About being frozen in time
How trauma reactivation can cause tunnel vision
I have slowly been listening to an episode of the Tim Ferriss podcast where he speaks with Boyd Varty, author of The Lion Tracker’s Guide To Life. This morning a specific part of the conversation struck a chord with me, and I felt I had to share.
They were talking about the concept of trauma causing a part of you to be frozen in time. When this trauma is reactivated in the future, it places you in a kind of tunnel vision. It limits the options available to you when dealing with this reactivation of the trauma to those available at the time when it originally happened.
I had one of those “head exploding” moments when I heard this. Even though the first time I had a panic attack or felt the discomfort of anxiety building up, I did not reach for alcohol. Over time, I definitely started to limit my options to it.
Now it is important to note that this is not a life long cross you will just have to bear. What you need to do is go back to that time and unfreeze that part of yourself by being kind to yourself. Make it clear that you do have other options. State them to yourself, live them, and over time you will be free from the trap.
It’s not easy, that is for sure, but very few things in life worth doing are.
This was just one small portion of the interview, but there were other moments that was also so entertaining and enlightening. I highly recommend you have a listen.
To close out this post I want to share a quote that was also brought up in the episode that again, struck a chord with me.
“Preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary use words.” — St. Francis of Assisi
Gospel here, much like in Alcoholics Anonymous, can mean whatever makes sense to you. Wishing you all a beautiful day.
