@yogagirl, thanks for the update. Has there ever been another time when such a large group of people has railed against MM at a rally, as they did this weekend? Interesting and sad about his daughters and son-in-law. I saw the tombstone photo -- really low-life, disgusting.
I wonder...I’m in the 26th month separation from my twin flame. I am starting to think that Trump, while obviously horrible, had to come here to make us reveal and heal all of our trauma.
If it weren’t for him, we’d be still going along...pretending everything is okay. For me, I need to let it all go. Let all the fear and trauma and anger from my life go so I can make room for my twin flame.
Trump is forcing this healing. Much like vomiting forcing your to expel the dangerous poison that is in your body
Hi Rowsella!
I read about that study last month too, not the article you posted but a different on e about the study. I found it quite insightful. I also was encouraged that it appears a positive, enriching environment can change the effects on the traumatized subject. That is hopeful news for all, including our traumatized migrant children and those who are victims of shootings and other devastating events. We as a society have a responsibility to develop and provide as much care to her heal those who have experienced trauma. It is a moral obligation. Of course stoppingthe trauma before it happens is also imperative.
I love how you are making positive impacts to your daily routine and sharing them with us. It is inspiring. Thanks for checking in with everyone here. Welcome back.
@deetoo As far back as I can remember this is hte first time. Usually the crowd is pretty tane maybe a little heckling is all. But since Moron, Moscow Mitch and our idiot govenor who I will refer to as Moron light. The two terms prior to this last we have had a Democrat governor. Actually there are more registered Dems in Kentucky than Reps. But we had a balance of Congressmen. Pretty even on both sides. Since the last election in 2016 it tipped to the Reps. Many consider us a Southern state and bigotry is in full force. Now I don't think that is so true. Many people have figured out MM is a greedy money hungry SOB. It has been more previlent then in past years.. Although many in the state didn't like Obama because of his race, they did appreciate he was a good man. It started with the "no child left behind" legistation that MM co-sponsored with George W at the end of his last term. As soon as W was gone MM refused to fund the bill and it died. That didn't go over really well with our strong teachers union. Now that he has back-stabbed the coal miners, hopefully things will change.
Happy birthday, lovely @rowsella! I was delighted to see your post, for so many reasons.
You wrote: "If there is nothing that more characterizes the human condition in these modern times, I think addiction is it."
I wholeheartedly agree.
And I believe that our compulsive obsession with short-term opiates (e.g., food, reality tv, sex, etc.) and amphetamines (e.g., money, validation, video games, et al) are what they've always been: the spiraling consequence of suppressed development. When human beings are allowed and encouraged to develop, grow, and evolve, and this process is unimpeded, at some point, they naturally stop searching outside themselves (either to the mother/caretaker or to sources in the material world) to help regulate their emotions and energies. The healthiest people you know, psychologically speaking, tend to be folks who eat clean and take care of their bodies. They're generally sober or sober-adjacent. They want to live well on the planet and aren't conspicuous consumers. They don't struggle with co-dependence or toxic relationship patterns. I could keep going.
It's our birthright to be able to actualize innate human capacities for both stillness and movement; we never need to become parasitic of others. But just as individuals are far and away more likely to struggle with addiction, disease, and early death when they have a history of developmental trauma (see the Advanced Childhood Experiences study, or ACEs), I think the reason we're seeing such an explosion of imbalance and addiction (and autoimmune diseases, etc) lies with generations of unhealed historical and collective traumas. I've said the same here many times, I know.
We're all living in a traumatized field of energy, but it's ours. We are it. No one did it to us—not the patriarchy, not the colonialists, not the Christians or Muslims or Flying Spaghetti Monsters. Not even Trump. He's risen to the surface, like every other authoritarian leader in the world right now, because the toxicity in the collective has become so potent that the developmental decay (or just evolutionary delay) that it represents could no longer stay hidden and suppressed. It's time to face it.
I didn't read the particular link you shared, but I'm very familiar with Dr. Isabelle Mansuy's work in epigenetics and the multigenerational transmission of trauma. In case that article isn't about this, here's something cool and important I think: Her teams "traumatized" male newborn mice by separating them periodically from their mothers for short periods of time in the first two weeks of life. They were then allowed to grow up 'normally' within their social groups. But as they grew, the males showed PTSD-type behaviors (agitation, fear, isolation), continuing through adulthood.
When the males were bred, the researchers followed their children and grandchildren. In this species, males do nothing to help care for their young (and don't stick nearby), so their progeny aren't exposed to their behaviors. But the researchers found that the children and grandchildren of the traumatized males, both males and females, strongly expressed the same PTSD-type behaviors as their original forebear. This suggested that epigenetic markers (for traumatized effects) are passed down via sperm. It's a significant finding for a lot of reasons, not least what it may (or may not) mean for human children, even where fathers were never present. [It goes without saying that mothers have a great deal of impact.]
I was taking a quick break from work just now and while I was cleaning, a couple of things sort of hit me. Not sure what to make of them. The first is a vision, the second is more of a weirdly hopeful feeling. I hope someone else (hi @BlueBelle!) might concentrate on them and see what comes up.
First: I saw Nikki Haley standing in a room beside a dark-haired GOP Congressman. It felt like they were accepting an offer to step up together as the Republican primary candidates in 2020. (Trump wasn't in the vision, so I'm hopeful that means he isn't in the running!) I don't know who the man was; I only saw Nikki Haley's face, but I sensed him. So, I just went through photos of all the GOP senators and representatives, and a few feel like possibilities, but I'm just not sure. They were Tom Cotton, Todd Young, Mike Turner, Ben Sasse, Marco Rubio, and Mitt Romney. Maybe Mark Meadows? (Please god no.) ... As I write this, part of me wonders whether the man I sensed isn't a DC outsider who happens to hold enough influence to feel like a statesman. Hmm...
Second: It's hard for me to believe this will happen under Trump (I don't), but I suddenly wonder whether we might just see relatively bipartisan movement toward common sense gun legislation by the end of 2020. (Strike while the NRA is weak, people!) This feeling is almost certainly inspired by the fact that my mother—who's a lifelong gun advocate (to put it astonishingly mildly), a card carrying member of the NRA (for real), ferociously anti-immigrant (etc... use your imagination), and (if it even needs to be said) a Trump supporter (she's the lady base, y'all)—told me yesterday that she's decided that assault weapons and high-capacity magazines should be outlawed.
?[<-- cannot possibly do justice to the shocked expression I'm still wearing today]
Could it be Paul Ryan? I've had visions before that I've seen him back in front line politics. Ryan is VP or in a White House role. I know he's retired and no longer a Congressman, but i think he's very influential in the Republicans. 'Power behind the throne', I'm hearing as I'm typing this.
Hi Vestra! I think you may have explained this better than me - I probably got it wrong as I was going on memory of a conversation with my son and did not review the article before posting the link and it is probably more correct because you cannot attribute the behaviors to "learned" or nurture-- it is entirely genetic. Trauma alters the genome.
I personally have to come to grips with my own addictive behavior. Internet, junk food, tv... I lost my brother to heroin last November. My father was an alcoholic. Both my parents were addicted to nicotine and that killed them.
Agreed that Trump is a reflection of us as a nation. Whether he obtained his office by cheating or not, that whole "winning is everything" American "competitive spirit" is consistent. I voted for Hillary Clinton and while I thought she was qualified and would have been a better president than Trump by every measure, there is still the fact that she also had a pragmatic/incremental approach and I doubt she would have been able to effect much change with the Legislative House dominated by the Republicans. I am torn about foreign policy. While I desire peace, would it really be possible in the current global cycle/pattern we are in now? I am not convinced that isolationist policies (which are a choice-- to do nothing) are always the right thing. After all, look at WW2-- if we had stayed out of it, Britain would have fallen (well, they were flat broke). I am still so ashamed that we turned ships full of Jewish children away.
Wow-- your Mom said that? I can only imagine you looked up for pigs in the air! It is stuff like that which gives hope for humanity. However, don't be surprised that listening to 12 hours of am Republican Talk Radio aka brain-washing, she may come up with a different angle to it all. I found that innate common sense among some friends of mine was often abandoned later once the propaganda/talking points were pushed from all quarters.