Embodied Memory

Historical Trauma lives in the body. We call it embodied memory. The body remembers. It lives in our tissue, the very soma of us.

It doesn't matter what the mind says; when the body recognizes events that match with the memory of the stored embodied trauma, it recognizes the feeling in the body. A collapse can happen. The body can freeze, or take flight with a beating heart. It becomes about "that feeling" in the body. That place where the body is telling you to get the fuck out of dodge fast.

The hope is that we can play with the neuro-plasticity of our embodied memories and re-write the program. Give ourselves new experiences with events so that our bodies can reprogram. This may mean taking chances on places that have given us trauma in the hopes of pleasure and re-wiring. It is incredibly big courageous and vulnerable work. And it can still fail. And then it requires a desire and a willingness to try again.

When I am in those places of uncomfortable embodied memory, it helps to call in my own resiliency. My own desires for something different and my constant willingness to try for that different place in my own body. I work at unfreezing. I try to calm my heart from this place of running. I try to soften my body and my breath. I hold my own body and comfort her. I tell her, that I understand how she is recognizing this pain and I work with her to see how it may feel the same, but let's explore how it is different. Sometimes, the pain is the only place to start.

Loving you from here, Pamela Madsen