If you’re a human and if you have recently been affected from close by or from afar by natural disasters, as recently people in Canterbury and Japan have been, there is a high chance that you’ve been ‘stressed’ by these events. Most likely since you’re reading this, you are an adult and have unfortunately unlearned how to deal with such levels of stress appropriately. By now this may be making you display some form

of trauma, or since this has been going on for a while, post traumatic stress disorder.

As adult we learn that it is not ‘cool’ to curl up in a fetal position, and even less mature to stand or lie down shivering, trembling and crying. All of these behaviours are the correct resolve to handle and release severe trauma. Trauma is not a cognitive logical process which we plan through in our newer, intelligent part of the brain. It stems from deep within our old brain, the one that regulates all those functions that are out of reach of our conscious mind. Trying to resolve it at a level where it has not been created in the first place seems to be as meaningless as looking for your winter coat in your neighbour’s wardrobe.

Small children and mammals still know how to do this – most domesticated animals, however, also will have lost the ability to release the freeze response. ‘Shaking like a leaf’ will be what you’d wish to do – to avoid a later ‘being beside myself or not having been myself lately’.

The resolve will not happen by thinking about it – for one more time, our mind which has become so used to control everything – will not be able to get us out of this.

Let’s honour our body/mind system, because it actually does what it is meant to do: it keeps us alive, no matter which way it does so. To keep us alive is its job.

Whether it decides on a fight or a flight response, bringing us on a hormonal high and shutting down functions like digestion, or instead directing all energy into muscles needed to clench, punch, and run, or whether we go directly into freeze mode, rendering our body immobile, trance-like where we’d feel no pain; either way the decision is out of our conscious reach. The trapped energy of either response, unless shaken out of our system through neurogenic tremors, or resolved through eg NLP trauma process, remains in our body and the result is then obvious. On a physical level it creates dis-ease (as we now know in Meta Medicine)  and where the illness shows up depends on how we perceive the shock (life threatening, attacking our core, threatening our role in society etc). This may manifest in our body, or on an intellectual level may interfere with our memory function, or in our emotions - resulting in changed behavior. On a spiritual level it may create havoc in our relationships through distrust, lack of compassion, anger etc. When you come across depression, anxiety, panic attacks and insomnia, allow the probability of trauma as the cause.

If by now it is dawning on you that everything that you as therapist/coach come across seems to have an element of traumatic cause in it, then I’ve done my job today. Anything but a happy, healthy, trusting, compassionate and loving human being will have experienced an impactful conflict at some time in their lives. The good news is of course,  that there are beautiful methodologies to resolve trauma and release trapped energies.

The works of Dr Robert Scaer, Suzanne Segerstroem, Dr Peter Levine and David Berceli PhD have been strong influences on my approach on how to work with earthquake affected people in Canterbury. I am grateful for an integrative expertise in NLP and a multi-level coaching approach, which alongside TFT, EFT, BodyTalk, art and metaphor stories have allowed me to create a window of hope for so many since September 2010.
As a Meta Medicine Integrative Health Coach I have been amazed to see confirmed what biological meaning affected people have given this hugely impactful natural disaster.

What you can do right now?

Become self-aware. Have you been ‘doing’ more since the earthquakes to avoid just ‘being’?  If you’re not sure whether your behaviour has changed, ask a trusted person. Practise mindfulness (Jon Kabat Zing is a personal favourite), compassion and altruistic self-less giving. Read/watch positive, empowering topics and avoid TV altogether! Bring yourself into the ‘now’ as often as you catch yourself in the future or dragging behind in the past ( read Eckhart Tolle’s ‘Power of Now’).\

Observe your breathing.Have you started to sigh more often, are you holding your breath at times? Whenever you become aware of your breath, take a conscious breath in, followed by a long relaxed outbreath - and repeat a couple of times. Say a few loud "I am's" and maybe another few "letting go"...

The good thing about the past is that it’s over!

The experience you have now may be your way out of an old pattern, so take the opportunity, find yourself a professional to work with, and release the old to make room for the new. It really is true that no matter what, you are always more than your story.

Just imagine what it would do to families, communities, companies, societies and nations  right now if we could all resolve the first trigger event!?

If there is one book recommendation I could give you today it would be “The Continuum Concept” by Jean Liedloff… it is never too late to re-create a happy childhood!

We are, as a team, offering one and two day workshops and will deliver our unique tools to as many people as possible.

Warm regards, love and light

Barbara

p.s. please follow my blog http://beyond2012-projectvision.blogspot.com  created for small and big children.

p.p.s. we'll be announcing our workshop schedules on here, facebook, our websites (www.more-events.co.nz) and in our email newsletters. contact me, Barbara, if you would like to receive updates from us.

About the author

Barbara practises as NLP Master Coach in Canterbury; she arrived here with her two sons in 2007, having spent 17 years in Asia. Her fascination for people began way back in childhood; during an au-pair year in France in 1976 she began to notice cultural sameness and cultural differences between people.