Serenity Wellness Podcast E34: Understanding Trauma

We can experience trauma in our lives due to our own suffering, helping someone else through pain, connection to global trauma, and ancestral threads. Understanding how trauma impacts us, triggers that can resurface the pain, and some tools to assist.

Transcript

Hello,

Welcome to Serenity Wellness podcast.

My name is Nicole White and I'll be your host.

This podcast is dedicated to helping you tap into your full potential of how you can heal and balance your mental,

Emotional,

And physical well-being.

Together,

Let's explore inner self,

Connect with our strength,

And manifest your true nature,

One full of love,

Purpose,

And passion.

Welcome to episode 34,

Understanding Trauma.

Thank you,

As always,

For joining me today,

And thank you for your patience.

I am a bit behind on recording and it actually has to do with today's topic.

Last week was the 18-year anniversary of the September 11th attacks.

And if you've been listening,

Then you're aware I lost my mom during that situation.

And as I talked about with Arianne in the episode on grief,

Our cycles of grief can ebb and flow,

And some years can be more challenging than others.

And it can be due to a variety of different reasons,

Which we'll talk about today.

And for me,

I had some of these things happen,

And I'll talk a little here and there about it as we go through this.

But there were specific kind of things that elevated and escalated for me specifically,

This year that led to I just wasn't in a place,

You know,

To be able to talk about it last week.

So with today and understanding trauma,

Trauma can be created by emotional,

Physical,

Or sexual abuse,

By being in a traumatic situation,

Such as war,

Poverty,

Life cycles,

And end of life cycles with grief.

We can also experience trauma as we work through healing our emotions and our connection with the traumatic experiences that others are going through.

This can include knowing someone close who has been traumatized or working through a trauma,

Or even on a more global scale,

Related to the many areas of trauma that people around the world are experiencing,

And even the ecological trauma that's happening on our planet.

This more global experience is something that we have known in the energy field for,

You know,

As long back as we can see.

But with the field of psychology,

It is also now recognized and was included in the diagnostic manual for clinicians in terms of how to identify if someone has post traumatic stress disorder,

Or is experiencing trauma.

So this global part where we ourselves may not have even experienced the trauma,

But the awareness or the connection to the suffering of others brings in this traumatic experience for our own selves.

Trauma in our system can also be connected to ancestral trauma.

Epigenetics is the field of science that is helping us to connect more fully with this in a cognitive way.

But it's also,

Again,

Something within energy work that has been known,

And that has always been an important component in healing and allowing the system to work through these ancestral threads.

The research in epigenetics is showing us how this ancestral trauma impacts layers of generations related to protein development and synthesis in the body,

Trauma response systems,

And fears.

In epigenetics,

It's showing us this goes back as far as 14 generations.

That's a lot of generations if you think about that,

14 generations back.

So to make it a little bit smaller,

When my mom was pregnant with me,

I also held all of my eggs.

So during that nine month experience,

There were three generations experiencing all of those moments.

My mom,

Me in her uterus,

And my daughter as the egg inside of me.

It goes further beyond that,

But just to kind of break it down into a smaller form so that you can see what we're talking about here and what epigenetics is looking at.

This genetic shared ancestral trauma and how it can impact generation after generation.

In the energy field,

We look at this in terms of somatic markers and how the somatic markers imprint into our energy body and impacts our emotional and physical health.

You can visualize your energy body as being like this river system that runs through your body,

And the somatic markers are rocks that jam up the system and the energy field and create blocks or barriers,

Create overtaxation in certain areas,

And prevent the flow from working in harmony.

So in energy work,

There's so many different types of energy work,

But in energy work in terms of Reiki,

For example,

This hands-on healing that happens within the experience brings in this life force energy that helps as your body knows already what to do with it,

As we are all the same energy and one.

And so this energy aligns and assists in your own energy body,

Allowing these rocks or these somatic markers to be dissolved and removed.

Reiki has been used and is currently used in,

Last I checked the numbers,

I think it's over 900 hospitals in the United States in terms of helping with surgery and cancer treatments and in with mental health and trauma and veterans.

We also have,

Even at Serenity,

We have Reiki for all different types of situations and assisting others in their energy body,

But we also have specific Reiki services for trauma and PTSD and veterans.

So this work in the energy body can just do profound effects on allowing some of these somatic markers and these rocks to dissolve,

As well as some other things that I'll talk about here towards the end when we look at ways to support ourselves.

But these things,

These somatic markers,

These rocks,

They get jammed up in the river system.

And it's also useful to understand that as we heal,

We heal these genetic imprints,

Which heals the generational thread.

So as I work on my continual journey of healing,

It can heal those generational threads for my daughter.

Somewhere along the ancestral line,

Souls begin to heal the threads.

The environment we live in,

The way we treat ourselves through our words and actions,

If we treat food as medicine,

Allow balance and stillness,

Kindness,

Compassion,

And connection.

All of these things and these components impact how our genes heal,

Change,

And what comes through.

So with these generational threads,

Or these even current life experiences and traumas that we are going through,

The way we live our everyday life and how we support ourselves greatly impacts how our body processes and heals.

It has to do with all of those different things I've talked about in several different ways in terms of even our just physical body,

That inflammation cycle,

Our adrenals getting taxed,

Our cortisol levels,

Our circadian rhythm,

Our serotonin and dopamine,

Our ability to stay present in the now instead of in the story of our life.

In the now instead of in the storytelling and illusionary mind system,

The protein development,

Our ability to digest minerals and vitamins dependent upon where our whole body system is.

The endocannabinoid system,

Which is just now starting to be able to be looked at and researched because of the FDA limitations on what it has allowed us to do in terms of looking at the research in medical marijuana and our own endocannabinoid system with chronic stress and trauma.

So there are so many different layers of our physical body that kind of make all of this even more compounded until we start understanding and recognizing that we can support ourselves in such a different way in the natural ways we can heal and balance ourselves and the everyday the way that we are living our lives.

Within this understanding,

Our awareness of how trauma can impact our system brings us a deeper connection to our ability to heal and vibrate our genuine self,

Which is full of love and strength.

I discussed the anxious body cycle and the experiences of what that can do to us physically in episode two,

So you might want to check that out if you haven't heard that yet.

And this is something that you are finding could be useful in your life.

But some other things to keep in mind,

You know,

Just briefly in that episode,

I talked about how the physical body will begin to kind of process or digest trauma in our lives in terms of our heart racing,

The shortness of breath and chest breathing,

The mind racing,

The visual part of how our vision can get really sharp or very fuzzy.

We can have sweaty palms or our hands and arms might feel like fuzzy,

Like they're asleep kind of thing.

Or we might have tension build up in our arms,

Having our fists clinched,

Bladder urgency going on,

Difficulty with digestion.

So all these different things.

And then those other things I just mentioned in terms of inflammation,

Adrenals,

Etc.

So I get more into that system there in episode two.

Some other things to keep in mind is with personal trauma,

We can have a vivid mental,

Emotional,

And physical experience,

Even if the situation happened years ago.

At times,

This escalation can be due to higher levels of stress in our life,

An additional experience of trauma,

Something that connects us to the experience of the past,

Like a song,

Place,

Smell,

Sound,

Or food,

Being around a similar experience that maybe someone else is going through that mimics our own traumas of the past.

And what can happen is it's like these things can get put into folders in our minds,

Not just trauma memories,

But just in terms of what we're talking about today,

I'm going to just stick with that topic here.

So these traumatic memories or experiences can get put in these folders in our mind.

And some of those folders are in drawers locked away.

And as other things around us,

Like some of those I mentioned just now,

Start to kind of happen or unfold,

Our body system and our mind will sometimes really remember it and connect it back to one of these folders.

And now suddenly we have these folders opening,

Which is elevating all these other systems in our body as we become more stressed or tense or fearful.

In,

Again,

I'm not going to get into too much detail,

But just to kind of give you a little bit of an idea of what I'm talking about here.

How I said last week,

This year's experience of going through grief was more elevated than typical for me.

I so September 11th was on a Wednesday.

And the Saturday before there was a situation in my neighborhood.

It's not too typical.

I mean,

I live in a pretty chill neighborhood,

But something was going down that day and someone was practicing drums,

Which again is fine.

I love music,

But they,

I guess,

Were practicing outside and it was for about seven hours.

And I it was a beautiful day,

I was going to do all this yard work and take care of some things outside at my house.

And this was going on for like hours.

And I left and went and did some things at this at my Wellness Center,

And I went for a hike,

But each time I would come back,

It was still going on.

And over time,

It started elevating this memory imprint in my body and these folders started opening from just experiences in my childhood that have some kind of drum association.

And like I knew what was happening in the moment when it was going on,

Which was helpful for me,

But it was very intense in my body in terms of this feeling of feeling trapped,

You know,

Because it was my house and I just wanted to be outside but being outside was triggering me and like a lack of control because again,

It's not something typical,

I wasn't going to go,

You know,

Complain to the person,

You know,

It was just whatever was going on for them that day,

That was what was happening.

So it was just all this stuff going on.

And in and of itself,

If that was going on,

It probably would have,

You know,

Been fine.

But I just had this also underlying elevation as I was approaching,

You know,

This,

This element of grief coming up around the corner as well as some other things happening.

And then as the week went on,

And as I got closer to September 11,

There were some other kind of triggers happening around me,

I was around an experience where someone was an experience where someone was exhibiting really high levels of anger.

And when I'm in this more open space of trauma,

That doesn't really do well for me,

In terms of how I process that or go through that.

And I then had the September 11 experience.

And by the time I got there with these other things that were happening to that day,

I just started opening up these other folders.

And I was having more flashbacks,

I don't really get flashbacks very often at all,

Due to some things I did that I'll talk about here.

But I was having more flashbacks of the experience with my mom,

And getting to her house and resuscitating her and everything and some things from earlier traumas in my life.

And so it was just this really heavy,

Heavy experience.

And then as we were all energy,

And so we're all susceptible to energy shifts and changes and the universal energy and how that also can shift and change us.

As I mentioned before,

We understand and know how moon cycles affect the water in the ocean,

And we are primarily water based.

So just keeping that in mind in terms of how it impacts our own selves.

And as we go through life in our journey and work on consciousness,

The more higher we elevate into that area,

Then the more open our energy body can be to experiencing some of these shifts or changes.

And so for me,

There was also this whole cycle going on in terms of energy universally.

And then we had the full moon and the Pisces cycle,

Which was a pretty intense cycle for me to go through.

So that was another impact.

So there was all of these things.

It wasn't just one thing.

It wasn't just me trying to work through,

You know,

The anniversary of losing my mom.

It was all of these other elements that in and of themselves would have been easy for me,

Not easy,

But you know,

Would have been much easier for me to kind of work through,

They probably wouldn't have impacted me very much.

But because of where my body was,

And how these were tapping into past memories,

And once one folder opened,

It started opening all these other folders,

And it was just this whirlwind.

And so sometimes,

Again,

We can have just these escalations due to things that are happening around us,

And then these folders open,

And it starts escalating the whole system.

Because with anxiety,

Too,

Our body can remember that feeling.

So our body can remember the feeling of anxiety from when we experience the trauma itself.

And so as we experience elevation and anxiety,

Our body remembers that past anxiety.

And now the mind and body start working and connecting to think that there's a potential crisis that it needs to prepare for.

So it's going to start holding on to all this tension,

It's going to start moving that breath cycle,

And kind of keeping us in this response cycle in case we like need to,

You know,

Respond to a crisis.

Our body and mind think it's supporting us and helping us,

Because that's kind of the signal it's getting from us as it's feeling this rise in anxiety at times.

It's also important to keep in mind that anxiety does not always look like anxiety.

It can also present as an increased need for control,

A low frustration,

Tolerance and anger,

Perfectionism,

Emotional swings,

Challenges,

Focusing and making decisions,

Sleep disturbances and digestive difficulties.

So anxiety can also present in all of those different ways.

The most helpful thing we can do to ourselves is just being mindful of where we're at and where our body is at and the different ways that we can also support that system.

Because as we also get into more heightened levels,

We can even experience dizziness or numbing out,

Even a feeling of feeling separate from our own body.

We can have increase in nightmares and as I mentioned,

Also in flashbacks.

So with all of this in mind,

There's some helpful things that you might consider in terms of ways you can support yourself.

The first thing is to check in with your body and your breath.

I understand and respect that this can be challenging for some people,

Especially if we're feeling anxious or we've been in a chronic anxious cycle.

It can almost feel uncomfortable letting go of our tension.

And as we talked about when we worked on breath work towards the beginning episodes,

Sometimes our body almost feels like it wants to resist us moving our breath down.

So recognizing that it might not be comfortable and thinking of ways that you can best support yourself to gain more comfort slowly in connecting to your body so that it can be a tool because it is such a valuable tool,

Especially as we move ourselves back into baseline diaphragm breathing,

We will begin to see then and know within our body when we're climbing that emotional ladder,

Because our physical body climbs it with us,

Not just our emotion and our mind.

As we gain comfort in that,

Again,

Not only is it a valuable tool,

But it also helps us to support and empower all that's in us in our own ability to heal and balance.

In terms of letting go of that body tension,

You know,

Remembering just slightly dropping your shoulders,

Unclenching your jaw and removing the tongue from the roof of your mouth,

Checking in with your back and lower back and all the ways we even hold tension there,

Making sure you're not clenching your fists and just letting go and releasing,

Checking in with your breath and trying to take nice deep breaths instead of short shallow breaths.

I mentioned Reiki a little bit.

And if you're one who not only has this experience of trauma,

As I mentioned,

Reiki works with just so many different things in terms of emotional balance,

Physical injury,

Release,

Sleep,

Addiction,

Surgery and cancer modalities in terms of a nice support service to go along with the medical services that people receive there.

So there's,

It works in conjunction with any type of medical or spiritual thing that you have in your life in terms of your toolbox.

But also it's a wonderful support if you're feeling disconnected or uncomfortable from the connection of your physical body.

So it will help you to gain comfort and connection to breath and relaxation and muscle release.

You might also want to connect with your body and your breath.

You might also want to consider acupuncture or massage,

Yoga,

Ways to start connecting to your body and your breath.

Qigong would be another one.

So thinking in terms of what is comfortable for you that maybe you have a support with you to gain comfort in your body.

Another thing to consider is you are,

Again,

Most likely talking to yourself at this time.

So try to talk with yourself in a different way,

Creating just even a mantra for the moment,

Such as,

I am safe.

This is temporary.

Stating exactly where you're at in the moment,

I am sitting in my chair at the table.

And then also considering time and date stamping the experience.

With flashbacks,

Sometimes they come so strongly and feel so real as though they're happening in the moment,

Because they have not been time stamped or imprinted properly in the brain.

So there's no date and time stamp on the memory.

So when it comes back,

It feels like it's now,

Even though we know it is not.

So you can,

As you experience that,

Time stamp it and date it.

That was when I was,

And then however old,

You know,

That was when I was 10 years old at this place.

That was when I was 17.

You know,

That was when I was 25.

Whatever it is for you,

Allow yourself to notate how old you were,

Where you were,

As a way to time stamp and then bring yourself back to now.

Today is,

And you can,

You know,

Even say what the date is of the date that you're in,

In this experience.

So talking to yourself with a mantra,

I am safe.

This emotion is temporary.

I am strong.

I am grounded.

And where maybe you're even sitting.

You can use the opposite to emotion tool.

So if you're feeling anxious,

Do something that is calming.

If you're feeling depressed,

Do something that is uplifting.

Listen to a song,

Watch a movie,

Talk with someone,

Engage in an activity that you enjoy,

Even if you're not feeling joyous.

Using movement to shake up your system,

Such as dance,

Yoga,

Hiking,

Singing,

Move your body,

Move your body,

Getting out into nature.

I talked about this in the episode on grounding,

And all the science behind showing us how nature is such a valuable support in terms of our body and regulation of emotion.

Letting yourself be barefoot in the earth,

Getting your hands in the dirt,

Letting those electrodes from the earth support and help balance you.

Again,

Science shows us this isn't just me,

You know,

Talking kind of energy hippie stuff like science is showing us that connecting with nature and the earth helps our body calm and regulate.

So getting in nature,

Being by trees,

Using forest bathing as a tool,

Bringing in your mindfulness tools,

Connecting back to the present moment,

Being the observer of your thought,

Allowing it to float by and connecting back to your current experience.

What are you doing in that moment?

Gaining grounding tools or visuals,

Such as a painting that you can connect with in your room,

A favorite blanket or small trinket,

Using smell such as a candle or incense or essential oil,

Allowing yourself to gain grounding tools around you or visualizations that will allow you to come back to your present moment.

If you are experiencing nightmares,

You can write something down before you go to sleep.

You want to be settled in your bed and ready to kind of unwind and get into a sleep cycle.

And then you can spend maybe 10 minutes writing something down in terms of how you want the nightmare to actually be.

Design it how you want it to be and not how it keeps playing out.

You can also spend that 10 minutes writing about a dream vacation that you would like to go on or a calming experience that you remember,

Something that you want to dream about.

It might take a couple days of doing this,

But stay consistent and you will find that it may also shift your dream state.

Nightmares also are a way that our mind and body at times try to process difficult emotion and memory that we're not quite at a place to have in our everyday waking life.

So sometimes there's a purpose for them.

And it's okay if it takes a little bit of time for them to calm down because it might be a way also that your body can be more comfortable and calm down because it might be a way also that your body is trying to digest and settle.

Another thing that you can do if you are having increased flashbacks is you can use a,

It's kind of,

I can't remember the term for it.

I think it's like a TV model.

And with that,

What you do is you would visualize the flashback that is coming to mind on a TV screen and that you have a remote,

And then you let yourself be in control.

So you might first turn down the volume and then maybe you make the visual of it fuzzy.

And then maybe you can even shrink the TV with your remote and then stick the remote in your pocket for future use.

You can also use a visualization of the ocean or weather condition to help calm down your emotional state.

So maybe,

For example,

You picture yourself in a blizzard snowstorm and connect that to the current emotion you're experiencing at that heightened level.

And then it calms down to just a heavy snowstorm as you work on bringing your body system down.

And then maybe it is lighter snow and down to a flurry.

Or you can be standing deeply in the ocean at your deepest emotion,

And then you gradually take yourself out back to the shoreline,

Where then maybe the water is at your waist,

And then your knees,

And then you're at the shoreline where the water comes up to your feet,

And as it drifts away,

Your feet sink further into the sand.

So these are all tools to help calm down your mind and calm down your body when you are feeling that it is a bit more heightened.

You also want to consider gaining support through family,

Friends,

Or looking into support around you with a therapist or resource service in your area.

If you're not familiar with what is available in your area in terms of support and services,

You can always try to contact your local emergency room,

And they might be able to direct you with the best resources that they can provide.

You might be able to direct you with the best resource in your area if you really are not certain of where to go.

But there are often crisis centers available.

You know,

Mental health-based service units are,

I think,

What they're called in a lot of places as well,

Where you can tap in and see what resources are available to support you.

You can look online to see if there's support groups in your area.

So there's a lot of things that you can maybe tap into,

Again,

To gain more support network so you're recognizing and realizing that these things are not things you have to do alone.

You also want to consider how you're living your everyday life.

How we support ourselves in our everyday living is going to impact how our body is able to process and work through change and work through trauma.

Keeping in mind all those things I talked about with the inflammation cycle and all the other systems in our body,

And how every day how we're living impacts that whole system as well.

So the more we can be mindfully connected to that and try to do our best to have a healthy living cycle,

Then it's going to help us to process and work through things that happen in our lives or have happened in our lives.

This everyday living includes our self-care,

Our compassion,

And acceptance without judgment.

Using food as medicine,

Be mindful of what you're putting into your body and the effects it has on you.

Be mindful of how much processed food that you eat.

Be mindful of what substances you bring into your body.

If you're one who drinks alcohol,

Pay attention and be mindful of what it's actually doing to you and if it's really something that you want in your life to best support a health goal that you're working towards in terms of full self.

Letting yourself use food as medicine and being mindful of what you choose in your everyday to put into your body system.

Keep in mind the company that you keep and the choices that you make.

And are they in alignment with supporting positive growth?

Being aware of how they impact you.

We are all energy and can be impacted by the energy around us.

Allow yourself to best support yourself in how you live each day so that you can best support yourself in all life brings your way.

I hope that this information is something you found helpful in just understanding all the different ways that trauma can impact us and how we can go for long periods of time and feel quite grounded and then suddenly feel pretty scattered and that things have been in an upheaval.

So keeping in mind again as we've talked about before in other episodes that you know that idea of acceptance and surrender that sometimes life is difficult and rocky but we can work through that and we can heal through it and it allows us to break unwanted patterns.

It allows us to have more awareness so that we can have positive change and transition.

As always thank you everyone for joining me and I appreciate your patience.

I also you can check us out on serenitywellnesscenter.

Com and serenitywellnesstools.

Com.

We do have a workshop coming up in October with Megan Fritz that talks also about trauma and ways to release it through the body and then you can check out everything else we have going on there as well.

You can also look us up on Facebook and Instagram to check out inspirational stories and such.

Thank you everyone.

I hope you have a beautiful day.

It is gorgeous out today so I'm going to get outside and get some hiking in.

Have a good one.

Talk to you soon.

Reviews

My best meditation yet,keep up the good work👏, thanks for the tips on how to deal with trauma.

Thanks for some good for thought!

Wonderful! Very inspirational! Thank you!