Dark Sky Flutterby is more than a blog, it’s a vibe! I created this space to share the faith-based holistic approach to healing I discovered on my own trauma healing & transformation journey. A faith-based approach connects your body, soul, & spirit, to REGULAGE your nervous system, RELEASE stored trauma, and REWIRE your brain while practicing embodied faith, allowing you to heal from trauma & emerge from the dark seasons of life just as a butterfly does from its chrysalis—beautifully transformed!
Darkness, trials, and trauma are parts of life we can’t escape, but YOU are in control of how you navigate them, and more importantly, who you become on the other side of them. Life’s dark skies don’t have to dim your shine. Click the butterfly to learn more about the DSF Healing & Transformation Journey to become healed, whole, & free!
I’m Melanie Hope. It was my own trauma healing & transformation journey that led me to my passion & purpose: helping women heal from trauma by learning how to regulate their nervous system, release stored trauma, and rewire their brains using a faith-based holistic approach that connects and transforms the body, soul, & spirit.
My crooked, sometimes dark path to healing has taken me on a profound journey of understanding the impacts of trauma, where I finally found my voice and the truth that says my real strength lies in sharing my story. I created this space to help you in resourcing and honoring your body, soul, and spirit by offering information to support your healing and transformation journey. I hope you will feel seen and valued here.
A “Dark Sky Flutterby” is a woman who has, like a butterfly, undergone a metamorphosis—a challenging but oh-so-rewarding process of healing from trauma, life’s dark skies, and emerging on the other side beautifully transformed into the whole, healed, & free version of herself that God always meant for her to be.
The Dark Sky Flutterby transformation is a unique Spirit-led trauma healing journey that collaborates with Jesus, relying on His truth and supernatural healing power combined with your consistent efforts to regulate your nervous system, release stored trauma, and rewire your brain while practicing embodied faith. This faith-based holistic healing approach combines somatic, cognitive, and spiritual practices to address you as a whole: body, soul [mind, will, emotions], and spirit.
The belief that guides my mission to help others find freedom, based on my own healing journey, years of research, and personal relationships, is that unhealed trauma & a dysregulated nervous system are the roots of destructive behaviors, negative thoughts, physical symptoms, and unhealthy relationships. Unprocessed trauma is insidious, it sneaks in and infiltrates your brain without you even realizing it.
The longer trauma is left unhealed, the more it affects your behaviors, thoughts, emotions, and eventually, your physical health. This is why the more Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) a person has, the more chronic health problems, mental illness, substance misuse, and behavioral challenges they’re prone to. Explore the symptoms of unhealed trauma below to see if any describe you.
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Dissociation
Isolation
Self-Medicating
Heightened Emotions
Neglecting Self Needs
Controlling
Overachieving
Perfectionism
People Pleasing
Codependency
Avoiding
Procrastination
Lashing Out
Self-Doubt
Comparison
Imposter Syndrome
Brain Fog
Catastrophizing
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I am not loveable
I am not good enough
I am not worthy
I am not safe
I am damaged
I do not belong
I cannot trust anyone
It’s not okay to feel my emotions
It’s not okay to show my emotions
I am powerless
I am helpless
I am a burden
If I’m not in control I’ll get hurt
I have to please everyone
Life will never get better
Other people come first
It’s not safe for me to be my true self
If I'm vulnerable I will get hurt again
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Hopelessness
Grief
Shame
Anger
Resentment
Defensiveness
Disconnection
Numbness
Unworthiness
Drowning
Anxiety
Panic
Fear
Confusion
Apathy
Depression
Exhaustion
Doom
When you experience a break in emotional, psychological, or physical safety, your nervous system comes to your defense in fight/flight/freeze/shutdown. This beautiful self-protective function known as your “survival brain” was designed by your intelligent Creator to keep you from danger. When you’re unable to find internal or external safety following the painful experience, a dysregulated nervous system takes over, keeping you stuck in a state of survival, aka survival mode.
In survival mode, the armor that once protected you starts hindering your behaviors, thoughts, and emotions. In dysregulation, your brain and body perceive anything similar to the traumatic experience as a threat. A major component of trauma healing is bringing safety to your nervous system, allowing it to move out of dysregulation or survival mode, into regulation or thrive mode!
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•Understanding that you have subconsciously programmed thoughts, beliefs, patterns, and behaviors based on past experiences.
•Recognizing that trauma is often passed down through generations.
•Can identify your triggers and have a toolbox of practices to help your nervous system regulate.
•Regulating emotions and expressing them more freely.
•Understanding that difficult emotions are an integral part of growth.
•Recognizing that your early relationships with your caregivers influence your present relationships.
•Integrating your inner child into adulthood, so that they can now be seen, heard, and loved.
•Safety with yourself, others, and in the world.
•Living in the present moment, instead of the past.
•Setting healthy boundaries.
•Feeling safe to be authentically seen and heard.
•Relationships become a place for safety and connection, not a space to recreate trauma.
•No longer abandoning yourself to gain approval or belonging.
•Responding to stress, instead of reacting.
•Unburdening yourself from traumatic memories and parts that are stuck in the past.
•Striving for moments of creativity, curiosity, play, and soulful rest.
When your body becomes used to being in a survival state, it can feel like a personality trait rather than a symptom of unhealed trauma. The protective measures you turn to during traumatic or challenging experiences become so familiar they seem like part of who you are.
In science, these implicit memories of the body are called procedural patterns, aka protective patterns. Your protective patterns are your nervous system’s subconscious reactions and habits that keep you stuck in old behaviors & beliefs that are no longer serving you. These patterns don’t reflect your authentic self or true nature, they’re you in survival mode. But thankfully, God has wired you for healing.
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•Staying busy & distracted when difficult moments arise.
•Picking fights when you feel distant from your partner.
•Procrastinating on new & exciting projects.
•Playing the comparison game to self-motivate.
•Choosing emotionally unavailable individuals.
•Lashing out at your children when they don't listen.
•Over-explaining or over-apologizing in work settings.
•Avoiding or neglecting your bills, even when the money is there.
And many more ...
Embodied faith is an integration of the body, soul [mind, will, emotions], and spirit on a journey of freedom that comes in relationship with a God who loves, comforts, and heals. It is the belief that God created your body to connect with Him, wiring you to experience healing and transformation.
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•Connecting with God through Visualizations: Feeling attached to God and embracing the hidden parts of yourself
•Grounding Yourself in God’s Word: Standing on God’s truth & promises no matter life’s circumstances; walking by faith not by sight and grounding yourself to the present by declaring and meditating on His Word
•Clarifying Your Purpose: Integrating your divine destiny & purpose to feel more whole
•Considering the Body of Christ: Taking seriously the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus' body to express God's love and salvation
•Making Healthy Choices: Nourishing your body, soul, and spirit with wholesome choices, and engaging different parts of your body to affirm God's design
You were not meant to live your life in survival mode, you have been fearfully and wonderfully made with healing power wired into every part of you!
Jeremiah 31:3-4 says, “God has loved you with an everlasting love; He has drawn you with loving-kindness. Again, He will rebuild you and you shall be rebuilt.”
God loves you beyond your human understanding and desires to heal your body and soul from the trauma you’ve experienced. That is what I want for you and I believe you’ll experience that profound truth on the DSF Healing & Transformation Journey!
“God has a plan for the butterfly far beyond anything the caterpillar could ever imagine. Dare to believe the same is true for the healed version of you, that there’s a life on the other side of your transformation that will exceed your wildest dreams. Because God has a plan for the woman far beyond anything the little girl could ever imagine.”
Click the butterfly to learn more about the Dark Sky Flutterby faith-based holistic healing & transformation journey!
My heart is to see you emerge from the dark seasons of life just as a butterfly does from its chrysalis—beautifully transformed! But, like the caterpillar, you must believe you were made for more and be willing to go through the process to get there!