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by Barbra Mousouris
Psalm 116:1, 10-17
1 I love the Lord, because he has heard the voice of my supplication,
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because he has inclined his ear to me whenever I called upon him.
10 How shall I repay the Lord
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for all the good things he has done for me?
11 I will lift up the cup of salvation
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and call upon the Name of the Lord.
12 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord
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in the presence of all his people.
13 Precious in the sight of the Lord
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is the death of his servants.
14 O Lord, I am your servant;
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I am your servant and the child of your handmaid;
you have freed me from my bonds.
15 I will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving
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and call upon the Name of the Lord.
16 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord
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in the presence of all his people,
17 In the courts of the Lord’S house,
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in the midst of you, O Jerusalem.
Hallelujah!
Do you feel exhausted lately? Or just off? Sometimes it is hard to fulfill those vows? We live in a very strange and scary time. I would like to take a minute to reflect on triggers and trauma.
In my work as a clinical hypnotherapist, I work with clients on deep seated, often buried traumatic memories and triggers, and how our mental health is interrelated within our bodies.
But first a story: A man lived in this big old drafty farm house. Because it had several fire places, it was required to have extremely top of the line smoke detectors. The problem was, they went off ALL THE TIME. Anytime of day, seemingly for no rhyme or reason. Maybe it was smoke, maybe it was a draft, maybe it was pizza in the oven…but it made it impossible to feel at peace in his own home, because just when he would start to relax those things would start blaring like an ambulance was coming through the kitchen.
There is nothing worse than having to be jumpy all the time because of a faulty alarm system. (Some of you know what I mean with your car or your home security system.) And friends, this is how trauma works in our bodies. It festers and it multiplies. Science is showing us that trauma lives inside your nervous system. It’s an involuntary reaction that you have when you are triggered–even by something seemingly innocent, ANYTHING that unconsciously reminds you of a situation in which you felt extremity threatened, at any time in your past. This experience is stored in your lower brain, and associated with danger, to act as an alarm system for the future to keep you safe. And then anything that even remotely gets associated with that threat sets off a traumatic fight or flight reaction in us.
And here is the thing: its is biological, not psychological. So you cannot think your way out of it. You might KNOW that you are no longer in danger, no longer that bullied child, no longer that solider in a war zone, no longer that person in an abusive relationship or an employee in a toxic work environment.
But on a cellular level, your body doesn’t know. It has simply stored data from your entire life. It’s a mechanism responding to stimulus, like that smoke detector or that overly sensitive car alarm. And right now we are all living in an emotionally insecure time, out of our control, with the news triggering again and again our powerless concerns.
SO: the secret, first of all, is to realize that YOU ARE NOT LOSING YOUR MIND. Everyone is triggered all the time right now. In fact, I honestly believe that almost everyone I know is very subtly being reminded of their all time worst moments in life right now without realizing it. Old vulnerabilities coming up all the time.
One help is we might want to start limiting the consumption of news and social media. Don’t get rid of it, especially now when it is giving connection to people who need it, and getting out important messages like Black Lives Matter. But DO limit your intake to what you can’t handle, balanced with quiet, as well as in prayer and devotional reading. Journaling or talking with a trusted friend can help ground us. We can LEARN TO CALM DOWN OUR BODY. When you feel triggered, remember this is involuntary and biological…your heart speeds up, your breathing shallows, your muscles tense, you are ready to spring. Slow down before you react. BREATHE deeply, remember where you are and that you are safe. Move your body, walk in nature, dance, run, sing, create, do some yoga, get that body moving to shake out the trauma. Have you ever seen a dog after a good scare? They shake their bodies to get the trauma out!
This uncertain time can also be a wake-up call of empathy, that some people really DO live in danger, all the time. And those people have to deal with the traumatic triggers of things like intergenerational racism and persecution, increased risk of public harassment, bullying or police brutality, while also dealing with triggers that go off at any time.
Most importantly, we have to give each other a lot more love and permission here to not be at our best. And give ourselves some loving down time. You are human, which makes you wounded and complicated. Like every other human, and Jesus before us, who loves us always. As he said in Psalm 116, Call upon His name. AMEN.
And so I wonder…is there a time when you realized you were reacting from past stress, and was there a way you were able to move from stress into peace? I welcome your thoughts.
