How To Move Forward After A Traumatic Incident

Let’s face it: we’ve all had some kind of trauma in our lives. Be it minor or major, we’ve all had some traumatic incident occur for us—even if we don’t want to admit it, or we don’t even know to call it as such.

In this short article, it is my intention to decode my understanding of how to move forward after a traumatic incident. I hope that the wisdom I’ve gained will also serve you along your healing path.

Although it may be more complicated—for the sake of simplifying, I’ll pin down moving forward after trauma into three main phases:

Phase 1: It hurts and that’s part of Healing

The first phase we go through after we experience trauma is the most painful one. In this time-frame, all the emotional and maybe even physical pain that comes after the traumatic impact surfaces for us. As I’ve noticed, we might even be cut off from our bodies. To the point where we cannot eat or sleep and we can barely move because of the pain.

What is crucial in this phase is to accept the fact that it hurts and to not fight it. This is the current of our life now, and fighting it instead of flowing with it will bring more pain.

So, being kind to yourself when going through the pain of trauma is the nicest thing you can do for yourself. Knowing that the hurt is the most difficult part of the healing. Yet also knowing that it will eventually pass, and that you will come to enjoy your life experience again.

Phase 2: Acceptance and Active Progress

Once the shock wears off and the intense hurt subsides, we come to accept our situation. In the first phase we might resist and even push back against the reality of our life after the trauma. Now, in this second phase of healing, we finally accept and come to terms with the way things are now.

It is now that the veil of shock and pain has lifted—at least partially. Now we’ve accepted that the trauma did happen, and we can move towards the betterment of the situation.

Now we can actively make progress to heal our physical, mental, and emotional bodies. We begin to make reparations to all the other areas of our lives and possibly relationships that were affected by the trauma.

Phase 3: Resolution and Re-emergence into a Wiser Being

In the third phase, we’ve reached resolution and we evolve into our wiser self. We’ve learnt our lessons and we are ready to act differently because we are now a different person.

While resolution may also mean that all the wrong-doing that was part of the trauma is now corrected, it is not necessarily so. It does mean that we’ve reached a state of total forgiveness towards the trauma. Also, that the wound that used to be open is now healed. It may have left a scar or not, but it stopped hurting and it’s a closed chapter now.

Finally, the experience of our trauma might propel us into our bigger purpose, our mission on the Earth plane. If we are someone who has experienced great injustice, we might become a promoter of true justice. If we are someone who has experienced violence, we might become an apostle of Peace. History has shown us many great examples of people who have been scarred by severe trauma and who have emerged into a greater person who has a bigger purpose on Earth and who have made Society better as a result.

Conclusion

Thus, moving forward after a traumatic incident implies from my point of view these three phases. It’s important to be supportive of ourselves and of those we love when going through the healing process. Often times, we tend to isolate in our suffering due to the shame inherent in dealing with such difficulties. Yet healing can occur faster and more beautifully when we are supported. So if you are going through a though time, it can be of great help to reach out for help in your healing.

Experiencing trauma is hard for our psyches, as it implies a fragmentation of the self, as I illustrated it in my painting Northern Lights. Healing it means integration of the lost parts of our self, and coming back to the love and wholeness we knew before the split of the trauma. This is how the journey of my poetry volume Embraced by Love was for me, and hopefully for everyone who chooses to embark on this healing journey with me.

Sending lots of Healing thoughts to everyone who’s having a hard time with trauma,