Trauma is the physiological and psychological response to deeply disturbing or distressing events that overwhelm our ability to cope, leading to profound feelings of helplessness and hopelessness protecting ourselves (or others we care about like parents or siblings) when faced with real (or perceived) threats.
When left untreated, patterns of disturbance which are experienced for more than 1 month after a traumatic event has occurred, and cause significant disruption in social and occupational areas of one’s life often become what is known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
To say the least, 2020 was a strange and chaotic year for us all. With the COVID-19 pandemic at the forefront of great challenges and change in our social, political, and economic systems, many of us were forced into an unfamiliar and unpredictable world wrought with fear of what’s to come, grief at what was lost, and uncertainty about how to navigate it all.
There are three existential questions all of us have asked or will ask at some point in our lives:
1) Who am I?
2) Where did I come from?
3) What is the meaning and purpose of my life?
These questions are extraordinarily complex and intricate, as they are unique to the individual person and are exceedingly difficult to answer by one’s self. The reason these questions are more challenging to answer is because we cannot answer them by mere thought alone.
Relationships are fundamental to the human experience. They are intrinsic to how we define ourselves and relate to the world. They help form our values, morals, and beliefs. They protect us from danger and provide for us in times of need. They form the basis for our culture, shaping how we communicate and relate to others.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, economic insecurity, and social unrest many of us are feeling on-edge and apprehensive about the uncertainty of it all. It is clear that many people are struggling with a whole array of issues that are driving them to seek help now.
To say the least, 2020 was a strange and chaotic year for us all. With the COVID-19 pandemic at the forefront of great challenges and change in our social, political, and economic systems, many of us were forced into an unfamiliar and unpredictable world wrought with fear of what’s to come, grief at what was lost, and uncertainty about how to navigate it all.
I am still astounded by what I don’t know, and I am continually amazed by how much I can still learn about this strange and mysterious thing called the “Human Experience”.
For the longest time, I felt as if I was sleep walking through life. My body was moving, but there’s no one driving the car, and I had no particular place to go.
Many of us feel more than stressed out due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the associated job losses, social unrest, mask mandates, and lockdowns that have occurred over the last several months. We are filled with doubt things will return back to normal. We feel uncertain about our future and our children’s future. We feel angry and frustrated that our goals, dreams, and world have been turned upside down by a force we have no control over. We are scared about how much worse things can get and what “getting through this” will look like for us.
“You never know what’s around the corner. It could be everything. Or it could be nothing. You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back and you’ve climbed a mountain” – Tom Hiddleston
Her muscles scream in pain, telling her they desperately want to end this race right here right now. She feels a wave of anxiety creeping into her mind, wondering whether or not she’ll make it to the finish line.
“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche
What is the attitude you take towards challenges and conflict in your life? What are those loud, annoying voices in our heads saying to us about how should we live our lives? Raise our children? How we should view ourselves and place in this world?
“Life is available only in the present moment. If you abandon the present moment you cannot live in the moments of your daily life deeply”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
All you really own is this very moment. Your past is just a historical record, and your future hasn’t come into existence. Everything in your life is created by what you do (or don’t do) here and now.
“Any action is often better than no action, especially if you have been stuck in an unhappy situation for a long time. If it is a mistake, at least you learn something, in which case it's no longer a mistake. If you remain stuck, you learn nothing”. - Eckhart Tolle
Have you ever felt so stuck in life that there seemed to be no way out? Finding yourself repeating similar cycles in your life, career, or relationships which continue to leave you feeling stagnant and unfulfilled?
There have been several times in my life where I too have been stuck in these seemingly endless cycles; always feeling hopeless, anxious, depressed, and confused about how to get unstuck. Like a truck spinning its’ tires in the mud, I was going absolutely nowhere fast. Too often in these situations we beat ourselves up, thinking with enough self-criticism and anger that somehow we will get out.
Yet, not only do we continue to dig our own proverbial graves, but too often our situations drastically worsen, sending us into a self-defeating tailspin.
