When we experience trauma usually the case is that afterward we carry a heavy veil in our body and mind. We no longer see the world as it is, we see it through a dense view of painful words or images. Its not safe! There's Danger! Get out! Don't stop! Run! AHHHHH! etc.
The body stays stuck on red alert. Asif there is danger at every moment. Anything can trigger the fight, flight or freeze response. Its as if we are just waiting for something terrible to happen.
Its not just the words or images, the body really believes this is the case. So there is a very dense emotional charge behind these thoughts, its not just that we "think" its real, we feel as though its real. So our perception of reality gets highly distorted.
There may be no danger, but we feel as though there is.
Resolving trauma really means bringing the system back down to calm and safe, the body knows its over. We feel as though its over, we FEEL that we are safe.
When we resolve the emotional charge behind the words and images in the mind, we start to come back to reality.
I remember when this first happened for me, it was as if I was starting to see things for the first time. The veils where dropping away.
For myself, the work didn't stop there. I continued to look at how my mind was obscuring reality in each and every moment. So I continued to look, practice presence, and see all the stories that my mind was telling me that would still make me feel deficient, I started to undo the perceptual overlay that had obscured reality my whole life, and this is ongoing to this day.
Resolving trauma can be the first step in a journey back to life, back to reality. :)
Peace,
Matt Nettleton