I am currently at a conference for Educators around Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Conversation last night turned towards trauma and doing our own work with trauma. The idea that the collective trauma is keeping us in the muck seems salient.

As we focus on getting behind the waterfall of the mind, we begin to see where in our body and even our cells we are storing trauma.

As a society, we have a collective trauma we are working to avoid.

Healing ourselves will heal the world.

That means getting messy. Getting Angry. Getting sad.

Dealing with:
Rejection
Abandonment
Betrayal
Regret
Guilt
Shame
Malevolence
Feeling Conflicted

And Courage.

Courage to navigate conflicted emotions.

Healing work means courage to work on our own traumas. Because that’s all we have to navigate.

Courage. Courage to heal.

To deal with the rejection. To see rejection as liberating. To see rejection as an opportunity to make a choice. To reject ourselves, or embrace who we are; internally.

To deal with the abandonment. To see abandonment as an opportunity to make a choice. To abandon ourselves or embrace ourselves. All of our selves.

To deal with the betrayal. To see betrayal as an opportunity to make a choice. To betray ourselves or love our selves and live lives according to our own values and not as a reaction to someone else’s.

And all of this is about sovereignty. Who has sovereignty over our lives. Our collective trauma seems to be giving our sovereignty away. We reject, abandon and betray ourselves by asking others to do our work for us.

We have sovereignty. Over what we do with our trauma. We can’t stop trauma from happening. There is a quote “the trauma isn’t our fault. But it’s our responsibility to heal from it. To do the healing work.” That starts within.

Everyone is on their own healing journey. Many are in denial. Many are angry. Many are bargaining to keep their power. Many are depressed. But the goal is an acceptance of the current realities we find ourselves, receive what each moment has for us, hold right to our sovereignty and not try to take others’ sovereignty away from them.

Because collecting others’ power and sovereignty is the beginning of oppression.

We need to let go of others’ sovereignty. We need to focus within on our own. And not give it away.

That’s what I’m learning.