Last chance to create a “February Newsletter” as it is the last day of the month! On my morning walk today I could hear more birds than a week ago, and the sun actually warmed my face with this very specific feeling when winter and spring seem to debate about letting spring in yet or not…

My favorite place this winter has been in front of the fire, and here I’ve spent many hours and book pages! Yesterday I finished this book; Healing Collective Trauma – a process for integrating our intergenerational and cultural wounds by Thomas Hübl.

He describes the links and effects between our personal traumas and the global traumas we currently can see in the word, like wars, nature disasters, racism and climate change. He also shares his thoughts about what we need to do to heal, ourselves and the world. An important book I highly recommend!

I know I’m becoming a little of a “nervous system nerd”! I just find it so amazing how we are physically and neurologically wired for connection and survival. Our autonomic nervous system doesn’t only keep us alive; it takes care of digestion, breathing and supports us in either rising our puls for action, or slowing it down for rest and digest. And meanwhile, I don’t have to do anything. Amazing isn’t it! This 8-minute short video shows in a brilliant way how our nervous system also adapts for survival when we’ve experienced trauma;

Trauma and the Nervous System

I recently completed a training in Developmental Trauma and have gained some more tools to work with “preverbal trauma”, which means trauma or events that happened already in our mother’s womb, at birth or shortly after. At this time in our life, we don’t have a language, and memories are stored in the body and not in our brain.

So understandably, working with these traumas needs to be accessed in a way where words have a minor roll, and when a safe space is created, healing happens when there is connection, trust and supportive touch. 
Read more about Transforming Touch® and Transforming Intentional Touch® under Approaches.

As days goes by, I welcome with gratitude the longer days and the slightly warmer ray of sunlight. Spring is around the corner, even if winter is still present. For me, seasons are constant reminders of change and possibilities. So as we move forward I’d like to end with yet another beautiful poem by David Whyte;

BLESSING FOR THE MORNING LIGHT

The blessing of the morning light to you,
may it find you even in your invisible
appearances,

may you be seen to have risen
from some other place you know and have known
in the darkness and that that carries all you need.

May you see what is hidden in you
as a place of hospitality and shadowed shelter,
may what is hidden in you become your gift to give,

may you hold that shadow to the light
and the silence of that shelter to the word of the light,

may you join every previous disappearance
with this new appearance, this new morning,
his being seen again, new and newly alive.

With gratitude,

Helena