Our brain records experiences as memories of the past.
Except when we have an experience that shocks us. It shuts us down at that moment.
It blocks our ability to file the experience as a memory. In fact, for our body, the story is still happening.
This is what happened to Jenna.
An experience in her past had deeply impacted her on a physical and emotional level. At that time, it felt like her heart had a shock, her breath caught and her stomach twisted up. Since then, Jenna noticed it was her default to guard her heart. She kept her inner wounds well hidden.
What she didn’t know was that her brain and body didn’t know the experience was over. It hadn’t recorded it as a memory in the past.
Her brain and body were still in the story.
Without realizing it at the time, she had done what we all do when we experience something so painful and so unbelievable to us that it is a shock to our system.
We make a decision. A decision unconscious yet so powerful. It keeps the experience alive and by the fear that is meant to protect us.
This decision, made out of a desire for self-protection, had unintended long-term consequences. For Jenna, she had made the decision to NEVER be that hurt again.
How do we let our brain and body know an experience is over?
Our body needs a sense of completion and our brain needs an end to the story.
There is a process on how to do just that. We engage the body and both sides of the brain by drawing out the important steps of the trauma response our body experienced at that time. Then, we draw an ending to the story. It has been so effective, it was one of the first trauma therapy training I learned.
It is a specific sequential story process. It is a process that maps out the story of the experience for one express purpose: to put an end to the story.
All you need is to have an experience from the past that you feel is incomplete. Maybe you also identify that you have had a “I will never…” statement that still shows up.
This is why I have free ecourses and informative blog posts.
By drawing very specific elements of a story as experienced by the brain and body, it allows important unconscious elements to come through. Details that could not be accessed through words alone emerge through images and symbols. This more fully forms the memory so it is no longer fragmented or unclear.
In fact, through this process, the story that feels confusing becomes organized and cohesive, allowing us to give an ending to the experience.
We know the science and have the tools to work with the body and brain and put a story in its past. We still have the biology effects of trauma in our body to support for our healing journey, but this is such a helpful step and process.
If you’d like to learn and experience this art narrative process and how to safely complete a story of our past, I invite you to check out my ecourses, they're usually free, and if not free I keep them extremely affordable.
Make some time for yourself ❤️
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