As many of my fellow humans here on planet Earth, I suffered major childhood traumas. So major that I completely blocked them from my memory until my later teen years, early twenties. But it was even later in life that I decided to finally face my demons and start the healing process. To do so I started with the usual path, therapy, support groups. I read every Self-help book I could get my hands on. While each of these tools helped me progress along my healing path, I realized that “analyzing and talking about the trauma and all the experiences connected to the trauma” could only progress me so far. I realized that healing my trauma “mentally” wasn’t enough. The key to healing trauma that completely changed my life is tuning inwards and feeling the feelings, both emotionally and physically within the physical body. We often spend our entire lives running from and avoiding our feelings. I am here to tell you, the most vital, the most crucial tool to change your life forever is this…FEEL THE FEELINGS.
I spent my whole life staying obsessively busy, over achieving, all so I wouldn’t have to stop and feel the feelings, all so I could keep the dark feelings associated with my childhood trauma buried deep, out of mind. I did all this to avoid my Dark Night of the Soul, where the trauma is brought out into the light. It wasn’t until I started meditating daily, and using other tools such as yoga that I was able to “sit still” long enough that my demons were able to come to the surface. It can be beyond scary to face our buried traumas, to stop and feel the emotions and physical symptoms of the trauma stored in our body. But feeling and releasing the feelings is the only way to true freedom!