“Everybody talks about peace; nobody talks about justice.”
These are the famous words of Peter Tosh.
This phrase reminds me of how we say we want peace, stop the violence. In order to do that, we need healing and we need to understand how we, as individuals and as a collective, create violence.
At the root of violence is trauma and basic needs not being meet, which also constitutes as trauma.
Our basic needs are shelter, air, movement, sexual expression, water, touch, rest, play, peace, love, celebration, expression of rituals, as well as choosing and pursuing our dreams, goals, etc. If these basic needs are not met, our well-being is threatened and that constitutes as trauma.
Let’s take a look at trauma in order to better understand it. Trauma is a big word and there seems to be a lot of confusion about what constitutes as trauma. There are several different kinds of trauma:
• Extraordinary events such as earthquakes, genocide, war, religious persecution, oppression, and captivity;
• Ordinary events such as car crashes, accidents, surgical or medical procedures, life threatening illnesses, falls, sudden or unexpected losses, and the birth trauma in mainly western cultures;
• Shock Trauma such as an unexpected or frightening event that happens too fast for our nervous system to assimilate, resulting in a disorganization of the nervous system and triggering feelings of intense fear and loss of control;
• Developmental trauma is a consequence of an ongoing miss attunement within either the child-parent or child-caregiver relationship (e.g., childhood neglect and physical or emotional abuse);
• Developmental shock trauma are Experiences occurring during developmental stages that impair the completion of various brain developments
• Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the most frequently discussed and is a natural response to an overwhelmed nervous system. It is interesting to note that PTSD is usually labeled as a disorder, even though it is more accurately described as a natural response to an overwhelmed nervous system = stress response.
In short, we can say anything that overwhelms the nervous system or puts us into a state of helplessness is traumatic. For example, if someone experiences gender or racial discrimination and is unable to respond in a way that protects themself, then helplessness sets in. Helplessness is, of course, deadly to our well-being. Nature has provided almost all living creatures with a very similar nervous system response to threat and danger, and only one of Earth’s species develops long-term, traumatic after effects, the Human.
Why is That ?
What happens when a traumatic event or situation occurs? Our innate response to threat or danger is to fight, and if that is not an option we flee, and as a last resort we freeze.
Our body is an amazing chemical lab once danger or threat is imminent, Adrenalin is released in order to have enough energy to complete the action that needs to take place to get out of danger. Various systems in our body shut down (e.g., digestive system) and opiates (e.g., endorphins) are flushed through the system in order to feel no pain and to once again fulfill the task or action that needs to take place in order to get us out of danger.
When the fight or flight process is interrupted, we start to freeze and the survival energy circulates within our body to find resolution. The innate response that occurs after coming out of a freeze would be shaking, trembling, incoherence, etc..
In our current western societies, we mainly focused on the frontal, or rational, brain. So, when our system is trying to find resolution for the original event, our hindbrain kicks in. The hindbrain, or reptilian brain, is the part that we share with other creatures. The hindbrain is somatic-based and reacts seven times slower then the neocortex, or rational brain.
When we start shaking or trembling, people around us often say to us “calm down” or “it’s over” or “it’s safe” or “stop crying” or “shhhhhh” or “no need to shake anymore” or the administration of sedatives may come into play. What this does to our system is pulling us into our rational brain (neocortex) and prevent the release of any excess survival energy.
An ordinary Trauma The Animal
I said earlier that all living creatures have similar nervous system responses. For example, an impala is chased by a lion, causing the lion to stay stimulated as long as the impala fights or flees. This process is part of the innate survival instinct of wild cats, and the fighting or fleeing of the prey indicates to the lion that the prey represents healthy meat.
The impala may see no way out and collapses before being caught—thus exhibiting the freeze response. It appears as if the impala is ill or dead so that the lion will not pursue and kill the prey. The lion does not kill the impala because the predator’s own survival instinct is to back off and to avoid eating diseased meat.
When the danger or threat is over, we can observe the Impala coming back slowly by twitching. The impala’s legs appear to be moving (as if running), its breath is drawn more deeply, and its overall shaking and twitching continues until all the survival energy has been released and the impala can jump back up and run off without any trauma.
What happened inside of the impala, all the energies that got releases, the survival energies (e.g., adrenaline, endorphins) and the shut down of various systems (e.g., digestive system) are finding an innate resolution and complete the task of getting away form the lion hence we see the trembeling, twitching etc.
Since there is a release of survival energy no trauma occurs.
We Humans have the same innate response the Healing Vortex.
An Ordinary trauma the Human
As an example of an ordinary trauma, let’s take a look at a car accident. An impact occurs and the car comes to a halt, and we are alive. Our body may start shaking, trembling, or trying to move a certain way in order to relieve ourselves of any excess survival energy that arose during the collision. When somebody arrives at the crash scene, they may ask questions such as, “are you ok?” or “what’s your name?” or “how old are you?” or “what day is today?” These questions pull us out of our innate healing vortex where the excess survival energy could find resolution and, instead, pull us into the neocortex, or frontal brain, causing a split between the brain parts.
The triune brain consists of the rational brain (neocortex), the limbic brain (emotional), and the hindbrain (reptilian). These are the brain parts that become split if we do not achieve resolution and, as a consequence, this split results in a disruption of our Bodymindspirit connection. One could think of this disruption as our system being taken offline. We stop shaking and twitching in our desperate attempt to appear “normal,” thus interrupting our innate response to heal.
Of course we do this for ourselves as well cause we desperately want to appear “NORMAL”. Meaning normal to the standards of our social cage. At this moment in our societies there is no allowance for any discharge of trauma or for taking care of oneself. It is denied cause there is no acceptance of such and our lives are not geared towards self-preservation.
This Boundary rupture or overwhelmedness of our nervous system causes many symptoms related to the survival energy’s trying to find resolution.
Our system goes so far as to reenact situations to find resolution. This reenactment can look like numerous falls, reoccurring accidents, or reoccurring abusive relationships, and getting sick as a result of the survival energy continuing to run through us to find resolution.
Violence
Let’s look one more time at our internal chemical lab and remember that opiates such as endorphins get release. Endorphins are basically happy chemicals; hence, there is a reward system in place for trauma—it is endorphinergic. When triggers occur such as getting into a car after a car accident, or any kind of smell, light, time, anniversaries of events, the child (birth trauma), certain situations, touch, sound, etc. our system reacts. Now remember the split between the rational, limbic and somatic brain.
For example somebody gets triggered by the pitch or tone in somebody else’s voice, the system reacts and does so by defending itself against the original threat or danger. Which of course has no relation, other then the trigger for the reactionary, to present time. The rational brain helplessly watches over maybe an emotional or physical outburst as the system tries to find resolution to the original threat or danger.
Destruction and violence are infringements; the totality of a being is interrupted.
The attraction of destruction lies in the fight or flight principal, which is our innate response when we are under attack. Without discharge, we can get stuck in the pattern of being constantly defensive or in the opposite of being frozen in time.
Violence erupts when there is no resolution and remember there is a reward system in place (i.e., the release of endorphins). So, by releasing endorphins we get rid of the stress and anxiety caused by trauma meaning the overwhelmedness of our nervous system; however the survival energy stays with us until it can find resolution.
A soldier coming back from war playing video games pertaining to war or shooting etc. this constant reenactment, which is a disassociating from the present time, when life is not under threat helps momentarily to release stress yet the survival energy is a constant since it has not found resolution.
This process of endorphin release, this reflex of trying to find resolution determines a lot of social behavior.
All of this happens on many levels culturally, governmental and in media etc.
Macrocosm to Microcosm
Our Media is violent driven by watching continuously various traumas our nervous system gets overloaded bit by bit.
Looking at how our standard’s of ‘Normal” are, we can say we are a nation of disassociated people.
• Abandoned childhood attunement to birthing methods;
• Early childhood (prior to 6 months) abandonment via the daycare system;
• Families with two working parents;
• Television as the connective tissue holding families and friends together in a kind of commune;
• Government supported segregation that allows fear-based messages to be the overriding base.
Hence we are prone to a fear base control.
We have created this disassociation and we need a cultural shift a change in perception of what is safe and what is not.
If we are kept in a helpless state we will continue to be traumatized.
The institution’s of a culture define the controls that make us helpless and if we are helpless we will continue to be traumatized by minor or major negative life events.
The cultural shift in allowing our innate trauma resolution to take place freely and welcomingly, without judgment and having our internal clocks or self preservation honored, by being ASSOCIATED with self and therefore with others would be a truly free and welcoming society.
We have an amazing innate ability to heal and, as humans, we want to fulfill our happiness. So, by our associating and by our having healthy and self-preserving connections and boundaries, we heal ourselves, our families, our cities, and our nation.
Loving and positive conflict solutions, with the understanding that everybody’s needs can be met and that everybody deserves happiness and health, abundance and an amazing life to there own liking.
