Happy Friday everyone, I wanted to continue my thoughts on Trauma and how to cope in times of emotional, mental and physical pain. First, I want to say, that there are different degrees of Trauma and all people carry Trauma big and small inside them; its part of the human experience. But, like a wound, we can heal from Trauma and even though it can feel like we lack control in our lives, one thing we can control is how and when we choose to heal. Before we can heal, however, we need to be ready to invite healing into our inner world so we can free the trauma that lives inside us. When going through a traumatic event, we might hear friends and family tell us to “stay busy,” and “distract ourselves with other things;” this may be a good idea in the beginning, because it gives us the time needed to be ready for that big change of letting go. However, many people get stuck in this distracted phase for years and hide the hurt deep inside, until they can no longer access it without assistance, or to the point where it becomes a normal part of their existence. The idea of Trauma in our every day lives is actually a new idea as we learn more about ourselves and what we need to live a happy and fulfilling life. People used to think of Trauma as going through a war zone, being brutally attacked or living through an accident; but Trauma lives in many forms and at differing degrees. You’ll find people ignore the things that seem small and insignificant, yet these are the things that may be keeping them from living that full and happy life. Trauma is Trauma and it affects us even if we think it may be small and insignificant; if it bothers us, it matters. As humans living in a task-oriented world, we can make a list of things that happened to us growing up. We can list nonchalantly that our parents got a divorce or so-and-so never paid attention to us or we had no friends, etc… but this is our Beta mind simply listing things that happened to us; in order to heal from whatever happened we must leave our Beta mind and go deep into our inner mind to find out what really happened and why we’re bothered by these events. Meditation is just one way to access our deep inner mind. Meditation is more than simply taking a time out for yourself. It is powerful enough to change your inner world as well as your outer world. When we go into deep meditation, we can make changes inside us that transition into our outer world; these changes will create a freedom that is physically and emotionally tangible in reality—our outer world.
When a traumatic event happens to us and we cannot fight or flee, we end up freezing instead; this is called a Survival Trance. A Survival Trance comes to our rescue when we are in danger and we move our awareness away from the scene in order to get through the experience and survive. An example of this would be when something traumatic happens to us and we go into shock; our brain is trying to process what’s just happened and our body is unable to catch up.
In order to make true inner change, all levels of our mind must be unified: Beta, Alpha, Theta, Delta. Beta mind cannot do the work alone; because it tries to make sense out of situations, through logic and reason; but there is nothing reasonable or logical about Trauma. Trauma occupies a great deal of space in our mind and body, and even though this trauma is frozen in our bodies, it sends constant signals that reveal themselves to us. These symptoms can appear to us in the form of ulcers, migraines, irritable bowels and high blood pressure, just to name a few. The good news is that we have the power within us
gy6 to convert our fear into freedom, anger into peace, shame/guilt into worthiness and abandonment into belonging. Do you experience symptoms and/or pain that is unexplainable by health care professionals? Are you at the mercy of old emotions? Are you frozen in a past Trauma? Share your story!
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