Mary Firestone - Trusting the Dawn: How to Choose Freedom and Joy After Trauma

Praise for Trusting the Dawn

Trusting the Dawn bridges the story of a real-life trauma with the practical tools to transform yourself and your life. This book is medicine for anyone who wants to free their mind, body, and soul from the past.

Dr. Joe Dispenza

New York Times bestselling author of You Are the Placebo and Becoming Supernatural

Marys vulnerability in sharing her healing journey from trauma to thriving is an absolute inspiration. In Trusting the Dawn, she provides valuable resources for anyone touched by trauma to effectively heal and transform.

Kelly Noonan Gores

author and producer/director of the acclaimed Heal documentary

For anyone who has experienced trauma on any level, Mary Firestones words will serve as a beacon of hopea road map to finding your way back to a new normal and living life to its fullest. This book will stay on your bedside table for years after you read the last word.

Lydia Fenet

bestselling author of The Most Powerful Woman in the Room Is You

I am blown away by Marys bravery in sharing her vulnerability in order to heal after trauma. Her journey will undoubtedly help others to recognize that they are not alone, that there are many ways out and through to the other side. Her candor and heartfelt, sage wisdom reframe trauma as an asset you can reappropriate as strength to lead a better life.

Jill Kargman

author, writer, and actress

Marys brilliant reframing of trauma in Trusting the Dawn is an inspiration to us all to live a more authentic and joyful life. Mary embodies what it means to emerge transformed, owning the phrase What if this is happening for us, not to us? Marys book debut is a must-read, a road map through trauma to transformation, and an essential tool kit for our lives.

Lauren Roxburgh

bestselling author and presenter

Mary Firestone is a leader of growth consciousness. She has a heart as big as the moon and is equally as brilliant. What makes Mary a true influence in my life is her willingness to do the work, work the love, and transform pain into purpose. She is a shining star of talent and grit.

Dr. Jennifer Freed

author and celebrity psychological astrologer

Through our willingness to breathe in the dark, we are able to find the light. Mary shows others that finding their light in the darkness is possible. And its even brighter than before it went dark.

Shaman Durek

author of Spirit Hacking and Alchemy Elementals

Mary Firestone

Sounds True

Boulder, CO 80306

2022 Mary Firestone

Sounds True is a trademark of Sounds True, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the author and publisher.

This book is not intended as a substitute for the medical recommendations of physicians, mental health professionals, or other health-care providers. Rather, it is intended to offer information to help the reader cooperate with physicians, mental health professionals, and health-care providers in a mutual quest for optimal well-being. We advise readers to carefully review and understand the ideas presented and to seek the advice of a qualified professional before attempting to use them.

Published 2022

Book design by Linsey Dodaro

BK06382

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Firestone, Mary, 1977- author.

Title: Trusting the dawn : how to choose freedom and joy after trauma / Mary Firestone.

Description: Boulder, CO : Sounds True, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021053330 (print) | LCCN 2021053331 (ebook) | ISBN 9781683649120 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781683649137 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Firestone, Mary, 1977- | Psychic traumaAlternative treatment. | Traumatic incident reduction. | Psychotherapy. | Mind and body.

Classification: LCC RC552.T7 F556 2022 (print) | LCC RC552.T7 (ebook) | DDC 616.85/21dc23/eng/20220309

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021053330

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021053331

To all who are struggling in the dark aftermath of trauma:

Dawn is breaking.

It is dark before the dawn,

but the dawn never fails.

Trust in the dawn.

Florence Scovel Shinn

I t was more than five hours before I was rescued from my bathroom countertop, where I huddled, wet and pregnant, shaking from cold and fear, trapped by millions of gallons of mud. I didnt know how many hours Id endure in this soggy, frigid tomb; I did know they seemed both interminable and fleeting. For much of that time, I thought my husband and four-year-old son had been swept away in a river of mud and debris and that my own death was imminent.

In mere moments, the tidal wave of mud had become too high and toxic for me to stand in, so I had crawled up on the countertop. Barefoot, in thin cotton floral pajamas, I looked out my bathroom window at my world, destroyed. I thought my life was over. There had been a deafening roar as boulders the size of tanks tumbled in a torrential river of mud down the mountain above my home. On my left, I had watched this river crumple a neighbors house and hurtle it down the hill away from me. On my right, the majority of my house had twisted backward and washed away at twenty miles per hour. Not only was my living room gone but my panic surpassed anything Id ever known when I realized the window looking back at me was that of my four-year-old son Evers bedroom. And I thought he was in it.

On the heels of the Thomas Fire, which burned 282,000 acres over a period of several weeks in Ojai, Ventura, and Santa Barbara, California, came the Montecito mudslide of 2018. Nearly 200 million gallons of rainfall dropped in fifteen minutes in a record-breaking, middle-of-the-night storm, and the mountain gave way.

The mudslide killed twenty-three people. More than 150 people were injured, four of them critically. More than 450 homes and structures were damaged. A thirty-mile stretch of the 101 freeway was closed for almost a month because it was covered in several feet of slick, toxic mud that had to be cleared. A toddler and a teenage boy were never found. Destroyed cars had to be plucked from trees. Enormous boulders had to be jackhammered and removed. Houses, businesses, groves of protected oaks, and historical landmarks had to be dug out of the mud and restored. Many were lost forever. The beaches along the whole coast of Southern California were toxic and debris-covered for months. Full restoration of all the creeks and roads in Montecito would take two years; rebuilding and repairing the structures continue to this day. And my home was right at ground zero.

Can you imagine that the worst thing that has ever happened to you might turn out to be a gift in disguise? Do you know that trauma, in whatever form it slayed youchildhood abuse, betrayal, divorce, the loss of a child, a diagnosis of terminal illness, a natural disastercould be your initiation into a fuller, more illuminated and joyful life?

Trauma results from a moment, or a series of moments, in which we feel vulnerable, helpless, and weak; in which no escape seems possible; and in which, at some level, we are terrified we will not survive. This can happen even when our own safety is not directly at risk, but we are witnessing someone elses trauma. According to the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, trauma results from an event, series of events, or set of circumstances experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or life-threatening with lasting adverse effects on the individuals functioning and mental, physical, emotional, or social well-being. To put it more simply and more inclusively,