Big T or little t?

I sat cuddled up with my daughter reading the ear worm of a book, Dr. Seuss's ABC's. Every page begins with Big A, little a (going through each letter of the alphabet) what begins with A? This question is followed by some ridiculous string of things that start with that particular letter. When we got to Big T, little t, what begins with T? Ten tired turtles on a tuttle tuttle tree, I started thinking about another meaning for Big T, little t which is the T that stands for trauma. 

Trauma is hard to ignore these days. The unspoken, and sometimes spoken, traumas that we all carry and have experienced over the last two years are very real and seem to be growing. The unthinkable trauma that the people of Ukraine are facing, the trauma related to an ongoing pandemic, the trauma from our past and even the trauma that years of dieting does to your body are just a handful of the traumas you and I have endured. 

What do we do with our Big and little T’s? Do we ignore them? Do we carry them in a locked suitcase (those locks never work anyways) with us every day and keep them safely tucked away? Do we let our traumas shape us for good or stay paralyzed in our thoughts by re-living our traumas which makes them feel like the fresh, fleshy wounds after a bicycle crash on a gravel road? 

I’m no therapist, but I have some thoughts on this. Here are some things to consider. 

1. Seek therapy or coaching. Getting help is a sign of strength, not weakness.
2. Do yoga or some other form of meditation. 
3. Turn towards your difficult feelings instead of away from them. I practiced this with my yoga students in pigeon pose this week and we all needed the reminder that going towards pain can feel scary, but it can offer relief physically and/or mentally. 
4. Let go of fear. When we have fear, we try controlling things, especially our food and our bodies. The opposite of fear is love. Where and how can you cultivate a little more self love this week? 
5. Release your grip on control. You can’t be out of control unless you’re trying to control something in the first place.
6. Listen to this podcast about how the body processes trauma with the author of the bestselling book, The Body Keeps The Score. 
7. Seek community, especially through movement modalities. 

Let’s keep remembering that we all have trauma, whether it’s Big T or little t and share compassion and kindness with ourselves and each other. You never know what someone else is going through. And let’s commit to ending the trauma that can result from participation in diet culture. That's a letter t that you can start with today, right now.