Trauma: Spirituality, Understanding, Healing, Empowering

Trauma is very common, more than most people are willing to accept. Even simply not having proper bonds with the parents while in formative years will then develop into some form of trauma, limiting your ability to establish healthy friendships and relationships with others. Trauma can also carry over from past lives, people who lived in miserable conditions, subject to abuse, exposed to war or famine; these all need to be resolved so we can evolve into the best version of ourselves.

A lot of people will refuse to believe someone has experienced trauma trauma, sometimes they themselves are in a state of trauma and in denial, thereby extending their denial onto others as well. Yet even the brain functions differently when a person has been traumatized.

When you are in a state of trauma, you are limited, and even the brain is impacted. You are not able to live to your fullest potential, you cannot think or perceive clearly. And this can go on for many years or decades. There’s a quote by Bessel van der Kolk (The Body Keeps The Score) “Trauma is not the story of something that happened back then. It’s the current imprint of that pain, horror, and fear living inside people.”

Trauma is recognized as being contagious. You see this among groups of people, some people were abused which influences more people to begin to think abuse is everywhere. We have people completely lacking compassion, and we have people who are not setting boundaries and are overly-compassionate. Balance is needed, so when people are not balanced in themselves, it results in society having extremes of both sides. One extreme agitates the other, which then agitates the first, perpetuating a cycle of disharmony.

State of Trauma

When a person is in a state of trauma, their exteroception (stimuli from the outer world) is heightened, causing prolonged stress on the nervous system. Interoception is decreased, causing a lack of feeling one’s own body, decreased sensations of one’s own body, disassociation from one’s emotions and foggy thinking. This keeps a person in survival mode, being constantly vigilant for attack; this unfortunately prevents one from socializing in a normal and healthy way.

People who have experienced trauma are often in 1 or more of the following states:

Fight: anger, frustration, reactionary behavior

Flight: fear, panic, anxiety

Freeze: freezing, hiding, isolation, shutting down

Fawn: being overly nice, compliant, wanting to appease, befriending

These are normal nervous system responses and therefore nothing to be ashamed about. The amygdala of the brain overrides any rational thinking. Once you heal and raise your awareness then you can move past these responses.

As well, people who have experienced trauma often become disembodied and not in communication with their feelings, emotions, intuition, or even their thoughts. They can mistake intuition for PTSD/trauma responses.

Healing

If you are traumatized and not yet healed, you will almost certainly encounter people who will tell you that you are lying about your experiences, or tell you cruelly to get over it and be strong. You can tell yourself that those people are not able to understand, excuse yourself from their company, and ignore them.

With the knowledge we have thanks to our Gods and head God Zeus, we can heal from trauma and become self-empowered.

One of the ways to heal, is by connecting with others. People cannot heal from trauma alone in isolation. We are social creatures, there is no denying that, it’s just how we were created. I would like to invite you to participate here in our forums and VT chat, reach out to other members, or reach out to support groups in your town. Having a support network of friends or family in real life is important.

Participating in God rituals as a group is very helpful, you can say a greeting to the other members and feel a bit more connected to us. Feeling a sense of connection to others people is what initiates healing after trauma. People who have experienced trauma often don’t like a spotlight on them, so if you don’t yet feel comfortable to talk in the chatroom, you can simply use a reaction emoji with other members and begin to feel that spark of connection to us.

In real life in a social situation if you feel you are about to be triggered in any way, you can let the other person know that you are recovering from something personal and that you momentarily need a bit of space.

If you are currently living in an unsafe home, know that it is temporary (even if it’s been your entire life so far) and that you can find a safe place to live when you are able to.

As you begin to heal spiritually and mentally, the thought will most certainly come up that this isn’t fair for you to have experienced. It’s not fair that you have to spend this time healing yourself now. It’s not fair that you didn’t live your previous years as you normally would have, from being in a state of trauma. It’s not fair that you didn’t have a normal happy childhood. I know, I understand. It isn’t fair, trauma robbed you of living to your full potential, but you need to heal yourself now regardless.

Choices and Predictability

One major part of trauma, is the denial of choices. You did not choose to undergo the experience, you did not choose to be a victim, you did not choose to be unsafe or violated. Many people who have suffered trauma then feel they have no choices at all in their life, and therefore no control or power.

To help recover from this and feel more empowered in a very real way, is to make choices yourself, even for small things that may seem rather insignificant, and affirm to yourself that you are choosing to make the decision.

Every time you make a beneficial decision for yourself, you are reclaiming your power.

Something else that is shown to help, is to have a sense of predictability. Trauma is from chaos and being in a state of trauma can further cause chaos. Having something that gives you a feeling of trust in the predictability will help you feel grounded and settled, safe.

Some trauma counselors will wear the same clothing with each session so their patient knows exactly what to expect for every meeting, so they can rely in that, and feel a sense of predictability as they begin the healing process.

Chakras

Trauma affects all the chakras. Base chakra ruling safety in one’s environment. Sacral, sense of fun. Solar, sense of self-power and one’s identity. Heart, connections to others. Throat, ruling communications, either by lack of communication, or having to communicate about the harmful things you experienced, or bottling it up. Ajna, the mind and thoughts. Crown, connection to the divine. Fortunately, these can all be healed!

The chakras can be healed by cleaning them, then empowering them through meditation when you feel ready. After you work on a chakra, you can affirm something like “my [name of chakra] is healthy and balanced in every way”.

Yoga

A lot of trauma survivors are not able to talk about their trauma because their own mind has scattered their memories and thoughts in a self-protection defense. Yoga is showing to be more effective, to allow you to settle back into their body and process and release emotions somatically first.

Yoga helps heal. Trauma forces you to live in the past or fearing the future; yoga will help bring you into the present moment. We heal by being in the present moment.

I’m going to give you a few tips here:

Learn about some poses or find some videos, and ask yourself what ones you would like to practice that day. Tell yourself that you are choosing these to benefit you. You are making those decisions. Any asana you don’t feel comfortable with, you can skip it or modify it. Tell yourself it’s your body, your choice.

Savasana is said to feel unsafe, by many victims of trauma. If you don’t feel safe in that pose, then you can decide to not do it. Instead, you can lie in rest position: on your back, legs bent, feet as wide as your mat, knees together, with your hands on your belly or on the mat next to you, whichever you prefer. Another option is fetal position with a pillow under your head and a blanket covering you, for a few minutes on one side then on the other. Or you can choose to sit on your mat with your arms around your knees, legs bent. However feels safe and nurturing for you.

Kundalini yoga in general can increase anxiety and panic, but there are some kriyas that help, when you feel ready for them. Vinyasa yoga may also be uncomfortable. Restorative yoga can also feel uncomfortable with the prolonged rests if you do not feel safe resting. As you heal, you can try these other forms of yoga when you feel ready.

General Hatha yoga is helpful, as is Somatic yoga. Somatic yoga will allow you to regain a sense of connection to your body and your emotions. It frees up the trapped emotions, allowing them to be released.

Pranayama

It is best to avoid breath of fire or other stimulating pranayama, and avoid retaining the breath.

You can begin by sitting somewhere quietly, and simply observe your natural breath as it is in that moment. Notice it for a minute or so, then begin slightly extending your exhalation. If you inhale for a count of 1, see if you can exhale for a count of 2. If you inhale for a count of 2, see if you can exhale for a count of 3. You can then go back to your natural breathing at any time.

Having an exhale that is longer (even if just slightly) than your inhale will help calm your nervous system and promote relaxation.

Meditation

Meditation in general can feel difficult for survivors of trauma. Moving meditations often feel more accessible, as well as chakra meditation, or any meditation that involves mantra and mudra.

Here are meditations that will heal you in time:

Mindful walks in nature

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Purifying your chakras

Empowering all your chakras, especially your Base and Solar.

Sun square, or just its mantra 10 or 36 or 100 times, affirmation for personal power.

Emotional Body Healing

Kirtan Kriya (SaTaNaMa with the mudras)

Affirmations

Here are some affirmations you can state to yourself, either with the above magickal workings or on their own:

“In safe and beneficial ways for me, I am able to make healthy choices in my life. I have the power to make these decisions for myself.”

“My sense of safety and inner strength is growing stronger. I am growing stronger, in safe and beneficial ways for me.”

“I now feel safe and secure to find and accept comfort and happiness in life. All my needs are safely met, in healthy ways for me.”