In this week’s Sh!t Creek Survivors, Melissa Swonger opens up about her journey through trauma, PTSD, and the healing power of radical kindness. Her story reveals how pain can become purpose — and how resilience, faith, and community can turn even the darkest moments into transformation.
Melissa shares a practical crisis checklist to help anyone facing overwhelming times — reminding us that self-compassion, connection, and faith are essential tools for healing.
This episode is a heartfelt reminder that resilience and hope aren’t destinations — they’re daily choices that rebuild us from the inside out.
💡 Key Topics
Navigating PTSD and trauma recovery
The power of community and kindness
How to use a personal crisis checklist
The importance of self-compassion and faith
Finding strength, transformation, and hope
resilience • hope • healing • PTSD recovery • trauma healing • faith • mental health • kindness • inspiration • personal growth • survivor stories • community support • transformation • resilience podcast • god’s plan • self compassionKindness in Crisis
Quick Actions to be Kind to Yourself and Others
Kindness leads to repentance...a change in heart or mind - transformation
(Romans 2:4)
1. Pause Before You React
Psychology: When the brain perceives threat, it activates fight, flight, or freeze. Pause 3–5
seconds to let your prefrontal cortex (reason) catch up with your amygdala (emotion).
Theology: “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.” — James 1:19
☑️ Breathe deeply.
☑️ Count to five before responding.
☑️ Whisper a grounding prayer: “Lord, center me in Your peace.”
2. Anchor in Compassion, Not Control
Psychology: Compassion soothes the nervous system; control amplifies anxiety.
Theology: “Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” —
Colossians 3:12
☑️ Ask: “What’s this person feeling beneath the surface?”
☑️ Offer presence, not quick fixes.
☑️ Choose empathy over correction.
3. Name, Normalize, and Nurture
Psychology: Naming emotions reduces limbic reactivity (“Name it to tame it”).
Theology: God invites honesty: “Pour out your heart before Him.” — Psalm 62:8
☑️ Identify what you feel (sad, scared, angry, numb).
☑️ Remind yourself: “It’s okay to feel this.”
☑️ Offer gentle self-care or comfort to others.
5 4. Regulate Before You Relate
Psychology: Co-regulation requires one calm nervous system to settle another.
Theology: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.” — John 14:27
☑️ Ground: notice 3 things you see, 2 things you hear, 1 thing you feel.
☑️ Pray: “Jesus, make me an instrument of peace.”
☑️ Then connect — not from panic, but from presence.
ò 5. Reflect and Repair
Psychology: Healthy relationships still struggle — focus on repair.
Theology: “If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” — Romans 12:18
☑️ Admit when you misstep. Communicate your feelings to others before taking offense.
☑️ Apologize sincerely. Accept sincere apologies genuinely and generously.
☑️ Reaffirm care and keep short accounts.
ü 6. Return to Hope
Psychology: Hope activates the brain’s reward circuits and buffers despair.
Theology: “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul.” — Hebrews 6:19
☑️ Recall past rescues — God has seen you through before and will again.
☑️ Speak truth: “This pain is real, but it is not forever.”
☑️ End each day with gratitude and one act of kindness.
Kindness in crisis is not weakness — it’s strength under Spirit and science.
Let empathy and faith interrupt fear, one breath, one choice, one person at a time.
