AYURVEDA PERSPECTIVE ON PAST EMOTIONAL TRAUMA

On a spiritual level, healing of trauma is achieved when a person is willing to look at it, learn from it, and go through all the steps of grieving it. The result of trauma healing is adaptive behaviors, hopefulness, and self-control when triggered.

Looking at trauma sometimes requires regression - going back into the memory and reliving it from a safe vantage point. From this vantage point you can re-assess the trauma, and your response.

As an example, I find it helpful to bring the light and love of Jesus when regressing to traumatic memories. I imagine that Jesus is holding my hand through it, loving me.

Since unresolved trauma creates resistance, trauma is characterized by tension & constraint. Stretching, breathing exercises, and antispasmodics can loosen of tension and help a person look at and process the trauma.

Tension often resides in the eyes, mouth, jaw, throat, neck, shoulders, chest, solar plexus, belly button, pelvic floor, and thighs. Look for tension in these areas and release it through slow contraction and release of these muscles.

Other somatic techniques for trauma include EMDR.

Indignation, bitterness, and pessimism accompanying the overwhelm of trauma, and are a sign of incomplete healing. On the one hand, these emotions are prideful. On the other hand, they reflect a hopeless about the future.

Indignation is the inability to accept what has happened to you. Indignation leads to bitterness and the source is pride. Pride is healed with acceptance and humility. Although one may advocate for oneself vigorously, acceptance of God's will lead to the suppleness, relaxation, and confidence that comes with true humility.

Recognizing God's presence and love even in the worst of circumstances can bring healing. Acceptance of His will is possible when one recognizes that His plan is for the good of all, and that He allows evil because He wishes to bring an even greater good from it.

One can transcend bitterness, skepticism, and pessimism with a solid foundation for hope. Hope, ultimately, is the faith that God will bless you. Hopefulness is possible if one believes that God is loving, and intervenes in creation in a very personal way.

Christianity has a particular well-developed foundation of hope. Jesus' powerful message of hope (transcending all trauma, even a shameful death on a cross) is why Christianity is known as the religion of hope.

Although a traumatic event remains an evil, the growth you achieve can be a blessing and gift if you take the steps to heal it. Trauma offers you the opportunity to understand and respond more deeply to all human suffering. As one heals trauma, it becomes redemptive.

Among the various steps of moving beyond trauma, the willingness to become vulnerable again may be the most difficult step. Frequent re-assessment of your limits, abilities and willingness to be vulnerable can help keep you on the healing path.