Repressing trauma takes a tremendous toll on your energy. Yet unresolved trauma is intrinsic to the human experience. In this article, let’s explore unhealed trauma starting with its origins and ending with healing techniques.

ORIGINS:

Trauma occurs when your personal power is violated but you are too inexperienced and too unskilled to resolve the violation to your satisfaction. Any combination of physical, mental, and emotional violations can cause trauma. Your undeveloped reaction to a violation results in unprocessed trauma getting trapped in your energetic system.

TRIGGERS:

Unresolved trauma re-surfaces when triggered by an event, situation, or person that reminds you of the original violation. The human energy system is always striving to be in homeostasis. Thus when triggered, unprocessed trauma rears up reminding you that it still needs resolution. If you still don’t possess the skills to resolve this, you develop techniques to push it back down. Furthermore, unprocessed trauma attracts you to people who trigger your trauma over and over. Why? Because each trigger provides an opportunity for healing the trauma. Each trigger provides a potential gateway to homeostasis. But if not healed, each trigger unfortunately reinforces the buried trauma.

TRAUMA’s SYMPTOMS & SOOTHING TECHNIQUES:

Repressed trauma re-surfaces as a mood, uncomfortable emotions, physical weakness, pain, and/or illness. As a result of this discomfort, you develop soothing reactions. The following are some examples of soothing reactions.

• alcohol consumption
• eating
• sexual activity
• salacious thinking
• cutting
• excessive exercising
• controlling others
• unreasonably controlling your environment
• mentally escaping into fantasy
• online trolling
• using a fake persona
• engaging an alter ego
• bragging
• physically or mentally abusing others

TRAUMA’S THOUGHT PATTERNS:

When the trauma rears up, particular thought patterns result. Consider some of the following thoughts that may arise around triggered trauma.

• ”Why am I so pathetic and weak.”
• “I should confront that bastard.”
• “All men are selfish.”
• ”I hate women.”
• “I hate people.”
• ”Everyone takes advantage of me.”
• “I want a doughnut.”
• “I need a beer.”
• Love hurts.”
• “Everyone leaves me.”
• “I need to cut myself.”
• “I could punch someone right now.”
• “I can’t rely on anyone,”
• ”I wish I was dead.”

HEALING:

When the trauma re-surfaces — but before symptoms, soothing techniques, and associated thought patterns arise — you experience a very-real physical reaction in the body. The symptoms, soothing techniques, and thought patterns happen so fast and so seemingly automatically — but they aren’t automatic. The physical reaction came first but you missed it. Most of us are not accustomed to tuning into sensations in the body. But attention to these physical sensations is exactly what you need to short-circuit the fallout of unhealed trauma. Over time, this attention is what will heal you from your unprocessed trauma. Use the steps below to actualize this healing.

1. Recognize when the trauma has been triggered. Did your mood change? Did your energy level take a sudden hit. Have your trauma thought patterns started?
2. Take a moment to back up in time and ask yourself ”Where in my body did I feel the triggered trauma?” Did you feel a punch in the gut? Did you get a sinking feeling in the heart? Did you feel sick to your stomach? Did pressure start between your eyes? Put your focus on the part of your body. Keep your focus in that part of your body.
3. Greet the trauma response like a familiar visitor. For example, say to yourself, “Hello self-loathing, my old friend.” “Hello pity, my old friend.” “Hello cravings, my old friend.”
4. Thank your trauma responses. ”Thank you for visiting my old friend. I appreciate how you remind me of what I need to heal..”
5. Now, keep awareness in that part of your physical body that first reacted to the triggered trauma, If your focus drifts away, if meddling thoughts come to mind, say to yourself “Come on back” and bring your awareness back to that part of your body. Bringing awareness to the physical sensations overcomes unconscious and seemingly involuntary reactions to life’s wounds.
6. Allow any feelings that come up to exist. You must feel them — you must get through them and not divert your mind to soothing acts or meddling thoughts. Let the feelings flow through your body. Feel the feels. This is how you process the trauma and let it pass on out of you. Instead of avoiding your trauma, you are acknowledging and comforting it.

THE PAYOFF:

Once the old trauma is comforted, it moves on and out of your energetic system. All that energy formerly used to hold the trauma down is freed. That extra energy is now available to you for fulfilling your life’s divine purpose.