Trauma has a way of shaking us to our core and making us feel like we’ve lost ourselves.
But with patience, self-compassion, and mindfulness, healing is possible.
By learning to be present through meditation and rediscovering our inner light, we can rise above the darkness of pain and suffering.
These quotes serve as gentle reminders that we all have the strength within to overcome life’s greatest challenges and the emotional pain that results from them.
What Is Trauma?
Trauma is a deeply distressing or disturbing experience that overwhelms an individual’s ability to cope and leaves them powerless.
Emotional trauma can result from a single event or ongoing abuse, violence, health problems, loss, disasters, and other emotionally shocking events.
Some key things to understand about emotional trauma:
- It is a normal response to intensely disturbing or threatening events. When our ability to cope is overwhelmed, it can leave a lasting impact on the brain and body.
- It can result from a single event or ongoing/repetitive experiences, especially abuse, violence, neglect, loss, disasters, accidents, injury, illness, etc.
- It affects people of all ages, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds. The severity depends on the individual’s response.
- The effects include shock, denial, fear, anxiety, depression, anger, grief, detachment, loss of safety, self-blame, shame, and physical symptoms.
- Healing requires time, support, and finding effective coping strategies to process, release, and integrate the trauma.
The effects of trauma can be long-lasting and impact one’s sense of safety, self, and self-worth, and ability to regulate emotions and navigate relationships.
79 Healing from Trauma Quotes to Shift from Pain to Peace
This collection of 79 inspirational quotes on recovering from trauma is designed to provide hope, perspective, and empowerment on the journey toward inner peace.
Quotes About Overcoming Trauma
1. “Trauma is a fact of life. It does not, however, have to be a life sentence.” – Peter Levine
2. “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” – Maya Angelou
3. “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern.” – Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
4. “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls. The most massive characters are seared with scars.” – Khalil Gibran
5. “We are all a little broken. But last time I checked, broken crayons still color the same.” – Trent Shelton
6. “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
7. “There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.” – John Green
8. “The wound is the place where the light enters you.” – Rumi
9. “We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face…we must do that which we think we cannot.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
10.“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.” – A.A. Milne
11. “Only by acceptance of the past can you alter it.” – T.S. Eliot
12. “Scars mean you fought and you survived.” – Andrea Pippins
13. “Healing is not linear.” – Adyashanti
14. “Just when the caterpillar thought the world was ending, he turned into a butterfly.” – Unknown
15. “Wounds are sacred because they are the result of being alive.” – Waris Dirie
16. “Where the pain is, there also is the medicine.” – Joseph Campbell
17. “There is no coming to consciousness without pain.” – Carl Jung
18. “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” – Rumi
19. “The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt.” – Max Lerner
20. “We are scarred, not broken.” – Vidya Vox
Positive Trauma Quotes
21. “I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.” – Maya Angelou
22. “The event is not as important as the story you tell yourself about what happened.” – Rafael E. Pardo
23. “Flowers grow out of dark moments.” – Corita Kent
24. “Your wounds are not your weaknesses, but your strengths.” – Lalah Delia
25. “The hurt will heal but the love is forever.” – Tupac Shakur
26. “Trauma creates change you don’t choose. Healing is about creating change you do choose.” – Michelle Rosenthall
27. “You are far greater than the trials you’ve overcome.” – Karen Salmansohn
28. “Courage doesn’t mean you don’t get afraid. Courage means you don’t let fear stop you.” – Bethany Hamilton
29. “Your pain doesn’t need to be a prison. You can think your way out of suffering.” – Davidji
30. “We never know how high we are till we are called to rise.” – Emily Dickinson
31. “Every challenge in your way is an opportunity to evolve.” – Ralph Smart
32. “The struggles along the way are only meant to shape you for your purpose.” – Morgan Harper Nichols
33. “What the caterpillar calls the end, the world calls a butterfly.” – Anthon St. Maarten
34. “Your story is not over; the best chapters await.” – Robin Sharma
35. “Never regret. If it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s experience.” – Victoria Holt
36. “A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” – Christopher Reeve
37. “Beginning today, set an intention and a relentless focus on living your life as the greatest person you can be, in all situations.” – Brendon Burchard
38. “Every storm runs out of rain just like every dark night turns into day.” – Gary Allan
39. “We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.” – Maya Angelou
40. “There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.” – John Green
41. “Trauma is personal. It does not disappear if it is not validated. When it is ignored or invalidated the silent screams continue internally heard only by the one held captive.” ― Danielle Bernock
42. “You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather.” – Pema Chodron
43. “You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice.” – Bob Marley
44. “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” – Rumi
45. “Strength grows in the moments when you think you can’t go on but you keep going anyway.” – Unknown
46. “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern.” – Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
47. “The phoenix must burn to emerge.” – Janet Fitch
48. “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
49. “Survival can be summed up in three words—never give up. That’s the heart of it really. Just keep trying.” – Bear Grylls
50. “Never be ashamed of a scar. It simply means you were stronger than whatever tried to hurt you.” – Unknown
51. “There is no strength without struggle.”- Ken Poirot
52. “The most important day is today. The most important person is the one you are with now. The most important work is to be the person you wish to be.” – Jack Kornfield
53. “Never give up on you.” – Bernard Kelvin Clive
54. “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” – J.K. Rowling
55. “When you come out of the storm you won’t be the same person that walked in. That’s what the storm is all about.” – Haruki Murakami
56. “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” – Maya Angelou
57. “There is hope after darkness. Believe in yourself and look within.” – Kai Frazier
58. “We never know how high we are till we are called to rise.” – Emily Dickinson
59. “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” – Helen Keller
60. “Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.” – Maya Angelou
Trauma Response Quotes
61. “Trauma is a fact of life. It does not, however, have to be a life sentence.” – Peter A. Levine
62. “Your first reaction to trauma is one of the most healthy and appropriate reactions humanly possible. Shock, denial, numbness, anger, fear, grief…all are healthy human responses in the face of difficulty.” – Steven Stosny
63. “What happened to you was an injustice and was not your fault.” – Sherrie Campbell
64. “Listen to your body. It’s an incredible gift that allows you to experience life.” – Kai Frazier
65. “When we embrace our pain and suffering in this way, we begin to heal.” – Meghan O’Rourke
66. “What is grief, if not love persevering?” – Vision, WandaVision
67. “There is no perfect way to heal …each path is unique for the individual.” – Collette Baron-Reid
68. “The body has an incredible capacity for healing when given the chance.” – Cynthia Occelli
69. “Give yourself permission to feel whatever you feel when you feel it.” – Gustavo Razzetti
70. “The feeling of wholeness comes only after separating the broken pieces, gathering them up, and re-ordering them into something new.” – Melissa V. Harris-Perry
71. “There is transformation in the process. There is healing in the unfolding.” – Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati
72. “Grief requires us to know the time we are in. We don’t get over it. We grow through it.” – Gail Evans
73. “Grief never ends but it changes. It’s a passage, not a place to stay. Grief is not a sign of weakness nor a lack of faith…it is the price of love.” – Author Unknown
74. “Grief is the shape love takes when someone we love dies.” – Pam Brown
75. “I must grieve but not forever.” – Euripides
76. “Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o’er wrought heart and bids it break.” – William Shakespeare
77. “Tears shed for another person are not a sign of weakness. They are a sign of a pure heart.” – José N. Harris
78. “There is no grief like the grief that does not speak.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
79. “Grief is the tax of love.” – Queen Elizabeth II
The Benefits of Quotes About Healing from Trauma
Quotes can provide perspective and inspiration as you process trauma and move toward healing. Here are some ways these trauma quotes can support your recovery:
Validate Your Feelings
Seeing the range of emotional responses reflected in these quotes can help you understand your own feelings as normal reactions to abnormal events. Knowing others relate can make you feel less alone.
Gain Hope and Encouragement
The uplifting quotes remind us that we have strength within and can overcome our pain. They encourage us to have courage, keep going, and transform hurt into wisdom. Reading positive affirmations builds resilience.
Reflect on the Meaning
Certain quotes may deeply resonate by shedding light on the meaning of your experience. Let their insights guide inner reflection and discovery of your truths.
Release Emotions
Quotes can help unlock repressed emotions like grief, anger, or fear. Read quotes aloud or write them out as you process those feelings.
Support Healthy Coping
Quotes on self-care, mindfulness, letting go, and self-compassion encourage us to develop healthy ways of relating to pain for healing.
Remember, You Are Not Alone
Shared human experiences connect us. When quotes mirror your feelings, know that others have felt the same. You are not alone in your suffering or recovery.
How to Use These Trauma Quotes to Heal from Your Past
There are many impactful ways to leverage these trauma quotes on your healing journey. Select quotes that speak to you and integrate them into your life through journaling, meditation, and other mindful practices.
Reflecting on their deeper meaning can inspire fresh perspectives, validate emotions, build resilience, and connect you to your inner wisdom.
Here are some specific ways to use these trauma quotes to support healing:
Journaling Prompts
- Choose a quote that resonates and write about a time when you embodied its meaning.
- Write about how a quote makes you feel or what it brings up for you.
- Discuss whether you agree or disagree with the perspective offered in a quote.
Meditation
- Pick an inspirational quote and recite it silently as a mantra during meditation.
- Imagine yourself healed as you reflect on uplifting quotes.
Affirmations
- Choose an empowering quote and repeat it aloud daily as an affirmation.
- Write out meaningful quotes and post them where you’ll see them regularly.
Creative Expression
- Make art, music, or poetry inspired by the emotions brought up through quotes.
- Create vision boards or collages using inspiring quotes.
Discussion
- Share and discuss quotes that are meaningful with a therapist or support group.
- Talk about quotes that make you feel uncomfortable or that you disagree with.
Reminders
- Set inspiring quotes as phone wallpaper or computer backgrounds.
- Put printed quotes in your wallet, purse, or car to access when needed.
Shadow Work
- Reflect on any quotes that make you feel resistant or uncomfortable. These may reveal “shadows” – repressed aspects of yourself seeking integration. Use this shadow work to explore those feelings through journaling to foster self-acceptance.
Inner Child Work
- Let quotes evoke memories from your past, and write letters of compassion and encouragement to your younger self – your inner child. This can help heal old wounds.
When a quote resonates, write about it, talk about it, make art about it – whatever helps you process emotions, gain hope and feel empowered. Quotes have the power to promote insight and growth when we engage with them meaningfully.
Final Thoughts
Trauma has profound impacts, but healing is possible. By reflecting on these emotionally resonant quotes, we can feel understood, gain perspective, access inner strength, and take steps forward. Though the journey is challenging, we can rise above suffering by nurturing ourselves with compassion. Our deepest wounds can be the source of our greatest wisdom, empowering us to transform hardship into healing.