You are not your thoughts, emotions, or experiences—you are the conscious awareness behind them. Identifying with these inner phenomena creates a disturbed inner world that you mistakenly try to fix with the outside world. Spiritual growth involves changing your relationship with your mind and emotions by releasing their past stored blockages and rediscovering the stillness, clarity, and joy of your true nature.
How do we remain committed to staying sober when grief strikes, when stress becomes overwhelming, or when shame threatens to pull us back into old patterns?
This week on Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon welcomes Steven Washington, a former professional Broadway dancer who has transformed his 23-year recovery journey into a powerful practice of embodied healing. Steven is the author of Recovering You: Soul Care and Mindful Movement for Overcoming Addiction and creator of the SWE Studio, an online community offering movement and meditation support for people in recovery.
In this deeply personal interview, Tami and Steven explore:
Why recovery must be “non-negotiable”—with no conditions attached, regardless of life’s challenges
How shame operates as the linchpin of addiction and the healing power of sharing it with trusted others
The connection between sensitivity and addiction, and how to transform sensitivity from vulnerability into strength
Practical tools for creating a trigger plan that works for both small daily stressors and major life crises
How Qigong and embodied practices help regulate the nervous system and process emotions held in the body
The journey from inherited shame to self-compassion and authentic self-worth
Why asking for help—practiced with small things—prepares us for life’s biggest challenges
Developing a personal relationship with a higher power that feels authentic rather than inherited
If you’re navigating recovery, supporting someone who is, or seeking to understand the connection between embodiment and transformation, Steven offers both practical wisdom and profound compassion for the journey.
Note: This interview originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at https://www.join.soundstrue.com
The world’s mental health crisis is real, but so is your capacity to meet it. What if the skills that lead to genuine flourishing are already built into you, waiting to be activated?
This week, Tami Simon speaks with Richard Davidson—one of the most highly cited scientists in the world and a pioneer in the neuroscience of emotion and meditation—and Cortland Dahl, contemplative scientist, Buddhist translator, and co-founder of Tergar International, about their new book, Born to Flourish: How New Science and Ancient Wisdom Reveal a Simple Path to Thriving. Drawing on decades of research with long-term meditators, guidance from the Dalai Lama, and the world’s wisdom traditions, they offer a science-backed framework for wellbeing that is both profound and surprisingly accessible.
Join Tami, Richard, and Cortland to explore:
Why flourishing is a skill—not a personality trait or a stroke of luck—and how we know this from hard scientific data
The four pillars of wellbeing: awareness, connection, insight, and purpose—and why two of them have been largely ignored by Western science
What it means to be “born to flourish” and the research on infants that proves it
How just five minutes a day of intentional practice—piggybacked onto everyday activities—can produce measurable changes in behavior and biology
Why flourishing doesn’t mean happiness: you can grieve, rage, or struggle and still be flourishing
The role of neuroplasticity in reshaping our relationship to anxiety, reactivity, and negative narrative
Why flourishing is contagious—and why that matters more than ever right now
If the world feels like it’s falling apart, Richard and Cortland make a compelling, evidence-based case that the path forward is not as hard as you think.
Listen now and discover what you were born to do. →
This conversation offers genuine transmission—not just concepts about awakening, but the palpable presence of realized teachers exploring the growing edge of spiritual understanding together. Originally aired on Sounds True One.
You know the object of your addiction is bad for you. So why can’t you stop? Dr. Connie Zweig has spent decades working with people who feel stuck in exactly that gap between knowing and changing.
Zweig is a retired Jungian therapist and the author of the newly republished Meeting the Shadow and Romancing the Shadow — the books that helped launch the shadow-work movement, and the reason a new generation is now discovering it on TikTok.
In this clip, she walks Tami through her method step by step, using the story of a client who couldn’t stop eating ice cream every night while waiting for an unavailable boyfriend to call. Awareness alone, Zweig explains, is never enough. You have to name the shadow character, trace it back to where it was first modeled, and uncover the valid need hiding underneath it.
What you’ll take away from this clip:
Why awareness of a compulsive pattern rarely changes it on its own
How to identify a “shadow character” through its recurring thoughts, feelings, and body sensations
Why every addictive or compulsive behavior is protecting a valid, hidden need
Zweig’s own story of discovering her “judge” shadow character — inherited from her father
This episode is sponsored by Omega Institute, a global gathering hub for lifelong learning and spiritual exploration. Omega offers weekend workshops, special events, rest and rejuvenation retreats, professional training, online learning, and more. Discover what calls to you ateomega.org/true.
Out-of-body experiences have been reported across cultures, continents, and centuries. Some people describe a crystalline sense of awareness hovering beyond the body. Others speak of a subtle perceptual shift—something vivid and expansive that resists easy explanation. Whatever the form, these experiences tend to leave a mark, raising quiet but persistent questions about where consciousness truly lives and how elastic our sense of self can really be.
At Sounds True, we have spent decades sharing the living wisdom of spiritual teachers, scientists, and researchers devoted to consciousness and human awareness. Since 1985, our work has been guided by one enduring conviction: that direct experience, honest inquiry, and genuine inner growth have the power to change lives.
Here, we examine what science and spirituality suggest about out-of-body experiences, how these perspectives intersect, and what they reveal about consciousness exploration and human awareness.
Key Takeaways:
Explore Your Sense of Self: Out-of-body experiences reveal just how fluid awareness and identity can be. Far from being fixed in one place, consciousness appears to have edges that shift, expand, and occasionally surprise us completely.
Science and Spirituality Circle the Same Mystery: Neuroscience and ancient wisdom traditions each offer real insight into OBEs. Both quietly admit they don’t have the full picture, but that shared humility is where the conversation gets fascinating.
The Real Depth Lives in the Return: The lasting power of an OBE has little to do with how vivid or dramatic it was. Grounding, reflection, and weaving new awareness into everyday life are where genuine transformation takes root.
Out-of-Body Experience Research and the Science of Consciousness Exploration
Out-of-body experiences have drawn increasing interest from scientists studying how consciousness and self-awareness are formed. Rather than being treated as fringe events, OBEs are now examined as altered states that reveal how flexible our sense of identity and location can be. From a research perspective, these experiences suggest that consciousness is not always anchored to the physical body in the way we assume during ordinary waking life.
How Neuroscience Explains the Experience of Leaving the Body
Neuroscience often explains an out-of-body experience as a disruption in how the brain integrates sensory information. Vision, balance, and bodily sensation usually work together to create the feeling of being located inside the body. When that coordination shifts, awareness may feel as though it has moved outside the physical form.
From this perspective, the experience is psychologically real and well worth taking seriously, even when science stops short of calling it a literal departure from the physical. The focus lands on how perception changes, not on dismissing the experience.
What Science Explains (and What Still Escapes It)
While research can identify brain activity associated with OBEs, it still cannot fully explain consciousness or why awareness feels continuous and meaningful. This limitation has led many researchers to acknowledge that current models describe correlation rather than cause. Revolutionary Discoveries from Non-Ordinary Realities reflects this open question, pointing to the possibility that consciousness may not be fully explained by neurological processes alone. In this context, out-of-body experiences invite curiosity rather than certainty, encouraging an ongoing dialogue between science and inner experience.
Spiritual Traditions, Astral Projection, and Nonphysical States of Awareness
Long before modern neuroscience took an interest, spiritual traditions described out-of-body experiences as natural expressions of expanded awareness. Across cultures, these states were not framed as unusual but as accessible moments in which consciousness loosens its identification with the physical body.
Within these teachings, the experience is often understood as a shift in perception rather than an escape from the body. Attention moves inward, awareness becomes more subtle, and the sense of self widens.
Astral Projection in Ancient and Contemporary Lineages
Astral projection appears in mystical traditions ranging from Tibetan Buddhism to Western esoteric schools. In these contexts, practitioners describe a nonphysical body that can move independently of the physical form while awareness remains clear and intentional. The emphasis is rarely on spectacle, but on insight and spiritual maturity.
Modern interpretations often echo these earlier teachings, suggesting that astral projection reflects the mind’s ability to function beyond ordinary sensory limits. Works such as The Flowering of Human Consciousness explore how these experiences fit within a broader unfolding of human awareness, rather than standing apart as isolated phenomena.
The Subtle Body and Spiritual Maps of Consciousness
Many spiritual systems describe layers of experience, sometimes called the subtle body. These maps offer language for understanding how consciousness operates beyond physical sensation, especially during meditation, dream states, or spontaneous OBEs. The Subtle Body Online Training Program offers a structured way to explore these layers directly, inviting practitioners to recognize how awareness itself moves when attention is no longer fixed on the physical senses.
Rather than presenting a single explanation, these traditions invite direct exploration. Out-of-body experiences, from this view, are moments that reveal how identity can shift when attention is no longer fixed on the physical senses. They are less about leaving the body and more about recognizing how awareness itself moves.
Spiritual Traditions, Astral Projection, and Nonphysical States of Awareness
Spiritual traditions have long described out-of-body experiences as natural shifts in awareness rather than rare events. These states are often understood as moments when attention moves beyond ordinary sensory perception, revealing a broader experience of consciousness.
Astral Projection in Ancient and Contemporary Lineages
Astral projection appears in many traditions as a cultivated movement of awareness guided by intention and discipline. The focus is less on the experience itself and more on the insight and responsibility that come with expanded perception.
The Subtle Body and Spiritual Maps of Consciousness
Many teachings describe subtle layers of awareness that organize perception beyond the physical body. These maps offer ways to understand OBEs as changes in how consciousness is experienced, rather than as departures from the body itself.
How to Have an Out-of-Body Experience with Intention and Care
Approaches to having an out-of-body experience consistently emphasize calm attention rather than force. Across contemplative traditions, OBEs are understood as states that arise when the mind is settled and awareness is steady, not when the experience is chased.
Preparation often includes deep relaxation, sustained focus, and emotional grounding. The Lucid Dreaming Training Program supports this foundation, training awareness during sleep states in ways that naturally extend into OBE territory. Equally important is integration. Grounding helps ensure that shifts in perception contribute to balance and understanding in daily life rather than becoming distractions or isolated moments.
Having an Out-of-Body Experience
Out-of-body experiences are most often approached through calm attention rather than effort. Across traditions, they are understood as states that arise when the mind and nervous system are settled. Preparation typically emphasizes relaxation, steady focus, and emotional grounding. Not every altered state leads to insight. Grounding helps integrate experience so that shifts in perception support clarity and balance in daily life.
Integrating Out-of-Body Experiences into Ongoing Consciousness Exploration
Out-of-body experiences often invite reflection rather than explanation. Their significance emerges over time, shaped by how the experience is understood, integrated, and related to everyday awareness.
Out-of-body experiences often shift how people relate to identity, perception, and awareness rather than providing concrete answers.
Their lasting value comes from reflection and integration, not from the intensity of the experience itself.
Grounding practices help translate expanded states of awareness into everyday understanding and emotional balance.
OBEs can soften rigid views of the self, encouraging curiosity about how consciousness functions in daily life.
When approached thoughtfully, these experiences support an ongoing relationship with consciousness rather than standing apart as isolated events.
Out-of-body experiences gain meaning through integration. Without grounding, even vivid states can fade without influencing daily life or inner growth. Related disciplines highlight this need for structure and responsibility. The Remote Viewing Online Training Course emphasizes disciplined perception and ethical awareness, reinforcing that expanded consciousness is most valuable when paired with clarity and integration.
Out-of-Body Experience Research and the Science of Consciousness Exploration
Scientific interest in the out-of-body experience has grown as researchers examine how consciousness and self-awareness are formed. Rather than dismissing OBEs, many studies now treat them as altered states that reveal how flexible perception and identity can be.
While neuroscience can track brain activity during these states, it cannot yet explain consciousness itself. This limitation has led to broader inquiry into whether awareness may extend beyond purely neurological processes. Teachings such as Consciousness and Beyond reflect this openness, inviting dialogue between scientific investigation and inner experience.
Spiritual Traditions, Astral Projection, and Nonphysical States of Awareness
Spiritual traditions across cultures describe out-of-body experiences as natural shifts in awareness rather than extraordinary events. These teachings often emphasize stability, ethics, and insight over dramatic experience.
Astral projection is frequently presented as a trained movement of consciousness, guided by intention and maturity. In this context, OBEs are understood as part of long-term inner development. This perspective is echoed in The Flowering of Human Consciousness, which situates such experiences within humanity’s evolving relationship with awareness.
How to Have Out of Body Experiences
Approaches to having an out-of-body experience consistently emphasize preparation over effort. Calm attention, emotional regulation, and familiarity with meditative states are seen as essential foundations. Rather than promoting techniques alone, guidance from our How to Have an Out-of-Body Experience podcast frames OBEs as an extension of contemplative practice. The focus remains on presence, self-awareness, and discernment rather than control.
Integrating Out-of-Body Experiences into Ongoing Consciousness Exploration
Out-of-body experiences gain meaning through integration. Without grounding, even vivid states can fade without influencing daily life or inner growth. Related disciplines highlight this need for structure and responsibility. Practices taught in Remote Viewing Trainingemphasize disciplined perception and ethical awareness, reinforcing that expanded consciousness is most valuable when paired with clarity and integration.
Final Thoughts
Out-of-body experiences invite a reconsideration of how consciousness is understood and experienced. Whether viewed through scientific inquiry or spiritual tradition, these states point to the fluid nature of awareness rather than fixed conclusions. When met with grounding and reflection, OBEs can deepen insight into everyday perception, reminding us that expanded awareness is less about extraordinary moments and more about how we relate to consciousness itself.
Frequently Asked Questions About Out-of-Body Experiences
What is the difference between an out-of-body experience and a vivid dream?
An out-of-body experience is marked by a sense of clear, stable awareness and the distinct feeling of perceiving from outside the physical body, while dreams often lack that same coherence and conscious recall during the experience itself. Many people who have had OBEs describe them as feeling more real than waking life, a quality that tends to set them clearly apart from even the most vivid or lucid dreams.
Are out-of-body experiences dangerous?
For most people, OBEs are not inherently harmful, but they can be disorienting when approached without grounding or emotional steadiness. Preparation and integration are considered important parts of the process, and many teachers recommend building a solid foundation in meditation or relaxation practices before actively exploring OBE techniques.
Can children have out-of-body experiences?
Yes, some people report OBEs during childhood, often spontaneously and without any prior practice or framework. These experiences may arise during illness, sleep transitions, or moments of heightened imagination.
Do out-of-body experiences happen only during sleep?
No, far from it. OBEs have been reported during meditation, deep relaxation, near-death experiences, and even fully awake altered states. Sleep is certainly one context where they arise, but consciousness exploration can open these states in a wide variety of circumstances.
Is astral projection the same as an out-of-body experience?
Astral projection is often described as a cultivated or trained form of out-of-body experience, guided by sustained practice over time, while OBEs can also happen spontaneously without any preparation at all. Both involve a sense of awareness moving beyond the physical body, but the paths to each can look quite different.
Can science prove whether out-of-body experiences are real?
Science can study brain activity and shifts in perception during OBEs, but determining whether awareness literally leaves the body remains outside current scientific reach. Honestly, consciousness itself is still one of the deepest open questions in both neuroscience and philosophy. OBEs sit right at the center of that inquiry.
Why do some people experience OBEs easily while others do not?
Sensitivity to inner states, prior experience with meditation, emotional openness, and nervous system regulation all appear to play a role in how readily OBEs occur. People who spend time cultivating a quiet, receptive inner life often find these states more accessible, though spontaneous experiences can happen to anyone regardless of background or practice.
Is it necessary to interpret an out-of-body experience symbolically?
Not necessarily. Some people find spiritual or symbolic frameworks genuinely helpful in making sense of what they experienced, while others prefer to treat OBEs as fascinating perceptual events without layering on deeper interpretation.
Sources:
Blanke O. (2004). Out of body experiences and their neural basis. BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 329(7480), 1414–1415. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1414
Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an author, activist, spiritual teacher, racial equity consultant, and intuitive healer. She is the author of six books, including Skill in Action and Finding Refuge. Amy Burtaine is a leadership coach and racial equity trainer. With Robin DiAngelo, she is the coauthor of The Facilitator’s Guide for White Affinity Groups. For more, visit https://www.michellecjohnson.com/wisdom-of-the-hive.
Healing after trauma can feel like standing in the dark, unsure if light will return. There may be moments of calm followed by waves of memory or emotion that are hard to make sense of. Many people quietly wonder if life will always carry this weight. Healing does not happen all at once. It unfolds slowly, often through small shifts in awareness, presence, and care.
At Sounds True, we have spent decades sharing transformational teachings from leading spiritual voices, preserving their wisdom in a way that feels real, immediate, and deeply human. Our work supports meaningful inner change, offering guidance that meets you where you are while opening space for healing and growth.
Here, we reflect on healing after trauma through trauma recovery, trusting the dawn, post traumatic growth, and the possibility of freedom after trauma.
Key Takeaways:
Healing Pace: Healing after trauma unfolds gradually as the nervous system relearns safety and connection
Inner Shift: Trusting the dawn supports trauma recovery by allowing openness without forcing change
Growth Potential: Post traumatic growth emerges naturally as freedom after trauma expands your capacity to be present
Healing After Trauma and Trauma Recovery: Relearning Safety Within
Healing after trauma often begins with a quiet question: is it safe to be here, in this moment? Trauma recovery invites us to stay with that question without rushing to answer it.
Healing is less about becoming someone new and more about returning to what has always been there. Beneath the layers of protection, something in us remains whole. Relearning safety is not about avoiding difficulty, but about meeting our experience with presence.
This shift unfolds in subtle ways: a deeper breath, a softening in the body, a moment without bracing. Trauma recovery grows from these small changes.
Over time, healing after trauma becomes less about changing what we feel and more about how we relate to it, allowing safety to emerge as a lived experience.
Trusting the Dawn in Trauma Recovery: Choosing Hope After Pain
Trusting the dawn reflects a quiet willingness to remain open, even when pain is present. In trauma recovery, this openness can feel uncertain, yet it creates space for something new to emerge.
Trusting the Dawn as a Gentle Willingness
Trusting the dawn begins as a subtle shift, a pause, a breath, a moment of curiosity. It is not about certainty, but about staying present and allowing possibility.
Choosing Hope Without Leaving Ourselves Behind
Hope does not require us to move away from pain. It invites us to hold both pain and tenderness together, creating space for healing after trauma to unfold naturally.
Freedom After Trauma: A Path Toward Post Traumatic Growth
Freedom after trauma is not something we arrive at all at once. It unfolds gradually, often in ways that are quiet and deeply personal. As we move through trauma recovery, our relationship with experience begins to change, and this shift opens the possibility for post traumatic growth.
Redefining Freedom After Trauma
Freedom after trauma does not mean that the past disappears. Memories may still arise. Emotions may still move through the body. What changes is the way we meet these experiences.
There can be a growing sense that we are not completely defined by what has happened. This recognition may feel unfamiliar at first. It may even feel unsettling, especially if identity has been shaped around surviving.
In trauma recovery, freedom emerges as we begin to respond rather than react. There is more space between what we feel and how we move with it. This space allows for choice, and within that choice, a new sense of agency begins to take root.
Post Traumatic Growth as a Natural Unfolding
Post traumatic growth is not something we create through effort. It is something that reveals itself as we make space for our experience.
This growth may appear as a deeper connection to others, a clearer sense of what matters, or a renewed appreciation for life. These shifts do not erase trauma. They exist alongside it, expanding what is possible.
In this way, freedom after trauma is not about leaving the past behind. It is about allowing our lives to become larger than what we have been through.
Post Traumatic Growth and Healing After Trauma: Allowing Meaning to Emerge
There is often a longing to make sense of what has happened. Yet in healing after trauma, meaning is not something we force. It is something that unfolds in its own time.
Letting Meaning Reveal Itself
Post traumatic growth does not follow a predictable path. There may be periods where everything feels unclear or unresolved. In these moments, it can be tempting to search for answers that bring immediate relief.
Trauma recovery invites a different approach. It asks us to stay with the unfolding, even when clarity has not yet arrived. Over time, meaning begins to take shape in ways that feel genuine rather than imposed.
This meaning is often felt rather than explained. It may show up as a quiet sense of alignment or a recognition of what truly matters.
Listening as a Path of Healing
Healing after trauma is supported by a deep form of listening. This listening is not limited to thoughts. It includes sensations, emotions, and subtle shifts in awareness.
As we listen, we begin to notice what brings a sense of ease and what creates contraction. These signals guide us gently, without force.
Post traumatic growth is nurtured through this relationship with our inner world. It grows in the space where we are willing to pay attention and respond with care.
Trauma Recovery Through Trusting the Dawn: Small Steps Toward Freedom After Trauma
Trauma recovery often unfolds through small, steady movements rather than dramatic change. Trusting the dawn becomes something we live, one moment at a time.
Pausing long enough to notice what is happening inside
Allowing breath to deepen without trying to control it
Recognizing moments of safety, even if they are brief
Letting emotions move without needing to resolve them immediately
Reaching toward connection when isolation feels familiar
Honoring the need for rest and stillness
These simple practices are not separate from healing after trauma. They are the path itself.
Over time, these moments begin to gather. They create a sense of continuity, a feeling that we can remain present with our experience. Freedom after trauma grows from this continuity.
Trusting the dawn becomes less about holding onto hope and more about participating in life as it unfolds. Through this participation, post traumatic growth begins to emerge in ways that feel natural and sustainable.
Trusting the Dawn and Post Traumatic Growth: Living Beyond Survival
Survival is a natural response to overwhelming experience. It protects and helps us endure, yet there comes a time when it no longer needs to carry everything.
Trusting the dawn invites us to sense when there is space for something more, without leaving survival behind. In trauma recovery, this can feel unfamiliar, with moments of ease followed by tension.
Post traumatic growth often appears in these in-between spaces, unfolding as we continue to meet our experience with presence.
Freedom After Trauma and Trauma Recovery: Reclaiming Your Inner Life
Trauma can narrow the field of experience. Attention becomes focused on what feels urgent or threatening. In trauma recovery, this field begins to widen again.
Reclaiming your inner life is part of this widening. It includes reconnecting with curiosity, creativity, and the capacity to rest. These qualities may have been set aside for good reason. Their return is not forced. It is invited.
Healing after trauma supports this invitation by creating space for different aspects of ourselves to come forward. There may be moments of stillness, where nothing needs to be changed. There may be moments of expression, where something new wants to emerge.
Freedom after trauma is not the absence of difficulty. It is the presence of choice within our experience. As this choice becomes more available, we begin to feel less confined by old patterns and more connected to what is alive within us.
Healing After Trauma Through Trusting the Dawn: Opening to Post Traumatic Growth
Healing after trauma invites a quiet openness, even after we have been hurt. Trusting the dawn means meeting each moment without needing certainty.
In trauma recovery, this openness can feel like a risk, yet it is where change begins. Post traumatic growth unfolds naturally within this space.
Freedom after trauma starts with the willingness to stay present, where something within continues to awaken, gently and steadily.
Final Thoughts
Healing after trauma is an ongoing relationship with yourself, shaped through presence and patience. Trusting the dawn means allowing life to unfold without needing certainty.
Freedom after trauma grows as you expand your capacity to be with what is, and post traumatic growth emerges naturally within that space.
Frequently Asked Questions About Healing After Trauma
What is the difference between healing after trauma and trauma recovery?
Healing after trauma refers to the overall process of reconnecting with yourself and restoring a sense of wholeness. Trauma recovery often focuses more on stabilizing symptoms and building coping capacity. Together, they support both immediate relief and deeper transformation.
Can healing after trauma happen without therapy?
Yes, healing can happen in many ways. While therapy can be deeply supportive, practices like mindfulness, community connection, and self-reflection can also play meaningful roles in trauma recovery. Many people benefit from a combination of approaches.
Why does healing after trauma take so long?
Trauma impacts the nervous system, not just thoughts or memories. Because of this, healing unfolds gradually as the body relearns safety. Time allows integration, which cannot be rushed without creating additional stress.
Is it normal to feel worse before feeling better in trauma recovery?
Yes, this can happen. As awareness grows, previously suppressed emotions may surface. This does not mean you are moving backward. It often reflects that your system feels safe enough to process what was once overwhelming.
What does trusting the dawn mean in practical terms?
Trusting the dawn means allowing for the possibility of change without forcing it. Practically, it can look like staying present during discomfort, noticing small moments of ease, and remaining open to new experiences.
Can post traumatic growth happen to everyone?
Post traumatic growth is possible, but it is not something to pressure or expect in a specific way. It tends to arise when there is enough support, space, and willingness to engage with one’s experience over time.
How do I know if I am experiencing freedom after trauma?
Freedom after trauma often feels like having more choice in how you respond. You may notice less reactivity, greater emotional range, and an increased ability to stay present even during challenging moments.
What role does the body play in trauma recovery?
The body plays a central role. Trauma is stored in the nervous system, so physical awareness, breath, and gentle movement can support healing in ways that thinking alone cannot.
Is it possible to heal after trauma without remembering everything?
Yes. Healing does not require recalling every detail. It focuses more on how the body and mind respond in the present, and how those responses can shift toward greater ease and stability.
How can I support someone else in their healing after trauma?
Offer presence rather than solutions. Listening without trying to fix, respecting their pace, and creating a sense of safety can be more supportive than giving advice.
Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an author, activist, spiritual teacher, racial equity consultant, and intuitive healer. She is the author of six books, including Skill in Action and Finding Refuge. Amy Burtaine is a leadership coach and racial equity trainer. With Robin DiAngelo, she is the coauthor of The Facilitator’s Guide for White Affinity Groups. For more, visit https://www.michellecjohnson.com/wisdom-of-the-hive.
