The effects of environmental pollution, crowded, loud living conditions, work, family, isolation, financial issues, rapidly changing technology, are just a few of the challenges we face in our lives today. And these are very first world challenges. In other parts of the world people face chronic war, poverty, and many other unimaginable traumas. While stress is a part of life, and a certain amount
of stress is healthy, too much stress can be toxic. If stress and trauma build up and are not released from the body, they can cause physical, mental, and spiritual anguish. Our bodies hold and store all the experiences we’ve had in our lives. In order to heal and release those stresses and traumas, we must start with the body. Trusting in the body’s wisdom is essential to complete the trauma cycle that was started and has gotten stuck in our bodies. Trauma is a natural bodily response. It becomes problematic when it doesn’t get resolved. Trauma can be caused by a specific incident that’s perceived as life-threatening or could be the result of many similar incidents over time. Both types of trauma can seriously impair a person’s ability to function with resilience and ease. Trauma may result from a wide variety of stressors such as:
Accidents
Invasive medical procedures
Sexual or physical assault
Emotional abuse
Neglect
War
Natural disasters
Loss
Birth trauma
The corrosive stressors of ongoing fear and conflict. All mammals have the ability to automatically regulate their nervous systems. When threatened, large amounts of energy flood the body. The muscles contract to prepare for flight or fight. If there is an opportunity to fight or flee, these muscles discharge the energy and the muscles can relax. The nervous system can then return to its normal resting state. The problem comes when neither fleeing or fighting can happen and the mammal goes into freeze. In the freeze state the body continually gets the message to be on high alert. Chronic tension leads to most of the illnesses and disease we experience. Some of these are:
