The Wisdom of Trauma & How to make use of it

No matter who you are, you have insecurities. That means you have trauma, but that's not a bad thing. The wisdom of trauma is a powerful one, yet very very under-represented.

First off, trauma isn't limited to events such as car crashes or earthquakes. Trauma is simply an event where you couldn't mentally handle what happened at the time it happened. The result of these events is you have unresolved emotions coming from those traumas.

The modern-day likes to brush off trauma with the blanket statement that it's bad no matter what & should be avoided. As you'll see later in this post, this sweeping under the rug leads to serious issues down the line.

In order to live your fullest life, you must learn to embrace your trauma & learn the wisdom in each of those moments. Here's how to do it.

Step 1. Accept/Acknowledge the root cause of your Trauma

In the famous words of G.I Joe, knowing is half the battle. In order to undo your trauma & make use of it, you must first know the cause.

Before I dropped out of college & started my independent learning, I hated reading. I didn't want to get anywhere near books and instead stay on my devices. Now that I am reading every day, I can say with confidence that the root cause of my not wanting to read was not being able to read the books I wanted to read growing up.

In particular, there was this one book I wanted in our class's scholastic order & it was about pokemon. I was in grade four at the time & I loved playing pokemon, so you can imagine how devastated I was when I was told by my parents I couldn't have it because I was too focused on video games.

I really wanted to read that book, but I wasn't allowed to. Instead, I had to read the books my parents approved of & the boring novels read together in class. I wanted autonomy over my choices, which I didn't get.

The wisdom of trauma helps you to pinpoint what kind of emotional needs you have so you can satisfy them.

Step 2. Prove it Wrong to obtain the wisdom behind your trauma

If knowing is half the battle, then doing is the other half. Once you dig up the root, you need to do some terminating.

It wasn't enough for me to just read books I wanted to read. Due to the root cause of not being able to read the books I wanted to read, I found reading to be incredibly boring & so I picked up the belief that reading was boring.

Even when I was able to start reading books I wanted to read, I still had trouble picking up the book & flipping the pages for more than 5 minutes. I had to prove to myself that reading is actually fun.

Through my self-studies, I accidentally discovered my fascination with human behavior & psychology. I was so deeply interested that I bought at least a dozen books on the topic within a few days.

Those books did exactly the trick I needed. I enjoyed reading those books, even if I had to push myself at the beginning. I finally had autonomy over my choices.

Once you find the root cause of your trauma, to obtain the wisdom behind it you must find a way that works for you to prove it wrong.

Step 3. Set up boundaries based on your solved trauma

If knowing and doing are the battle, then setting up boundaries based on your solved trauma is the after-battle report. And yes, it's mandatory.

My experience with books & reading taught me just how much I value autonomy & freedom. I hate being bossed around & don't enjoy interruptions to my schedule. If I must compromise on what I want, it must be a "meet me halfway" style of arrangement.

Set up boundaries based on your solved trauma in order to make sure you are prepared for those types of events if they happen again.

The boundary I set for this experience is one where I make my choices based on what I want instead of what anybody else wants & if there is a compromise, it must be a 50/50 split.

The wisdom of trauma is under-utilized 

Because so many people don't ever dive into their traumas to fix them, they never learn from them.

There is so much wisdom to be had from your trauma, but many people are so scared of facing those events again & accepting them.

If you can dive into your traumas & learn from them, I guarantee you'll be much better off than 90% of the people you know.

- Karl

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