Get a good plan, Stan.

If we do not have a plan for today that is consistent with and supportive of our trauma recovery, someone else has a plan for us— that is most likely not consistent with or supportive of our trauma recovery. 

One of the biggest mistakes many survivors in recovery make is trying to vibe our way through the day without a plan. I’ve made this mistake way more times than I can count. 

Here’s what we need to understand about trauma: after years, it has become our default setting. If we leave ourselves on autopilot, we’re going to end up veering in the direction of trauma responses and trauma BS (Belief Systems). 

In order to stay on a recovery consistent course, as opposed to getting yanked toward relapse and trauma responses, we need to have a plan. Every day. 

Does this sound exhausting? Yes. To me it does, anyway. 

Is it entirely necessary to realistically keep our recovery on track? Absolutely. 

We don’t need to need to make our daily plan super detailed. We only need it to be as detailed as we need it to be to avoid going on autopilot. 

For my money, a good place to start with our daily recovery plan is with a SWOT analysis— a brief listing of our strengths and weaknesses today, and an overview of the opportunities and threats today presents. 

A SWOT analysis will help remind us of our strengths and keep us real about our vulnerabilities today— and it’ll also point us in the direction of where we need to go and what we need to be aware of to successfully work our recovery today. 

Trauma Brain is going to try to tell us that doing a SWOT analysis and sketching out a plan for the day is too much hassle. 

Trauma Brain might also try to tell us that “normal” people don’t need to go through all this to live a “normal” existence— and the fact that we apparently do need to do all this means we’re “broken” or “weird” or “weak.” 

The truth is, every human being, traumatized or not, would likely benefit from doing a daily SWOT analysis and sketching out a plan for the day. It’s not exclusive to trauma survivors— although the fact that we have a recovery to work means we have to be intentional and disciplined about doing these things that everybody would probably benefit from doing. 

I’ve said it before: I would not have chosen the experience of surviving abuse or neglect fo either me or you. It’s staggeringly unfair that ether you or I have to work a trauma recovery at all. It’s true: we shouldn’t even have to THINK about these things. 

That said, the fact that we do have to work a structured, intentional trauma recovery in order to stay safe and stable means that we have the opportunity to develop life skills and tools that many non-survivors never get around to learning— much to their detriment. 

The SWOT analysis is one way of approaching our daily plan and structure— but it’s not the only way. There are plenty of journaling exercises, mediations, visualizations, or other morning Recovery Supporting Rituals (RSR’s) that can get us pointed in the right direction. 

Whichever RSR’s you choose for your morning, however, I strongly recommend writing down your goals for the day. 

If we value a goal, we need to write it down. It’s not going to work to just let it rattle around in our head. 

If we value a goal, we need to track our progress and our incremental baby steps toward it. It’s not going to work to just go on vibes. 

Is all of the a hassle? It might look like it. It might feel like it. Trauma Brain most certainly wants us to feel and believe it is. 

But in my experience, adding just a little bit of structure to our day— and to our trauma recovery goals in general— is far far less hassle than letting our trauma programming autopilot run or ruin our lives. Which it will, if we don’t intentionally do something different. 

Easy does it. What realistically happens is, we start doing this stuff; it feels awkward and burdensome; we keep doing this stuff; we get used to doing this stuff; we get good at doing this stuff— and along the way we realize how important doing this stuff is to our safety and stability. 

This is not beyond you. 

Start small— but start.