The Echoes of Trauma

When we are experiencing an awakening, we often have the expectation that the change within us will happen quickly. There are a few people for whom this is true — think Eckhart Tolle. But for many of us, the remnants of our past experiences are so deeply engrained from a lifetime of pain and trauma, it takes serious time and effort to heal those wounds. It’s fairly easy to understand why this is true. Where many of us get caught up is the experience of one step forward, two steps back. We think we’ve moved past old scars, and then something happens to put us right back in that trauma space.

One way to look at this is to think of the analogy of weight loss. If we have gained 20 pounds over the past two years, most of us have learned that we aren’t going to lose that weight in a couple of weeks. And we also understand that there can be times when we have setbacks and gain some of the weight back before we reach our target weight. Now, consider how long it has taken our egos to build up the thick scar tissue of past traumas. A lifetime, right? So why would we expect that trauma to be healed easily? And why would we be surprised by occasional setbacks on our journey?

It’s no fun being in the process of awakening. We compare it to an earthquake for a reason — our entire being is being shaken up, and many parts of us are crumbling to the ground. The rebuilding process takes time, and as we do that rebuilding, we are going to uncover many broken pieces in the rubble.

So why do we subject ourselves to this difficult process? Because, deep in our souls, we understand that we have so much more to offer the world, and the world has so much more to offer us. Yes, the journey is arduous, and we will struggle with discouragement along the way. But we are worth it. The love and joy, the sense of true purpose, is waiting for us behind that shield of ego. The journey will be so worth it when we reach the full potential of our awakening.