Mike Kabeya responds to my entrepreneurial upbringing. He recorded me in the studio and became teary-eyed as I expressed a farm accident that threatened my brother’s life. Mike has been trained as a spiritual director and approaches our conversation with empathy and insight. I feel heard, seen, and understood.

I first spoke of this farm accident on air on December 11, 2017 (Episode 103). This was a podcast conversation where Mike and I discussed a traumatic event with a clinical hypnotherapist and alchemist, Debbie Unterman. Our conversation was about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. “PTSD is an anxiety disorder that a person may develop after experiencing or witnessing an extreme, overwhelming traumatic event during which they felt intense fear, helplessness, or horror.” PTSD was triggered when I would go out for a run many years after the accident. Debbie suggested the reoccurring memory of Mark jumping from his tractor and the steering wheel landing on his arm, pinning him to the ground, was triggered because I ran to get help, and Mark was screaming out to me, “Don’t leave me.”

I ask Guest Mentors to describe how trauma was handled in their family of origin to normalize conversations about trauma. If we are more than the bad things that have happened to us, and we are more than the bad things we have done, then who are we? It is our responsibility to find out.  

What gems did I learn that soothed and replaced the harmful psychological experience on that summer day in 1975? I now have a new insight. Mike gave me another way to look at my brother’s accident. Mike viewed the tractor flipping accident from my brother Mark’s perspective. Viewing the accident from Mark’s perspective unlocked my fear-based mind so I could remember a few more details. I can now view myself as a heroine saving my 16-year-old brother’s life when I was 14. It is never too late to claim your hero or heroine status.

Thanks to the growing field of neuropsychology. An explosion of studies on mental health is propagating our world. We now know our brain changes after trauma and what treatments help reconnect our brain to our bodies from this newer field. One way to connect the fear-driven mind with the brain and body is through yoga. Yoga helps us reconnect by gently allowing memories to release themselves as we move our bodies. Yoga revitalizes my spirit and helps me trust my body and feel the depth of my emotions. Each time I get on the mat, I know I am safe to explore whatever comes up as I gently move and stretch in ways that support a flexible mind and ignite my imagination, which gets shut down after a big trauma. Other modalities like dance and creative expression through art are being studied as treatment options to heal trauma. DOWNLOAD  

Talking with those knowledgeable about trauma gives us the language to understand our experience. The next step is to use various modalities to reconnect your mind, brain, and body. If your body is craving to heal through movement, sign-up to do fall yoga with me HERE. 

After listening, complete below, the Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring (C.A.L.M.) Activities.