Yoga and Trauma
Trauma is not a psychological issue it is a physiological issue. We can't solve a problem with the same mind that created it. The mind cannot overcome the response and conditioning it created by itself. It’s impossible. It's an existential problem. So we have to experience ourselves beyond the mind that created the condition. Only then can we understand. We understand by experiencing ourselves beyond the mind. Then we transcend.
When we say trauma is a physiological issue we mean that our experience has accumulated and set up shop in our bodies. It’s lodged itself in the cells of our bodies and minds to protect us from ever experiencing the traumatic event again. We are hot-wired by our experience. Our experience has embedded itself in our cells. The ultimate result is a presence that is not presence at all but a reaction to past stimuli and experience.
In some circles they say our issues are in our tissues. This is true with trauma. Our issues have actually become a part of our physical person-hood. For people that have experienced trauma it becomes extreme. I used to work in addiction treatment centers and I could tell the trauma people just by the way they stood in the corner or walked across the floor. They held themselves in such a way that the trauma revealed itself in their physical presence. They were stuck in a bubble of response which prevented them from experiencing the beauty and wholeness of the moment.
So if our trauma and past experience has wired our minds and bodies to be in a certain state. How do we transcend that state?
Trauma therapists the world over are splitting us into many parts. They have folks negotiating and journal with the inner child, angry adolescents, the conscious adult and so on. This just further splits us into parts that keep us divided, distracted, and in our heads. The problem is that there is only one of us here in the present moment. We don't need to split ourselves further into psychosomatic parts. The psychosomatic parts are the wall itself that the trauma has created. We need to jump this wall so as to experience ourselves in the dimension beyond the parts. This is what’s required for recovery. The parts are just behavioral and emotional responses based on our experience. Which is our trauma. Our trauma's job is to split us into parts to protect us.
Our job as trauma survivors is to experience the wholeness of our being in the present moment. How do we jump our current wiring, accumulated muck and reaction to our past so we can experience the wholeness of ourselves in the present moment? For trauma folks this moment is not safe. But this is the job of the trauma survivor. Once we experience ourselves in a complete and utter state of wholeness in the present moment we can clearly see what is true and what is not. And the truth is what sets us free.
So how do we go about this process of experiencing our wholeness?
Yoga Means Union or to Yoke. . . or to Become One With Something. The word “yoga” essentially means, “that which brings you to reality or truth.” Literally, it means “union.” Union means it brings you to the ultimate reality. —Sadhguru
What we are doing in the yogic process is breaking open our protection mechanisms in a very subtle and beautiful way, so as to experience a dimension of ourselves we have forgotten. The dimension of ourselves is beyond our trauma response. That dimension is our wholeness...not our parts. In our program we incorporate practices that enable people to have the potential to open and balance the physiological system in a certain way -so as to experience themselves beyond their current makeup and system. This is beyond the division that the trauma experience itself has created.
Trauma is like the social media of the psychological world. It divides, separates and identifies us so as to protect us from future trauma. What we don’t want to do is reinforce or re- emphasize that division. We’ve already spent most of our lives living, processing and making decisions in the world through this division. So much so that we don't know who we are anymore. We are just a reaction based on what happened to us in the past. I can journal with my scared inner child all day...But am I my inner child or am I the person that stands before you right now? Am I responsible as the person who stands before you right now or am I responsible as the person I was when I was a child? That person that used to be doesn't even exist anymore. Why am I still carrying him around and letting him make my decisions for me? Why am I reinforcing him by having conversations and journaling with him? Why?... because I’ve forgotten my inherent wholeness.
The yogic process we teach has the ability to crack open the fallacy of our parts so we can experience ourselves in wholeness. The process involves simple breath work and movements that take about 20-25 minutes per day mixed with a self inquiry process that deals with the energy and emotional bodies These are easy and simple to master. Over time we start to see our parts fall away. A new dimension of ourselves is revealed beyond the trauma response. This is our inherent wholeness.
The tools we employ open the energy in the cells and start to release the accumulated trauma self- which is a false self. When we start to experience ourselves beyond the accumulated self we start to have what is defined as a spiritual experience. We start to realize ourselves beyond what has happened to us. A new self is revealed. This self has been there all along but we could not see it. It was blocked by our trauma response. This is what we are trying to recover. This is what is required to recover.
Jeff Finlins new Book-”The Secret of Recovery-and enlightened guide to transcending the pitfalls of trauma, addiction, co-depedence and life in general is now available on amazon”
click link here:
https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Recovery-ENLIGHTENED-TRANSCENDING-CODEPENDENCY/dp/B08DSVHQRF
