Trauma Keeps Peace Away

I know other people have written much more in-depth about this subject and one of them that comes to my mind is Peter Levine in his book, "Waking The Tiger".  One of the most horrible things that trauma does long term to a person is it keeps the peace away.

Yes, we can begin to find peace, but trauma keeps the body revved up.  It keeps the moments of when the trauma happened in the forefront of our brain as if they are still happening.  Because of the impact of these moments, it keeps our nervous system on edge and our brain from slowing down.

If you read the book, "Waking The Tiger", you'll see a very good and healthy explanation of what trauma does to the body and the mind.  It is the basis for much of what I have learned along with what has physically been demonstrated to me in my own body through healing with Dr. Paul Canali of Unified Therapy.

You can compare trauma to walking through the jungle.  There are predators out there and if you don't watch out, you'll become lunch for an animal in the jungle.  Let's use being hunted by a Tiger as Dr. Peter Levine discusses.

Your body is revved up...

In trauma, the Tiger pounces and attacks just like walking through the jungle.  Even if you somehow escape the Tiger or the trauma, your body is still revved up like the event is happening.  We've all had those moments that shocks or frightens us and it takes a while to come down.  Trauma does the same thing, but to a much greater degree.  Trauma keeps us in that revved up state.  The long term impacts of it can be felt and see in the mind and body for years after it stopped. 

Even long after the trauma has passed, it is as if we are still experiencing it.  This is why reaching out to support groups, therapists and other body-centered trauma healing is essential.  It isn't about being weak, but learning and discovering how to let go of the residual impacts from the trauma.  It is about finding ways to heal from our inner core.  It is about reclaiming all that we are and learning how to show trauma the door.

As if things never ended...

I went through intense torture and childhood sexual abuse.  It shaped me in so many ways.  While I've done extensive deep body healing from the trauma with Dr. Paul Canali, there are moments that the triggers act as if the Tiger is still chasing me.  Of course, I know that the events have stopped, but in my mind and neural pathways, they are still acting as if things never ended.  Trauma keeps us in that state.

The body needs to be a central part of continued healing because even though we try to disconnect, forget and numb, the cells, muscles, nervous system and the brain still remember.  They don't forget.  Unless these parts of our bodies are healed deeply, they will continue to rev up the nervous system from the trauma and keep peace away.

Deep peace is difficult after Trauma...

If your body is on full alert because it believes there is a Tiger waiting to pounce, most likely you are not going to be able to lay down and take a nice restful nap.  It is the same with trauma.  As long as the trauma remains within us, true and deep peace will be difficult to grasp.

One of the things that I so love about Unified Therapy with Dr. Paul Canali is that after you've gone through a moment of deep release, the peace that ensues is unlike anything we have ever felt.  It is such a deep peace that you beg him to just leave you in that place, not wanting to come out from it.  It is hard to describe it, but in the process of healing through this work, when you do feel what I'm talking about, it will blow your mind!

In healing, we have to learn how to understand that the Tiger is no longer chasing us.  Our minds will make us believe that it is while keeping it from our conscious thought.  Our minds try so hard to protect us that we often stay in numbing and disconnectedness.  It is in reconciling these things that we will find further healing into a life that is truly ours.  It is in these moments of healing that we will discover more of who we are and that is a beautiful thing.  It is a place of peace.

Trauma may try to keep the peace away, but the more we work to heal, the more we will discover it.  Healing is about taking our life back from those things that stole it.  It is about finding that awareness which leads us to a greater peace than we've ever known. 

#HealTrauma

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Trauma Proofing Your Kids

This is an excellent video of an interview with Peter Levine.  He is the author of the book, Waking The Tiger which is a very good resource for humans.  I have come to learn first hand the concepts in his book as being very real for my own life and my own healing.

This video on YouTube was an interview of Peter Levine on helping kids process trauma.  In all reality, it isn't just for kids, but that must have been the focus of this interview.  While it is a short interview, there are some very good truths in it that everyone needs to hear.

Some of the highlights from the video include:

Top Book Reviews Sep 2011

To learn more about what books I review, please go to the following post on Top Book Reviews (May 4, 2011). On the 5th of every month, my goal is to post a review of 1 or more books that have had a strong impact on my life.

Waking The Tiger by Peter Levine (Trauma Healing)

I would say that this book was very instrumental in my own healing and a beginning for me to really open up as to how trauma affects the body. This book really makes clear how trauma impacts us physically. Peter Levine relates how humans handle trauma to that of how animals deal with these same experiences. It will change your perspective on trauma and is a must read for anyone affected by trauma in their life.

We are all affected by trauma to some extent in our life.  It does not have to be just some horrific moment of child abuse we suffered through but can be an accumulation of stressful events in our life.  If we do not allow the stress to be discharged from our bodies, the stress will have a negative impact on our physical and mental body.  Over time, it will build up and cause problems for us that will be more difficult to resolve.

Heal Trauma Internally

One of my all time favorite books about healing trauma is "Waking The Tiger" by Peter Levine. If you want to really begin understanding just how trauma affects the body and how we need to go within to heal it, this is an excellent book. All too often, we try to treat the symptoms that are left behind after the trauma has taken place. In all reality, if we do not go within to the source of the where we were impacted by the trauma, the effects will linger for years to come.

On Page 188, Peter states in "Waking The Tiger" that,

"Arousal becomes chronic as a result of overwhelming sensations and emotions that have an internal source. This is the reason that trauma can and must be transformed by working with it internally. In re-enactment the world may be our stage. In remaining external, it also remains unchanged. Hence, re-enactment rarely accomplishes its intended task.

There is definitely a place for the external work and dealing with the emotions and sensations that arise from points of trauma in our life. However, if we stay in this mode, we will be losing out on very deep healing that goes to the core connection of where the trauma impacted us. Just being in an experience where we release emotions is not necessarily an indicator that deep healing is taking place. Please do not get me wrong as I am not saying deep release cannot come from moments of emotional cleansing. What I am saying is that there is much more than these moments.

When we continue to ignore that which is within us and is trying to get our attention (the internal), we get into chronic situations with pain, anxiety, depression and other health conditions. Our experiences in life are dulled and lack meaning to carry us through our day. Our life feels hopeless, out of control and as if nothing is going to ever change. Senses in our body such as touch, taste, smell, feeling and connecting with others will become something we long for and hope for but struggle to obtain. It is in these moments that we are living on the external side of life apart from truly knowing who we are.

I believe from what I have experienced in my own life and observed in many other people, that true healing is when we stop, go within and sense all that is in our body. In no way will I sit here and tell you that this is an easy, pleasant journey but I will tell you that the awakening within that can take place by going deep inside one's self would amaze and surprise the greatest magician, the most creative person, or the biggest skeptic.

Awakening from within is the way we truly claim and recover the energy and power that we were born with. While we often attempt to take short cuts into this process, we will soon realize that anything but going within is an illusion. It may be our journey to simply understand that this happens but the moment the light bulb kicks on, our bodies become potential energy with the possibility greater than most men know.


Further Reading
Waking The Tiger By Peter Levine


Blog Post & Images (c) 1/4/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only

Healthy Release

Here's a video of a dog shaking and releasing. Some mistake this for dreaming only or feel that the dog is in a terrible situation. However, this is a normal and healthy thing for animals. They know how to take care of themselves. Actually, it is a very healthy and normal things for humans as well but very few of us realize that.

The shaking and movement you see is the body releasing built up stress and tension. It is dissipation of energy. If a body (whether it is an animal or a human) is allowed to remain with the energy trapped inside, all types of health conditions can result in the future because of it. In addition, for humans, if we allow ourselves to connect our consciousness and our body together, this type of dissipation helps to further our intimate awareness of who we really are and what it truly means to be human.

For further reading on this, check out Peter Levine's book, "Waking The Tiger"

Pins And Needles

For a licensed print ready version, download on LuLu.com

You’ve probably had one of those moments where you were reading something or you heard something and it about dropped you dead in your tracks. One such event did that for me and before I could even begin to finish what I had started reading, my heart was pounding as if I were running for my life. In some ways I was running for my life, but the event had occurred many years earlier.

In 1991, when I was going through all the hospital tests trying to determine the cause of my paralysis, there was one test that just about did me in. I had not thought about it much until I read an account by an online blogger friend of mine. As I read her detailed account of a very similar test she went through, it was all I could do to keep reading what she wrote. I wanted to read it but the fears, the horrors and the emotions of a lifetime came rushing up. Even as I write this, I can feel my heart racing and so while I feel I need to record this, it is not easy.

The doctors had tried many tests on me trying to determine the cause of my paralysis. At first it had been proclaimed that I had Multiple Sclerosis. At age 26, that seemed like a death sentence for me. I wasn’t prepared to hear these words and I had no way to know how to react to them. As the days wore on though, that diagnosis began to prove itself wrong. My symptoms weren’t common and so specialist after specialist did every test under the sun.

The latest test they did was where I believe they were checking my muscle and nerve reflexes. I’m not 100% certain if that is exactly what it was they were doing, and someone with a medical background may be able to shed more light on this than I can. I remember being taken into this room from my hospital bed and placed upon an exam table. There were instruments and electrical-looking machines and a lady in a lab coat that I don’t even think introduced herself. Most of the time during the test, she was facing my legs and some electrical machine with her back to my face. It was almost as if she didn’t want to see me as a person but that’s just my perception.

Realize that during this time, my movements were almost nonexistent and speech was extremely slow and labored. To get a word out every few minutes that made coherent sense was quite an accomplishment for me during this time. So communication for me was almost impossible, and trying to communicate really zapped the energy from me. At that time, my energy was in a very limited supply and I did not want to waste it. So as I laid there on the exam table seeing these machines around me, with this person who I didn’t know sitting there as if I didn’t exist, I was frightened beyond belief. I had no idea what was going to be done to me, and I felt as if I had no say in it anyway.

She began her test and I felt these little pricks of what must have been a needle. You see, needles were not something good to me. You could show me a needle and I would pass out, and in fact had passed out many times for stuff like that and more. So I was doing all I could and using every ounce of energy I had to make it through this test, for this might have been the one that told the doctors what was wrong with me, I thought.

As I felt these little pricks on my legs, I would feel a little electric type jolt through them. It didn’t seem to be a large jolt of electricity, only a little buzz. The pain of the needle pricking my skin along with the uncomfortable feeling of the electricity I felt, made this very difficult to endure. Prick by prick, little buzz by little buzz, the lady in the white lab coat continued her testing procedure. It seemed like an eternity which would never end. With each prick of the needle, the pain would intensify.

I could feel the tears want to well up within my eyes, but of course my eyes had cried so much there were no tears. I could feel my voice wanting to scream out, “STOP”, but the words and the voice were lost in the void. I could feel my arms wanting to grab the lady in the white lab coat to make her stop, but my arms had no ability or energy to move. My mind knew there was nothing to do but take what was being done to me, while my body just wanted to run out of the room.

Even though I could barely speak, I do remember trying to say to the lady in the white lab coat, “please stop for a minute, please stop. Please stop.” She never heard the faint and few words of my dull voice. She only continued on, one needle prick at a time. There was no stopping her. My mind thought of a million things I would call this lady if only I could speak, and these things weren’t pretty.

The next thing I knew, I saw these doctors working around me on the table. I’m not sure where I was, but the room was full of people in white coats and much more equipment than when I initially came into the room. Seeing all of this, I didn’t really feel any pain in that moment, and actually it felt more freeing and nice than when I was on the table. The one thing I couldn’t understand, though, was why all of these people were so concerned about me and why I was watching all of this.

As my eyes began to open again, I saw the doctor with the little shock paddles and heard the words “clear” as he brought the paddles close to my bare chest and stomach. They had pulled my hospital gown down to expose my chest and abdomen. As I opened my eyes, I remember seeing such a bright light that it almost hurt my eyes to look at it. It was one of the clearest, brightest white lights I had ever seen. At first I chalked it up to the lights in the room, thinking that was obviously the source. It wasn’t until many years later, when I experienced this same bright white light in a healing session from a lady in South Florida, that I put together what the white light was all about.

As my eyes began to focus on the room, I could hear the people giving out the blood pressure readings and the pulse. Everyone seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as they began to leave the room. One nurse who stayed in there with me commented that they had thought they lost me. That’s about all that was ever said or all that I remember being said. Again, this didn’t quite connect with my brain for many years of what really transpired on this day.

While you may be reading and feeling sad for all of what I went through, this is ok. However, there is a much broader reason why I share this. You see, the body is like an electrical box full of circuits. If we overload the circuits with many devices or stresses in our lives, sooner or later the circuits will overload and trip the individual breakers. If you overload too many circuits at the same time, than the entire circuit box begins to trip and shut down.

This is exactly what was happening in my body. My body had endured a lifetime of stresses, events, pains and abuses. I had ignored these for years and thought I was being a strong man by just handling things. After all, everyone I knew understood just how together I had life. There was nothing that could stop me. I was invincible. I was all powerful, not the weak person that was lying in a hospital bed. There was also what I had been taught every day of my life, that you just handled your problems on your own. You didn’t go to others for help because that was not only a sign of weakness, but these people would then use your problems to their advantage in future dealings with you. You could not trust these people from that point forward. I so remember one whipping in the middle of the night to bring this point home in a very clear way.

As Peter Levine talks about in his book, “Waking The Tiger”, our bodies will react to all that we experience. We can try to run from it, hide it, analyze it or mold it into some sort of religion, but if we don’t deal with that which we have endured, it will deal with us. We may go years, like I did, before it begins to rear its ugly head but it has our days numbered.

Many of us go through life having all types of experiences throughout our years. Some of these are horrendous and are further cemented in the experience by strong emotional components, or by our young age of not knowing and understanding what is going on. We then find ways to compensate for these experiences, sometimes not even consciously knowing that we are doing this. We continue to live our lives adding more events, and more stress during each day.

Our body and our mind tries to get our attention with its many warning system lights such as headaches, pains, stiffness, sickness, disease, and other health conditions. We run to the doctors out of fear, wanting to be fixed and wanting some medication, surgery or therapy to fix us. So the doctor in their vast knowledge gives us something that will help. They often give us a name of the condition we are experiencing, and at last we know that we can wear our badge of what we have with pride. We know what it is and we can be cared for. It gives us a spring to our feet and a bounce to our step.

However, the condition does not necessarily disappear. It might be suppressed or it might give way to other conditions. Medications and surgeries with all their side effects may welcome other unwanted and undesired guests into our bodies and our minds. All the while, we’re still not cured. The condition is still there. It is just masked and covered up.

Please don’t get me wrong here, as I’m not saying all medication and all surgery and all medical intervention is a bad thing. We sometimes need this to stabilize our lives so that we can move to the point of healing. However, so many of us stay in this mode and never move on to the healing part. Masking the pain or the condition is never healing. It’s like using a band aid to cover a blood-gushing wound. While it may help temporarily, the wound needs further attention to heal.

While this may sound unreal and difficult to even contemplate, going into the pain and all the fears that may come up will ultimately release what is beneath that which you are sensing. By doing this, we are able to take the power that the fear possesses in the condition, or the pain, and use it to move us forward through this point in our lives. Otherwise, the fear and the pain of the condition remain as stored energy, locked within our cells, holding us back from realizing our true potential. The fears can be strong but the rewards of doing this are much greater.

We should not view pain as something that we must fix, but something that we need to accept. Through acceptance we take the power back from it, so that we more fully integrate ourselves into a complete person. The greatest gift we can give ourselves is to know our self in the fullest possible way. For the more we have fully integrated ourselves as one mind, body and spirit, the more we are human.