TRAUMA IS A STEPPING STONE TO WISDOM:

“I do not wish tragedy on anyone but ever since that accident, I never fail to tell my wife I love her. I kiss my children every day. Life is richer, fuller and deeper than I have ever experienced. It has more meaning and depth than it ever had before.”

This type of transformation of life after surviving a traumatic experience is very common. The questions that beg to be asked here are: How and why does a traumatic experience cause us to live a more profound life than we previously had? Why don’t we simply choose to live life at its deepest level before a tragedy? Why do we need to have a traumatic experience to wake up to appreciating life to its fullest? The answer to these questions will not be found in traditional trauma studies but rather through a deeper reflective approach to traumatic experiences and the human species.

No different from other living organisms on this planet, we are genetically encoded to let go of and recover from trauma as a way of ridding ourselves of any experience that obstructs or interferes with the natural evolutionary process of the human body. Trauma is not foreign to our species. It is in fact an integral part of our evolutionary process. We cannot and will not rid ourselves of traumatic experiences no matter how much we try to isolate and protect ourselves from these potentially painful and seemingly unbearable experiences of life.

Through the unending cycle of trauma recovery, the human species learns how to adapt to life threatening situations. This process of adaptation makes the species stronger and wiser to protect it from future traumatic episodes. If we did not possess this natural evolutionary instinct, we would have died as a species shortly after we were born. Trauma recovery is as natural and common as trauma itself. Accepting this sometimes unpleasant fact of life allows us to see trauma in a new light. With the recovery from each traumatic episode of our lives, we give into and accept more easily the way the universe has treated us. Paradoxically, the more we let go into life the more we discover that we can re-take control of our lives and participate once again in the precarious nature of being human. Only by letting go can we unlock ourselves from the past, be delivered into the future and prepare ourselves for our next evolutionary experience.

When we experience one of lifes painful events, it initially feels over-whelming and unbearable. The experience often overwhelms our entire sense of self. Our emotions, logic and understanding of life can be shattered. We often wonder if we will ever recover from this depth of pain and disruption. However, what we fail to recognize is that it is precisely this shattering effect that forces us to think in new ways, feel emotions at deeper levels and relate to others more compassionately. People, who have healed successfully from trauma, discover that their life is richer, fuller and more caring than they had ever experienced before. This is what the evolution of the human species is about.  The inner development of compassion, caring and sensitivity to the pain of humanity emerges as a result of recovering from ones own painful experiences of life. This self-renewal that happens in the recovery process occurs because the individual was forced to explore the painful depths of humanity they would otherwise not have chosen to experience. This exploration creates a deeper sense of connectedness to life and stronger bonds of connectedness to others and even the universe.

Large scale trauma may indicate that the universe is helping the human species evolve into a more ethical, moral and caring species.

At times, this process often leads us through episodes of helplessness and hopelessness. It can terrify us by unveiling the fragility, precariousness and vulnerability of our humanity. It exposes us to the rawness of life as a living species on this planet. It tears at the very fabric of our identity and radically redefines our view of life. However, it is precisely because this experience has burned the bridges of our past ways of thinking that we are forced into a new way of being in life. The old ways of thinking and relating no longer suffice and a new way of being begins to emerge. We discover that on the other side of this frightening journey we have the potential of emerging into a new life of maturity, compassion and wisdom. People who consciously journey through the life altering experience of a traumatic event seem to reintegrate and re-embody themselves in such a way that they are more receptive to a cosmic or expanded experience of life that was previously unavailable to them. Maybe, trauma is the universe’s way of helping humanity to develop and mature as a wiser, more compassionate species.

This era of human history is witnessing tremendous trauma on a global scale. It seems impossible to try and stop such tragedy despite our greatest desires to do so. In light of this unstoppable, irreversible and seemingly self-destructive era of our humanity, we need to ask: What possible good can come of all this violence? Once again, if we view trauma as a part of life, we must consider the possibility that the large scale trauma that we are experiencing has the potential of helping us evolve into a more ethical, moral and caring species. This global trauma can be viewed as the pain of the human species going through the birthing canal to be born into a new era of human consciousness. It is Einstein who first recognized that with the splitting of the atom our technology had advanced further than our moral and ethical ability to handle it. Trauma, if used correctly, may be a way to help our species develop the moral and ethical dimensions necessary to responsibly handle our technological advancement.