The Mountain Is You

SECOND, REINSTATE A SENSE OF SAFET Y.
You are traumatized because something scared you and you are convinced
that it is still “out to get you.” This is what happens when we don’t face or
overcome something difficult—we assume the threat lingers indefinitely.
The psychological aspect of trauma healing is that you have to literally
restore the connection that was severed in the exact same way that it was
broken.
If you are traumatized about relationships, you need to build healthy
relationships. If you are traumatized about
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money, you need to get really good with money. If you are traumatized
about traveling, you need to travel again.
We do not find the resolution in avoiding these things forever. In fact, just
underneath the fear we often find that they are the things we really want
more than anything else.
THIRD, STOP TAKING THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS AT FACE

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VALUE.
Last, to overcome trauma, you have to stop engaging in psychic thinking.
You have to stop pretending you are able to predict what will happen, that
you know other people’s intentions, or that what you feel and think is
absolute truth and reality.
This kind of thinking is what takes a triggering feeling and turns it into a
defeating spiral. You take one scary thing and make it into a prediction for
what the future will hold.
You are not an oracle. You do not know what’s next, though you are always
capable of choosing what you do now. Almost always, the thing you are
most panicked about is a thing you do not know is happening for sure. It is
usually an assumption, a projection, a fear turned into a terrifying potential
reality.
You might think that trauma is something that other, more damaged people
have, but that is not true. Everyone
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is traumatized in one way or another, but it is how we respond to it, how we
ultimately grow and develop self-mastery from it, that determines the
course of our lives.
B E C O M I N G T H E M O S T P O W E R F U L
V E R S I O N O F Y O U R S E L F
Are you being the most powerful version of yourself?

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If you had to pause to think about it, the answer is probably no.
Everybody has different facets of their personality, and we act on them
based on the context we’re in. It’s a social adaptation tool: You are not the
same person with your friends as you are with your parents. Moving
through these easily is a sign of high psychological function.
We are acquainted with the versions of ourselves that our current life
requires. We know who we need to be at work, at home, or in love. But we
are often unfamiliar with the person we need to be in order to move our
lives forward.
In “inner child work,” you visualize and address your younger selves, often
down to a specific age, depending on which version of you was
traumatized. You communicate with that inner child self, learn from them,
protect them, or give them the guidance that they needed when they were
young.
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This proves to be profoundly healing for people, mostly because we do not
evolve past our former selves; we simply grow upon them.
However, this practice can work the opposite way as well.
You can also visualize and connect with your future self—
the version of you that you are growing into, or the person you know you
are meant to be.