“Our biography is our biology.” (Carolyn Myss; “Why People Don’t Heal”) What does that mean? It means that the emotions that are unresolved in our life get buried deep within. These unresolved emotions work their way into our cells, our body, our brain, and our neural circuitry. If left unresolved, this may lead to disease, post traumatic stress disorder, depression, chronic pain, addictions and anxiety, to name just a few. Our body has been referred to as the unconscious part of our self and that every memory is stored within our tissues (Candace Pert, PhD;” Molecules of Emotion”). Another words, our issues are in our tissues.
When looked at from this perspective, it is pretty amazing to realize that everything we ever experienced, including all the wonderful events and the traumas, lock themselves into our bodies and minds and can either expand our world or contract it. This is dependent on the significance around the event or memory. I have done a lot of personal work around my own traumas and was reminded the other day how deep within our psyche a hidden memory can hide. A close relative told me some news about a condition they are dealing with and I flashed back to when I had heard similar news in the past which left a traumatic imprint in me that took years to resolve. This recent incident reminded me that while the trauma I experienced may have been largely resolved, there was still a part of it that needed to be recognized, resolved, and healed. When I slowed down enough to recognize this, then I was able to mover forward.
Many times when we initially experience a traumatic event, we store the incident in a place in our brain called the amygdala. This is the storehouse of memory, emotion and fear. It is part of the limbic system, which is referred to as the old brain or “lizard” brain. May folks have what is called a “hot” amygdala, which means that they are reactive and prone to being hypervigilant or on edge. A lot of folks are feeling overwhelmed and deeply concerned for their own survival, as far as their primary needs of food, clothing and shelter being met. Due to this increase in emotional pressure, people are feeling very anxious and fearful, and as a result are living in their “lizard” brain, which keeps them on high alert. This analogy doesn’t include all the past traumas that folks have buried deep within. As a result, some are having a very difficult time coping with life because of past-unresolved issues, which only magnify their current situation.
Part of my life work and now professional path, has been to explore how to release hidden emotions, rewire our brains, and resolve deep seeded trauma. I have found that there are so many techniques that enable an individual to do this. For instance there is NPL (Neural Linguist Programming), EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), and HeartMath, to name just a few. The power around these techniques is that the individual experiencing them, with a trained practitioner, can learn to heal themselves from the inside out by getting to the source or core of their trauma. When a truth is revealed, it sets us free. It’s especially empowering because the individual is ultimately the one who becomes aware of the source of the trauma, can see it and, as a result, heal it. It is when we bring the unconscious forward and bring it into our conscious awareness that we can resolve it. This approach is different than talking about the traumatic event because one is actually able to energetically release it from their body memory. As a result, our brain restructures its neural pathways and desensitizes the person so that they don’t relieve the traumatic memory when a similar situation of the original trauma occurs. The body is often relieved of the physical manifestations that the trauma created and is able to heal itself and return to balance.
I noticed that when I became aware of how I was responding to the news that I received, when I slowed myself down enough, I was able to move out of my “lizard” brain and into the part of my brain that is logical and “present time”. That was a huge awareness. Though I had an emotional reaction, I was able to bring myself back to being resourceful and not emotionally collapsing. This was a wonderful reminder of how our inner work is never really done. There will always be situations, events, difficulties and challenges that will trigger us. If noticed in a proactive state, and responding in a different way, we may very well experience a huge learning, healing and blessing.
We never know how this day will unfold. When done with conscious intention and awareness we can reap the many gifts that come forward everyday. These experiences may not always look like gifts but when we can remove our emotional charge from them, and see with open, unfiltered eyes, then we can notice that our hardest experiences to face are often our greatest releases and blessings.
As a closing reminder, of something fresh in my mind, I would like to pass this on to you. We never know when someone we love may be faced with a life altering condition that will change his or her life and ours forever. Within a moment they can be gone. When was the last time you told a loved one, how much they mean to you and how much you love them? Take that step today. You won’t regret it.
With a Grateful and Very Full Heart, Catherine
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What if you are more than your story of who you think you are? Have you ever wondered who you would be, if you put down your story? These words can sound like a puzzle, confusing and convoluted, yet this is the way many people live their lives; from a story of who they think they are. This story is our ego, often made up of faulty beliefs and misconceptions.
I have had the opportunity to be trained in a variety of different healing techniques that challenge, in a gentle way, the image of who we think we are. Many of these techniques go beyond the psychological or conscious realm and into the unconscious or mystical realm. Within the unconscious lie the answers to our programming or conditioning of how we view the world. From the time we were in the womb we were being “fed” messages of how safe the world was. If our mother was happy and balanced, we were being fed contentment. If our mother was feeling depressed or anxious, we were being fed fear. Before we even entered into this physical world, we were wired chemically and energetically toward a pre-disposition of how we would view our life. Once we were born, from the ages 1 – 7 years old we were learning and downloading life. Depending on the different messages that we directly or indirectly received from the people who had the most influence in our lives, we either learned that we were wonderful and brilliant or disgusting and stupid. If we were born with the propensity or condition for anxiety, the messages that we received from significant others greatly influenced how we showed up in our life. This is also known as resiliency; the ability to bounce back when life is less than kind. If a little one is born with the wiring of well-being and love, they will download life with more of an optimist outlook, thus being more resilient. From the ages of 7 – 12 years old, beliefs and attitudes lock in to one’s psyche and create our unconscious, which tends to lead us to live out our stories. The unconscious part of us motivates our behavior and actions in a manner that sometimes has us reacting to situations in the same way, over and over again rather then consciously responding in a different way.
All of this leads to my initial point, which is, we are more than our story. If we are raised in a family that has a lot of trauma, abuse, discord and chaos, we may build a story of who we think we are in relation to the environment that we grew up in. As a way of surviving, we take on behaviors, attitudes, beliefs and conditions in which we live our lives. These behaviors, attitudes, beliefs and conditions may be faulty or not true, yet as a coping mechanism or way to survive, we take them on as our truth or our story.
Once this story becomes ingrained or a part of us, seldom do we question it. Instead we reference it; “I am a victim” or “I am a failure”. We can go on our whole life not questioning our story or who we think we are. We begin to gather evidence that we are what we think we are in the form of relationships, the type of job that we have or the amount of money that we earn. Until we become conscious and question our story we will not be able to move forward. As one evolves in their life, they may come to a place where they start to challenge the “story” of who they think they are. When this happens, it’s as if a light bulb went off. Suddenly, there is the questioning of “who am I, if I move beyond my story?” Angeles Arrien noted that as we move forward in our spiritual growth we discover that the ego has a FACE. This face is Fear, Attachment, Control and Entitlement. As we begin looking at our story with loving kindness, we can begin to look at the areas of us that are in Fear of releasing our story, Attached to how our story has served us, Controlled with how our story has kept us, Entitled to the drama of our story and how it has served us. These are considerations or realities that can be difficult to come to terms with, yet when we do, the truth can set us free.
To really look at our life and our story can be a challenge and at time difficult. This article is an invitation to perhaps begin to look at who you think you are with loving kindness and compassion. When we can release ourselves from who we think we are, separating the facts from our “story”, then we can fully step into the wholeness and perfectness of who we are.
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When looked at from this perspective, it is pretty amazing to realize that everything we ever experienced, including all the wonderful events and the traumas, lock themselves into our bodies and minds and can either expand our world or contract it. This is dependent on the significance around the event or memory. I have done a lot of personal work around my own traumas and was reminded the other day how deep within our psyche a hidden memory can hide. A close relative told me some news about a condition they are dealing with and I flashed back to when I had heard similar news in the past which left a traumatic imprint in me that took years to resolve. This recent incident reminded me that while the trauma I experienced may have been largely resolved, there was still a part of it that needed to be recognized, resolved, and healed. When I slowed down enough to recognize this, then I was able to mover forward. 
Within the unconscious lie the answers to our programming or conditioning of how we view the world. From the time we were in the womb we were being “fed” messages of how safe the world was. If our mother was happy and balanced, we were being fed contentment. If our mother was feeling depressed or anxious, we were being fed fear. Before we even entered into this physical world, we were wired chemically and energetically toward a pre-disposition of how we would view our life. Once we were born, from the ages 1 – 7 years old we were learning and downloading life. Depending on the different messages that we directly or indirectly received from the people who had the most influence in our lives, we either learned that we were wonderful and brilliant or disgusting and stupid. If we were born with the propensity or condition for anxiety, the messages that we received from significant others greatly influenced how we showed up in our life. This is also known as resiliency; the ability to bounce back when life is less than kind. If a little one is born with the wiring of well-being and love, they will download life with more of an optimist outlook, thus being more resilient. From the ages of 7 – 12 years old, beliefs and attitudes lock in to one’s psyche and create our unconscious, which tends to lead us to live out our stories. The unconscious part of us motivates our behavior and actions in a manner that sometimes has us reacting to situations in the same way, over and over again rather then consciously responding in a different way.