I was listening to a famous podcast last week where the host was interviewing a girl who escaped from North Korea in 2009.
What Yeonmi Park detailed was truly horrendous. She described having to watch rats eat dead bodies and then children catch and eat the rats as they are starving and malnourished.
It got me thinking about how we are all affected by trauma. When I go out to businesses and organisations to talk about health I often start with an exercise (you can join in yourself).
Raise your hand if you have lost a loved one? Raise your hand if you have been affected by abuse? Bullying? Natural disaster? Car crashes?…….
By the time I am finished everyone has raised their hand.
This tells us that everyone has experienced trauma and has suffered in some way shape or form in their life.
The effects of these traumas can be profound and life-changing.
I have witnessed patients who have been experienced severe trauma, abuse, neglect and even sexual assault in their past. Some are all consumed by it and it is commonly a precursor to Auto-immune or chronic pain disorders developing.
Yeonmi Park demonstrated great resilience in the face of extreme adversity when she escaped from North Korea (by walking across the Gobi desert in -40 °C!). There are a few traits that research shows characterise resilience
- Acknowledge adversity doesn’t discriminate (if you are alive you are going to suffer at times in life). A question you might ask is not why me but why not me?
- Search for the good stuff: naturally we are wired to look for the negative to look for threat. If we stepped out of our cave 1000’s our years ago and we see a rainbow
on our left vs a sabre tooth tiger on our right it is very important we prioritise the tiger! Control the things you can control and find a way to except the things you can’t
- Don’t lose what you have to what you have lost. Gratitude for what we have is vital, think about what we have to live for.
- Understand what and how behaviours effect you. Use the ‘Is it harming me or helping me filter’
- Move your eyes side to side when recounting any trauma. Research suggests moving our eyes while doing this can help our brain reprocess those experiences.
As always take care.
Gareth
Dr Gareth Ward DC MChiro (Doctor of Chiropractic)
