Amidst the wide scale destabilization that has occurred in our world over the past few years, hearing the word “trauma” has become almost second nature.
All of us could list off things that happened that we weren’t expecting or weren’t thrilled with. Things that were considered “crises” and relationships that were affected.
However, what about the hidden traumas that still impact us today?
Here’s an example:
Our society is incredibly individualistic. Now, this isn’t always a negative quality, but it can be detrimental when surviving a large scale crisis.
If we focus on the current war with Ukraine and Russia, even with the beginning of covid a couple years ago, the common advice that was given was to stock up on canned goods, extra cash, and even toilet paper. (Oh those days)
However, for those who are currently struggling to pay the normal bills, especially now with the ramifications of covid still affecting people, this advice is panic inducing.
For those working most of the day and taking care of children at night, trying to find the “extra” time to go to the store can add stress in an already maxed out life.
Since society is very individualistic, we really don’t have a safety net for those who are struggling. The “safety net” that is given is often broken, inadequate, or slow to manifest.
With how sensitive our threat response systems are, the lack of consistency and predictable situations would evoke a tendency to live in survival mode – aka we are ready to fight, run, or freeze.
Trying to function day to day in survival mode is not only exhausting, but it’s not sustainable. Yet so many people are currently doing just that and they are struggling. They feel alone and unseen.
Overtime, it’s like many small rivers are converging into a large river that is now flooding the neighboring towns. In other words, the visible and hidden traumas have piled up to the point we are no longer able to function or make decisions that we are proud of.
So how do we apply this now?
Identify your rivers: both personal traumas and collective society ones that have impacted you.Analyze the support system in your life: are they consistent, safe people? Are they willing to show up when they say they will and when a disagreement occurs, are they willing to talk it out?
Identify the next right step for you when it comes to releasing the build up of this river: this will probably be something small. Could it be that the next right step is to give yourself time to rest tonight?
If you’ve noticed that there are multiple rivers converging that you are not sure how to handle, I encourage you to reach out. Sometimes life presents us with multiple rivers. The most important factor is whether we engage it from a position of powerlessness or from hope and assertiveness.