure. I have to know to go forward. Deep down I already know what it is, I’ve just never named it. Only shamed and blamed it in others.

This is my mid-life crisis. This is where I see all of my shit. Where I face my shadows, the darker parts of myself that I don’t want you to know. So why am I telling you now? Because I’m done hiding.

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child abuse, co-parenting, family, generational trauma, healthy relationships, mentor, parenting, prevention education, relationships, resiliency, transgenerational trauma, unhealthy relationshipsMarcella MaggioIt's My Liferelationships, resiliency, trauma, trust, trusted adult, transgenerational trauma, storytelling, family, family issues, guardian, ignorance, parenting, parenthood, prevention education, aces, awareness, survivor, depression, identity, healthy relationship, healing, thriver, break the pattern, breakup, love, communication, boundaries, mental health, adverse childhood experiences, mentor Comment
Rewrite #ABCs🚦 & Flip the Script on Relationships
Rewrite #ABCs🚦 & Flip the Script on Relationships

Facing my ACEs helped me understand why I had no ABCs.

Being told how to feel taught me to mistrust myself.

I had no awareness that I could have boundaries or should require consent.

What was consent?

My boundaries were crossed every day.

I had no privacy or choice, just rules and punishment.

Now that I know my ABCs and have become my own Trusted Adult,

I’m introducing others to theirs.

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prevention education, healthy relationships, relationshipsMarcella MaggioIt's My Lifeawareness, boundaries, consent, accountability, mindful experiences, adverse childhood experiences, childhood trauma, healing Comment
Victim Mentality: It's for Sale, but are you Buying it?
Victim Mentality: It's for Sale, but are you Buying it?

Let’s talk about… Victim Mentality.

What is it?

Why does it exist?

How can we prevent it?

First off, who am I to write about such a topic? Well, if you know me… or have known me in the last 43 years, you know I know how to play the role “just right”. And if you know me, you just nodded in agreement. Here’s the twist, if you nodded, it’s because you know firsthand, for yourself. Whether you are aware of your own victim mentality or not, I am merely a reflection of you. So… with that being said… let’s face facts.

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prevention education, child abuse, generational trauma, resiliency, transgenerational traumaMarcella MaggioIt's My Lifeidentity, mental healthComment
Regulate Triggers - Fight, Flight or Freeze
Regulate Triggers - Fight, Flight or Freeze

What is a Trigger?

A trigger is a reminder of a past trauma that can cause a person to feel overwhelming sadness, anxiety, or panic. It may also cause a person to have flashbacks (a vivid, often negative memory that may appear without warning), or lose track of their surroundings and “relive” a traumatic event.

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prevention educationMarcella MaggioIt's My Lifefight, flight, freeze, trauma, aces, trigger, triggers, sadness, anxiety, depression, resiliency, trauma-informed, survivor, thriverComment