"A movement toward our own center
is really a movement toward
everybody’s center, which is the
oneness of the
ultimate
unifying
source
of all creation.
In other words, individuals are bound together by a
unifying force
which is present
but not normally perceived,
given the human condition,
without the discipline of
a practice that penetrates the mystery
of ordinary time.”
- Father Thomas Keating
Trauma-Informed Spiritual Direction
A Wisdom Approach
Trauma Is A Part of Being Human
Trauma (as simply as I can describe it) is what happens IN US as a result of what happened TO US.
When we minimize the validity of our pain, we remain at arm's length from taking responsibility for the ways this pain is unconsciously manifesting around us.
Being a human being is hard and painful. When we begin to understand this reality, another possibility opens; we can see ourselves and others through a compassionate lens.
One of my favorite trauma experts, Dr. Frank Anderson, explains it this way:
“I believe in a fundamental and universal truth: Trauma blocks love and connection, and healing our wounds provides access to the love and goodness that is inherent in us all. I further believe we each possess internal wisdom—an inner compass, a truth in feeling—and when we’re connected to these inner resources, we are in alignment and can live our best authentic life. Trauma violates this connection within us and disrupts our ability to bond freely with others.”
Dr. Anderson helps us see trauma as inherent in the human condition – something that affects us all.
This view is consonant with what other experts are saying. There are varying classifications of trauma, based in part on the severity and frequency of traumatic events, of course. But as a starting place, I’m hoping to invite us to see trauma as a basic part of being human.
The Dynamism of Being and Becoming
As we open to the possibility of seeing and responding in new ways and embrace practices and rhythms that midwife this possibility, there will be vivid felt tastes of aliveness. Like icons, these tastes call us back, again and again, to the reality that we are always, already home.
Over time, with practice, we can strengthen our capacity to “shift gears smoothly” — to move between times of inner stillness and the chaos and beauty of daily life — to witness and welcome our humanity, even when it’s messy, and to trust there is also something deeper and truer within us, even when we lose touch with it.
Gradually, our capacity to perceive and trust the ever-present flow of divine love, mercy, and wisdom emboldens us to accept “what is” and stand firm even when things are hard.
The spiritual life is not a steady state, but a series of ebbs and flows, fleeting moments of luminous seeing woven through obscurity, the heartache and disorientation of “losing the thread" and the exhilaration and respite of “finding it” again.
Anything less would be uninteresting.
When you go inwards with gentleness, even though the journey may be precarious, you will still in no way be going into isolation. Rather, you will be coming into deeper kinship with everything that is. The mystery of the unity of the world and of the Universe and of the earth is that the closer you journey to your own source, the more you come into rhythm and harmony with everything that is actually there.
- John O’Donohue