by Navjit Kandola
It is not easy to tell others we are struggling, or that a past trauma keeps us in mental and emotional lockdown. Worse, sometimes we don’t even realise that we are hiding or engaging in behaviours that harm us and those around us.
PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, has become a common, household phrase, but very few have an actual understanding of the nature of the disorder and even fewer know how far reaching and truly debilitating its effects are. The common understanding is that it only affects combat veterans and abuse victims, but the real story is that it affects an estimated 24.3 million people in the US alone.*
PTSD is diagnosed when the following three symptoms are experienced.
1 The traumatic event is relived/reexperienced again and again also known as “flashbacks”.
2 Avoidance of people and places that could potentially trigger memories of the trauma.
3 Being hyper-alert, looking for danger. Not able to focus, relax or sleep.
Overwhelmed with guilt, shame, disassociation, feelings of failure, and suicide clutter the lives of sufferers as they attempt to live normal lives.
But this doesn’t have to be the whole story.
Through the help of trauma therapists, craniosacral work, diet, and other holistic approaches we can begin to unfold insights and opportunities that present themselves throughout the healing process. Theses opportunities and insights provide the way to wholeness and home.
Recently, I was interviewed by the host of the Anxiety Slayer podcast, Shann Vander Leek about my experience with trauma and the strategies that helped me to deal with setbacks, pain and making important decisions after my trauma event of 2nd and 3rd-degree burns caused by burning jet fuel from an exploding plane.
Please have a listen and share with anyone you think could benefit from hearing a different perspective on how to deal with trauma. Contact me if you need some loving guidance.
Thank you.
Anxiety Slayer was created in 2009 by Shann Vander Leek & Ananga Sivyer. The two teamed up to present Anxiety Slayer podcast with the intention of supporting anyone whose life is overshadowed by stress or anxiety. The podcast episodes have been downloaded over 3,372,518 times in total.
*See more: http://www.ptsdunited.org/ptsd-statistics-2/#sthash.o7mTy09T.dpuf
by Navjit Kandola
Do you believe in miracles? Do you believe that power resides in each and every one of us? This is my miracle story and can be the beginning of yours, too
Sitting in bandages and excruciating pain, I closed my eyes and asked for a miracle. A miracle that would take away the pain and also for a way to pay the bills. I asked with all my heart and everything I had.
This was 2010. My 2 year old son and I had just survived having a small plane hit electrical wires 50 feet from where we stood. The heat from the jet fuel explosion had burned us both, badly. One moment we were standing in the Bahamas, watching a beautiful sunset. The next moment and for a long time after, life was fire and pain.
I took a deep breath and I opened my eyes. The pain was still there, as were the bills.
“Of course, the pain is still here! No easy way out of this one!” I thought to myself.
I picked up a letter from the pile of letters addressed to me. It was from Women for Women International – an organization that helps women in war torn countries with food, shelter and life skills. I read of their struggles: recovering from rape, torture, loss of loved ones and their homes.
I wondered what miracles they prayed for and what would actually help them. Here I was asking for my pain to end and a way to pay bills, and here were these women who needed so little financially ($30 per month) for their lives to be transformed. All of us,
somehow in the same boat of: fear, helplessness and pain.
I thought, “I could send one woman some money and change her life perhaps even create a little ease.” All I had to do was make that decision. In the scheme of things, what was another $30 on top of the thousands I owed to the hospitals? Not much, but to her, that woman who was hungry, afraid, it could be lifesaving: a prayer answered. A miracle.
All of a sudden, I realized…
All I had to do was give–and I did.
I learned two things that day:
- I could perform miracles simply by helping another.
- If I asked and was open to receiving, I, too, could be supported and experience miracles.
These two realizations opened a new relationship in my consciousness to “miracles” and how we can manifest them in our own lives.
Often, when we’re experiencing hardships, we close ourselves off to the possibilities or opportunities that are also present. While I was in pain, and we had (what seemed like) insurmountable debt, I was subconsciously blocking abundance in my life because I was only focusing on the debt and pain.
As I expanded my consciousness, I realized: I was not alone. The pain would end. The bills would get paid. I had an abundant life. My pain did end and the hospital bills were paid. Not instantly but in step with grace. I had to open myself up by allowing space for the pain to end and the bills to get paid.
Consciousness was the key to creating this quickening, to create this miracle.
There are many occasions in life when we are confronted by difficulties and strife, where it feels like we are alone and helpless. It is at such times, we look outside of ourselves and we beseech the universe, God, angels to help us. We want a miracle. And it is precisely at such times we must step up and engage with the situation at hand.
Engagement takes us out of the passive role in our lives to one of directing and manifesting exactly what we need and desire through our choices.
Manifesting isn’t a magical act, it’s a conscious act. When we engage with our bodies, our inner voice, and with life itself, we are revitalized by the possibilities that are are available to us.
This holiday season, I want you to take stock of areas in your life that are feeling stuck or in need of a miracle and make a list. Now think of people who are in situations similar to yours and how you could contribute to their lives. By shifting the perspective from feeling helpless or stuck to helping someone else who feels they are in dire straits, we move the energy. This movement of energy is what miracles are made of: turning the impossible to possible.
Now go out and make some miracles happen! Small, big, personal, local or global, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you get to harness the game changing capacities within you and you use them for creating good.
Happy holidays, my friend. Be the miracle maker!
Psst. Don’t forget that you can get some holiday help with Surviving Holidays: 12 Meditations To Keep You Sane and Cheerful.
