Trauma can be very destructive to one’s mental, physical, and spiritual health. It can take a lot from you and have you wondering if life is even worth living. But the beautiful thing is that you can reverse engineer it. If you are brave enough to do the work, trauma can be a doorway to a more beautiful life if we can identify it and learn from it.
The seed of trauma is usually planted early in our childhoods. The trauma gets stored in our nervous system and psyche and before we know it, we become what we once hated. On a subconscious level we live out the very trauma that was done to us. So, identifying what is occurring can be a little tricky because it’s all we’ve ever known. The earlier it can be identified the easier it is to overcome.
For me, I didn’t identify my trauma until my late 30’s. Even coming to the realization of what occurred in my childhood was a very scary process for me. Opening doors in my psyche to shed light on the darkness that was in there was not an easy process. Some call it shadow work, others call it the dark night of the soul. If anyone has ever done shadow work, you know that it is not an easy process.
As Carl Jung quoted, “The psychological rules say that when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside as fate. That is to say, when the individual remains undivided and does not become conscious of his inner opposite, the world must perforce act out the conflict and be torn into opposing halves. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.” Shadow work is not the easiest but the way to a better world for us inside and out. Basically, it gives an overlay of how trauma can be transmuted to evolve into something better but first it must be identified.
I am still in the process of my shadow work. Like I’ve stated above, it is not an easy task. Most people are unable to acknowledge the darkness that lies within. For looking at their own shadow would terrify most. So, it isn’t for the faint of heart.
Learning to integrate my own shadow and my own trauma has required a lot of patience from me as I am not the most patient person, but I know this process is needed for me to become a better me. If I can stay dedicated and patient in the process, I know beautiful things are to come. Diamonds always start out as lumps of coal. Sometimes intense pressure is needed to become.
Post traumatic growth may not be easy but I do believe we have the power to overcome anything that we can first identify as a problem. As Captain Kirk from Star Trek quoted, “I do not believe in a no-win situation”.
“A man who seeks only the light and hands all his responsibilities to others will never find enlightenment. A man who keeps his eyes fixed only on the sun will end up blind”
