How do you awaken if you have trauma?

[Itsokimok]

If you're trying to awaken to Truth but have a bunch of childhood trauma, do you have to heal most of that before you even think of pursuing awakening, using psychotherapy? Or if you singlemindedly pursue awakening, you'll be forced to heal the trauma anyway, like there is no way around it? 

I've been mostly focusing on healing trauma and it's gradually getting better with therapy, but I don't want to run out of time to pursue awakening as that can take years and years! I've heard of nondual psychotherapy, which basically posits that "there is no "self" to be traumatized, there's no "self" to hold grievances against others and so the only way to heal trauma is to observe the painful memories in choiceless awareness. What do you think of this? Sounds like it's spiritual bypassing but also intriguing. 

[ajasatya]

@Itsokimok Distill your traumas. Use one paper sheet for each of them. Ask the following questions:

1. What happened?
2. Who participated?
3. Why did those who did it did it?
4. Why does it affect my life now?
5. What are the circumstances in which the trauma manifests nowadays?
6. How would I act if it wasn't because of the trauma?

Then, you act from the answers you find on 6. You will feel a lot of resistance in the beginning but every time you act differently from how you would normally act, it's a victory. You become stronger and stronger and your confidence grows. In a few years, you won't be scared of your memories anymore.

Do it for each trauma. Do the work. Go gather the paper sheets and get your hands dirty for real.

[Lyubov]

Check out the work by Peter Levine. He talks about this in detail. You can use the healing of trauma to awaken. It's what has been my path. I've found it's a balance. You can get treatment and therapy and you will find it aids in awakening. Healing and awakening compliment each other and go hand in hand, strike a balance which works for you!

[Leo Gura]

Yes, you're gonna need to work on your traumas. But that doesn't means you have to fix them all before you start pursuing awakening. You can do both at once. Awakening work will bring up your traumas and attachments, which you can then address, heal, forgive, and let go.

Psychedelics are the most powerful way to process and heal trauma.

Don't waste years of your life grinding out traumatic issues with therapists. Just pop a psychedelic and accomplish years of work in one night. Effective healing requires consciousness, not talking.

[SamueLSD]

9 minutes ago, Itsokimok said:

I don't want to run out of time to pursue awakening as that can take years and years! 

Don't be impatient. This is key to awakening, you aren't ready yet.

Neither am I! I have shadow work to do.

Also, you have all the time in the world. You aren't going to run out of time.

[SamueLSD]

2 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Psychedelics are the most powerful way to process and heal trauma.

Depends. 

More shadows, more delusions. 

An ill-prepared trip can lead to more trauma.

[Lyubov]

4 minutes ago, SamueLSD said:

Depends. 

More shadows, more delusions. 

An ill-prepared trip can lead to more trauma.

Psychadelics are the most powerful way but powerful doesn't necessarily mean a healthy or good in the same way steroids are the most powerful way to gain muscle but can cause health issues for many people if done incorrectly. They def aren't for everyone and need to be done super carefully, sometimes this isn't stated enough.

Edited June 6, 2020 by Lyubov

[SamueLSD]

@Lyubov Yep. However psychedelics will not damage your body like steroids. 

[Lyubov]

1 minute ago, SamueLSD said:

@Lyubov Yep. However psychedelics will not damage your body like steroids. 

yup, they will damage your mind if done incorrectly  

[remember]

30 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Don't waste years of your life grinding out traumatic issues with therapists. Just pop a psychedelic and accomplish years of work in one night. Effective healing requires consciousness, not talking.

that’s a very individual part of consciousness, some people need to talk to get completely conscious, the therapist therefore is not really the recipient of consciousness in a therapy. in a best case scenario talking is consciousness. there are parts of consciousness which only come to light while talking about them via sound. talking about stuff which is difficult to tell anybody else, liberation, forgiveness, understanding is about being able to talk about suffering but also about its opposite.

Edited June 6, 2020 by remember

[VeganAwake]

Forgive everything and everyone in your life... plug up all the holes where energy is escaping and harness it and all other anxious energy for awakening. Don't let any energy escape anywhere else.

If you're serious it should be the top priority above everything else in life.... it should actually be easy.

Does not mean you can't function in the world... its that Underneath It All the main focus is finding truth.

Then when it's recognized that Enlightenment is not a gaining but a falling away..... allow everything to completely collapse including the seeking energy and all conditioned thoughts..

Good luck my friend ❤

 

Edited June 6, 2020 by VeganAwake

[SamueLSD]

22 minutes ago, VeganAwake said:

Does not mean you can't function in the world... its that Underneath It All the main focus is finding truth.

In every moment. Well said.

[VeganAwake]

@SamueLSD ❤

[mandyjw]

Past stories are rewritten or recontextualized. They are, always no matter what, but we tell ourselves stories from a skewed perspective of self. In awakening they are rewritten and understood from an impersonal big picture viewpoint. It takes an enormous amount of love and focus to do this. Easier if it's not done alone, especially in more extreme cases. When someone else is loving you with the eyes of God and sees you as perfect and a part of the whole it's easy to imagine oneself that way too, (or stop imagining one's self rather.) 

You can't focus on the things that could possibly hold you back, because then they are exactly what's holding you back. Eyes on the prize. 

[Rolo]

4 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Yes, you're gonna need to work on your traumas. But that doesn't means you have to fix them all before you start pursuing awakening. You can do both at once. Awakening work will bring up your traumas and attachments, which you can then address, heal, forgive, and let go.

Psychedelics are the most powerful way to process and heal trauma.

Don't waste years of your life grinding out traumatic issues with therapists. Just pop a psychedelic and accomplish years of work in one night. Effective healing requires consciousness, not talking.

I have been doing the forgiveness work with mdma and using your tempelate. What other psychedelics can you suggest in regards to trauma therapy?

[Leo Gura]

1 minute ago, Rolo said:

I have been doing the forgiveness work with mdma and using your tempelate. What other psychedelics can you suggest in regards to trauma therapy?

Any of them, really.

It's not in the psychedelic, it's in how you use it.

[Epiphany_Inspired]

@Itsokimok you've recieved some amazing answers; what an incredibly supportive & uplifting community/ mentors!

I dont have have the same blunt yet empowering type of response for you, but I do have empathy. 

Some people have a single trauma, such as a rape, where the ripples of that event pervade every aspect of their life even decades later. For people with one, to a few traumas, all of  the techniques mentioned above could be very helpful. 

For me, traumatic events had been like the ensless ocean, perpetually crashing in like waves, between the calm bliss. So, with back to back to back to back (etc traumas), I can relate. Maybe I'm only still doing PD work to spit in the face of comments like: "those with *too much* trauma may be beyond actualizing"... I like to push limits... lol

I am far from actualized, but I can offer some tips that help me:

1. Even the worst traumas can teach us

2. We can become stronger/ more powerful and resilient 

3. When we are most in resonance, trauma is less likely to find us

4. Drama can = trauma (avoid drama situations and people)

5. Triggers are teachers too, pay attention to body sensations

6. Nature and silence can be amazing healing tools

[Itsokimok]

Thank you for your generous answers of great variety!!