How to Understand Trauma
Today we break down what trauma is, how to know if you are affected by trauma, how to forgive yourself and move past your trauma.
What is trauma?
The most basic definition of trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event. These events can be life-threatening or perceived as life-threatening, but they don't actually have to be life-threatening to leave the imprint of trauma. This depends on our mental state at the time of the event. It depends on our brain's development, our perception, our inherent resilience. Those types of things can dictate whether or not something can be a trauma to us.
It's not your conscious brain that interprets these events as trauma. It's your subconscious brain. We all are born with a part of our brain called the autonomic nervous system. Within that system, we have what's called a limbic system. That system is responsive to fight, flight or freeze. When the limbic brain gets activated, subconsciously, we go into one of those three defense modes, and we may not even be aware of what's happening internally.
Your trauma is not your fault.
How we cope with the world is an autonomic defense, which comes out of the brain without any conscious thought. When you have a brain that is constantly looking for danger or mistakes, then any of the things that occur that are gifts, blessings, or strengths about you get very little weight.
The brain will hyper-focus on the things that weren't perfect, weren't right, or weren't good enough, leading to an imbalance. As a result, we are very limited in our ability to acknowledge our strengths and don't see them many times because the inner critic gets involved.
Forgiving our thoughts and moving on.
When we have a negative thought or a thought that is not helpful, we immediately can say, I forgive this thought, I forgive myself, and I choose again. This way of thinking is so powerful because, in the moment, you are observing what's happening in your brain.
You are consciously giving yourself permission to make a different choice. By forgiving yourself, you can calm your brain down. By forgiving yourself, you can move on.
For additional tips on mental health, trauma, and so much more check out The Universe Is Your Therapist Podcast!
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