I have a friend who specializes in TIMBo (Trauma Informed Mind Body). She has spent her career leading people with deep trauma into awareness and healing.
When she told me that everyone has some kind of trauma, it made me think. I know people who have had nasty stuff happen to them, verbal, physical or sexual abuse, neglect, abandonment, rape, survivors of suicide. I could go on. I look at that, and I think, “How lucky am I, nothing like that has ever happened to me.”
Does trauma need to look that extreme? You may be like me and say, “I’m lucky I don’t have any trauma.” That’s a lie the ego tells to keep us from looking within. Simply being born in traumatic, if you think about it– coming out of a place where all our needs are met, going through a tiny channel into the cold air and bright light. No wonder we cry at birth.
When my last big heartbreak lead me to the therapist office, I learned that trauma is personal. It can be anything. It doesn’t have to be as dramatic as others’. It’s how it affects YOU.
The therapist says that we have to deal with our issues or we’ll keep attracting the same relationships over and over again. The religious folk say the “sins of the father fall down on the son.” The metaphysicians say that we are all here in earth school to learn the lessons that our souls feel compelled to learn. The point is that humans, regardless of the semantics, all have stuff that impacts how we approach life. The only thing we come by naturally is selfishness. In this life, we have opportunities to practice the opposite of this selfishness. When we do we begin to heal the trauma that we all have.
How do we move past it? It’s not by insisting that the world change to fit our specific type of sensitivity, it’s in the daily practice of self-awareness and awareness of something bigger than you.
Just for Today
I will look at my actions. Am I sabotaging myself? Do I feel like having a fatty high calorie junk meal after a great work out? If I am, I will pause, ask my Higher Power for some help. I will take action to examine the why behind my compulsions. If I need help, I will be brave and humble enough to seek it out.
Prayer
Thank you for self awareness. I realize that we all live in this imperfect world with other imperfect people. Help me to forgive others and to forgive myself. Heal my heart, my past wounds, clear away my scar tissue so that I can be free to do what YOU want me to do, to be happy and free and to help others.
Heather Dellapi 