Trauma Informed Growth: Less Self Help, More Scientific Advances
This time last year, I had about 3.5 years of solid study under my belt in this particular area, I had tangible evidence I could point to in my own life as to how this approach worked for me and I was happily gazing through my tunnel-vision-lenses at how Trauma-Informed quite literally made sense of everything, everywhere, all at once.
Looking back, it’s been a year of growing up and slowing down as I once again experience the reality of theory and practice not being the same. Hah!
Trauma Informed Growth because…
When the recurring patterns tripping us up are years old and the desire to grow is older than the pattern, a mind-body approach to growth can make all the difference.
Like the difference between this taking 20 years for you to finally get what’s going on (theory), or you taking 1 to 2 years to transform every area of your life (embodied).
It is insidious and we are oblivious, until the light gets switched on.
Who Turned On The Light?
Because now that that the lights are on, it’s easy to see that:
- Words are not enough
- Stress bruises, or can even break, the body unable to heal without deliberate intervention
- Overwhelm, Overreaction and Urgency are all physiologically rooted symptoms of stress-related trauma
- The Mind and Body processes events in very different ways using very different timelines. We tend to move at the speed of the Mind, dissociating from the (bad) feelings in our body so we can “simply get on with it”.
- When High Stress Childhoods that become Ongoing Stress Careers turn 40ish, tolerance levels go down, and the need for something sustainable goes up.
- Cues of Safety for the Mind are entirely different to the Cues of Safety the body requires in order to function the way it was designed to. In the absence of Cues of Safety for the body, we get toxic: Toxic Leaders, Toxic Workplaces, Toxic Spouses, Toxic Business Partners, Toxic Clients.
Trauma-Informed Growth is less about self-help and far more about becoming aware of the scientific advances with the intention of practically applying the ones right for you.
The Open Minded Will Inherit New Worlds
The T-word (Trauma) can either trip you up on par with a grammatical error in some great article, or it can lead you to a new world of possibility, understanding and science that expands your influence, your impact and your contribution.
Stress-Related Trauma from a long forgotten past become the ingredients that make up the patterns tripping us up today.
We don’t like how they feel (body) so we numb, distract, or dissociate as we “just get on with it”. This will work for a while… until you hit your 40s and then this will grind one into burn out, or physically wipe you out with auto-immune something, or you’ll make a mistake that lands you on the front pages.
Patterns? What patterns? I don’t have any patterns!
Overwhelm, Urgency, Blame, Gossip, Overreaction to seemingly normal situations, Self Isolation (you know, what you call solitude?) — these are all our patterns. Less obvious patterns, for sure, but patterns all the same. And for those of us committed to things like personal best, self actualisation and/or leaving this world better than we found it… then these are the patterns that we want to dissolve on our way to the end goal.
Then there are the patterns that have for years now, kept you from realising the potential of what you’re here to do! And, in fairness, it’s really hard to spot our own patterns. Especially if we’re super busy with an endless cycle of strategy and planning, or the analysis paralysis stage that leads to the endless circle of planning. Bottom line? We really don’t see it until someone turns the light on.
And therein lies part of the magic as to why this matters.
People don’t find their way out of their proverbial darkness until someone (like you) turns the light on.
Until someone like you passes on the information that makes it possible for them to see. Weird, it’s almost as if this was by some genetic design.
Trauma Informed Growth for me?
It is about having a healthy respect for the short, medium and long term effect of ongoing exposure to stress on the body, first and foremost.
Second? Is the practical application of science so as to positively influence the neurobiology of performance as we are in pursuit of an end goal.
Sometimes I wonder if it’s not just easier to call it a Mind Body Approach to Growth and spare the need to explain the t-word. Then I remind myself that like all the previous significant movements in the business world, this is no different.
I’ll wait for the tipping point to rock up, thanks!
Remember Cloud Computing circa 2000?
Me neither. It was 2012 when it reached a tipping point shifting it into the mainstream when Netflix and Adobe moved their operations to the cloud spurring on a whole new generation of SaaS.
Then in 2007 we got SoLoMo!
I remember So-Lo-Mo — (Social, Local, Mobile specifically the integration of social media, location-based services, and mobile technology to create a more personalised consumer experience.) — I have a deck up on SlideShare from 2008 when this was a big part of my business. It didn’t go mainstream until 2013 thanks in large part to Groupon.
Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies started to rise circa 2010.
I took my first gig in Crypto circa 2020. And that was because I felt that was the most efficient route, for me, to learn it. But until then, it just wasn’t for me.
Now, here we are with Trauma-Informed Growth
and like the movements before it, it emerged on the scene with not many taking notice. Its tipping point would have begun with Covid and the Mental Health shenanigans that Covid created. I would suggest we are still in the upward Tipping Point climb before we reach a climax.
Today we have Trauma-Informed approaches influencing leadership strategies, workplace policies, and customer service practices across a few industries with the rest of industry likely to follow suit in the coming years.
Today I am doubling down on Trauma Informed Growth Coaching fully prepared to iterate, ebb, flow and back up my bus as I go.
Thanks for making it this far.
I work with organisations over at nb3.io
I work 1-to-1 with professionals over at shannoneastman.com
Free Resources on CPTSD, Trauma Informed, and Business Growth x Human Behaviour — www.shannoneastman.com/resources
Trauma Informed Growth Podcast > www.traumainformedgrowth.com
