“Don’t be ashamed of a scar. It simply means you were stronger than whatever tried to hurt you.” –Unknown

Every one has physical and/or emotional scars of some kind. Perhaps those scars resulted from an accident you were involved in, or perhaps they resulted from being the victim of some sort of abuse…whatever caused them, know that your scars are nothing to be ashamed of.

The injuries that left you with your scars are a big part of what has made you into the person that you are today.  They gave you life experience, they taught you valuable life lessons, and they helped you become wiser and more empathetic of others.  We needn’t be ashamed of that. We ought to embrace our scars as a part of our growth and we ought to then move forward unashamed of our scars. For when we are willing to share with others how we overcame the traumas that caused our scars we help empower others to do the same.

Being ashamed of our scars is not a sign of strength – its a sign of weakness.  Whereas, embracing our scars and being willing to acknowledge how we got them – that is a true show of strength. It takes strength to face past demons head on.  It takes strength to recognize and admit you need help to heal from your wounds. It takes strength to seek out people with the proper professional background to help you.  It takes strength to open up and talk about your struggles.  It takes strength to put up safeguards that can help you avoid ever getting hurt again in that same way.

I was talking with someone this evening who has gotten out of an abusive relationship and is trying to figure out how they will ever be able to trust again after what they’ve gone through. My advice to them was to go to a professional counselor. They expressed some hesitancy to do so because they felt seeking out help meant they were too weak to handle things on their own. I shared that just the opposite is true – seeking out help takes far more courage than acting like you don’t need help when you actually do. I then shared how counseling had helped me heal scars in my own life to let this person see that it didn’t make me weak to admit that – it made me stronger.

We all need help in some fashion or another. We all have wounds that need to be healed. There is no shame in seeking out help to heal those scars. And we should never forget that it is those very scars that have helped make us into who we are today.

~Amy Rees Anderson