6 Steps from Woe to Go
“Out of Suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars” Khalil Gibran
Thousands of years ago our bodies perceived stress as a threat to our physical survival.
Think of yourself facing a hungry bear. You are not going to want to hang around.
To protect ourselves, our subconscious response for protection kicks into play by increasing hormones such as Adrenaline and Cortisol. The perception of our situation activates our fight / flight response which increases blood flow to our limbs to either protect ourselves and fight or run.
In today’s world most of us are not encountering the bear as a threat but rather the threat looks like; a demanding job, bullying, relationship clashes etc. Your body reacts to stress in the same way as it would seeing that hungry bear.
Asides from stress, trauma can be a deeply worrying or disturbing experience. There are 5 major traumas that one may experience in one’s life which will magnify stress;
major illness, death of a loved one, divorce, moving or loss of a job.
If you experience one or several of these it may feel like life has pulled the rug out from under you.
So what can you do about it?
- Acknowledge openly and profoundly what you are experiencing. Look the stress in the eye, define it, write about it, speak about it but most of all acknowledge “I am feeling …”
- Sit with it, harder said than done, but try, it can be really uncomfortable. By nature, we want to stop pain. Pain is natures way of saying something isn’t right. It is also natures gift but here’s the trick you’ve got to sit with the pain. It is part of your story so you need to understand it’s inherent message.
- Feel where the trauma is sitting in your body. For physical or emotional trauma, it may be in an area not related to where you instinctively think it should be. For example, when you sit with your sadness you may feel its effects in your stomach or your neck pain may stem from your solar plexus.
- Read up on the metaphysical meaning of your pain. The solar plexus could relate to loss of personal power. Look at where and how this relates to what is going on in your life. Make meaning of this. The meaning you make is the gateway to release.
- Be Kind to yourself. Put yourself first even if it’s in the subtlest of ways, like not answering a call you may have felt obliged to take or taking time for a walk each day. It doesn’t matter what you do as long as you consciously do something you will know that you are prioritising you!
- Trauma is isolating so allow yourself to be vulnerable. Move like the willow tree that sways in the storm rather that the oak tree that stands steadfast and then is uprooted. Dance with life, today’s dance maybe be an avant-garde solo but next month maybe a sexy tango.
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