Trauma and Resilience

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The path through trauma often remains misunderstood, yet it represents one of humanity's most profound journeys. In this thought-provoking mini-episode, we delve into what trauma truly means beyond clinical definitions, exploring its spiritual significance and transformative potential.

Drawing inspiration from thought leader Marianne Williamson's pragmatic tenets, we examine how our framing of difficult experiences determines their lasting impact more than the experiences themselves. Just as ducks shake off territorial disputes without dwelling on them, humans possess an innate capacity for resilience that's frequently overshadowed by our tendency to weave and retell stories. This isn't about dismissing clinical PTSD or genuine suffering, but rather recognizing that many of our lasting wounds are sustained by the stories we continue telling ourselves long after the original experience has passed.

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Chapters

• 1:30 Introducing Trauma and Resilience
• 3:46 Marianne Williamson and Spiritual Value
• 6:46 Understanding Trauma Beyond Clinical Terms
• 10:43 Animals vs Humans: Processing Stress
• 15:21 Worldviews Shape Our Trauma Response
• 19:04 From Diagnosis to Solution
• 22:14 The Power of Belief and Resilience

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:45

Hi guys and welcome to Language of the Soul podcast, where life is story. Today's episode is a little mini episode on, basically in a nutshell, trauma and resilience. Hopefully that lands right away. Our regular listeners do know that regularly we speak about trauma, as do our guests. We also speak about the cathartic function of self-expression and the creative process, but, more importantly, we speak in a clinical context about how narrative therapy actually helps us reframe our narratives and, in theory, release us from trauma. So in those conversations Virginia, if anyone coming from a mental health milieu, no-transcript common enemy, in other words I largely take a layman's approach and, if anything, I'm going to talk about trauma and resilience in the context of the spiritual journey. So hang in there, it's going to be a great episode.

Speaker 1: 2:14

I do want to say again some of our listeners will also know that I adore Marianne Williamson. Most people that aren't, you know, a devotee, the way I am probably first saw her in action during the presidential campaign season. Her in action during the presidential campaign season. She ran for president and that's one of the things I love about her. Despite not being a guru per se, but being a thought leader, despite largely purveying spiritual tenets and concepts, man does? She know her stuff and man, is she pragmatic? That is exactly what I love about her she's no-nonsense and pragmatic. So when she talks about how love has a place in capitalism, in business, and she cites models like the Trader Joe's model, where you know, everything we learned from Ebenezer Scrooge is being put into action and we can actually be capitalists while embracing our humanity, it's not one or the other, and you don't have to sacrifice your humanity to stimulate our economy, for example. So I loved that in that race for the presidency. She spoke about how love has a place in governance and I think that couldn't be clearer than at this moment. Not just ethics, not just morals, because clearly we can see that principle in and of itself is not enough. It has never been enough. Communism always fails because it lacks heart, they say. So. I loved everything she said about how leadership is really rooted in love, or ideally it is.

Speaker 1: 3:42

Anyway, the other thing I love about Marianne Williamson is when she takes a parable, for example, you name it a myth, a legend, a folktale. She doesn't just talk about the academic interpretation of it or even the liturgical interpretation of it. She talks about the metaphysical meaning behind it. She'll take a parable from the Bible there's one that I love about when Christ was separated from his parents in the marketplace and she'll say here's a metaphysical reading of dot dot dot. And she even spoke about some Disney classics in that way, and I've quoted her often when I'm asked to talk about either the classics I worked on or the ones that I studied while at Disney. So that's so in line with our podcast the metaphysical reading behind the academic interpretation of some of these myths and legends.

Speaker 1: 4:28

More to the point, when Marianne Williamson talks about the spiritual value of depression, for example and you could replace that word with melancholy we talk about embracing the shadow a lot on this show and we talk about Hades as the place where everything germinates. And it's not the place you think. She is sure to preface that by saying look, I'm not a psychologist or a psychiatrist, I'm not talking about clinical depression here. I'm talking about these periods of melancholy or depression that we all go through, that we're so quick to try to do away with, so quick to medicate, so quick to escape, when in fact they have spiritual value. So in this episode I'm kind of going to make a case for the fact that, yes, clinical PTSD aside most chronic anxiety is here to teach us something. It's actually here to motivate us and inspire us to take action, to engage our creativity. So, yes, I am not a psychologist or a psychiatrist. I'm not going to get too far into the neuroscience behind trauma in general or chronic anxiety I'll leave that to Virginia but I am going to give you my thoughts again, connecting a lot of dots on what the value could be in working through that trauma and using story to do so. Okay, so hang in there and enjoy the episode.

Speaker 1: 6:01

This morning I watched a YouTube video about the resilience gene, in part because we talk a great deal on our podcast about trauma, ptsd and narrative therapy as a remedy for them. I began seeking out trauma for dummies videos on YouTube because, over coffee, I had found myself rethinking my understanding of trauma, both in a clinical and vernacular context. I found myself wishing to brush up on the neurological mechanics of the phenomenon. I've always been fascinated by the power of language to betray man's innate understanding of the universe, often long before science has caught up with his intuitive hunches. Many of our newly coined clinical and scientific terms are based on words that have been around for millennia, as is most often the case. The Greek, then Latin, word trauma had a literal meaning straight out the gate that was based on figurative imagery. Trauma referred strictly to physical wounds, of course, while conjuring the image of writhing roots. Only in the 19th century was the word first used in a clinical context to refer to psychic wounds. This evolution concisely mirrors that of the word catharsis, which originally referred to a purging of the bowels, but only later came to mean psychic or emotional release.

Speaker 1: 7:11

What is trauma really, clinically speaking that is? We all know contemporary pop psychology overuses the word, along with others like trigger, triggering, safe space, hostile environment and PTSD. Systematically, these clinical terms have lost their potency due to this overuse. Systematically, these clinical terms have lost their potency due to this overuse, as have terms like narcissist and empath. More to the point, even in a clinical context, aren't experiences only distressing or traumatic if we frame them as such? Isn't everything in life neutral except our reaction to it? Sure, there is very real suffering in life, no one can deny physical pain is the opposite of pleasure. But many schools of thought suggest that most suffering in life is mind-created. It's psychic suffering that's a product of one thing Wishing circumstances and conditions were other than what they are. What occurred to me this morning is this the experiences that get mapped on our worldviews are those accompanied by strong emotion. It's chemical, yes the production of cortisol and adrenaline.

Speaker 1: 8:16

The fight-or-flight instinct is involuntary, autonomic. No-transcript. It's fair to say that the fight-or-flight instinct has immense value to survival, but it's also fair to say that holding on to momentary stress or carrying it over to chronic anxiety has little to no evolutionary value. In fact, humans have a monopoly on the compulsion to do so. Picture two mallard ducks having a squabble over territory far out on a lake. When the moment passes, each simply shakes off the excess energy. It rolls off like water from wax-coated feathers, for that matter. Cats are expert at spending zero time lamenting the past or navel-gazing in any way. We humans could learn a great deal from the animal kingdom on this front. That said, we also know well the colloquialism the dog who's been kicked too much. We've all witnessed the results of animal abuse in the rescue community and the long road to recovery it demands. We've all heard of Harlow's classic rhesus monkey studies. One outcome demonstrated the importance of maternal bonding and later socialization. In a heart-rending illustration of the importance of perceived love in the form of touch, those monkeys furnished a terrycloth mother to cling to, fared better than those with no maternal figure at all.

Speaker 1: 9:43

My take on the above is that every organism's development is affected by its environmental circumstances and conditions full stop. The hand of cards an organism is dealt determines the social or antisocial behaviors that result from that hand. We go on to assign value judgments to these outcomes, like good or bad, pleasurable or painful, desirable or undesirable, productive or destructive. One thing is clear these developmental experiences affect mind, body and spirit equally. It's the mind-created suffering I wish to address. Hear me out. Haven't we all seen a child who is perfectly fine spilling a glass of milk until his mother gets hysterical, prompting said child to burst into tears? Or the kid who skins an E on the jungle gym but doesn't think to cry until her mother overreacts, for that matter, it's said in rescue communities like my neighborhood that dog leashes are nothing less than an antenna signaling in every moment how our pooches should react to you name it the passing dog, the annoying neighbor, the hissing sprinkler All bets are off when it comes to squirrels and mailmen, of course. Every day in a neighborhood where rescue pups outnumber their human counterparts, I see helicopter parenting new adoptive parents who scoop up their dogs, projecting their own anxiety and thereby robbing their pooches of valuable socialization opportunities.

Speaker 1: 11:07

Pointing this out is by no means another version of the popular sentiment among my fellow Gen Xers. I drank straight out of the hose and never grew a third arm, or you gotta eat a little dirt to build up your immune system. I will concede that, when it comes to resiliency, there is more value to exposure than avoidance. But I'm hoping to illustrate a larger, more nuanced point. Our existing worldviews determine what we experience as distressing, triggering or traumatic. Pop culture in 2025 is doing exactly what those helicopter parents are doing training our youth to be triggered rather than nurturing resiliency, lengthening the list of what to avoid in life, what to be allergic to or triggered by.

Speaker 1: 11:50

Don't get me wrong. I believe we must diagnose. Culturally, we must examine disempowering paradigms, thought forms and narratives in order to rewrite them. Many societal ills conveniently swept under the rug for generations are now getting their limelight and reparations are being made. But, in the same way, digging in the dirt of the past in order to diagnose should inspire new thought forms and paradigms. We are meant to examine the value of current trends. It's entirely possible.

Speaker 1: 12:19

Our navel-gazing phase has run its course. It may be time to stop identifying with our brokenness and move on to solutions rather than grievances, to exercise our atrophied resilience muscles. To reiterate, our brains map highly emotional experiences on our respective worldviews or value systems. That requisite emotion is purely physiological in nature, as induced by sensory stimuli. Any lingering chronic anxiety outside the context of true clinical PTSD is conceptual in nature. The narratives we project about the potentially triggering or completely neutral experience determines how indelible its effects will prove to be. Our existing worldviews create the culture medium for the lasting effects or, conversely, the resiliency that allows stress to roll off like it would off the waxy feathers of a mallard duck.

Speaker 1: 13:15

Let me back up a little bit and offer my own experience as fodder. I couldn't escape my experiences. Growing up, I was trapped in what I would now call a dysfunctional household, characterized by alcoholism and codependence. On top of that, I endured all the challenges that come with being gay in a conservative milieu during a prohibitive era. Of course, I did not possess the vocabulary to frame the dysfunction as such at the time. More to the point, I knew nothing other than my own experience. As such, there was nothing abnormal or destructive to diagnose when, young, we have no expectations of the world.

Speaker 1: 13:53

Every day we learn more about the crazy, chaotic, absurd, fascinating world in which we live. Value judgments seem to come later. Only once certain puzzle pieces cement themselves do we begin to formulate judgments, and only once we experience good fortune in life do we begin to have expectations of the world to deliver more of the same. Put simply, this is known as entitlement. Before humor sets in, everything life offers up is a wonderful gift, gratitude is a way of life, and entitlement remains on some far-off horizon. I would not be the first to say that, over time, life's disappointments can begin to color the lenses through which we see the world. Those tarnished lenses can color the past just as profoundly, turning lemonade back into lemons. We must all be vigilant in preserving the value of the past, whether things have panned out the way we'd hoped or not.

Speaker 1: 14:51

By offering a snapshot of my upbringing, I hinted that I knew no different, that the resiliency of youth served as a valuable tool. It should be noted that resilience is often called denial and that denial, along with shock, is a classic response to trauma. In cases of clinical PTSD, it's a rote textbook reaction. Only much later do erosive or destructive effects rear their heads. In my case, I will say that resiliency, or denial as the case may be, was a life-saving coping mechanism, as it is for many In adulthood.

Speaker 1: 15:26

With emotional maturation and spiritual evolution, it often becomes safe to dig in the dirt and diagnose our upbringings. This includes the messiness and dysfunction so at odds with what the cleavers promised on TV, that arguably does not exist. Once the blinders are off, it is our choice always to apply free will to overcome that trauma or identify with it, define ourselves by it or be victimized by it. My personal understanding is that, after digging in the dirt and diagnosing what makes us tick the onus is on each one of us to beat the drum of a solution rather than a grievance. Doing so is the basis of all manifestation.

Speaker 1: 16:07

What I'd really like to offer is this by remaining trapped in my household, the circumstances and conditions that acted as a culture medium, I learned a few tricks. In case the metaphor is not glaring, being regularly exposed to variety, even potential toxins and allergens, kick-starts the figurative immune system. Our microbiome depends similarly on variety rather than the engineering of gut health. Imagine force-feeding an infant probiotics from the moment she arrives home from hospital. Not one of us would do such a thing. On the macro scale, all gene pools will peter out without variety, that is to say without foreign genetic stock being introduced in order to forge adaptability.

Speaker 1: 16:54

Abraham Hicks calls adverse experiences contrasts. Abraham suggests that life's contrasts serve to clarify our preferences and desires. I would add that epigenetics has wired us all to synthesize what has come before and continue honing our collective future by getting our hands in the clay of the march toward human potential. Abraham Hicks has also said, with regard to dieting, far more important than what we put in our bodies is what we believe about what we put in them.

Speaker 1: 17:23

The power of belief mind over matter, if you must has been empirically proven time and again in a number of ways. The mere suggestion, under hypnosis, one is being touched by a hot iron prompts the body to actually produce a burn. Many medical cases support the idea that damning diagnoses in and of themselves lead to death, not the disease itself. It's been said that the study of medicine is largely the study of the placebo effect. No one knows the power of belief better than faith healers or the faithful who walk over hot coals. I want to be ultra clear. I am not playing Tom Cruise and denying the value of psychology or psychiatry, as he did when shaming Brooke Shields' pursuit of psychiatric drugs for postpartum depression. I am not for a moment denying the existence of very real clinical PTSD. I'll go on to say that all forms of treatment, from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, cbt, prolonged Exposure Therapy, pe and Eye Movement, desensitization and Reprocessing, emdr, have had miraculous results. Even those who see the journey as a spiritual one and find relief by taking ayahuasca have my blessing.

Speaker 1: 18:35

The two cents worth here is meant to simply add to the conversation, to the database of spiritual tools on our cultural tool belt. On the chance my reflections resonate that you'll connect the same dots that I do. Our expectations of the world are solely responsible for disappointment or disillusionment. And now the clincher those expectations are nothing more than entitlement. It may sound harsh, but think about it. The moment we relinquish the idea that the world owes us anything, especially more of the same good fortune it may have gifted us in the past, we begin to appreciate what it does have to offer in the present.

Speaker 1: 19:15

Most irritable diseases are the product not of a single gene but several, and each requires the proper environmental conditions to promote its expression. Those conditions, which include everything from diet and lifestyle to chemical exposure, local and non-local energetic signaling, thoughts and feelings result in the methyl groups that will squelch a gene or allow it to express itself. I have good reason to believe I come by the resilience gene. Honestly, my ancestors endured quite a lot, my grandparents being no exception. As a recent article pointed out, folks of their generation were born at the perfect moment to experience both World War I and World War II, the Spanish Flu, the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the list goes on. The Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the list goes on. If indeed I inherited the resilience gene, or rather the many markers that contribute to resiliency, from CRHR1 to DRD4, my understanding of epigenetics suggests environmental influences will ultimately be responsible for their collective expression. Yet again, the marriage of nature and nurture prevails. Expression. Yet again, the marriage of nature and nurture prevails.

Speaker 1: 20:25

What I'm offering is this the contrasts adversity, if you must. In my upbringing, household or culture medium constituted the conditions that primed the methyl groups needed for resiliency gene expression. This exposure to adversity activated the needed response. The same way, drinking from the hose and eating dirt boosts an immune system, according to boomers. My call to action is not to go out there and eat more dirt. Nothing I've said should ring earth-shatteringly profound or insightful. If anything, what I hope to impart clear as day is that the way we frame our experiences determines whether they hold us prisoner long after those experiences have come and gone. It's the stories we tell about those experiences that diffuses them or empowers them. As always, we have the power to reframe our defining narratives, the stories of the past. And in the parlance of language of this whole podcast, we can get our hands in the clay and in the parlance of language of this whole podcast, we can get our hands in the clay, individually and collectively, we can write a new story. See you next time.