Overcoming Trauma and Learning to Thrive

Living on earth is no easy task.  Trauma is something we all deal with at some point in our lives.

Trauma can come in many forms.  It can be one dramatic event, or even small little stressful ones, repeatedly over time.  Both kinds can take a toll on us.

Sometimes, it feels that we are permanently damaged from the trauma we experience.  It feels like we are stuck in a response and can’t find our way out of it.  This begins to take a toll on us and often manifests as physical illness in the body.

Why does this happen?

Firstly, there is the physical damage that can occur to the brain during trauma.  When a trauma occurs, and there is a lack of glucose in the brain during the event, the heat from the emotional reaction to the trauma heats up the brain.  The electric impulses, being generated in the brain with high heat, actually can scorch neurons and burn out neurotransmitters.  That scorching can actually get us stuck in a “fight or flight” thought loop.  Our adrenal glands get involved, and also release adrenaline to match the fearful or painful thought.  Over time, the adrenaline also contributes to damaging our brains.  Adrenaline is highly toxic to nerves and organs.  When this occurs over a long period of time, the adrenal glands begin to become fatigued.  When that happens, they start misfiring and often release adrenaline at inappropriate times, when there is no reason to release adrenaline.

It becomes a vicious cycle where the fear based thought loop, triggers the adrenals to produce adrenaline, and eventually the adrenals release adrenaline, even before a fearful thought,  which triggers the fearful thought loop.  

In addition, our thoughts find the neural pathway with the least resistance.  If this fearful thought loop has been going on for a while, it becomes the default thought pattern.   It is the path of least resistance.  So the electricity in our brains find that pathway easily.

The next thing that happens is that we have a persona that steps forward in our personality to help us cope with the traumatic situation.  We all have multiple persona’s that make up our personality.  Often the dominant persona’s that we have, are born out of a trauma.

I will give you an example of a persona that became dominant in my own personality.  My “Captain Cathy” who had to control every situation as much as possible, was a big one.  My need to try and control every situation, instead of letting it unfold, was born out of  feeling so out of control as a child, that I wanted to try and prevent painful situations by trying to control every aspect of a situation. 

There is a whole set of beliefs that also accompany my “Captain Cathy” persona.  “It is not safe to trust other people”.   “People will let you down, so it is best not to trust them”.  “You must think of all possible bad outcomes to mitigate them”.  “Better to be safe than sorry”.

So in addition to those beliefs, there are a set of rules that also come along with the persona as well.  Things like “if you don’t think it through thoroughly, many times, you might miss a potential pitfall”.  “Don’t let your guard down, you have to be always looking for danger”.  “If you don’t do everything perfectly, there is a big penalty”.

As you can see, this persona, the beliefs and rules that accompany it, set the stage for a lot of low level anxiety.  There is not a lot of room for spontaneity or carefree fun.  You can see how this persona would keep the fear loop running constantly far after any trauma has occurred.

The “Captain Cathy” persona helped me cope through many a crisis in my life.  She was strong and in command when things were feeling shaky.  She helped me survive.  The problem was that because she was always on such alert, and keeping my adrenaline pumping 24/7, she was not letting me live.  So I realized that I needed to let “Captain Cathy” take a rest and start to bring forth some more elevated persona’s in order to heal and become the new version of me.

In order to begin to recover from the trauma, we have to recognize what set of lenses is associated with that particular persona.  We have to be willing to start to see things through more elevated lenses.  What if we were able to see things through God’s eyes?  I am sure every situation would look much different through God’s lenses.

How do we make that change?

Consciousness is key to making any change. 

We have to be aware when we are slipping into any persona.

When the persona starts telling us fearful thoughts, we have to take a moment and ask ourselves, if this is really true.

Is the thought the persona has even what I really think?

Or is it based on someone else’s set of beliefs about the world?

As we begin to identify the thoughts and beliefs that come along with any persona, we can begin to elevate them and start creating a way of being that is truly who we want to be.

Popping out of a persona’s lenses and putting on God’s eyes is a powerful way to begin to shift our perspective.

Hurt people hurt people.  When we can remember this, it is easier to find our way to forgiveness of others.  Carrying the burden of anger, hatred and resentment is so heavy on us and our life-force.  Finding a glimpse of a possibility for forgiveness is the start to reclaiming the parts of ourselves that are lost during trauma.

Setting an intention for how we would like to be moving forward is also important as we leave the past behind and begin to create the life, health, relationships, wealth, and person we desire to be.

What else?

As we discussed earlier, our adrenal glands get fatigued, and our nervous systems get dis-regulated.  As we begin to modify our thoughts and our personas, it is also important to find some tools to manually calm the nervous system and adrenals down.  Things like box breaths, meditation, placing your hands on your heart, nature therapy, earthing, dancing, singing, and resting are all ways we can calm our nervous system and adrenals down.  Using these tools as well as the modifications we already discussed is another way to reinforce new states of being.

One more thing....

Soul fractures.  When we experience trauma, often the majority of our soul leaves our body.  We can even lose a piece of our soul during the event.  It is important to begin to call the parts of us that have been lost, back to us.  We can do this by meditating with the intention to draw back all the parts of us left behind.  We can picture a magnet in the inside of our brain that is attracting all the pieces of our souls left behind.  Medical Medium has a wonderful meditation call the Star Gazing Meditation that is also designed to help you reunite with all the parts of your soul.  When you have all your pieces back, it is much easier to experience the full power of being you.

As we begin to leave behind the old behaviors and thoughts that are keeping us trapped, we begin to experience life in a different way.

We can begin to heal the damaged parts of our brain by also adding in ample supply of high vibe fruits and veggies.  In addition the things that damage our brains such as caffeine, alcohol, MSG, high fructose corn syrup, and artificial sweeteners should all be avoided. 

Letting go of the fear and making more room for faith, peace and joy help us move into a different realm.

We are striving to upgrade our health and our life, and leave trauma in the past.

This is how we begin to do just that.