There is a beautiful book I’m reading about intergenerational trauma: My Grandmothers Hands by Resma Menakem. He’s talking about trauma that lives in both Black, White, and police bodies, and shows how to navigate through the intergenerational trauma that’s incurred over lifetimes, currently up for healing all around the world.
The book got me thinking how important it is not to get caught up in a repeating trauma loop – with covid deaths, social injustices, systemic racism, and extinction of species around us. There’s so much to grieve, SO much suffering that has been happening for far so long, that’s now insisting to be seen and healed.
The trauma narratives can easily be relived over and over on TV, in our bodies, and in cellular memory. Re-living does not heal it. To heal, the trauma has to be made conscious, and treated with both empathy and proactivity, allowing it to settle bit by bit – not unforgotten, but calmed and integrated by staying focused on the Presence in your own beautiful heart, and the astounding evolutionary imperative moving through us all.
I recommend keeping a distance from the villain narratives: the “them” and “other” story lines that whirl around us each day. It’s best to move beyond the victimization and divisive stories that reflect the trauma loop of pain. If a narrative doesn’t lead to higher vision or greater imperative, don’t waste your energy on it. Yet honor all beings who have, or are, suffering injustice, and honor the grieving in your individual and collective heart. Most of all, honor your own deep desire and longing for change.
We are part of a divine matrix. We are profoundly connected. In moments of silence and breath, the connection is there. In moments of deep sharing with others, it’s there. Sacredness is all around. How can we help the world? By holding the higher ground of this awareness. When we focus on greater purpose, we find alliances where we least expect it. It is a great consolation, joy, and affirmation of power to find our Unity.
This is not to trivialize trauma or suggest it’s easy to step out of. It’s not easy at all. It has been repeating itself generation after generation for far too long. Now we’re in a moment of great reckoning with trauma within ourselves, our ancestors, society, and our beloved planet.
What are our choices then?! We need to become the greatness we’re meant to be. There is really no other choice. Let’s learn to walk and talk the sacred thread of loving awareness that weaves itself through all of creation. There is something greater at work. Align yourself to it. It isn’t always easy, because we all have habits, diversions, and internal and external media narratives that get in the way. It takes faith, discipline and honest attention to your own body and heart.
At the end of the chaos and unrest of the day, move towards the greater truth of who you are, and why you’re here at this time. Rest in the authenticity and longing that sits in your heart, and what it can create for yourself and others. Stay aligned with the light and vision that moves in you. Allow it to inspire the way forward. Strong hearts with creative imagination can change the world.
At the right moment, like a pebble dropped into water, let the ripples of trauma become conscious and flow out. Release it and allow it to move out into a strong vision of yourself, in alignment with a more just and loving world.