In the Arena: Lessons on Growth from Italy

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What does wandering the cobbled streets of Rome, standing in the shadow of the Colosseum, and navigating the beauty (and chaos!) of Cinque Terre have to do with healing after trauma? More than you might think !!

In this episode of Growing Tall Poppies, I share reflections from the final leg of my European journey — from the heat and hustle of Florence and Venice, to the awe-inspiring history of Rome, the Colosseum and the Vatican Museums. These travels offered powerful lessons about resilience, courage, and the willingness to “step into the arena” of life, even when it feels easier to stay on the sidelines.

Inside, you’ll discover:
 ✨ Why the Colosseum is more than a tourist attraction — it’s a metaphor for the courage required in post-traumatic growth.
 ✨ How cobblestone streets remind us of the uneven, sometimes messy path of healing.
 ✨ What travel teaches us about flexibility, patience, and finding meaning in both the beauty and the discomfort.
 ✨ Strategies you can use right now to step back into your own “arena,” with authenticity, courage, and heart.

Whether you’ve faced trauma, loss, or just life’s unexpected turns, this episode is an invitation to reflect, reset, and reimagine what’s possible when you choose growth over fear.

🎧 Tune in now and let Italy’s timeless wisdom inspire your journey.

If this episode resonates with you then I'd love for you to hit SUBSCRIBE so you can keep updated with each new episode as soon as it's released and we'd be most grateful if you would give us a RATING as well. You can also find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/drnatgreen/ or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DrNatalieGreen

Intro and Outro music: Inspired Ambient by Playsound.

Disclaimer: This podcast is intended for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be deemed or treated as psychological treatment or to replace the need for psychological treatment.

Episode Transcript

Dr Nat Green (00:01):
Welcome to the Growing Tall Poppies Podcast.
I'm your host, Dr.
Nat Green, and I'm so excited tohave you join me as we discuss
what it means to navigate yourway through post-traumatic
growth and not just survive, butto thrive after trauma.

(00:23):
Through our podcast, we willexplore ways for you to create a
life filled with greaterpurpose, self-awareness, and a
deep inner peace.
Through integrating the manyyears of knowledge and
professional experience, as wellas the wisdom of those who have
experienced trauma firsthand.

(00:44):
We'll combine psychologyaccelerated approaches.
Coaching and personal experienceto assist you, to learn, to grow
and to thrive.
I hope to empower you to createdeeper awareness and
understanding and strongerconnections with yourself and
with others, whilst also pavingthe way for those who have

(01:08):
experienced trauma and adversityto reduce their suffering and
become the very best versions ofthemselves.
In order to thrive.
Thank you so much for joining meon today's episode.

(01:34):
Hello, beautiful humans andwelcome back to Growing Tall
Poppies.
I'm your host, Dr.
Nat Green, and as I record this,I'm at the end of a truly
unforgettable journey throughEurope.
As you know, I've been away forjust on a month.
Traveling with my family,enjoying the trip of a lifetime.

(01:56):
And these past weeks have been amix of all challenge, heat,
exhaustion, beauty, and wonder.
And as always, life has a way ofweaving lessons into the places
we visit, lessons that connectdeeply to healing, growth, and

(02:16):
living fully after trauma.
And that's what I wanna sharewith you guys today.
This week I wanna take you withme through the Italian part of
our adventure through Florence,where we based ourselves for a
week through Cinque Terre, wherewe did a day trip and it was so

(02:40):
amazing to Venice Venezia, wherewe also did a day trip and into
Roma where we spent the lastfive days.
So I wanna share this with you,not as a travel guide, but as a
journey of metaphor and ofmeaning.
From cobblestone streets to theColosseum, I've discovered

(03:03):
reminders of what it takes toreally step into the arena of
life and choose growth even whenit's hard.
And my goodness, I know you guysknow just how hard it is.
So let's start with Florence.

(03:24):
There was beauty, there wasbusyness, and at times
overwhelm.
If honest, Florence wasbeautiful.
So much art, history,architecture everywhere, but it
was also hot, crowded, andoverwhelming at times.

(03:45):
And it reminded me of somethingso many of us experience after
we've been through trauma.
Even when life is full of beautyand opportunities, it can still
feel too much.
And growth doesn't mean that wenever feel overwhelmed.
I want you to really know thatwe will still have those moments

(04:08):
of overwhelm, and I experiencedmultiple moments like that in
Florence.
It means we give ourselvespermission to step back, to
breathe, and remember that wedon't have to absorb everything
all at once.
There were times when we wereout walking the streets and I

(04:30):
was exhausted.
My feet were hurting.
In fact, they were burning andthrobbing and I just had to go
back to the room and rest.
And that was okay.
I gave myself permission to dothat, and I didn't experience
FOMO.
Instead, I noticed that I wasthrilled that I'd given myself

(04:54):
that gift, knowing that I wouldbe okay, and I would be able to
show up and do more later in theday rather than be so exhausted
that I couldn't do anything elsefor the next few days.
So that was a really biglearning, and I hope that that
hits home for you too.

(05:15):
So just like I couldn't seeevery piece of art in Florence,
you don't need to carry or fixeverything in your healing all
at once.
Sometimes it's about choosingone thing, one step, one foot
forward, one moment, and lettingthat be enough.

(05:37):
As I made my way through thestreets of Florence.
Really made me reflect onsomething so many of us
experience after trauma.
The balance between that beautyand that overwhelm, just like
Florence life can be dazzlingand exhausting at the same time.
Most traumatic growth isn'tabout removing the overwhelm,

(06:00):
but about learning how to groundyourself in the middle of it.
To pause, to notice, to choosewhat to focus on.
Rather than letting everythingjust crash over you.
One small strategy I use thatyou could use too is when things

(06:20):
felt too much, choose just onething to notice deeply.
For me, it was the detail in afresco, all the unevenness of
the cobblestone street.
For you, it might be a sound, acolor or even your breath.

(06:43):
That one focus point can anchoryou even in the busiest moments
from Florence.
As I said, we did a day trip toCinque Terre.
Five beautiful villages stackedalong the coastline full of
color and such character.

(07:05):
The beauty is undeniable.
What really struck me most wasthe sense of history that people
have been building, rebuilding,and living there for centuries
on cliffs that seem impossibleto inhabit as a passer-by.
It made me think aboutresilience and about how humans

(07:29):
like those villages can surviveand thrive in places that look
uninhabitable.
Trauma often feels like that.
Like the ground is too unstableto build on, and yet given time,
given patience and community, wefind ways to not only live, but

(07:49):
to create beauty.
Cinque Terre stole another pieceof my heart.
These villages clinging to thecliffs connected by steep paths
and train lines.
In all but one, which was justby boat full of color and
history.

(08:11):
But they've stood the test oftime because they are built on
strong foundations.
And that's exactly what healingand post-traumatic growth
requires.
The storms will come, the heat,the crowds, the hard days.
But when you rebuild your lifeon solid foundations.

(08:32):
Of self-awareness of resilienceand support.
You can stand tall just like thepoppy that you were destined to
be, just like those villages, nomatter what life throws at you.
The takeaway here is this.
You may feel like yourfoundation is broken, but growth

(08:53):
is always possible just likeCinque Terre.
Your life can be rebuilt layerby layer until what once felt
unlivable becomes not justsurvivable, but beautiful and a
source of thriving for you.

(09:17):
Then there was Venice.
Venice is undoubtedly magicalcanals instead of roads, bridges
everywhere.
Life happening on the water.
It reminded me of flow.
Healing isn't linear as I knowall of you know, just like the

(09:38):
canals; growth take twists andturns, and sometimes you're on a
gondola, gliding, peacefully.
And other times you'renavigating the crowds on a
narrow bridge or on one of theferries.
Now, that was an experience.
At one point, I honestly thoughtthe boat was gonna tip over
'cause it was so full and itfreaked me out a little, to be

(10:00):
honest.
But the lesson is this, youdon't have to force your healing
in a straight line.
You can let it meander.
Trust the current, trust thepeople around you when you feel
able to.
And still arrive exactly whereyou are meant to be.

(10:23):
As I mentioned, there are nocars in Venice, just boats and
walkways.
As you walk, you meander yourway through around the canals.
You have to let the water carryyou, you have to adjust your
pace, and that's exactly whathealing asks of us to.

(10:45):
We can't always force our wayforward.
Sometimes we have to surrender,trust the current and allow
ourselves to be carried, even ifit feels slower or more
uncertain than we'd like.
So here's the question I wannaleave you with from Venice.
Where in your life do you needto stop forcing and start

(11:09):
flowing?
Give that some thought.
And send me a message, DM me.
I'd love to hear what came upfor you.
And then there's Rome.
The last part of our trip hasbeen spent in Rome with the
cobblestone streets, and again,the heat and the significant

(11:32):
crowds.
We saw the Colosseum, thePalatine Hill, the forum.
The Roman Forum standing inthose spaces, I just couldn't
help but think about themetaphor of the arena.
Brene Brown talks about thattoo.
The courage it takes to stepinto the arena, to show up, to

(11:56):
live fully, even when you riskfailure, judgment, or falling
and trauma can make us wannastay on the sidelines where it
just feels safer.
But post-traumatic growth asksus to reenter the arena of life
to try again, to love again, todream again, and to risk again.

(12:17):
And here's the truth.
The arena isn't clean.
It's messy, dusty, bloody, andso is healing.
But just like those gladiators,just like the colosseum itself,
still standing thousands ofyears later, your resilience
leaves a legacy.

(12:37):
Then there were the cobblestonestreets, not just in Rome, but
across Italy.
Beautiful but uneven.
Hard to walk on, really hard towalk on when you've got feet
like mine.
And isn't that the perfectpicture of life after trauma?
It's rarely smooth.

(12:58):
Sometimes you trip andpotentially fall, which did
happen, and sometimes you getfrustrated.
Those cobblestones connect youto history, to stories, to
people who walked before you inthe same way that your healing
path connects you to your ownstory, to others who've been

(13:18):
through hardship and to theresilience that runs deeper than
you think, and that's what thiscommunity in Growing Tall
Poppies is all about.
So please reach out, DM me,share.
What this brings up for you andcontinue to be part of this
amazing community.

(13:39):
So as I wrap up this trip andthis series of episodes from
Europe, I wanna leave you withthis:- Growth doesn't happen on
the smooth, easy paths.
It happens in the busyness ofFlorence, the steep foundations
of Cinque Terre the flowingcanals of Venice and the
cobbled, uneven yet powerfularena of Rome.

(14:01):
Your journey may feel messy.
Heck, it will be messy, uneven,overwhelming, and unpredictable.
But just like these places,there's beauty in the
imperfection.
And if you are willing to stepback into the arena to keep

(14:22):
walking those cobblestones,you'll discover a strength and
freedom you may not have knownwas possible.
You've got this.
I know you have.
There have been so many lessons,learnings from Europe, as I
said, and it's been an absolutehonor to share that raw, real,

(14:44):
and vulnerable with all of youlisteners, thank you for your
beautiful messages and forcontinuing to listen.
Thank you so much for being herewith me.
I hope these reflections giveyou something to hold onto in
your own healing journey.
And if this resonated, feel freeto share it with someone who you
know needs this reminder.

(15:06):
So, as I close out this Europeanjourney, I wanna leave you with
these four lessons.
One from Florence.
Anchor yourself in moments ofoverwhelm from Cinque Terre.
You can rebuild beauty even onshaky ground from Venice.
Surrender to the flow.

(15:27):
Don't feel you have to forceeverything and from Rome, be
willing to step into the arenaof your own life.
These lessons are not abouttravel alone.
They're about living, healingand thriving.
And I know that you are up forit.
You're ready for it, and now isyour time.

(15:49):
They're about finding ways togrow.
Even when the heat is intense,the crowds are pressing in or
the ground feels unstable.
Thank you for journeying with meon this trip, both physically
and emotionally, and as I returnhome, I can't wait to continue
walking this path of growth withyou.
I'll continue to share somevideos that I've taken and lots

(16:11):
of stuff on social media so thatI can continue to.
Live and relive my beautifultrip in Europe, and I hope that
you enjoy that as well.
So until next time, remember,growth is possible, beauty is
waiting, and you are alwaysbraver than you believe.
Thanks so much.
Bye for now.

(16:35):
Thank you for joining me in thisepisode of Growing Tall Poppies.
It is my deepest hope thattoday's episode may have
inspired and empowered you tostep fully into your
post-traumatic growth, so thatyou can have absolute clarity
around who you are, what mattersthe most to you, and to assist

(16:57):
you to release your negativeemotions.
And regulate your nervous systemso you can fully thrive.
New episodes are published everyTuesday, and I hope you'll
continue to join us as weexplore both the strategies and
the personal qualities requiredto fully live a life of

(17:17):
post-traumatic growth and tothrive.
So if it feels aligned to youand really resonates, then I
invite you to hit subscribe andit would mean the world to us.
If you could share this episodewith others who you feel may
benefit too, you may also findme on Instagram at Growing Tall

(17:38):
Poppies and Facebook, Dr.
Natalie Green.
Remember, every moment is anopportunity to look for the
lessons and to learn andincrease your ability to live
the life you desire and deserve.
So for now, stay connected.
Stay inspired.

(17:59):
Stand tall like the tall poppyyou are, and keep shining your
light brightly in the world.
Bye for.