What is Collective Trauma?

The first assumption of collective is that we are not two. We are all connected and individuated. That there is one “nervous system, collective consciousness, etc. and trauma is that we are all connected. part of nervous system already encoded through past generations when we come into this world. It is the aftermath of war, of the parent who suffers with a substance use disorder and their parent before who did the same. To understand what is effective in the realm of evolutionary growth, it's crucial to observe our handling of the experience of intra and inter-connected bonds. The amount of trauma or health is dependent on the intensity, duration, and variation of the energy of the nervous system that we came in with, and how we learn over time to regulate it.

It is also true, that from life's onset, we are taught to differentiate. We split from our Divine Essence into our body's cells. We part from our mothers at birth and are assimilated into a society. How we assimilate into society is teaches us to distance ourselves from our true selves. It appears that life is a voyage of learning to reconcile the dichotomies of separation and reunite them within our human form, to rediscover our COMPLETENESS.

How do we build the capacity to be the holding environment for ourselves and one another?  What lives in the space between the seemingly paradoxical nature of humanity? How do we hold this tension within ourselves? Between ourselves and others?  Within a group? And what about with other groups and containers? What are the ingredients that help us relax the tension into fluid movement?

We believe it begins with developing the skill and the capacity for each person to "tune-into" and follow the movements of what is present with energetic awareness. We are experimenting with ourselves by utilizing action research practices within relational containers to expand our sense of the completeness of our Universe.

FINDING YOUR PLACE

How, where, and to whom do I belong? What IS Family? 

I guess the answer to that question depends partly on the environment you grew up in. To some people it is an experience of a warm, safe, nurturing place. A place where the nervous system can relax and there is enough stimulation to maintain curiosity about the world. It is nourishing. Hope lives there.

For others it is living in a chaotic environment where there is not enough to eat, there is little shelter, it is dirty. Fear lives there.

There are varying degrees of both thriving and survival, according to our old friend Maslow.

All of us live somewhere on that spectrum of survival. When it all comes down to it though, an overtaxed, relaxed, or under stimulated autonomic nervous system stems from the regulation of the autonomic nervous system.

The amount of recovery needed after “an assault” trauma or health is dependent on the intensity, duration, and variation of the energy of the nervous system.  

These energetic variations form certain patterns and waves which become  "structures" of energetic density in a living world.

What kind of structures are created in the human body from these energetic variations? How is this passed on in families? In cultures? What kind of patterns or symptoms does this create in the human body? How do clusters of symptoms show up in our world? 

We know that some forms are more resilient than others. What makes that so?

This is the basis of science. Studying the patterns. The way they move and change. These are some of the questions we will be pondering on this site, in our projects, and in our groups, "It is 'JUST' a Conversation."

THE ART OF TELLING YOUR FAMILY STORY

The basis of art is to tell a story about the phenomena of movement, stillness, and change. To notice the patterns and paint a picture so that others can understand it. To create a felt sense of it. 

The stories  we choose to tell, are the ones written into the body through these energetic movements. How many shapes can the body make? How much energy  is allowed to move through it? How does that change the space and the world we live in? 

What sounds come through our lips? What words do we choose to talk about the experience of family? What do we believe about what we see and feel? How do we discover and express truth?

I can only tell you what I re-member about my family when we meet. In that meeting, is where all conversations begin integrating into our Inter-generational DNA.

CREATING BALANCE

Holding the beauty and the difficulties of LIFE.  How do we learn to hold love and fear at the same time?  How do we absorb the "shocks" life brings us and allow them to pass through us and remain grounded in our bodies while we develop a deeper intimacy within ourselves to connect with one another?

We are all craving the kind of deep communion and love that will transform our world into a place where we can honor both our individuality and our union.

“My body’s been touched a thousand or more times but I am craving something so much deeper than that ~ I desire to be felt, right down to the core of my soul and the corners of my heart. That’s what love is about isn’t it ~ cracking yourself open to the possibility that it could change your life.” 

— -Nikki Rowe