STOP being a survivor

​Dear Human,
Did you know that we are the only species that continues to live in the past? If an animal in the wild is confronted by a threat, she will run or fight to survive. However, as soon as that threat is gone, she will go back to loving her life, enjoying the open range, the cool water or the dense woods, the trees, the birds, the plentiful food. She does not live in the high adrenaline state of fear. She does not replay the threat over and over in her mind. She will remember which circumstance provided the possibility of threat (the watering hole), and she will be alert, but she will relish the water, play in the water and thrive.
As humans we have the capacity to relive any memory. We often embellish these memories to keep them alive, and we live them over and over again. If the memory is good we enjoy going back to it. If the memory is unpleasant, we dread it and it often finds us in our sleep.
As humans we pride ourselves in being survivors. We have all experienced trauma at some point in our lives. It might have been beatings or neglect as a child, or the extreme of seeing someone you care for brutally murdered – trauma is part of every person’s experience.   
Another often unreasonable capacity we humans have that our animal friends do not, is the ability to attach guilt and or blame to the trauma. That then brings up anger and resentment, either toward ourselves or the perpetrator. Of course the anger and resentment fester in our souls creating a fetid swamp that eats away at our joy.
We call ourselves ‘Survivors’ with so much pride. We have been through the fire and we lived. We live with the pain, but we keep going. We keep pushing through. We keep surviving. What a sad way to live.
I believe, because I have seen it over and over in my practice, that we humans can release the energy of trauma. We can allow it to surface and then let it go. We can recognize it for what it was, a profound experience that showed us what we do not want in this life. It showed us what we do not want to create for ourselves or others. It also showed us what we DO WANT to create for ourselves and other.
For those who grew up in the 60’s, our trauma was Viet Nam and the horrors of segregation that we were so ready to abolish. We protested. We wrote songs. We experimented with different life styles. We tried so many things to create change, and it was the beginning of awareness. The focus was on LOVE.  
So I challenge you to STOP being a survivor. Stop defining yourself by all of the horrors you have lived through. Stop dwelling on the past, replaying it over and over so that it becomes the very essence of your physical life. This is not who you are! This is not who you came here to be.
I see you as an amazing BEING OF LIGHT! I see you as POWERFUL! You do not have to be simply a survivor, you can be a THRIVOR! You can live in the now instead of the past. You can be excited about the future and the possibilities for creating something even better.  Go back to your ‘wild’ nature and thrive in the now. 

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