Trauma
This year has been one of my hardest years in a while. Over the past 13 years there’s been marital separation, divorce, family division, remarriage (a blessing, but huge adjustment) financial difficulty, estrangement of family members, loss of friendships, but this year has taken the cake since all that stored trauma has been coming to a head.
Trauma is kind of a buzz word now in the natural wellness space. Much has been discovered over the years. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, Trauma is defined as
- Serious injury to the body, as from physical violence or an accident.
- Severe emotional or mental distress caused by an experience.
- An experience that causes severe anxiety or emotional distress, such as rape or combat.
What research and experiences are showing though despite this definition of severe situations, trauma can be perceived differently depending on the individual. That means simply a conversation between siblings/ friends or an altercation at the grocery store can create trauma by previous trauma not being released. It can build. The body perceives all stress as stress, whether it is beneficial or non-beneficial. So healthy management as well as acknowledgment is crucial.
I’ve known about stored trauma for many years, and had been doing emotional work. So much had been stuck though. There are many methods to loosen stuck trauma and remove it from our tissues. Depending on the person certain methods may be more effective. Yes, trauma, not dealt with appropriately gets physically stored in our bodies. We can often think we’ve dealt with a situation when most likely we’ve just stuffed it somewhere or it’s been placed on the back burner. See just because we no longer on the surface desire not to discuss or think about an occurrence does not mean it’s not still affecting us. We are creatures of survival, and when something threats our survival we go into fight or flight mode. That’s a good thing. Our current overly busy, microwave, blue light in the face digital device all of the time, social media, at a desk lifestyles though can keep us in that mode. We may not even realize it.
When we become accustomed to living in that frenzied state, it takes a serious toll on our bodies, especially our nervous system. We are supposed to be able to switch back and forth between rest and digest mode and fight or flight mode. When there’s been too much unhealthy with trauma combined with our busy lifestyles, our bodies can get stuck and forget how to switch over. The good news is that we can release the trauma and learn how to encourage our bodies to do the switch. The not bad news, but more challenging news is it is dedicated hard work to make that happen. Living in survival mode though all of the time is no fun and worth the effort.
Losing Olivia humbled me so much. After the miscarriage this past January 2022, I lost my hunger cues completely, the urge to have a bowel movement, I was unable to sleep more than 1-2 hours for many months. My cognitive ability was very minimal. My body experienced pain in various places I never had before. I wanted to cry, but couldn’t. Stored trauma much like mold and parasites can create deficiency in the body. I’m still going through it now. The Lord, however, has brought me so far, and I am beyond grateful. Losing Olivia tipped the bucket. Spiritually, the Lord has opened my eyes to so much as well.
Some of the most effective methods I’ve used for trauma release this year have been prayer and repentance, breath work, Aleph Tav Bodywork, accupuncture, and EFT with Scripture. There were other methods I utilized like journaling, DNRS, neurofeedback, the emotion code, splankna, and counseling. I found the first five to be the most effective for me, while I do believe the others have merit. I’ll expand on these methods in future blogs, as well as how they specifically helped me, and how I utilized them.
It’s difficult to be vulnerable like this online. My prayer is through sharing that if you are dealing with trauma needing to be released, feeling alone, building your body up from a place of deficiency, or have lost friends through it, that you will know you are not alone. You have someone here who gets it. Living to thrive takes hard work especially when there’s lots of muck and mire to sift through. We can do this with lots of 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽 and 💕💕💕 and the Lord Yeshua’s 💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽
