Anatomy Of Trauma

Because of our neuroplastic capacity, we can reset our state of being. Where your attention is placed is where your resources are directed- the force field thickens in the areas of our life we give our focus to. ⁣ This talk breaks down the anatomy of the “trauma-body” and suggests methods to unhinge from the accumulation of trauma in the tissues. From Kali Durga Yoga's Anatomy of Trauma Workshop at The Mindry, Malibu November 2020.

Transcript

So in terms of the precedence of trauma as an imprint in the human psychology,

I find that it's really pertinent to just start out by noting that one does not have to be a Syrian refugee or a Vietnam vet to have experienced trauma.

There is what we call the trauma of everyday life,

The kind of micro abrasions that challenge the edge of our comfort boundaries and the areas that lead us into a space of overwhelm that can happen on a daily basis in minor or very major and acute ways.

The encountering of trauma specifically for Americans in this day and age is heightened and something to recognize inherently as we move through a social public sphere because we can assume particularly as yoga teachers that those who walk through our doors or lean on us for support and insight will come to the mat with either recent or ancient wounds from this life or another.

And in terms of this life and in this day and age,

There is violence and traumatic experience that runs rampant.

I know the CDC reports that one in five Americans are sexually molested as a child.

One in four have been beaten by a parent or an authority figure.

One in three couples have engaged in some sort of active domestic violence.

I start with that just to not normalize the experience of trauma but recognize that it is part of the experience and particularly now it's part of the social fabric.

That being said,

We humans are the most resilient adaptable species on the planet.

It's why we've positioned ourselves more or less at the top of the food chain,

Not because we're the strongest or the fastest and I'm starting to question if we're the smartest either.

But we are the most adaptable and I want to start just right out by saying we're not in accumulation of traumatic experience that happens to us.

We are an organism of great capacity to endure and thrive and be greater than our suffering.

In amazing capacity we have to survive and the human species have subjected themselves to an incredulous amount of obstacle and trauma and conflict both socially and internally.

And so we're resilient and I really bow towards that when speaking about trauma because I think it's easy for us to get locked into a victim identity of being in strong corroboration with the burdens that we bring into the practice.

But the collective human species has been through some horrific experiences and still managed not only to survive but actually to enjoy the oscillations that life brings.

I know personal survivors of the Holocaust that had been through just unimaginable dreadful conditions that still experienced a wealth of inner peace and ease later on in their lifelines.

So even with great burden we're not bound by any particular experience that's happened to us.

So experience does leave an imprint on the physical tissues on our physiological hormonal response to stress on the effects we have in terms of level of joy and level of intimacy that we are capable of.

It impacts our biology and our immune system and experiences which are shocking or overwhelming and have an introductory description to what trauma is would be an experience that shocks or overwhelms one that we don't feel at the time of exposure to the stimulus that we have the capacity to navigate manage remediate address deal with.

So those types of experiences if we're exposed to them consistently over time can start to actually dim the sense body which has been continuously shocked.

So our ability to feel precise sensation starts to turn down so that we're not subjected to that same particular thread of traumatic experience again.

Right?

So there might be a protector part that comes in to exile the wounded so that we don't have to feel that weak or lost or scared again.

Which is a survival mechanism and we can really pay homage and appreciation to the parts of us that step in strongly as authority roles to make sure that we're not subject to experiencing the particular type of pain again but there are impacts of that on the rest of the body too.

Because as we start to turn down the dial on what type of pain we're willing to feel that will also simultaneously turn down the dial of what type of contentment and inner peace we're willing to feel.

So there are some souls that have signed the contract to live life with a wide range of emotions and experiences.

Like my Scorpio over there.

We have a lot of emotional intelligence.

The 10,

000 joys and the 10,

000 sorrows.

Right?

But if we don't experience the 10,

000 sorrows and we wouldn't experience the 10,

000 joys so we have a wider window of an emotional landscape and then there are some of us either just primordially through our essence or through experience start to narrow our window of tolerance so that what we're willing to feel is much safer and much less expansive.

So trauma narrows our window of tolerance.

Our relationship to the physical reality can start to become distorted as that window of tolerance narrows because we've dimmed the sense body so those precise sensations aren't alerting us about what's happening in the present.

Right?

So a really straightforward example would be somebody that's suffering from anorexia who's dimmed the wisdom body of hunger again and again so that she no longer understands what it feels like to have a particular craving for nutrition because she's dimmed that wisdom tone.

So relationship to physiological needs also lessens which means as we experience trauma we also are subject to losing our agency to recognize what we need here and now because in the past we may not have given ourselves what we needed or we've been subject to an experience or a life condition where we weren't able to get our needs met from somebody else.

So over time if those needs continue to not be met those parts of us that have those needs become exiles.

They're not being fed so they go into starvation mode and crawl into the bat cave.

But trauma is not just an event that took place in the past sometime when our needs weren't met or where we experienced shock or anguish or overwhelm.

It's the consistently present experience of the imprint on the human psychology on the physical body on our immunity body on the oxygen carbon body that's breathing us.

It's the imprint of those experiences over time.

So it does have ongoing consequences for how the human organism manages to survive in the present moment to survive or thrive in the present moment.

PTSD which has increasing recognition in the Western medical world is the impact on the brain and our mental states of parts of us that are unwilling to move past traumas unwilling to let go of past conditions that were traumatic because those parts of ourselves want to keep us safe now.

So the brain built layer by layer moves from the bottom layer which is the ancient reptilian brain whose only capacity is the same as you might see in a lizard.

It's responsible for breathing eating sleeping excreting reproducing surviving that basic brain level is below our rational brain the limbic system which is our emotional intelligence all mammals have that.

So the ability to cultivate compassion and care for others the way that all mammals care for their young reptiles don't have that same warmth.

And then we have the very rational system above that that allows for complex logic reasoning abstraction the ability to take abstract concepts and make meaning of them like language words.

But it's the reptilian brain that's most impacted by traumatic experience because it threatens our survival mechanisms.

So for trauma survivors our stress response at the reptilian ancient survival level the fight or flight level can be reactivated after trauma at the slightest hint of danger again because it's been in this loop of hyper arousal.

So even at the slightest hint of danger or threat somebody that's suffering from PTSD can be catapulted back into that traumatic experience just at the onset of something slightly outside of their window of tolerance because the reptilian brain is at work.

And so often a survivor of complex trauma can't understand in present moment their own reactivity why they feel so out of control with even just a subtle hint of discomfort or threat.

So they feel out of control because they're recognizing on an emotional or analytical level that their feeling of anxiety or depression or overwhelm isn't quite appropriately linked to the stimulus that they're enmeshed in in the moment.

But under the rational mind is the survival mind that's at its basic function wrapped tightly around the fight or flight response.

So if the definition I gave of nirvana or awakening or enlightenment earlier this morning was the ability to choose our response to stimulus then the impacts of trauma if not healed will directly impede on our ability to choose how we respond.

So part of the recovery process is gaining agency over our response.

That's why mindful practice liberates us from the grips of trauma hell realms.

Meditation offers us the creation of a spacious and still center that unperturbed by worldly experience can choose how to move forward even when the stimulus is uncomfortable or even threatening.

So where we go to when we feel lost is that internal sense of safety that baseline of tranquility that carves out more space for us to determine how to respond to experience.

Reviews

Very informative- so glad I found your teachings.

Thank you for explaining some of my reactions and what is going on in the limbic system. Very helpful!

Excellent!

This description and teaching has really helped me to better understand my own ptsd struggle. Thank you so much for offering this insight. 🙏🏼