Defining Trauma and Identifying a Path to Healing

Trauma is a word we hear everywhere these days. From “Therapy Tok” to TED talks, it seems like popular culture has a pretty good grasp on what trauma is and the affects it has on the human psyche. Yet, many of the videos I see and posts I read lack some of the crucial elements to the understanding of trauma that many experts hold now, so I thought I would take some time to clear things up and offer a deeper understanding of trauma and how we heal. 

The study of trauma from a neurobiological lens is a fairly new field, with research being done only for about the past 30 years. In this time, researchers and clinicians have found that trauma is any event that overwhelms the ordinary human adaptions to the stress of life. Stress and our responses to it are a normal part of life and human evolutionary biology. However, when the stress becomes too great, and our survival systems are overwhelmed, our brain encodes these experiences as traumatic. Consequently, if that traumatic stress is not resolved through being able to escape, find safety, and process the event with a safe, compassionate other, we can end up in a state of persistent and chronic stress response. This state adds further stress to our biological systems, and can result in being stuck in a loop of “trauma response”. This can look like persistent feelings of irritability, agitation, anger, fear, panic, and sadness; somatic symptoms of numbness, shakiness, nausea, and dizziness; disconnection from others or from our own body or experience; symptoms of brain fog, trouble with memory, and feeling like the world doesn’t seem quite real.

Now, many of these symptoms and definitions are prevalent in popular culture’s depictions of trauma. However, what often gets missed is the important concept that all of our “trauma responses” are biologically imperative and helpful mechanisms to support our pursuit of safety in dangerous circumstances. Every symptom is originated by systems in your body that are seeking safety, or in other words, homeostasis, which is the body’s natural rhythm and state of rest which it is wired to return to. Often in our efforts to “treat symptoms”, we have robbed the body of its natural resources and the inherent “map” our nervous system provides us to find our way back to safety. If we can learn to listen to and “follow” these responses, we will gain invaluable information which holds the keys to our path of healing. Our bodies hold the medicine, the wisdom that we need, to return to safety, rest, and regulation, if only we will learn to listen. 

So what does it look like to learn to listen to our bodies, as we journey on the path of healing from trauma. The practice of embodiment is a necessary place to start. Embodiment is the experience of becoming consciously aware of our existence in our bodies, and that our awareness of our physical sensations can lead to an experience of emotional depth and powerful meaning making. Even as I write this, I noticed my body slumping over and my eyes starting to drift close, a feeling like I wanted to disassociate from my felt experience. As I took a moment to witness these sensations, I noticed underneath this feeling of “stuckness” was a desire to move and “flee”. So I stood up, moved around my office, noticed all the things I loved in this space, sat on the ground and felt its support underneath me, wiggled my toes and peddled my feet. Before I knew it, I was feeling present, safe, and energized to continue writing. By following our bodies cues of dysregualtion and responses to stress, we can discharge them and integrate stressful experiences and more quickly return to a state of rest and capacity.

If you have experienced trauma and are dealing with the symptoms mentioned, and would like support in fostering embodiment and safety in your body, I would love to get the chance to see if working together would be a good fit. Check out my website to learn more about how I work and schedule a free consultation call to hear a bit about what working together could be like. I looking forward to hearing from you soon. Take good care, dear ones.

Why Spiritual Embodiment?

You may have heard me use the phrase, “spiritual embodiment” and wondered what I mean by that. Well, on one level, it describes viewing our spirituality in an embodied way, and on another, it describes an effort to integrate our spiritual and embodiment practices. However, this is very much easier said than done. There is a long history in western, white-majoritied, patriarchal culture of divorcing spirituality from that which is tangible, bodily, and terrestrial. However, there are many lovely spiritual traditions throughout the world, in which the body and the earth are intrinsic to spiritual belief and practice. My exploration of spiritual embodiment is an attempt to unwind the cultural and societal rigidity around spirituality that we often experience in western society, and find more humanness in our collective stories of seeking the divine. 

Now, much of the societal ideas of the separation of the spiritual from the physical has roots in the Enlightenment. In a time where the preeminence of the scientific method over all other forms of thought, we began to value reason and logic, over faith and experience. This shift went so deep into our cultural fabric, and shaped many of the consecutive societal evolutions, like the Industrial Revolution, from which practices still influence the modern work environment. Another formative influence to this way of thinking was in the interpretations of the writings of Paul in the early Christian church. Up until this time, many cultures held a world view that the spirit world and physical world were closely linked. Early Judaism saw this connection like the layers of a cake, with the spiritual realities just below the surface of the physical realm. Indigenous people in North America saw all of nature as imbued with spirit and that every animate and non-animate thing had spiritual properties, as well as physical. Similarly, early Celtic spiritual practices of animism also presupposed spiritual attributes to earthly beings and materials (such as elements, plants, and locations). Much of these indigenous practices and beliefs were lost or lessened during the colonization of much of the world by European Christian missionaries during the age of exploration. The animistic world view was seen as “primitive” and “supersticious” to colonizers, which further solidified the separation of the spiritual and earthly as “good” or “holy”. These are just a few examples of how shifting world views promoted by the dominant culture (i.e. western, white-bodied, Christian colonizers) imbedded this idea in the collective consciousness that “spirit” and “flesh” are to be kept separate. 

However, we have seen the effects of this disembodied spirituality. We are less connected to ourselves, the rhythms of nature, and our fellow humans than ever before. Most humans adults suffer from chronic levels of stress and burnout, depression and anxiety is rampant among adults and teenagers, and culturally, there is a deficit of hope or purpose in our teleology. We, as a society, are starving for more connection, more presence, more joy, and a more sustainable way to live on this planet. This is where embodied spirituality comes in. We need to create, or rediscover, rituals and practices that can connect us more deeply to the things we so crave- community, nature, purpose, meaning, and hope. By grounding our spirituality into our bodies, we take it from the realm of lofty ideas into the flesh and blood of our lived experience. We get the “dirt under our fingernails”, if you will, of spiritual practices, crafting them in a way that they serve our most ideal lives. And in this real life experience of our spirituality, we discover spiritual methods and meaning that is more aligned with our lived values and the rhythms of our actual life. There are numerous other ways an embodied spirituality can serve us personally and collectively, but I will save those thoughts for another day…

If this idea of spiritual embodiment struck a chord with you, or you would like to hear more about what practices could support your spiritual embodiment process, I’d love to chat with you. Check out my professional website linked above to set up a free consult call, to see if I can help you on your journey to a more embodied spirituality. Take good care, dear ones!

Blog Post Title Three

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

Blog Post Title Four

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.