Everybody’s talking about their trauma…but let’s set the record straight on what that actually means.
Because if you want to reach your version of optimal health and build your dream life, you’ll need to know how to navigate your trauma and free yourself from it.
Firstly, I want to emphasise that growing up is always ‘traumatic’ in one way or another. No childhood experience is perfect, it can’t be.
When you’re a child you have to depend on others for your survival, so there will be times where you experience ‘trauma’ - feeling unsafe emotionally, psychologically or physically.
You therefore have to create ‘survival strategies’ by adapting or adjusting your behaviour.
So how do we store it?
We store trauma when we can’t complete the proper physiological responses that close out the ‘stress cycle’. For example, if a person is unable to physically escape a threatening situation, the body may not discharge the accumulated energy and tension, storing it in the body.
What are the different types of trauma?
One thing a lot of people don’t understand, is that trauma isn’t always the ‘big T’ experiences we are all aware of…
‘Little t’ trauma exists too - the subtle, cumulative stressors or challenging experiences that can still have a significant impact on us. Like microaggressions, cultural programming or feelings of pain or shame.
(I do want to emphasise here that trauma is certainly not a one-size-fits-all concept - different people respond to various events in unique ways, and what might be traumatic for one person may not be for another.)
And while years of talk therapy or awareness of your trauma is helpful, you haven’t actually HEALED it.
Which is why you need somatic movement.
Our trauma shows up in our lives every day; whether it's yesterday’s interaction with your boss triggering your body to relive an experience from your childhood that you’re not aware of…or your people-pleasing, procrastination or self-sabotage.
And when your body keeps getting triggered, it responds as though that initial traumatic incident is happening all over again.
And of course, because you’re probably at work, busy or overwhelmed, you ignore it or brush it off, storing even more unprocessed trauma and emotions in your body.
So the solution is somatics. Communicating with your body through movement (its favourite language) that it’s safe, and time to release the mountain of emotions, pain and trauma that’s keeping you from showing up as the healthiest, happiest version of yourself.
If you want to step into the fullest expression of yourself, you HAVE to do the healing work. And somatic work is the key.