by Cate McNider (originally published here)
A very important thing to know after you have experienced something traumatic, is that the subsequent events that bring it all up again, is the body’s way of telling you, there’s leftover information in your system that needs to be emptied. It’s the triggering events that are trying to help you heal, though it feels like it just hurts and depresses you even more.
Experiencing something that so overwhelms your nervous system as to divert the messaging into your body’s cells because the mind can’t process it at the moment, is indeed unfortunate enough, but then to have to endure reminders and events that reflect the trauma again and again, or just another face doing the same behavior towards you, seems to deepen the original event, but it doesn’t have to. You can come to understand what is happening and take control. Yes, it takes time, even years, and maybe decades, but it is not impossible. It doesn’t have to define your whole life or who you are — you can heal and let it go.
What is key is recognizing that the trigger is the healing messenger, albeit painful and very difficult. It’s how one responds to the stimulus that is within one’s control. One has to realize that the trigger is signaling the stored information that is trapped in the cells, causing energy blockages and affecting the breath pattern which later can be expressed in depression and anxiety and all manner of ‘syndrome’ labels applied today. Symptoms arise but the source is not yet understood. It takes investigation — somatically.
One can ‘shut down’, unconsciously, if the trauma occurs at a young age, because a child does not understand what is happening. Shut down’s can happen in an adult also, although it’s likely there was an earlier event in their life they haven’t uncovered or understood as bringing them to that moment. How a child takes a strong stimulus, and often claiming responsibility for something they are too young to take account for, is often the basis for later misunderstanding. Like parents divorcing, the child thinks it’s their fault, and takes on an incorrect burden. This can be the groundwork for later insecurities playing out, which also can be addressed and resolved somatically.
As if the trigger isn’t hard enough, then the ‘shut down’ becomes the problem. It creates agitation in the neuromuscular system and the mind can disassociate to protect itself. This is an automatic mechanism that allows the person, if a child, to grow and mature, until the time they can unpack it in the body mind system. It can take years or decades for the repressed memory to surface, but gone on for too long the body will likely ‘de-compensate’ and a dis-ease may call attention to the body’s needs. Once that unpacking time presents itself, it can be addressed, gently, steadily and with compassion. When one can no longer sustain the pain brought about by it, or an addiction to substances to avoid the feelings has then become the problem, then it’s time to seek somatic help. The body needs attention. The memory stored in the tissue needs releasing. The body is speaking — listen to it.
Recap:
1/ Trauma gets stored in the tissue. Blocked energy creates unnecessary tension.
2/ Triggers (outer or inner stimulus) signal that the trauma is stored in the tissue and the body wants it out.
3/ Event reoccurrence or similar events are another message the body wants it gone.
4/ How one thinks and feels about what happened further loads the energy blocks created by the initial trauma and compounds the need for the body to let it out.
4a/ The sheer weight of holding on to what happened and not understanding the truth of triggers, can be debilitating, and despairing, and it’s important to continue with somatic therapies.
5/ Not understanding the above four things can prevent true healing.
6/ Not addressing the trauma from the body’s perspective, and only working with cognitive therapy, the triggers will keep showing up trying to get your attention and their release.
6a/ Attaching to the trauma as a means of attention by any means, and self identity, ultimately stagnates healing and layers the need for somatic therapy.
7/ Insisting that cognitive therapy is enough is promising the person will continue to carry the trauma and its triggers, having suffered greatly.
8/ Corollary problems and diseases is another way the body tries to get one's attention.
9/ Healing from any kind of trauma is absolutely possible; it takes determination to heal, discipline and awareness for it to happen.
10/ At the very least, know that the time frame is up to you, when and how you are ready to free your body of the layers of pain. It’s your story and you can re-write it when you’re ready!
Cate McNider has been working with the bodymind and spirit for 29 years. Through every stage of her healing and working with others through different modalities, she now finds the Alexander Technique, most actively helps others address pain and stress. She is giving online classes during this time of 'social distancing'. President of The Listening Body® has spent three decades in the Healing Arts — spanning Massage Therapy, Reiki, Embodied Anatomy, Yoga, Body-Mind Centering®, Contact Improvisation, Deep Memory Process® and more — and has further sensitized her instrument through the process of Alexander Technique. Her AT training represents the culmination of a lifetime of work and study and a springboard for future creations. Cate is also a painter and published. www.catemcnider.com and www.bodymind.training.