In one line: An excellent dive into trauma, it’s history, it’s role in society, and some actionable ideas & constructive thoughts around healing and using trauma to empower you.
Prologue — Giving the body what it needs:
Trauma – a psychological and medical disorder of the mind
Trauma is a fact of life but it does not however have to be a life sentence. It can transformative and healed with appropriate guidance. It has the potential for some of the most psychological, physical and spiritual transformation.
⁃ If you’re experiencing something no one can explain it may be something arising from trauma you don’t even remember
⁃ Disassociation and denial allow us to block out trauma
⁃ QUOTE: “The body is the shore on the ocean of being.” – Anonymous
⁃ Our intellect often overrides our instincts, they do not drive the traumatic reaction
⁃ body, mind, spirit, psyche, emotions all need to be considered on their interrelated functionality in our organism in healing trauma
⁃ Trauma begets trauma and is often self perpetuating
⁃ Few psychologists have the background in physiology needed to provide proper guidance in what happens in the body when experiencing trauma
⁃ Shock and cathartic treatment may lead to false memories and become harmful to the body
⁃ Trauma is the result of the most powerful drives the human body possesses
⁃ Trauma can be hell on earth, but trauma resolved can be a gift of the gods
Section 1 — The Body as Healer:
Chapter 1 — Shadows from a forgotten past:
⁃ QUOTE: “Our mind still has its darkest Africa’s, it’s unmapped Borneo’s and Amazonian basins.” — Aldous Huxley
⁃ Immobility or freeze — altered state of consciousness mammals enter into – prey surrendering to a predator; indigenous day body surrenders to the spirit; this is nature’s evolution of not being able to feel the pain and potentially being able to later escape (involuntary response in our nervous system)
⁃ Triune Brain — 1) reptilian – instincts 2) mammalian/Limbic – emotional 3) human/neocortex — rational
⁃ Traumatic symptoms are not caused by the event; they stem from the frozen residue of energy that has not been discharged and resolved, it ends up trapped in our nervous system, it persists in the body and triggers symptoms
Chapter 2 — The mystery of trauma:
⁃ Trauma (psychologists definition) — experience that is outside the range of usual human experience and is markedly distressing; who’s to define what is and isn’t though?
⁃ Healing trauma depends on recognition of its symptoms; we can learn to identify by exploring our own reactions, the feeling is unmistakable once identified
⁃ Stockholm syndrome — freezing up/immobility response due to fear, often prisoners experience, limiting them able to endure life in the future
⁃ We need to engage our nervous system and deep physiological responses when we’re experiencing or reliving trauma so we can discharge the energy (waking the tiger story)
⁃ Unresolved trauma can keep us excessively cautious and inhibited
⁃ Trauma represents animal instincts gone awry
⁃ We should not blame ourselves or others for trauma rather focus on the knowledge to heal our trauma
Chapter 3 — Wounds that can heal:
⁃ Tree visual — when young trees are injured they grow around those injuries which is what leads to the misshaped limbs and idiosyncrasies of every tree; a mature tree is beautiful and full of character in its own way but also misshaped and overcome injuries along the way (useful visual for growing and healing trauma)
⁃ No matter the source of trauma, much more likely to heal by creating a positive framework vs denying our own beauty or calling ourselves victims / survivors
⁃ Post traumatic symptoms are incomplete physiological responses suspended in fear; healing relies on increasing the inner awareness of our body
⁃ BOOK: Awakenings
⁃ READ: Wounds that can’t heal — Daniel Golman 1992 article
⁃ Drugs derail our innate ability of the body to heal
⁃ The past doesn’t matter when we learn to be present
Chapter 4 — A strange new land:
⁃ Trauma has become so common most of us don’t even recognize it’s presence
⁃ 40% of people have experienced trauma; 30% of homeless people are Vietnam vets experiencing PTSD; 10-15% of adults suffer from panic attacks, phobias or unexplained anxiety
⁃ Traumatic symptoms can remain dormant after an event or accumulate for years until there is a triggering event
⁃ QUOTE: “If it hurts, hide it.” — Cowboy Logic
⁃ Our history of success or failure in following our instincts greatly impacts our ability to trust ourselves, especially in dangerous situations
Chapter 5 — Healing & Community:
⁃ Shamans believe illness is the result of spiritual limbo; treatments are designed to intercede in the spirit realm and return the soul to your body
⁃ Openly acknowledge the need to heal; strength is not endurance and it’s not heroic to carry regardless of your symptoms; this does great damage to us and society/culture; the impact of these traumatic effects are incomplete responses frozen in our nervous system like indestructible time bombs primed to go off whenever there is a trigger; what’s heroic is acknowledging your need to heal
IDEA: Use a pulsing shower head 10 minutes per day at cool to warm temp; notice the part of your body the water is pulsing on and the sensations your experiencing; do it on every part of your body and say “welcome back head, neck, etc.”
Chapter 6 — In Trauma’s Reflection:
⁃ In some mythical stories the symbol for the human body is the horse; Medusa was slain two things emerged—Pegasus (winged horse) and Chrysaor (warrior w golden sword) — sword symbolizes absolute truth — the mythic heroes ultimate weapon of defense — clarity and triumph; the horse symbolizes instinctual grounding and the winged horse signifies transformation — this all being a metaphor for learning to trust our instinctual responses in protecting and healing ourselves from trauma
⁃ The Phelps Sense — the experience of being in a human body and understanding the responses were having to the environment around us; the internal aura of the body telling you what you’re feeling; the sense that really allows you to “trust your gut”
⁃ Take a second to feel your body, feel whatever is around you or whatever you’re sitting on, feel your skin, then feel each particle of your skin and everything passing through your body, really just sit and breathe and see what you feel; when trying to activate the Phelps sense to trust your instinct, you will get there faster by going slow, observe everything that comes without judgment or observation
⁃ QUOTE: “Our feelings and our bodies are like water flowing into water. We learn to swim within the energy of the body senses.” — Tartthtang Tuku
⁃ Certain emotions may become enmeshed with traumatic symptoms so it is important to learn how to explore them
⁃ Trauma symptoms come from compressed energy; the Phelps sense allows us to better understand our body’s physiological response to emotions and symptoms
⁃ Your body uses feelings and images stored as memories it’s familiar with to tell you what it’s feeling
⁃ Important to understand our memories role in understanding and interpreting trauma; it’s not uncommon for us to misinterpret
⁃ It is common that memories from childhood, especially traumatic ones will resurface later in life
⁃ Physiological phenomena occur in cycles
⁃ QUOTE: “Rhythm. All gods children got it. But you can’t push the river.” — Unknown
Chapter 7 — The Animal Experience:
⁃ A traumatized persons nervous system is not damaged rather frozen in an animated suspense
⁃ Sensation is the language of the reptilian brain
⁃ Reptiles only have reptilian brain; mammals have Limbic brain, which gets impulses from the reptilian brain giving it more choices and an emotional aspect
⁃ Human brains = instinct, intellect, emotion (3 parts of the brain work together)
NOTE: *there are notes missing from parts of this one*
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