Trauma Training Tip
Autumn. The air becomes crisp and clear. The loss of light inhibits chlorophyll production – and allows the inherent beauty of the leaves to show. Like the trees that show their splendor, we too aresupported to see and know our value – and own essential, gem-like nature.
The Metal Element’s organs are the Lung and the Colon. Metal represents both the beginning and the conclusion of all aspects of creation. We measure the beginning and ending of a life with the Lung’s function – it carries our “first” and our “last” breath.
In the Tao of Trauma model, the Metal also measures the beginning and ending of the cycle of our Self Protective Response. The spirit of our Metal is called the “Po” or the “Animal Soul” and gives us our capacity for somatic, embodied, sensate awareness. The Metal Element provides us with the capacity to “Awaken Arousal” to something potentially dangerous in our environment via our Animal Soul. That first hint may show up in the corresponding tissues and organs of the Metal – our breath may quicken, our skin may have “goose bumps,” the hair on the back of our neck may stand on end.
It’s job, however, is not only to awaken us to danger – it is also to awaken us to a quality of open, fluid curiosity – or embodied mindfulness to all the beauty, joy, and pleasure that surrounds us – all the gifts of the senses. Our ability to be in curiosity rather than conclusion about new people, places, or things, is a marker for the vitality of our parasympathetic “rest and digest” nervous system. It’s a healthier physiological state to live in – except when we need that good sympathetic arousal that’s always available to us for our safety or protection.
A query to explore about the state of your Metal element might be: Are you able to maintain a state of open curiosity and mindful awareness of what is here and now? Are you in a state of “exploratory” orienting rather than “defensive” orienting?
The Metal brings forward qualities of precision, inspiration, and longing for connection with the heavens. Meditation practices that focus on the breath help cultivate Metal energy.
Alaine’s Two Cents
my brain and
heart divorced
a decade ago
over who was
to blame about
how big of a mess
I have become
eventually,
they couldn’t be
in the same room
with each other
now my head and heart
share custody of me
stay with my brain
during the week
and my heart
gets me on weekends
they never speak to one another
– instead, they give me
the same note to pass
to each other every week
and their notes they
send to one another always
says the same thing:
“This is all your fault’
on Sundays
my heart complains
about how my
head has let me down
in the past
and on Wednesday
my head lists all
of the times my
heart has screwed
things up for me
in the future
they blame each
other for the
state of my life
there’s been a lot
of yelling – and crying
SO,
lately, I’ve been
spending a lot of
time with my gut
who serves as my
unofficial therapist
most nights, sneak out of the
window in my ribcage
and slide down my spine
and collapse on my
gut’s plush leather chair
that’s always open for me
~ and just sit sit sit sit
until the sun comes up
last evening,
my gut asked me
if was having a hard
time being caught
between my heart
and my head
nodded
said didn’t know
if could live with
either of them anymore
“my heart is always sad about
something that happened yesterday
while my head is always worried
about something that may happen tomorrow,
lamented
my gut squeezed my hand
‘just can’t live with
my mistakes of the past
or my anxiety about the future,’
sighed
my gut smiled and said:
‘in that case,
you should
go stay with your
lungs for a while,’
was confused
– the look on my face gave it away
“if you are exhausted about
your heart’s obsession with
the fixed past and your mind’s focus
on the uncertain future
your lungs are the perfect place for you
there is no yesterday in your lungs
there is no tomorrow there either
there is only now
there is only inhale
there is only exhale
there is only this moment
there is only breath
and in that breath
you can rest while your
heart and head work
their relationship out.’
this morning,
while my brain
was busy reading
tea leaves
and while my
heart was staring
at old photographs
packed a little
bag and walked
to the door of
my lungs
before could even knock
she opened the door
with a smile and as
a gust of air embraced me
she said
“what took you so long?’
by John Roedel
Check This Out!
The Fall is a beautiful time to take up movement practices that focus on the lungs and the breath. Qigong is such a practice, with roots in Traditional Chinese Medicine. It involves meditative and movement practices that address specific functions, organs, and tissues that can improve overall mental & physical health. Qigong is appropriate and accessible for almost anybody – that is, it’s powerful without being strenuous.
Here are two Qigong opportunities, hosted by Tao of Trauma students, Robin Carnes and Cynthia Zanti Jabs:
- Qigong with Robin Carnes. Movements are playful, easy to follow, and gentle on the body. Sequences correspond to the seasons, helping our bodies thrive in response to the changing world around us. Zoom Classes, Sept 7-30, 2022, Mon-Wed-Fri at 8:30-9am ET
- Healing-with-the-Seasons.Teachable.com with Cynthia Zanti Jabs. Her first Autumn/Lung Qi Gong Class will start September 12th and features new and progressive video classes each week for three weeks with an optional live-time interactive class on Sept 21st. PDA’s pending from NCCAOM. Classes present medicinal movement and meditation practices specific to the channels and organs of the Season. Simple practices, easy to master – and easy to share with clients.
Clinical Curiosity
Where is your clinical curiosity carrying you?
Send me a question or two and I will explore them with readers in this corner next month.
Q. I have a patient who I am sure has a trauma history. She’s jumpy and flighty in her eyes, it’s hard for her to sit still or sleep at night. She came to me for help with her irritable bowel syndrome and her migraine headaches – but I feel like I want to know more about her trauma history in order to treat her more deeply. What do you think?
A. So glad she found you.
Not all trauma survivors will have a “story” to tell. Sometimes the trauma happened before they had language – something like a premature birth or an early surgery or too much time in an incubator or orphanage. We can see the general disorganization – the jumpy, flighty eyes and the “strange, rare, and peculiar” symptoms like irritable bowel, migraine headaches, auto-immune illness, insomnia, or obesity and know that we are working with trauma physiology.
It will be tempting to treat her many symptoms – they are screaming for help. However, using the Tao of Trauma approach to focus your interventions on the tissues, organs, functions that correspond with where in the Self Protective Response she was thwarted will help you get to the essential regulation that her system is crying out for. If we don’t help her restore core regulation, symptoms will continue to emerge.
The first and perhaps most important thing is to help her find an “embodied experience of kinship” with you and with her community – could be people or pets. As her system settles with that attention and nourishment, it will become easier to see where to focus your attention.