When women experience betrayal and emotional abuse, self-care is an essential step in beginning the journey to healing.

However, victims of abuse and betrayal are conditioned to ignore their personal needs and desires. Tyler Whittingham joins Anne on the free BTR podcast to offer helpful self-care tips to women in betrayal trauma. Read the full transcript below and listen to the BTR podcast for more.
Victims of Betrayal and Emotional Abuse Can Establish a Simple Self-Care Routine
It is important to have a routine, but more than that, to have essential practices of well-being that you can rely on everyday to help you get through whatever you are getting through.

Tyler Whittingham
In the aftermath of discovery and abuse, victims may feel like their lives are chaotic, overwhelming, and depressing. This is understandable and common. It is important that victims set some kind of self-care routine, however simple, to help them get through traumatic time periods.

Here are some simple routines that women can implement in their lives:

* Hygiene: brushing teeth and showering every morning
* Nutrition: Eating at least one balanced meal per day, if possible.
* Hydration: Setting a certain time each day to drink a couple glasses of water.
* Exercise: Choosing a set amount of time each day to take a walk, do yoga, meditate, or work out.
* Spiritual/Emotional: Daily prayer, meditation, journaling, or study from scriptures or other books that provide solace.

Affirmations and Personal Mottos Help Victims of Betrayal and Emotional Abuse
Choosing a simple affirmation or personal motto may seem daunting to women whose lives have just been completely crushed by the choices of their partner. There are many types of affirmations and many ways to use them. Some women repeat them daily, others write them on notecards and put them in prominent places or under their pillows. Some personal mottos and affirmations that may help women in trauma are:

* I am worthy of love and respect
* This pain will not last forever
* I love myself
* I am beautiful
* I can do hard things

Powerful Self-Care For Victims of Betrayal and Emotional Abuse
There was a time when my future seemed extremely bleak, but I do remember talking to a friend and she said: Do you have a roof over your head? And I said: Yes. She said: Have you eaten today? And I said: Yes. She said: Okay, walk outside and feel the grass on your feet and take a deep breath and sit down and look at the clouds for a minute. I actually went out and did that, and in that moment, things were beautiful. In that moment, and if I could focus on that moment of feeling the grass under my feet, of looking up at the sky, of feeling the wind on my face, and realizing right this very second everything is just as it would be if my life were perfect. It wouldn’t be any different. I still might be standing out here on the grass, right. I still might be looking up at the sky. I still might be feeling the wind on my face. This moment would be the same despite all of my trials.

Anne Blythe, founder of Betrayal Trauma Recovery
In the aftermath of traumatic crises, women may benefit from practices small moments of mindfulness, as Anne describes above.

The symptoms of betrayal trauma and abuse can be severe, and victims can find at least a small degree of peace and solace in taking a moment to ground themselves.
Betrayal Trauma Recovery Supports Victims of Betrayal and Emotional Abuse
At BTR, we understand that the smallest of tasks seem insurmountable in ...