Your Driving Force
Trauma is a big word. What used to be something we only heard in hospitals, therapy, or the movies is now on the tip of our tongues. Given its perceived heaviness, we often go to great lengths to dismiss, deny, or distract from the idea, to our own detriment. With COVID-19 triggering our traumas and bringing them to the surface, we have an unprecedented opportunity to heal them once and for all. Where we’re typically distracted with the hustle and bustle of daily life, we're now forced to stop and reflect. That can be uncomfortable and confronting, but it’s happening for good reason and is totally worth the ease, alignment, and peace on the other side. Over the next few blog posts, I’ll be unpacking what trauma means, where it stems from, how it manifests, and what you can do to tap into your own power to heal, so you can find freedom from your wounds and thrive in your life.
Healing trauma doesn’t have to be dark. It’s actually liberating!
What is trauma?
Traumas, in essence, are our unhealed wounds. They are the painful and difficult life experiences that remain unresolved within us, and we all have them to different degrees. A trauma can be a loss, a perceived failure or embarrassment, neglect, an accident, or abuse (mental/physical/emotional/sexual). Trauma can result from an acute incident or something that happened over time. Similarly, the effects can be either acute, chronic, or both.
Old traumas
Even though certain experiences happened in the past (sometimes even decades earlier), we’re still operating at the effect of that experience, which can limit us and our experience of life in many ways. Like an endless loop, we keep replaying that experience, the way we felt in it, and the negative things we decided about ourselves and our reality as a result.
New traumas
Newer traumas coming up as a result of the pandemic can include being isolated, not being able to leave your home freely, seeing people with masks on, losing income, facing unemployment, having to anticipate an invisible threat to your health, worrying about loved ones, facing relationship challenges (with your spouse, kids, etc.), the news, the opinions of others, etc. The sooner we work to heal and release these traumas before they set in, the more resourceful and resilient we’ll be moving forward.