Post-Traumatic Growth
by Rev. Cory Bradford-Watts
Readings
Luke 24: 1-8
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” Then they remembered his words.
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Most of us carry some amount of trauma and trauma response with us, even if we don’t realize it. Traumas aren’t always as easily diagnosed as X, Y, or Z, and can even be sourced from general social structures, such as the negative impacts of capitalism or of certain social norms that haven’t held space for us. Lesser known or appreciated, however, is the growth that can be found through healing from trauma and using the challenges in our lives as a springboard for positive transformation. Unlike the negative effects of trauma, these positive responses aren’t typically immediate, and often take years or lifetimes to grow and fruit, although they can be helped along through mindfulness work and the power of our God-given presence. Similarly, our earth is now poised to continue its plunge into humanmade disaster through global warming and our negative transformation of ecosystems, or we can accept this earthly trauma as an opportunity to wake up and engage with our natural selves and world to create a time of growth and positive transformation we can hardly imagine.
It’s true that we each carry traumas in different ways, depending on our mind, history, and untold factors. Two people can go through the exact same things and have wildly different reactions. But like our impact on mother earth, trauma has a sizeable impact on all of us that is hard to quantify, and that often takes dedicated counseling or spiritual practice to transform toward the positive. Even things we quantify as “our history” instead of “trauma” can pull us out of the moment and into a state of disconnection when we allow our minds to live “in them.” This lack of presence is what’s often alluded to as being asleep from a spiritual perspective.
There’s also the opposite risk, where instead of ruminating in our trauma, we ignore it and its impact. We do this when we identify so much with our anger, pain, and hurt, that we allow it to run our lives when it’s present. We also do this when we run away from the memories and reactions that come up within us, instead of shining onto them with the power of our presence. In our call to be present to the moment and the living God within and around us, we must also be present to ourselves – noting the various ways we might feel pain in a moment, while not falling into the trap of identifying with that pain.
When we start to identify with presence and lean into it, we can have the patience and power to be there for ourselves and others, non-judgmentally. And instead of becoming analytical psychotherapists (although, these are helpful!), we can allow the breadth of peace and compassion within to salve traumas we’ll never be able to fully analyze or know. We’re told through the scriptures that this is reconnecting with the source and our natural self, taking the time to let go of conceptual ideas of “who I am” and just be with the “I AM.” Through this meditative mode of being, we come to find deep wisdom and love in reaction to our traumas and become present to any lingering pain, which allows it to dissipate.
More broadly, this is similar to how we must hold our traumatized earth. We must become in tune with the trauma around us, noting that manicured grassy lawns are not natural, that our impact is colossal, and that the same system that bulldozes our souls bulldozes ecosystems and species. For our own sakes, we’re called to presence in the moment, which allows us to reconnect with ourselves and our environments instead of being lost in delusion.
In a way, we’ve been given an opportunity beyond imagination. With the tools of the 21st century and the wisdom of the sages, we’re called to post-traumatic growth together. Traumas can serve as deep motivators for change and becoming awake, which is probably the reason life always presents its challenges. As we come to realize that challenges may never end in this life, we can start to let go of our trauma response of disappointment and pain in reaction to them, instead, feeling the call to presence, which leads to natural growth and transformation.
I can’t help but turn to a key representation of “post-traumatic growth” (a term I borrowed from a friend at the Church of the Good Shepherd), and that’s Christ and the story of his redemption. No matter our beliefs about Christ, we can see in the gospel a description of a man that was always empowering presence and showing its compassionate, peaceful, healing power. God in the flesh, according to the gospel, Christ’s death and glorious resurrection clearly represent some divine power of post-traumatic growth. In his death, we see what it means to be continuously compassionate and present to God’s will in the moment, and in his redemption, we see a representation of the transforming love and growth that such presence, love, and care can bring. The women searching his tomb, as they do in our reading, are like us – rightfully admonished for looking for the living God in the tomb of habitual thinking instead of present among us, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!”
Like a seed, Christ was planted in the earth and untold people were impacted by the power of his mercy, love, and wakefulness well-after he sprouted into glory. His is a story of the transforming power of presence with enough power that the powers-that-be often strive to coopt it in order to limit its living presence in the world, just as they do other powerful tales. Indeed, we become that kind of deadly power when we become entombed by our histories and misuse religions to further hurt and pain in this world, instead of allowing compassionate presence to open our eyes to love and light.
Whether it’s ancient and indigenous scripture, the natural world, or our minds, we’re called to post-traumatic growth, reclaiming and re-empowering these things for the sake of life as we know it. The more steps removed we are from the root of these things, the less health we’ve garnered. Whether that means ignoring God’s wise message of peace and love; the natural world’s message of peace and love; or our minds’ intrinsic message of… peace and love. To do this we must peacefully engage with these things, being open to their wisdom and needs, and allowing our intrinsic connection to God’s love at the heart of awareness to lead each and every moment to post-traumatic growth, seeing every challenge for the opportunity and reminder that it is.
Peace and presence to you,
Cory