Trauma Informed

The simple answer is no. There is only energy. When you see labels like “good” and “bad” that is layering a human judgement on energy. There aren’t bad vibes or good vibes.  It’s a matter of correct proportion at the right time.  Our bodies are normally wonderful at this balancing act – we are complex organisms that have multiple systems to discharge energy from our digestive tracts and cardiovascular systems, to our musculoskeletal systems and of course, our brains.  We are part of a vastly large living system of the earth.  And the earth is part of a vastly large system of solar system, galaxy and universe.  We are all one, and a current of energy ebbs and flows through us.

To illustrate that energy is neither good or bad, but the amount and the timing matter, let’s look to the world of trauma research.  Dr. Eric Gentry, a psychologist who specializes in trauma therapy, described in this way (my retelling isn’t as wonderful as his original):  Imagine a terrible accident, like a train derailment, where people witness and survive a horrifying event where there is tremendous energy of all kinds released.  Survivors often behave in a proscribed way: they often speed up, gesticulate and move erratically at first, because they are literally absorbing the energy of the event, and having a biochemical reaction.  The energy is overwhelming and the flood of it feels horrifying and awful.  At some point, almost everyone hits a wall where they stop, go blank, and on some level, experience a “psychic death” and a significant brain event.  Sometimes people die at this point – death from cardiac arrest, major injuries or fear.  Those who live come back with PTSD.  I asked my husband about this phenomenon because he was a first responder at the Metrolink train crash in 2005.  He confirmed Gentry’s description.  Research into this mechanism shows us that what happens is a biochemical injury.  There is too much energy flowing too quickly in the nervous system and body.  This energy is neutral – it does not wish us harm, but if there is too much all at once, it can literally kill us or cause us PTSD.  We understand this implicitly with electrocution, but it can happen with kinetic and psychic energy also.

The energy of the crash was never good or bad, its devastating because it is too much, all at once.  Most of us do not experience trauma in this dramatic way, but the principles are the same with less explosive situations and even chronic stressors.  Chronic stress is the relentless intrusion of unwanted and difficult to deflect energy.  Situations like abuse are episodic mini-explosions of energy that are individually survivable, but over time, leave us drained and in a weakened state.  And once this happens, because energy likes to move on the path of least resistance, it will flow more easily to you than before.   That is part of the reason why people who experience adverse events as children often continue to live and experience chaos as adults.  The energy flows easily to them.

Let me strongly emphasize that this discussion is about energy, not about the social dynamics and value judgements that get layered on top of energy exchange.  As a survivor of multiple traumas myself, I understand implicitly that most events that traumatize us are unwanted and unsolicited.  There is no judgement or blame.

Social and cultural conditioning may be the reason we label energy as “bad” – in large part because it feels overwhelming to most of us, much in the same way that binge eating feels bad afterward; food isn’t evil, but in mass quantities, it can cause pain and harm.

But are people really “bad”?  In my opinion, yes, and no.  This is a question that I have debated with myself for years.  I have listened to philosophers, novelists, therapists, physicists, biologists and martial artists to seek answers.  I have had many discussions about this with my detective husband, going around and around about what really drives the behavior of those who hurt others over and over.  For the most part, we have come to agree that most people, even hardened criminals, aren’t inherently bad, but they have the potential to do awful things to other people in an effort to right something inside themselves.  Even if there is hurt and trauma at the heart of their struggle, there should be consequences for harming others, full stop.

Even the people whose “energy” causes the hair on the back of your neck to prick up may not be inherently evil so much as they are profoundly out of sync with most everyone else’s energy flow. Their behavior is often harmful and catastrophic.   Most view themselves as victims, and indeed that may be true.  Still others believe themselves to be “bad” and set out to consciously or unconsciously make good on that with behavior that confirms that belief.  On an energetic level, it appears to me that they cannot “complete the circuit” of normal human interaction, and so they either take too much or push out too much.  This behavior is rightly reviled by others because of the harm it does. What I am encouraging here is to acknowledge harmful behavior, but then begin to also observe the energy dynamics at play.

If you have had the unfortunate experience of trauma already, there may be a pathway already carved out for that energy to flow to you, allowing for the exchange of energy with those who are dangerously out of balance.  Even if we accept that these individuals aren’t really “evil” or “bad” they can still do real and lasting harm, and burden others with the task of healing and rebalancing the energy they have just “vomited”. This is not your “fault”, it happened to you, and the burden of helping the victimizer isn’t yours – that is squarely their own personal responsibility.

The good news is that the tendency to experience more trauma because you had trauma before isn’t set in stone.  I urge you not to get distracted with naming people’s energy good and bad, or energy vampires to protect against, or putting up energetic defenses against potential harm.  When you do this, you lose your agency to improve on you own gifts.  These are simplistic and unhelpful constructs that take away your power.

There are many actual ways to counteract and rewire your energy pathways, but if we get caught up in naming and judging all the behaviors of others, no matter how imbalanced or harmful, we lose the opportunity to start healing ourselves.  Let us focus on what we can do.

One of the things that trauma therapy, medication, meditation, neurofeedback, yoga, art, exercise and yes, Reiki does is re-wire those energetic pathways.  They diminish the pathways that allow for unbalanced energy influx in already traumatized people, provide for a somewhat neutral discharge of energy for those that tend to overwhelm others and hopefully, the provision of unlimited universal energy to those who need more than they give. It takes time, intention and support to remake those connections and therefore “innoculate” yourself against these intrusions, but it is possible and very doable.

As I mentioned above, trauma therapy, medication, hypnosis, EMDR and neurofeedback are all immensely helpful as are a healthy diet, martial arts and self defense study, meditation, plenty of fresh air, artistic and intellectual exploration, exercise and proper hydration. Healthy social connection is also key to resetting our energy systems – we tend to regulate ourselves to our group, so choosing healthy and supportive communities is good restorative care.  Restoring our body’s natural energy balancing systems (respiration, electrical/cognitive, digestion, kinetic etc) requires more than one intervention.  If you decided to renovate a house, you would do more than just painting, right?  The same goes for our body/mind/spirit.

Because I am focused on energy work, I strongly suggest Reiki as a self-care routine because the very point of Reiki is to balance your energy with the universe, taking excess and sharing the  balanced energy of the universe with your system. Every day, you can discharge extra energy by grounding or sending it into the earth.  It is a much larger energy system and can handle this.  And every day, you get the opportunity to recycle the energy in your body, and invite in fresh Reiki or Universal Life Force energy into you system to forge new positive energy flow pathways.