Whether trauma will be a cruel and punishing Gorgon or a vehicle for soaring to the heights of transformation and mastery depends upon how we approach it.
Peter A. LevineRead
If frightening sensations are not given the time and attention they need to move through the body and resolve or dissolve, the individual will continue to be gripped by fear.
Interpretation
Acknowledging and processing fear is essential for resolution and overcoming it.
This quote emphasizes the importance of allowing oneself to fully experience and acknowledge frightening sensations. Rather than suppressing fear, giving it time and attention enables individuals to process and ultimately resolve these feelings, preventing a continuous cycle of fear that can take hold of their lives.
In practice
During a therapy session, a counselor might use this quote to encourage clients to face their fears.
Whether trauma will be a cruel and punishing Gorgon or a vehicle for soaring to the heights of transformation and mastery depends upon how we approach it.
We may forget, or be unaware of, how prevalent it is to be sexually traumatized by events that are generally not thought of as traumatizing.
The effects of unresolved trauma can be devastating. It can affect our habits and outlook on life, leading to addictions and poor decision-making. It can take a toll on our family life and interpersonal relationships. It can trigger real physical pain, symptoms, and disease. And it can lead to a range of self-destructive behaviors.
The paradox of trauma is that it has both the power to destroy and the power to transform and resurrect.
When people have been traumatized, they are stuck in paralysis-the immobility reaction or abrupt explosions of rage.
Excessive caution destroys the soul and the heart, because living is an act of courage, and an act of courage is always an act of love.
I've done truth to power all my life. It's got me into trouble, but who cares?
It was foolish indeed - thus to run farther and farther from all who could help her, as if she had been seeking a fit spot for the goblin creature to eat her in at his leisure; but that is the way fear serves us: it always sides with the thing we are afraid of.
The preservation of peace and the guaranteeing of man's basic freedoms and rights require courage and eternal vigilance: courage to speak and act - and if necessary, to suffer and die - for truth and justice; eternal vigilance, that the least transgression of international morality shall not go undetected and unremedied.
A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man's self-respect and inherent human dignity.
As long as Ireland is unfree the only honourable attitude for Irish men, women to have is an attitude of rebellion.
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