Trauma & the Brain, is this you?

Ok folks. We need to talk about trauma.

Wait. I know what you’re thinking: “Not me! I haven’t had any trauma since I was a kid,” or “Nope. I’ve never been traumatized.”

I’m sorry if I’m the first to tell you, but you have been. And while I’m glad that you don’t appear to be upset by it anymore, it does hang around and it most definitely affects your health.

What is Trauma?

Trauma is anything that makes the brain go into fight or flight mode. Any time you’ve felt your heart race and knew you had to act fast, that was a trauma. Sure, you dealt with the situation and came through just fine, but (I know this sounds strange) your brain doesn’t know you’ve moved on.

The Foundation of the Subconscious

Your brain is only 5% conscious. What we interpret as the present is that 5% and that’s what we base our life and decisions on. But that other 95% of our brain is built of snapshots of our past going all the way back to infancy, that it’s hung onto specifically to protect us – to remind us what is dangerous out there so we can avoid it. Your brain isn’t constricted to our understanding of time, so it stores that accumulated data and assumes it is all in the present. 

How Your Subconscious Affects Your Health

When it’s hanging on to sad, scary memories of being unsafe, all hidden just beneath the surface of our experience of memory, the brain THINKS it is in a perpetual state of danger. That’s why many of us find ourselves dealing with chronic symptoms of being in fight or flight. Stomach upset, anxiety, depression, dull pain, headaches, sleep problems – all of these are a sign that the brain is stuck in fight or flight mode, trying to protect you from an enemy that disappeared long ago.

Chiropractic Resets the Brain

Chiropractic is like a reassuring hug to the brain. It resets it, snapping it out of fight or flight mode, and into a place where it can assess the present, digest it, and move forward with calmness. Chiropractic allows the brain to process that we are not currently in danger, and stop signalling the body to literally run away.

Do yourself a HUGE favor and call your chiropractor today. In these times of extreme stress we need to let the brain know we are going to be ok. That it can stop signalling

the body of dangers from long ago because we have enough to deal with in the present – but now we are strong, equipped and confident that we can handle it.