thank you I am Regina rally I am an
author I am a survivor of childhood
domestic violence and sexual assault I
am a founder of a non-profit and I am
priceless as a survivor of childhood
domestic violence and sexual assault I
struggled to find my worth worth in
myself and worth in the community but
what I’ve been learning is the
importance of the words the messages
that I share with myself those thoughts
and beliefs because my thoughts and
beliefs directly impact my destiny they
impact the habits I create and those
habits directly impact the life I live
so as a survivor what I did is I started
to build self-confidence through
self-defense training and then I found
yoga and meditation to guide me along
the path of mindfulness so that I could
start to connect my mind and my body
again and these were powerful tools and
they’ve served me well but what I found
in recent years when I was retriggered
is that the trauma was stored in my mind
in my body in such a way that it was
still poisoning me so what I had to do
was find a way to work through that
trauma through that trigger and in doing
that I founded I am priceless because I
started I went back to counseling and I
had that critical care period but after
that when I no longer needed consistent
therapy where could I go there wasn’t a
support system in doing that and
learning to heal forward I learned how
to take my experiences and move beyond
my perceived limitations so that I could
actively awaken to my possibilities as I
awaken to my possibilities and I choose
to live my purpose I inspire others to
do the same each of us are priceless and
part of the nonprofit I am priceless
we endeavor to enlighten equip and
empower each survivor with her own
strength with her knowledge and the
tools that she needs to go forward and
to live her life enriched in doing that
when she learns how to move past those
perceived limitations then she truly can
awaken to her possibilities as a wife
and a mother my biggest goals in those
earlier years was to figure out what was
wrong with me so I could fulfill my
roles and that I could do what I wanted
to do for my family now as a grandmother
my goals are even bigger and my dreams
are even bigger because I see how what I
do will impact not just the next
generation my children’s generation but
my grandchildren’s generation I suffered
alone for decades because of social
stigma shame because I didn’t know that
what I was dealing with was PTSD and
like so many others I now know I’m not
alone we deal with life by getting up
each day and putting one foot in front
of another we exist we’ll have some good
days and as you see here this is some of
the community we have begun to build
through I am priceless
beautiful Souls and I’m going to share a
few stories from them here in just a
little bit but as we get through our day
as survivors without healthy tools to
cope with we turn to socially acceptable
tools and for most people this is the
life they live and they will have
moments of happiness and joy and they’ll
have a lot of days and nights of sorrow
and pain and shame regrets and they
don’t
stand what they’re dealing with because
it’s not talked about when I was
retriggered in recent years I had no one
to talk to even those in my immediate
world did not understand and they didn’t
know how to help me and that’s okay
because society didn’t prepare them for
that but it’s time to change society and
to prepare society so that others who go
through these breakthroughs and they hit
these these reach rigors because they
happen they know how to empathize and to
support so that we can let go of the
binging on food or on the opposite in
eating disorders coming home every night
and drowning our sorrows and our pain
and alcohol turning to drugs and for
some it’s the social activities anything
that allows us to escape out of our own
heads even for a moment is how we get
through our lives but I’m here to say
that I am priceless provides other
options that will allow us to move out
of escape options and live healthy lives
lives in which we are enlightened
equipped and empowered to move forward
with strength and to help the next
generation or at the very least have a
ripple of impact on the lives around us
and let that ripple continue out into
society we do that with self-defense
because self-defense embodies a person
with the ability to defend themselves
physically as well as mentally it was
through self-defense training that I
first began to find my voice they first
began to break free from that past and
then with yoga and meditation we have
the tools to be able to center ourselves
again when we are triggered we can
reground
and we can stand tall and we can find a
place to balance in the midst of it all
in spite of it all and then being able
to have a community a community of
support that we were so beautifully
shared with just a moment ago he talks
so much about community and that is what
I was lacking as a survivor I live in a
community I have a community of family
but I didn’t have a community that
understood
and that’s what I want to change in my
endeavors over the last several months
have had the privilege of interacting
and sharing these tools with a couple of
with several individuals but a couple of
young ladies were brave enough to share
their story a part of their healing
journey through me with you today the
first one I’m going to share with you is
from a young lady I will refer to as G
and G if you’re watching and I know you
are thank you for allowing us to share
your story I am priceless
has had a great impact on me because it
gave me something I have been looking
for for a long time I found acceptance
for myself and my body
Yoga has helped me to heal in a way that
involved both physical and mental
self-evaluation when I first stepped on
a mat compared to where I am now I have
much more self love and self-acceptance
I have found inner peace that I had
longed and searched for in external
things I found a sense of belonging I
now know that I matter and that I have
just as much right to be here
in this time in this space on this earth
as anybody else I found acceptance for
my body all of my body I need to feel I
used to feel very self conscious and
even though I had been through therapy
and other help prior to meeting with
Regina
I had was able to find freedom through
yoga yoga was like the icing on the cake
it was the last ingredient to my cake
and it made my life sweet and worth
putting up a fight for love not love for
the world not love for others love for
myself previously I would be able to
tell you that I loved my mother I loved
my father I love my family but I
couldn’t find it in me to say I loved
myself instead of fighting for me I
fought against me
I punished myself over traumatic events
that occurred in my childhood like
living with an alcoholic father who
would have come home and be bought
violent toward my mother and like being
sexually assaulted at the age of nine
years old I filled my heart with hate
not only for myself but toward those in
my world and it all added up to a path
of self-destruction I used other people
to fill my loneliness and when that
didn’t work because it was too painful
I moved to drugs through these
transitions I was very depressed angry
suicidal I did not want to live looking
back I cannot believe I made it through
it all and when I compared the girl in
the mirror today to the girl I used to
be I realize how much chaos my soul was
in I didn’t choose to make a change
until I hit a crisis and it was a crisis
that I felt with every tear and every
emotion within my being I snapped
I was tired exhausted from years of
constantly being at war with myself and
I decided I was not going to
all this time I would be successful at
taking my own life I was standing at the
edge of my bed with a cord around my
neck and the other end tied to my
ceiling the girl I faced in the mirror
that day she was broken she was angry
she was a walking dead in my eyes and it
only made sense that it give her mind
and her heart rest but something inside
me said not yet you cannot leave this
way you have more to you than the anger
than the pain and the shame there’s so
much more to you than the embarrassment
you are not a mistake this this isn’t
who you are so I took the cord from my
ceiling and offered my neck and cried
was admitted to a local hospital and
that is where I decided I have to change
me I need to rewire and rework Who I am
I started with small things like reading
on ways to help myself and then I would
spend time thinking about what I had
read one day I came across a website
emphasizing the benefits of meditation
and from that night on I would fall
asleep with guided meditations sometimes
during the day I would go in my room and
lock the door and spend hours just
listening to guided meditation
even if my mind wouldn’t let me focus
and it would wander I would listen but
when my mind wandered it wandered to the
pain of my past of the traumatic
experiences I would ignore it I didn’t
want to deal with it it wasn’t until I
met Regina another warrior like myself
guiding me showing me how I could love
myself that I learned to fight for
myself I now have the tools to continue
you see with every woman that we
enlighten equip and empower we are
these short few words are from Lydia
Thank You Lydia I am priceless has given
me a chance to be surrounded by a group
of women who support me as a survivor of
sexual assault when attending any event
or meeting with the I am priceless group
I immediately feel welcomed never judged
or attacked this is truly incredible and
I am so grateful for their acceptance
because safe spaces and situations are
truly rare survivors of abuse who have
grown into the maintenance phase of
healing do not often have resources
where they can still feel supported
where they can talk about their triggers
and difficulties or engage in
non-judgmental understanding social
activities if we are not actively
involved in a crisis support group or
therapy we often feel lost and lonely
however I am priceless provides us with
a safe safe and stimulating outlet where
we can express ourselves we find
community without anxiety or stress
I am so grateful for Regina’s efforts to
provide these communities for us and
believe this needs to be a priority in
every community for every survivor as
you can see the world has given us a
reason the me to movement laid a great
foundation to show the prevalence and
the pervasiveness of sexual assault
we’re not alone but what we want in need
are communities of support communities
that will allow us to feel safe secure
and supported in such a way that if
we’re triggered it’s okay and someone
will hold space for us we do that with
self-defense training with yoga with
meditation self-care retreats and
anybody in need can find those kind of
tools wherever if they would look for
them but we don’t know we need them
until somebody explains that and shows
it and opens that understanding to us I
have big dreams for big problems and I
can be the change that the world needs
inspiration is a ripple an inspiration
inspiration it can come from anywhere
from anyone I hope to be a source of
inspiration I can do that because I am
priceless
and you you can too thank you [Applause]
author I am a survivor of childhood
domestic violence and sexual assault I
am a founder of a non-profit and I am
priceless as a survivor of childhood
domestic violence and sexual assault I
struggled to find my worth worth in
myself and worth in the community but
what I’ve been learning is the
importance of the words the messages
that I share with myself those thoughts
and beliefs because my thoughts and
beliefs directly impact my destiny they
impact the habits I create and those
habits directly impact the life I live
so as a survivor what I did is I started
to build self-confidence through
self-defense training and then I found
yoga and meditation to guide me along
the path of mindfulness so that I could
start to connect my mind and my body
again and these were powerful tools and
they’ve served me well but what I found
in recent years when I was retriggered
is that the trauma was stored in my mind
in my body in such a way that it was
still poisoning me so what I had to do
was find a way to work through that
trauma through that trigger and in doing
that I founded I am priceless because I
started I went back to counseling and I
had that critical care period but after
that when I no longer needed consistent
therapy where could I go there wasn’t a
support system in doing that and
learning to heal forward I learned how
to take my experiences and move beyond
my perceived limitations so that I could
actively awaken to my possibilities as I
awaken to my possibilities and I choose
to live my purpose I inspire others to
do the same each of us are priceless and
part of the nonprofit I am priceless
we endeavor to enlighten equip and
empower each survivor with her own
strength with her knowledge and the
tools that she needs to go forward and
to live her life enriched in doing that
when she learns how to move past those
perceived limitations then she truly can
awaken to her possibilities as a wife
and a mother my biggest goals in those
earlier years was to figure out what was
wrong with me so I could fulfill my
roles and that I could do what I wanted
to do for my family now as a grandmother
my goals are even bigger and my dreams
are even bigger because I see how what I
do will impact not just the next
generation my children’s generation but
my grandchildren’s generation I suffered
alone for decades because of social
stigma shame because I didn’t know that
what I was dealing with was PTSD and
like so many others I now know I’m not
alone we deal with life by getting up
each day and putting one foot in front
of another we exist we’ll have some good
days and as you see here this is some of
the community we have begun to build
through I am priceless
beautiful Souls and I’m going to share a
few stories from them here in just a
little bit but as we get through our day
as survivors without healthy tools to
cope with we turn to socially acceptable
tools and for most people this is the
life they live and they will have
moments of happiness and joy and they’ll
have a lot of days and nights of sorrow
and pain and shame regrets and they
don’t
stand what they’re dealing with because
it’s not talked about when I was
retriggered in recent years I had no one
to talk to even those in my immediate
world did not understand and they didn’t
know how to help me and that’s okay
because society didn’t prepare them for
that but it’s time to change society and
to prepare society so that others who go
through these breakthroughs and they hit
these these reach rigors because they
happen they know how to empathize and to
support so that we can let go of the
binging on food or on the opposite in
eating disorders coming home every night
and drowning our sorrows and our pain
and alcohol turning to drugs and for
some it’s the social activities anything
that allows us to escape out of our own
heads even for a moment is how we get
through our lives but I’m here to say
that I am priceless provides other
options that will allow us to move out
of escape options and live healthy lives
lives in which we are enlightened
equipped and empowered to move forward
with strength and to help the next
generation or at the very least have a
ripple of impact on the lives around us
and let that ripple continue out into
society we do that with self-defense
because self-defense embodies a person
with the ability to defend themselves
physically as well as mentally it was
through self-defense training that I
first began to find my voice they first
began to break free from that past and
then with yoga and meditation we have
the tools to be able to center ourselves
again when we are triggered we can
reground
and we can stand tall and we can find a
place to balance in the midst of it all
in spite of it all and then being able
to have a community a community of
support that we were so beautifully
shared with just a moment ago he talks
so much about community and that is what
I was lacking as a survivor I live in a
community I have a community of family
but I didn’t have a community that
understood
and that’s what I want to change in my
endeavors over the last several months
have had the privilege of interacting
and sharing these tools with a couple of
with several individuals but a couple of
young ladies were brave enough to share
their story a part of their healing
journey through me with you today the
first one I’m going to share with you is
from a young lady I will refer to as G
and G if you’re watching and I know you
are thank you for allowing us to share
your story I am priceless
has had a great impact on me because it
gave me something I have been looking
for for a long time I found acceptance
for myself and my body
Yoga has helped me to heal in a way that
involved both physical and mental
self-evaluation when I first stepped on
a mat compared to where I am now I have
much more self love and self-acceptance
I have found inner peace that I had
longed and searched for in external
things I found a sense of belonging I
now know that I matter and that I have
just as much right to be here
in this time in this space on this earth
as anybody else I found acceptance for
my body all of my body I need to feel I
used to feel very self conscious and
even though I had been through therapy
and other help prior to meeting with
Regina
I had was able to find freedom through
yoga yoga was like the icing on the cake
it was the last ingredient to my cake
and it made my life sweet and worth
putting up a fight for love not love for
the world not love for others love for
myself previously I would be able to
tell you that I loved my mother I loved
my father I love my family but I
couldn’t find it in me to say I loved
myself instead of fighting for me I
fought against me
I punished myself over traumatic events
that occurred in my childhood like
living with an alcoholic father who
would have come home and be bought
violent toward my mother and like being
sexually assaulted at the age of nine
years old I filled my heart with hate
not only for myself but toward those in
my world and it all added up to a path
of self-destruction I used other people
to fill my loneliness and when that
didn’t work because it was too painful
I moved to drugs through these
transitions I was very depressed angry
suicidal I did not want to live looking
back I cannot believe I made it through
it all and when I compared the girl in
the mirror today to the girl I used to
be I realize how much chaos my soul was
in I didn’t choose to make a change
until I hit a crisis and it was a crisis
that I felt with every tear and every
emotion within my being I snapped
I was tired exhausted from years of
constantly being at war with myself and
I decided I was not going to
all this time I would be successful at
taking my own life I was standing at the
edge of my bed with a cord around my
neck and the other end tied to my
ceiling the girl I faced in the mirror
that day she was broken she was angry
she was a walking dead in my eyes and it
only made sense that it give her mind
and her heart rest but something inside
me said not yet you cannot leave this
way you have more to you than the anger
than the pain and the shame there’s so
much more to you than the embarrassment
you are not a mistake this this isn’t
who you are so I took the cord from my
ceiling and offered my neck and cried
was admitted to a local hospital and
that is where I decided I have to change
me I need to rewire and rework Who I am
I started with small things like reading
on ways to help myself and then I would
spend time thinking about what I had
read one day I came across a website
emphasizing the benefits of meditation
and from that night on I would fall
asleep with guided meditations sometimes
during the day I would go in my room and
lock the door and spend hours just
listening to guided meditation
even if my mind wouldn’t let me focus
and it would wander I would listen but
when my mind wandered it wandered to the
pain of my past of the traumatic
experiences I would ignore it I didn’t
want to deal with it it wasn’t until I
met Regina another warrior like myself
guiding me showing me how I could love
myself that I learned to fight for
myself I now have the tools to continue
you see with every woman that we
enlighten equip and empower we are
these short few words are from Lydia
Thank You Lydia I am priceless has given
me a chance to be surrounded by a group
of women who support me as a survivor of
sexual assault when attending any event
or meeting with the I am priceless group
I immediately feel welcomed never judged
or attacked this is truly incredible and
I am so grateful for their acceptance
because safe spaces and situations are
truly rare survivors of abuse who have
grown into the maintenance phase of
healing do not often have resources
where they can still feel supported
where they can talk about their triggers
and difficulties or engage in
non-judgmental understanding social
activities if we are not actively
involved in a crisis support group or
therapy we often feel lost and lonely
however I am priceless provides us with
a safe safe and stimulating outlet where
we can express ourselves we find
community without anxiety or stress
I am so grateful for Regina’s efforts to
provide these communities for us and
believe this needs to be a priority in
every community for every survivor as
you can see the world has given us a
reason the me to movement laid a great
foundation to show the prevalence and
the pervasiveness of sexual assault
we’re not alone but what we want in need
are communities of support communities
that will allow us to feel safe secure
and supported in such a way that if
we’re triggered it’s okay and someone
will hold space for us we do that with
self-defense training with yoga with
meditation self-care retreats and
anybody in need can find those kind of
tools wherever if they would look for
them but we don’t know we need them
until somebody explains that and shows
it and opens that understanding to us I
have big dreams for big problems and I
can be the change that the world needs
inspiration is a ripple an inspiration
inspiration it can come from anywhere
from anyone I hope to be a source of
inspiration I can do that because I am
priceless
and you you can too thank you [Applause]
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