Women who have lived the abuse are often considered “broken” or assumed to have “baggage.” On the contrary, they are often some of the strongest women you will meet. They are street smart and they have learned how to survive. They have learned how to stay strong. They have learned how to keep their wits about them in high stress situations. They can think fast and have learned how to stay on their toes.
There is a stigma that comes with having been in an abusive relationship. I can’t tell you how often I hear people assume women of domestic violence have “baggage.” Most people simply do not know any better because they haven’t lived it and navigated their way through it. Swimming the rough seas make you much stronger than watching the tide from the shoreline. You’ve been there and done that. You know.
When women are able to escape from an abusive relationship they have a new life experience that many will never have, that now gives them insight into the strength and resilience of their own character… in ways that many other women and men will never experience.
They are tough, they are mentally strong, and they have found their way out. There is nothing broken or weak about a woman who can rise up, against all odds, regain her footing and find her freedom again. When a woman will no longer allow someone to try to keep her down, to play small and to give up her voice, you have met a woman with dignity and that is a woman who is far from “broken”…
She is “beautiful, full of bravery” not “broken, full of baggage.”