Sublime

Trauma is not a disease, he points out, but rather a human experience rooted in survival instincts.

Our past experiences—and traumatic ones in particular—can reprogram our neuroception.

Since time immemorial, people have attempted to cope with powerful and terrifying feelings by doing things that contradict perceptions of fear and helplessness: religious rituals, theater, dance, music, meditation and

What happens then is that the intense, frozen energy, instead of discharging, gets bound up with the overwhelming, highly activated, emotional states of terror, rage, and helplessness.

While our intellects often override our natural instincts, they do not drive the traumatic reaction.

Stephen W. Porges, The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe Elizabeth Blackburn and Elissa Epel, The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer

To be traumatized is to rarely or never feel truly safe. In the absence of that felt sense of safety, trauma leaves our bodies largely stuck in the hands of the aggressive Yellow and dissociative Red systems—or at least makes it a whole lot harder for us to get to Green.

The nervous system compensates for being in a state of self-perpetuating arousal by setting off a chain of adaptations that eventually bind and organize the energy into “symptoms.” These adaptations function as a safety valve to the nervous system.

Resonance is the essential process underlying all relating.