Two scenes come to my
mind. The first one was when I was still a child and I broke my arm while
practicing judo; my master at the time did not handle the situation well and I
was not treated as I should have been. When I finally went to a doctor, many days
later, I was told that it was too late and that I would forever have trouble
doing certain movements.
Another scene was in
my late teens; I was just coming to Brahma Kumaris, this wonderful spiritual
path that I have been following for almost 40 years. A teacher was giving a
class and she was a psychologist, so she shared a concept unknown to me until
that point, related to the impact of situations with a high emotional impact. I
experienced such clarity that many of my problems up to that moment (and in the
future as well) started to make sense and it became easier for me to find
solutions.
I mention these two
scenes because they exemplify a lot of what a trauma is: the encounter of a
person with a high-impact situation. There are several examples:
- Physical, as in the case of my arm.
- When you lose the job on which you depend so much, a financial trauma.
- Relational, in the case of the death of someone or the dissolution of a family.
- Emotional, which can come from an experience of abandonment.
However, the question
here is how to overcome these high impact situations as they cannot be avoided (most of the time). But there is
nothing that really prevents us from handling
their effect.
From my previous
narrative, I would suggest two things:
- The first thing to consider is to get help from someone who can really cooperate in the work of relief and healing.
- Second, reflect and understand the effect of this on life, particularly habits that can emerge and affect life negatively.
By doing this, you can
initially alleviate the impact of the situation, process what happened and,
consequently, begin a healing path, transforming the trauma into a learning
experience.
