When we attempt to escape from our disturbing feelings, we also block ourselves from love. There is a better way.
Psychiatrist Mark Epstein says that traumatic stress is the very texture of our lives. Accepting that fact, he says, allows us to lean in to our suffering and emerge as more complete people through that experience.
Epstein’s most recent book is The Trauma of Everyday Life. We spoke with him about the everyday nature of trauma, the strategies people use to avoid it, and how, if approached with an open heart and mind, trauma can be our greatest teacher.
Tell me about the “trauma of everyday life.”
The basic thing is that you can’t be in a human body without being confronted periodically with death, illness, tragedy, and chaotic things happening that you can’t control. For all of our best efforts to live a life that we do control—and we’ve made great strides over the past 1,000 years or so—it’s really not possible. Accidents continue to happen, pipes burst or leak, ticks carry Lyme disease, the airplane sits on the runway for an hour with the air conditioning turned off, and our children get teased in their schools. It’s nonstop. So there’s this constant element of trauma in life where it has already happened or it’s imminent. People are suffering either from posttraumatic stress or from what I like to call “pretraumatic stress.”
Even though trauma is unavoidable, most of us try our best to keep it at bay.
この記事は Spirituality & Health の March/April 2017 版に掲載されています。
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この記事は Spirituality & Health の March/April 2017 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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Let's Not Limit Nature- According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, nature is first defined as "the external world in its entirety," with etymological roots from multiple cultures and originating meanings
The ancient Greeks had no word for art. Many indigenous people have no word for religion. Art and religion were inherent to human life until outsiders needed to critique and study these concepts-so they named them. The legacy of the word nature is similar. We speak about nature as if we are separate from itas if, like a starkly delineated shadow on a sidewalk, you can stand with one foot in nature and one foot outside of it.
QUEEN DIAMBI KABATUSUILA SHEDS A NEW LIGHT ON AFRICA
In 2016, before she became queen of the Bakwa Luntu people of the Dimbelenge territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Queen Diambi Kabatusuila was a 48-year-old therapist going through a difficult divorce, living in Boca Raton, Florida, and having a recurring dream about an old woman in an African village.
Over the MOON About Helping Animals (and Their People)
Since I was a child, I've had a ritual: Every night, I go outside and search the sky for the moon and stars. I marvel at the magnificence of a dark, crisp, clear, midnight blue sky and its symphony of constellations, occasional meteors, and the glorious moon herself-each illuminating the vastness. This simple practice always gives me the deepest peace and centeredness. It aligns my internal compass every night before bed.
Unlikely Lightworkers from Liverpool
The Beatles were more than musical masters-they were spiritual pioneers.
ENTER THE SAUNA
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LEAVING MESA VERDE
After 21 years of service at Mesa Verde National Park, RANGER DAVID FRANKS recently guided his last tour of the pueblos and cliff dwellings. He says he was fortunate to assist the archeologists with a variety of work and never lost his amazement with their ability to figure out how and when things happened. The question he still wrestles with is much deeper: Why they left?
MY SMILING NEIGHBOR CALLS ME A CHRIST KILLER...
ROADSIDE ASSISTANCE FOR THE SPIRITUAL TRAVELER
FEATURED ARTIST - Paul Lewin
Lead digital editor Brenna Lilly spoke with artist Paul Lewin about ancestral inspiration, visions for the future, and the art of patience.
3 Poses for Awakening
The difference between yoga and many other forms of exercise is that while you are doing it, you are paying attention. You notice your breath, your rhythm, the specific ways the body feels in each posture. Yoga can be a form of moving meditation. This can be true for any pose, but these three advanced poses, which bring energy into the head, heart, and throat, are especially helpful for awakening.
THE SIMPLE THERMODYNAMICS OF ENLIGHTENMENT
When S+H was conceived, evolutionary neuroscientist PEGGY LA CERRA, PhD, awakened to a new understanding of the nature of the mind created by evolution. It’s not widely taught, but the science seems pretty obvious.
