#027: What is psychological trauma, really?
“The essence of trauma is loss of contact with yourself, loss of connection to yourself.” — Dr. Gabor Maté
Hi All!
I wish you a Happy New Year and hope it brings you many blessings and opportunities to live a more fulfilled life!
I have taken the start of the new year as a chance to adapt the format of the newsletter slightly.
The goal of the "Start Your Monday Off Right" newsletter is to help you live a more fulfilling life by providing actionable ideas & tools and inspiring you to take action.
Going forward, the newsletter format will contain the following elements:
- one idea to consider
- one quote or question for you to ponder
- NEW: one exercise to complete at some point during the week
With the adapted format I hope to make it easier for you to take small steps towards a more fulfilling life each week.
Reply to this email and let me know what you think of the new format and how the exercise went.
Also, if you love the improved format of this newsletter, then I'd also ask that you forward it to people you know who might love it as well.
Until next week,
David
An idea for you to consider
Traumatic events shape the way we look at the world and act in it.
According to the American Psychological Association, trauma is an emotional response to a deeply distressing or disturbing experience.
This definition is fairly broad, but the key to understanding traumatic events is that it refers to extreme stress that overwhelms a person’s ability to cope.
It is important to note that it is not up to us to determine whether a particular event is traumatic for an individual or not; that is up to each survivor as pointed out by the Sidran Institute.
Hence, whether an individual experiences an event as traumatic or not, is determined by the individual’s subjective experience.
A quote for you to ponder
“The essence of trauma is loss of contact with yourself, loss of connection to yourself.” — Dr. Gabor Maté