But trauma isn’t just about events of big proportions.
Anything that happens too fast, sudden, and/or too much for our bodies to cope with — anything that causes our stress response to go into overdrive — can become a potential form of trauma.
In other words, trauma is a disruption and disconnection to our sense of safety and trust when certain events, people and places in our life overwhelm us.
Individuals who live with the gnawing pain of trauma, especially traumas born out of ruptures and betrayals in relationships over their lifetime, often struggle with self-regulation in their life. Daily living dishes out immense challenges when we are hit with an array of intense emotions, numbing, or swarming thoughts.
Healing happens in relationships.
Here’s something many may not realise: the way we were held and soothed by our caregivers (parents, nanny, teachers, etc) as a child has a deep and formative role in shaping how we hold and soothe ourselves as adults.
More on trauma and the mind-body connection
Wintering may seem and feel like a foreign concept to us, something that only travel can offer, but wintering has always been an opportunity Nature offers to rest, reset, and repair after seasons of energetic working, creating, blooming, and harvesting are over.
Part 1 of this issue was a call to welcome spring; an invitation to notice sprouts in different parts of your life. What sprouts have you noticed in your life since? I'd like to share a few more of my observations with you in part 2 of this issue.
We've entered into another season of spring. It may be hard to notice seasonal changes in sunny Singapore, but springtime offers all of us an opportunity to take a momentary pause. In that pause, observe the seedlings that are sprouting out of different parts in our lives — our daily routines, relationships, health and mental health, work, etc.