: Allison Smiley
: Overcoming Trauma 8 Steps to Healing the Past and Finding Peace Within
: BookBaby
: 9781098330002
: Overcoming Trauma
: 1
: CHF 10.50
:
: Geisteswissenschaften, Kunst, Musik
: English
: 278
: kein Kopierschutz
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
Is unresolved trauma perpetuating negative cycles in your life? Could your brain be sabotaging you without you really knowing it? When the body experiences trauma, it leaves an indelible - and often invisible - mark. Hidden deep within us, unresolved trauma usually plays out in destructive patterns that can leave a person feeling as though they are a failure at one (or many) areas of life. Using a powerful combination of cutting-edge psychological approaches and spiritual healing practices, Overcoming Trauma is a one-stop toolkit for anyone wishing to resolve past traumatic experiences and receive real and lasting transformation. Overcoming Trauma will teach you:•How trauma affects us on emotional, mental, and physical levels.•How to spot the negative cycles that trauma perpetuates when unhealed.•How to build the resilience you need to face life's challenges.•How to manage negative self-talk and critical inner dialogues that may be sabotaging you daily.•How to move into your heart, learn forgiveness and let go of the past so you can finally move on with your life.•How to implement a healthy, sustainable self-care routine that takes care of your essential needs.•And MUCH MORE! Get ready to step into a brand-new life, unburdened by the past.
Introduction
“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart.
Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” – Carl Jung
I first heard the word trauma in reference to myself was when I was attending a week-long intensive outpatient program in order to deal with yet another crisis of the mental breakdown variety. Over the years I had experienced many of these. These experiences were anywhere from what I call mini meltdowns where I was having panic attacks, anxiety, and chronic overwhelm to full-blown mental breakdowns that left me hospitalized with suicide attempts or voluntary hospitalizations knowing I was heading in that direction. Having your stomach pumped is an unpleasant experience and I’d learned over the years that although it felt like I was going to die, I didn’t really want to die – I just wanted the pain to stop.
The intensive outpatient program I attended was one of those times when I had been hit hard by a life experience and didn’t have any positive ways to cope with it. At the time, my fiancé had just called off our wedding after I told him about an abusive situation I had experienced when I was a young girl, and he felt that it was too much for our relationship to handle. He was angry that I hadn’t told him sooner, and I was devastated by my worst fears coming true: his rejection of me because of my past trauma. I had only just started getting intense flashbacks and didn’t know how to deal with what I was experiencing. I was also dealing with the humiliation and embarrassment from having to call off our wedding after finally getting engaged ten years into our relationship. My parents had rented a house in Mexico for the wedding ceremony, friends and relatives had bought plane tickets, and gifts had already started arriving at our home. My feelings vacillated from anger and rage at the betrayal to despair and depression as a result the selfloathing and shame I was experiencing. I spent several days curled up in a ball crying and wanting to die. So, the gifts went back to the store and I went to treatment.
I do want to mention here that he and I are very good friends and have an amicable co-parenting relationship with our daughter. Many years later I’m grateful for that moment in my life. If he hadn’t had the courage to make the difficult decision to call things off, I may have never hit that bottom and had the opportunity to take a deep dive into my trauma issues. Intuitively he knew that we had both been significantly affected by trauma, and that we hadn’t dealt with it yet. We didn’t have the tools to handle the outer manifestations of our own inner demons much less navigate the tumultuous waters of our relationship. We were both self-medicating, he had been unfaithful to me with several women over the years, and neither of us could stay present for each other long enough to communicate effectively and build trust in order to make things work. We loved each other dearly, and truly wanted to spend the rest of our lives together, but it wasn’t enough.
I learned about trauma for the first time during the intensive outpatient program I attended after the breakup. I felt both baffled and relieved at the same time to discover that trauma was the underlying issue. I was baffled because when I thought of trauma, I thoug