In Lissa Rankin’s book, Sacred Medicine, she writes, "We live in a disembodied culture because trauma causes us to leave our bodies. It is a defense mechanism and in extreme cases, a survival skill that can save you. Yet you can't heal the body without being in it." Our culture encourages dissociation: Buy this product to feel better, drink this to escape, distract yourself with social media. Numb out, stay busy, look outside yourself. And yet, science has enough data to say with certainty that trauma causes pain and illness in the body. This is no longer a woo-woo idea. Sometimes, dissociation absolutely saves us. Other times, it keeps us in patterns that no longer serve to the point of making us sick.
In this rich conversation, Lissa and Rebecca discuss the paradoxes in healing trauma: trauma is treatable but you have to be in the body to heal it. They discuss the necessary skills in drawing on all of your intelligences—your intellectual intelligence, yes, but also your somatic, intuitive, and emotional intelligences—and why we must stay in our bodies enough to pay attention to them. They also discuss nuances of power-over/power-under dynamics and the paradox of why the reward of shared-power-with is so unfathomable to someone in a power-over position and yet, the reward is so compelling and full of possibility.
RESOURCES:
Learn more about Lissa Rankin and her work at LissaRankin.com and HealAtLast.org.
If you want to dive in deeper, consider joining our Relationship Bootcamp or exploring Rebecca's offerings to deepen your relational skills and expand your self-care. Learn more at connectfulness.com
Also, please check out our sister podcast, Why Does My Partner.
