Welcome to the Peak Revival Podcast.
Speaker:My name is Ner.
Speaker:Today I'm gonna talk about is past trauma holding you back.
Speaker:So I've heard trauma talked about Big T, little T, right?
Speaker:I feel like.
Speaker:It's a word that's used so much today and the word carries a lot of
Speaker:power, I feel like, because language and the power of words, uh, shape
Speaker:our reality and change our nervous system and, change our biochemistry.
Speaker:And the word trauma, I guess in history has been associated with things from
Speaker:like post-war trauma, physical trauma to the body, significant accidents and.
Speaker:Big events going on, and then obviously there's childhood trauma, and then
Speaker:there's other things that happen in our life that can be like little T trauma.
Speaker:And I wanna talk about this because I hear about it so much I hear
Speaker:women talking about how that is a real barrier for them, right?
Speaker:Because this happened, I'm always gonna be like X, Y, Z, right?
Speaker:And in my work I have.
Speaker:done this for a long time, that I've been witness to many stories of significant
Speaker:abuse and, trauma in childhood for many, you know, not many, but some clients and
Speaker:I wanna show you how they were able to come through it and live a very rich life
Speaker:regardless of their, trauma in the past.
Speaker:And so.
Speaker:I hear trauma being used like a label to keep you stuck.
Speaker:I think it's legitimate and people need help healing through trauma when
Speaker:it happens, but I don't believe that it's holding you back in your life.
Speaker:I've heard some really horror stories like horror, horror over the years
Speaker:and I, you know, listen to clients and my patients and I think, wow.
Speaker:And it's in those moments that I really go.
Speaker:Wow, we are really resilient.
Speaker:Like we are really much more powerful.
Speaker:' you know, when I see these clients, they're out living their life, creating
Speaker:families, creating business, like doing things in the world and living a rich and
Speaker:expressive life and not repeating patterns that maybe happened in their childhood.
Speaker:So they're living fully.
Speaker:Even though they've had significant trauma, and so I've been, I guess I've
Speaker:had a front row seat to see the power of a human being to overcome trauma and that
Speaker:there is something inside of us that helps us to heal from those
Speaker:experiences and still be untouched.
Speaker:or not damaged, I should say, to be able to live a full and rich life.
Speaker:So I've seen people struggle with trauma and I've seen people thrive with trauma.
Speaker:So let's talk about it.
Speaker:So first of all, when we are talking a lot about trauma and we're identifying with it
Speaker:a lot and we, you know, you're on social media and you are chatting about it, or
Speaker:you're chatting about it with friends, or you're getting some help about it,
Speaker:you know, 10 years on or whatever it is.
Speaker:When we talk about and, uh, bring up memories of our trauma,
Speaker:we are using the power of thought to feel that experience in this present day moment
Speaker:So our reality is created from the inside out, right through the power of thought.
Speaker:This energy of thought.
Speaker:We can think of something.
Speaker:And have a complete experience of it in our body, like it's actually happening.
Speaker:And so when we talk about it and we bring it up and we revisit it or we dwell on
Speaker:it, then we are going to be stimulating that stress response in the body.
Speaker:Like we are still in that moment of trauma back 10, 20, 30 years ago.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:You know, talking about things and, and bringing them up constantly is
Speaker:not helping you to move forward.
Speaker:That's one thing that I wanna say, because it's important to really see the
Speaker:inside out experience of our life that
Speaker:we can relive trauma
Speaker:by thinking about it
Speaker:and seeing it in our mind's eye
Speaker:and talking about it.
Speaker:Right, and I actually heard something the other day by Dr. Joe Dispenza.
Speaker:He was saying on an invi, which I thought was fascinating, and when I heard it, I
Speaker:thought, Hmm, that makes kind of sense.
Speaker:there was some research and they found that 50% of our memories
Speaker:are not accurate, right?
Speaker:So 50% is, we've embellished it.
Speaker:We've used our imagination to make it worse than what it seems, right?
Speaker:And I'm not, I'm not marginalized anyone's trauma here, by no means, please, I
Speaker:know this is a sensitive subject, but sometimes if we look back at times of.
Speaker:Hard times.
Speaker:Like I know in my hard times I look back and it feels, oh God, that was so hard.
Speaker:But I'm sure that I'm embellishing some moments.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:Like I got through that, I came through the other side completely fine.
Speaker:Like, but when I look back on it, I get that feeling of that was so hard.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:And, um, anyway, this study showed that we actually trigger a lot of our imagination.
Speaker:and our memories aren't a hundred percent accurate, okay?
Speaker:Because of the feelings that we can create in through the power of thought.
Speaker:The second thing to acknowledge is that
Speaker:trauma is real
Speaker:but it's not a life sentence.
Speaker:So really acknowledging trauma, getting the help that you need in those times
Speaker:is a hundred percent important, right?
Speaker:we need to, talk about it, express our emotions.
Speaker:We need to find a way to heal through that process.
Speaker:But afterwards, you know, it's not.
Speaker:Necessarily our destiny or a life sentence that we are going
Speaker:to suffer because of our trauma.
Speaker:And I see many people who have, as I said, significant trauma that go
Speaker:on to live happy lives and they have broken the patterns of their past.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:So people, you know, I've seen dealt with men who have had childhood
Speaker:trauma, from their parents and.
Speaker:Have made a different decision when they have their own families.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And quite easily.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And this, and I think this comes down to the power of a new state of mind.
Speaker:Our ability to have fresh thinking around something.
Speaker:So not about, willpower or forcing a behavior like we are
Speaker:never gonna be like our parents.
Speaker:And trying to make that like every day you have to remind yourself,
Speaker:I'm not gonna show up like that.
Speaker:But actually they've entered a new state of mind or they've had fresh
Speaker:thinking and because they have that awareness, it's easy for them to not
Speaker:repeat the patterns of their past.
Speaker:And I think that's really huge.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:So the amount of people that I've spoken to that have had that awareness,
Speaker:right, that they've seen that, you know, that's how my childhood was.
Speaker:I'm never going to repeat those patterns.
Speaker:And it wasn't something they struggled with because they had
Speaker:so much awareness around it.
Speaker:So I think.
Speaker:What's important to realize is that trauma is not a life sentence.
Speaker:It is something that's happened in the past, but it doesn't predict your destiny.
Speaker:Trauma and identity is the next point that I wanna talk about.
Speaker:Trauma is something that happened to you.
Speaker:It's not who you are.
Speaker:some of the stuff that I hear online is that people really identifying and
Speaker:trying so hard to work through, you know, trauma for many, many years.
Speaker:And I had a client who had significant trauma in childhood, significant, and had
Speaker:issues with intimacy later on in life.
Speaker:And the advice given to this person was, just, um, the times when you are
Speaker:going to be intimate with your partner then those are the times that, you know,
Speaker:just breathe deeply and in your mind.
Speaker:Just have this mantra, it's all okay.
Speaker:It's all okay.
Speaker:I can't remember what it was, but remember thinking, listening to this thinking,
Speaker:wow, you're so not in the present moment.
Speaker:Like, how could you be intimate?
Speaker:Like that you're in your head the whole time.
Speaker:And of course it felt awkward for her and it felt uncomfortable.
Speaker:And then she was like, oh, it's because of my trauma that I can't do this.
Speaker:And I was like, I just don't think that's maybe the right advice.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Like, and we really talked about it and she could see how that was
Speaker:potentially an issue being in your head.
Speaker:And then the next time I spoke to this person, she had a
Speaker:completely different experience.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And I think that sometimes information that we.
Speaker:Take in because we wanna feel better, right?
Speaker:We wanna move past a point in our life.
Speaker:We feel stuck.
Speaker:We dunno what the step is.
Speaker:Next step is, or whatev, we are feeling very uncomfortable emotions.
Speaker:Or maybe we see our patterns and we wonder why we can't break them.
Speaker:But maybe along the way we've been given advice that
Speaker:probably isn't the best advice,
Speaker:And maybe that's caused us to go
Speaker:so far deep into this trauma
Speaker:that we identify with it
Speaker:and it feels immovable.
Speaker:It feels permanent.
Speaker:But maybe it's just a shift in thinking that could be enough to pull you
Speaker:out of that kind of stuckness, to pull you out of that pattern, right?
Speaker:To help you to see the way forward.
Speaker:The thing to remember is that we are wired for change, right?
Speaker:So we can't stay the same.
Speaker:We would have to work very hard to try and stay the same.
Speaker:We are absolutely wired for change, right?
Speaker:Neuroplasticity.
Speaker:Our brain is constantly rewiring.
Speaker:Even after trauma.
Speaker:We have new experiences.
Speaker:We get.
Speaker:Insights along the way, insights that gives us fresh thinking, that gives
Speaker:us a new perspective So we can carry around a lot of old thinking about
Speaker:what is keeping us stuck in life.
Speaker:That's just old thinking.
Speaker:Like it's an old way of seeing something, you know, just like we attach to beliefs.
Speaker:It's just a very old way of seeing something, which we
Speaker:don't recognize because that thinking's always there, right?
Speaker:So sometimes we get this really layered thinking that we don't see things clearly.
Speaker:But we have the ability to have insights and new states of mind and fresh
Speaker:thought to see things in a different way, and therefore have a different
Speaker:experience and therefore, break patterns, break beliefs, break old habits.
Speaker:Break out of what's been keeping us stuck maybe for years through
Speaker:the power of fresh thinking or through the power of thought, right?
Speaker:So really our mind is always changing and we always have new
Speaker:possibility available to us.
Speaker:Regardless of what happened in the past, and I think a lot of, you know, Freudian
Speaker:psychology was the baseline for that.
Speaker:You know, your childhood determines your life.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And I just have not seen that to be true in the close relationships that I've had
Speaker:with patients and clients over the years.
Speaker:I've not found that to be true.
Speaker:Whatever's happened in the past, I think that it's always a hundred percent
Speaker:it's always important to deal with any trauma or any hurts or anything that's
Speaker:happened from the past, whether in that moment or anything that comes up
Speaker:next, deal with it in the moment, or, you know, get the proper care for it.
Speaker:But as you're moving out of that, really look at.
Speaker:You know the possibility of that's not going to keep you stuck, you
Speaker:are going to see things differently.
Speaker:You're gonna have a new state of mind, and you are gonna have a different future
Speaker:regardless of what happened in your past.
Speaker:It is possible to have trauma
Speaker:and live peacefully now you don't have to fix every thought
Speaker:or every memory that comes up.
Speaker:They will come up when you look at, you know, soldiers who come back
Speaker:from war with PTSD, the loud noises, and it triggers a memory, right?
Speaker:And then they understand that their mind is, flagging that
Speaker:noise just to keep them safe.
Speaker:Right, because it, it did that during times of war.
Speaker:And then when it hears it again, it's just a, a habit, a wiring that happened
Speaker:to keep them safe and then each time they acknowledge that they are safe,
Speaker:eventually that triggering doesn't happen.
Speaker:But we don't need to fix our memories.
Speaker:We don't need to fix every thought that we have.
Speaker:We need to understand that in new states of mind arise, we can get fresh thinking,
Speaker:we can get insights, and that will move us forward without years of processing.