31: Fritzi Horstman - Forgive Yourself "Acts of kindness are more important than anything we can imagine." CW: Abuse, Adverse Childhood Experiences, Trauma Fritzi Hortsman's life turned around when she started to learn about trauma, and adverse childhood experiences. The insight into something which had flavoured her entire life, and the ability to now address this that that had laid dormant and unacknowledged for so long, also formed part a great compassionate drive and inspiration to start the Compassion Prison's Project. Fritzi's understanding that we can be almost exclusively shaped by adverse childhood experiences, and that this is far more present in society that we would care to admit, coincided with her visiting a prison for the first time. Instead of seeing what we are trained to see, (ne'er-do-wells) she saw kindred spirits. Fellow human's also suffering, also weighed down, also living in a state of constant fear created by the experience of many great traumas. Her work has allowed so many to access emotions for so many men and women who are suffering imprisonment, to find forgiveness for themselves so that they can move beyond living in the moment of trauma that they are in. Her extraordinary film Step Inside the Circle shows how the impact of trauma shapes our society, how many of those we imprison are actually some of the most traumatised people, and that becoming a trauma aware culture has unlimited transformational potential. Mentioned in the Episode: Fritzi Hortsman Twitter Compassion Prison Project Website Twitter DONATE Step Inside the Circle The Defiant Ones Trailer Hustle 2.0 - A Mail Based Correspondence Program For Incarcerated People John Kabat-Zinn The Body Keeps the Score - Bessel van der Kolk The Presence Process - Michael Brown Thomas Hübl Vincent Feletti, Robert Ander research (ACE and adult health) The Aspen Institute - Weave ABCD Institute started by John McKnight Julian Abel can be found on Twitter Follow Survival of the Kindest on Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you like to listen to get our episodes as they are released. Email us on [email protected]

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