What do you mean by trauma?

 

We tend to think of trauma as something bad that happens to us. This is often the case, but not necessarily so. Although it may seem counter-intuitive, a trauma may also involve something too good that happens to us. imagine this: you are going along living a normal life, and something extraordinarily wonderful happens to you. Then after a while, your life returns to its normal pattern. You then spend the rest of your life longing for for what was once so wonderful, overlooking or sabotaging what you have in the present. Think of the "one hit wonder" pop star, who has his 15 minutes of fame and then falls into obscurity.

Equally, the traumatic event may not have been "too bad", or "too good", it may just have been too much, sending you into overwhelm. Or it may have been too different. It is often said that the Carib Indians could not see Columbus' three ships as they approached the shore; the experience was too alien to them. It was their shaman who allegedly was able to see the ships approaching and alert the rest.

 

So what is a definition of trauma that encompasses all these possibilities? Simply put: a trauma is any experience which we are unable to fully integrate into our lives. This manifests on an energetic level rather like static in our field, rather like what happens to a television set when it loses the signal.