How Do We Transform a Traumatized World?: An Inquiry Beyond Spiritual Idealism

Human beings have been doing heinous things to each other since time immemorial, all stemming from a deep rooted feeling of separation. This has led to a disempowered, disenfranchised, and polarized society. While I believe this to be a self-evident truth, I don’t want to minimize the fact that an immense amount of suffering has happened in this world and continues until this day. Acknowledging that we’re acting out of a story of separation is simply the first step in the direction of actionable solutions. I also don’t want to minimize the effort it takes to form a coherent society with its millions of different perspectives. There have been many people attempting to create a peaceful and harmonious environment for the last several hundred years.

However, it’s our trauma that is in the way of the peace we seek. We’re all carrying the trauma of our past experiences. Not only our own, but also that of our ancestry. That’s a heavy weight if we look into history at some of the experiences those that came before us had to go through. These can’t be transformed overnight, but just as our individual bodies can restore themselves to equilibrium over time with the right amount of attention, so can the societal body.

It does start with ourselves, though. If we act from the space of our trauma, we are contributing to the repetition of patterns. Of course, it’s not easy to break these patterns, but there’s simple adjustments we can make in our life that will bring vast change. So, what do we do? I’m posing this question to you because I believe we all need to think deeply on it. What will actually help? What will stick?

Although I don’t claim to have solutions and am certainly not an expert on the subject matter of trauma, I do have some focus points that I believe will help steer us in the right direction as a collective and things in which I work on myself in order to help this initiative. 

1. Embodiment. Our society has become floating heads, disconnected from our bodies that store the trauma. We must feel our bodies in order for the trauma to complete its cycle and move through us. If we’re unable to feel our environment our nervous system will be in a constant state of hypervigilance, where it turns into us against the world as we repeatedly act from our trauma.

We need systems of embodiment. We need to help people with this. Everyone needs it, not just the deeply traumatized. Not only to digest our past, but also to have tools to bring us back to center when the trauma is triggered. These systems of embodiment must be developed in our youth. From an early age they should be informed about trauma and therefore have a great awareness of it. This is essential. 

2. Communication. It’s time for our communication to evolve. We need to learn how to listen, truly listen. This is a skill that can be developed. When we are listening we can then learn how to respond in a way that takes care of the other person and also takes care of ourselves. We need to have spaces in which we feel safe enough to digest our trauma through communication.

This form of communication comes with an element that we must not hold onto our ideals so tightly. If we do, we will truly not be able to hear the other person. Moreover, we can learn to not take someone else’s reaction personally. We need to be trauma-informed in our language to have awareness when trauma is speaking. This will bring more compassion.

3. Empowered health and wellness. We have built a culture around seeking to repair ourselves from the outside. We have been taught that we need to look or be a certain way in order to fit in one of society's boxes. This has created a self-worth and judgement crisis.

Empowered states of health bring the individual into balance with what is natural for them. It also allows each person to learn to listen to the rhythm of their own life as they bring more attention to it. We need to be guided in our health and wellness, rather than being told or fixed. Therefore, we need guides that are aware of the healing power that lies in the heart of each individual. People that give tools and methods, rather than answers. This will bring more resilience.

These are all obvious and simple ideas, but when it comes to the complexity of the human race they become quite daunting. Many systems and mindsets would have to change completely in order for these to have their effect. So, these focus points are then mostly for the individual. We have to move the needle in some way. Step-by-step if we can take responsibility for ourselves we soon find it will transform the community we are in. That’s the beginning of a revolution.