Our Past Sculpts Our Present

We all have trauma in our past.

Some are monumental and seemingly insurmountable. Others may seem minor by comparison. But they are there. They exist.

And the world is waking up to our individual traumas as the year-long pandemic has thrown a spotlight on issues relating to trauma, mental health, and emotional healing.

I am not immune to this. Hopefully, neither are you. We are all due for an emotional reckoning.

“There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds.” ~Laurell K. Hamilton

Historical traumas – those based on geographic, cultural, social, gender, and/or familial influences – are well known and collect the most attention. We acknowledge them. We study them. We collectively try and learn from them.

But our personal traumas? Those near and dear and feared within our own life experience exist just below the surface whether we recognize them or not.

Are they known? Forgotten? Resolved? Suppressed?

Now, you may be thinking “Trauma? Me? Nah, I’m good”, and that might be true. I don’t know you and can’t speak to your past experience.

However, it’s very likely your motivations, aspirations, behavior, emotional capacity, embodiment, and ability to feel rather than rationalize are all predicated on and a response to your traumas. Whether you know it or not.

You may be ‘good;, whatever that means. But as Socrates said, the unexamined life is not worth living. Your ‘good’ may be a temporary refuge. Your entire ‘good’ life may be a defence mechanism against life itself.

You need to question and examine in order to heal.

We Are All Victims of Trauma

The world is waking to the realization that we are all beautiful expressions of human beings who have experienced different variations of trauma.

Even better, we are warming to the idea that there is strength and power in exploring them. Understanding them. Feeling them.

The more we appreciate our traumas, the more we can recognize the compromises and responses we’ve had to life as a result.

And that goes for you, me, everyone. Every. Living. Being.

Is it a requirement of living to examine and revisit that past suffering and damage? No. You don’t have to go there. You don’t have to look back. Not now, not ever.

But there is enormous opportunity in doing so, despite the difficulty and risk.

A Helping Hand

There is strength in appreciating our own limitations.

As you embark on this journey of discovery, you don’t need a coach or psychedelic to get there, but they can be valuable tools.

Choosing to start with credible support can reduce or eliminate taking any shortcuts on the path. It can facilitate the development of your own internal tools for self-understanding, identifying trauma, wants, needs, and self-awareness.

I am not a professional psychotherapist, but I am a human walking my own path. My own journey. I am here with my words and intention. I choose to share my voyage and invite reflections so that others may see themselves – or parts of themselves – in what I am doing.

To ignite that spark of possibility and curiosity in your own life and past trauma.

We are all at different stages on the path. Some are near the beginning, others have reached the midpoint, and some are almost at the finish line.

And there are those who have not yet taken that first step. That’s okay. We all get there when we get there.

Be kind and loving to yourself. Be supportive, considerate, and understanding of others.

“If you never heal from what hurt you, then you’ll bleed on people who did not cut you.” ~Karen Salmansohn

Your past may sculpt your present & your future, but it does not define it; you do.

Let’s all walk the path together.