Heal your trauma - Create a New Life - Rasheid Edwards, LPC.

Heal your trauma - Create a New Life - Rasheid Edwards, LPC. 

Are you struggling with unresolved Trauma in your life? Your trauma may be part of your story, but it doesn't have to define your future. Healing is possible, and it can change your life. My special guest is Rasheid "Coach" Edwards(LPC), (www.iamcoachedwards.com) Consultant, Author, and hypnotherapist with a Master's Degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. 

Rasheid shares: What is trauma, and what are some common misconceptions about trauma and healing. He gives insight into how trauma affects the brain and nervous system and what are some signs that unresolved trauma may still be affecting your life.

Lastly, you will understand how to begin the Healing process which includes Therapy, Mindfulness, Spirituality and specific Practices that will empower you to begin living your best life. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Divine Manifestation Pathway Podcast, where we explore the power of faith, mindset, and manifestation to help you create the life you were designed to live. Your host, Constance Arnold, is a renowned global podcaster, author, and spiritual teacher. And together we'll learn how to shift our thinking, align with divine guidance, and intentionally create a life of abundance, purpose, and joy. So take a deep breath, get present, and let's step into the pathway of divine manifestation.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

Well, hello, powerful manifester, and welcome to the Divine Manifestation Pathway podcast with Constance Arna. Guess what, guys? I'm so grateful, so thankful that you uh tuned in today. Uh, I believe that the spirit has attracted you here so that you can receive exactly what you need. Well, can you believe that we are at the end of May? OMG, how are you feeling about your life? Wow, time is really passing by quickly. Well, I have a great show for you today. Uh, you know, May is mental health month, and I just barely got it in. It is the end of May, but I wanted to bring in just an expert. He and I were on a platform together, uh, Rashid Edwards. They call him Coach Edwards, and he's gonna be talking to you about how to heal your trauma, and I'm not gonna take over what we talked about because we were on the same platform. But you know, trauma doesn't have to be that you were in an abusive relationship. Trauma can be something as small as your mom loved you, but she had to work two jobs. She was a single parent and you were left alone. She didn't have the energy and the strength to give you the attention that you needed. So we're gonna really delve into it. Uh, excited to have him here. So, what else do I want to say? Make sure you follow me on social media, guys, the divine manifestation pathway on all platforms. I go live at least once or twice a week. I post reels at least every other day uh on YouTube, on TikTok, on IG, Instagram, on Facebook. Make sure you go and check it out. You know why? Because, you know, there have been times when I needed a little inspiration, a little motivation and encouragement. And I looked at one reel and it was exactly what I needed for that day. Well, guys, this is the last week at the end of May. Uh, I will be ending my by one hourly coaching session. Get one free. It's your opportunity to tap into my 30 years experience uh so that um I can really assist you. You know, I believe that uh as the Bible says, there is safety in a multitude of counselors. And so I just believe that everyone who comes to me, I say, God only send to me people who have been preordained for me, people who I can help, people who I can serve. And my job is to really help you identify your stuff, and then to hear your soul. I'm not gonna get into all of that, and then to help you to tap into your own intuition. And as one of my clients so eloquently said, and then just haunt you back to God, teach you how to reconnect with that spirit that's on the inside of you. So this is the last week. Go to fulfillingyourpurpose.com. It's on my website. Just scroll down on that first page. You can purchase as many sessions as you desire. I'll be coaching with you within uh seven to ten business days. I think that is it. You can get my two books on Amazon, A Secrets of Success, and my best-selling book, How to Attract and Manifest Genuine Love. I think in June I'm gonna really just um teach from one of my books. So as I said, Rashid and I were on the same platform. He's a licensed professional counselor, he's a consultant, uh, he's a hypnotherapist, he has a master's degree in clinical mental health counseling and just years of experience. And we're just so blessed to have him on. And I was blessed to be with him on the same platform. So um let's take a deep breath in, everybody. Let it out. Let's get ready to go in and listen to this powerful exchange between Rashid Edwards and myself on healing your trauma.

SPEAKER_03 5:23

Trauma is um a very stressful experience, but beyond that, it's it's really anything that overwhelms our central nervous system's ability to be able to process. And that's a big deal, right? Because your central nervous system is taking in a bunch of information um all day long, it's just processing information. That's one of the biggest functions of your brain is to receive more than 12 million bits of data and process that data. So when you have a traumatic experience, it's kind of like if you were to look at your brain as being like this big um this big room of files, and each uh in this room you've got in uh uh just a large amount of file cabinets, you know, kind of like an infinite number of file cabinets and files in those cabinets. And so what happens typically is when information comes in, the part of your brain that receives information, it walks it into the room, goes to a file cabinet, and places that information in a file. But when you have a traumatic experience, instead it's kind of like maybe the person was walking into the room and they tripped up and they just spilled a file all over the floor. So it never got processed.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

Oh, that's good. Okay, you getting we diving deep, you know, just at the very beginning. That's such a great explanation because when people hear the word trauma, they may think, well, that's somebody else who grew up in uh an alcoholic home. But but trauma could be something as simple as maybe you were in the military and you moved every year and you never got a sense of belonging. Give us some examples of what trauma is because I think people say, Oh, that's not me, because I had a good childhood.

SPEAKER_03 7:27

You're absolutely right. So a lot of times we kind of uh relegate trauma to like things like um PTSD, like when um soldiers go over to fight wars and they come back, you know, we used to call it shell shock, but they come back with PTSD. But what we found is that trauma, as you mentioned, can be almost anything. So if we look at, let's just say that we have everyone is born with a coping cup, let's just call it a cup, right? Okay, and when a stressful experience happens, it's like you're pouring into that cup. Now, what trauma is, is trauma is an adaptative mode that our brain and central nervous system goes into to kind of deal with and manage stressful situations that are um excessively stressful. So when you have a traumatic experience, it's like your cup overflowed, and now your body, your brain, and your central nervous system is going into that adaptation mode where it's trying to figure out how to work through this. Um so it could be literally anything that tips your cup. Now, typically, we consider things like violence, abuse, and neglect to be the things that are the most traumatizing. And typically they are for most people. However, if if so if you're if you're having stress on a daily basis, meaning you're pouring stress into that coping cup and that cup gets full, it could be the next, you know, the next situation where maybe you woke up and your child didn't uh maybe they didn't do their chores or something or back grade. It once that cup gets tipped over, your body goes into that adaptation mode. And so it's not so much about the type of event as it is where your central nervous system is in dealing with or coping with stressful situations. So, yes, it could be um you know having to move a lot when you're a child, because you know, we need to have some sort of um connectedness to our environment. We need to feel like we have some stability, moving a lot. And in fact, that was one of my personal traumas, having grown up in my grandparents' um household. My parents were teenagers when they had me. And so I grew up in my mother's household, and I was very, very, very, very connected to my grandparents. I called them ma and dad. And so when my parents got married and moved away to Atlanta, that was traumatic for me. I didn't feel like I could live without my grandparents, and so I had all types of issues, crying all the time, couldn't, you know, I had to, you know, it was like something that I figured out, or going to therapy myself helped me to understand what I was dealing with. But again, it can be anything that kind of caused you and your nervous system to get so dysregulated that it throws you off, it's you know, it becomes overwhelming, and that takes stress into trauma.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

That's great. So you so so we're talking about unresolved trauma. So when the great example that you gave, when somebody's walking in the filing room and they trip up and everything is all over the place, what are just like some major, like unresolved traumas that you feel like people can let relate to because of 2020? Do you feel like 2020 revealed to us? Y'all got some trauma that you need to deal with. What's your take on that?

SPEAKER_03 11:32

Oh, absolutely. So 2020 kind of brought out this sense of um mortality to people. So with the you know, the the coming of the pandemic and you know the the media reporting all of the deaths and things, it was like people were traumatized because you got people who maybe their their family members or loved ones may have had to perish in the hospital with no one there. And you know, or you may know may have had friends who pass, or you yourself may have been in the hospital. I've got a good friend who went in the hospital with um COVID and ended up being um induced into a coma. Um, so those are things that happen due to the pandemic, but then they also kind of, once you start having that feeling of mortality, it kind of makes you sensitive to things that may have happened in the past. And I talk to people all the time, and they start asking me, Well, what do you think about this? Um, I was talking to a lady and she was saying that um she realized that she had been having a host of just bad relationships, and she asked me what I thought about it. I was like, yeah, absolutely sounds like it could be trauma. So we sat down, we talked, I gave her an assessment, and on the PCL 20, uh PCL5, she showed that she had trauma, PTSD. And so when you look at things like feeling like you're stuck in a holding pattern, um feeling like you can't trust yourself. Um, sometimes as children, we grow up and we're told things that we never forget, and that becomes a stain or imprint on our psyche. And so sometimes, you know, as we were talking about in the um conference I was in the other day, growing up being told that you're ugly, that you're not capable, all of these things, they kind of set the tone and make us so sensitive to stress that the slightest things tip us off. And so if you've been experiencing a host of bad relationships, if you feel like you can't trust yourself or trust yourself to be trustworthy to others, if you feel like you have issues being intimate with people, that's a big one. Like a lot of times, you know, people don't feel like they can be intimate, like just intimate enough to be able to share with others. And then there's you know, um, romantic intimacy. Some people have challenges with that. If that's something you can relate to, more than likely it's related to unresolved traumas. Um, and we could go on and on.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

That is so good. You know, even um, I was talking to somebody that grew up in a very religious, not spiritual, but rigid home where they would just you can't do that, God's gonna get you. And the parents were very critical. So this person was really traumatized by all of those black and white messages. You're not good enough, God is gonna get you. That whole religious environment traumatized them so that they really felt afraid to really connect with somebody outside of their own religion.

SPEAKER_03 15:06

Yeah. Um, when we really look at trauma, right? It's all about threat perception. So that's another one of the big functions of your brain. Um in prehistoric times, a lot of animals were able to adapt um things that were helpful for them in terms of helping them to be able to um not be preyed upon. So some animals adapted gills and they were able to go into the water and find refuge in the water, in the oceans. And then some animals they adapted wings and they were able to fly and they became, you know, uh the animals, the birds of the air. We didn't adapt gills and we didn't adapt wings, but what we did adapt was this physiological response that lets us know that we're in danger. So it's called, you know, it's oftentimes referred to as a stress response. Um, some people call it fight or flight. But essentially what it is, is it's what we adapted over time to keep us safe from being preyed on. And so it's the stress response which causes us, when we have certain conditions, it causes us to push out adrenaline, um, push the blood from the center of our body out to our extremities. It pushes blood, adrenaline, cortisol, and stress hormones out, give giving us the ability and the tools we need to be able to fight, to flee, or to freeze. Now, freeze is kind of like one of those middle things, and oftentimes is not spoken of in the stress response, but it is the third one. But in terms of you know, just the whole stress response, it's our way of having adapted to being preyed upon. Now, in present day, you know, it's just simple, simple things can stress us and cause that same reaction from the simplest things like being caught in traffic, running late to work, uh especially Atlanta traffic. Absolutely, people lose their religion in Atlanta traffic. So, but you know, that's the stress response. But again, stress over time can become trauma or an overwhelming amount of stress or too much stress at one time can tip your cup and cause you to be into the throes of a traumatic experience, and you know, sometimes it can be very dramatic.

SPEAKER_02 17:39

That's good. I love the way you articulate that, Raishid. So, you know, this is the law of attraction radio network. A lot of people uh uh are about um uh manifesting, you know. I I say we live in such a uh uh a performance-based society. How many numbers do you have? How many followers do you have? How many likes do you have? And so when people hear the word trauma, how do you feel that trauma self-sabotages people's dreams and their manifestation? What would that look like for somebody who says, Rashid and Constance? I've been, I got my goals written down, and man, and man, the same goals I had written down for 2019, I don't know what's going on.

SPEAKER_03 18:27

Well, it it can be seen in in a multitude of ways. Um, in terms of trauma, um, two very clear and present ways that people experience trauma and that sabotages their ability to really be able to manifest their dreams and their desires. In fact, what I'm about to say, these types of people actually lose their dreams of being able to manifest. But people who are having uh nightmares and flashbacks, uh again, when I talked about you know that person taking the file and tripping and spilling the file over the floor, so because that didn't get processed, these people who are having nightmares and flashbacks, in that moment, they feel like whenever that's being triggered, like they're having the experience all over again. So then what does that do to you? So that means that you know you got an elevated heart rate, you're um you're you're very stressed or anxious or whatever the case may be, you're experiencing an abundance of adrenaline, negative emotions, and just your whole. So one of the things that happens is when we're experiencing an abundance of negative emotions and all that type stuff, our energy becomes weakened, our energy field is weakened. So if you've ever done um, and that's one of the things that I've done with some of my clients, just to show I'll have them think a happy thought, and we'll do the divining rods. And when you have happy thoughts, the rods open up. That means your energy, that good energy is a big, wide open area. But when you're sad or angry or experiencing negative emotions, the energy comes in, and that shows you that you can be preyed upon, but it also lets you know that you're not putting out the type of energy you need to connect with your dreams and your desires. Well, that's good. Other people may also have a situation where it may not be as dramatic as you know having nightmares and flashbacks. But again, when they say things like, Well, why do I always feel like I'm going through the same thing? Every time I try to do this, every time I try to create the life I want, I keep going through the same thing. I'll get a I'll I'll take a couple steps forward and then get knocked back three or four steps past where I started from. And that's that's kind of like a key indicator that you're dealing with some unresolved trauma because this stuff doesn't go away. So when you have unresolved trauma, it presents itself or represents itself at some of the most just unnecessary times. And so when you're trying to work on moving forward, it's gonna be that ever-present reminder when you get stuck, when you feel like you're just in this holding pattern and you can't move forward. Oftentimes that's a key indicator that hey, I need to work on something, I need to figure out what's going on, and you can hear it in yourself talk. Yeah, if you guys ever quiet yourself, sit down and listen, you'll hear yourself talk. It'll it's like the soundtrack to your life playing in the back in the back of your head, and you'll hear all of those negative things coming up. And so that's also an indicator that okay, I need to work on some of this stuff.

SPEAKER_02 21:58

That's good, that's good. And so you know you mentioned energy. So folk who are maybe are trying to manifest, you've heard the the uh mantra where attention goes, energy flows, and maybe they think they're putting 100% attention and energy on this intention, but in fact the trauma is like uh what's the word I'm sapping that energy and pleading that energy and they're oblivious to it.

SPEAKER_03 22:27

Yep, and it's you know, it's one of those things like I think I was on the show before and I talked about the cell phone battery. Um, sometimes, you know, well, something my wife taught me was how to get rid of apps that are running in the background because they drain your cell phone battery. It's the same thing with that unresolved trauma. This stuff is running. And if you don't deal with it, if you don't process it, if you know, it doesn't go away, it just stays back there. So you might you know have a hundred percent of energy that you start your day out with, and then you might only have 60% of that energy because 40% has already been given to dealing with your unres, you know, that unresolved trauma. So remember, um, we think the average person thinks somewhere around about 60,000 thoughts a day. And the great Earl Nightingale told us that we are what we think about most of the time. So if you are what you think about and you got 60,000 thoughts a day, and 54,000 of those thoughts are the same repeated thoughts. Oh Lord, this is telling you, you know, and you don't have to pay attention to the thoughts to, you know, for them to be working, they're running in the background. All of this is in the background of your mind. That's why um we refer to the conscious mind and the subconscious, because all of this programming is in your subconscious template. So you may not be aware of it, but like I said, if you sit, um, be still be mindful and pay attention to your self-talk, it comes out in the self-talk. You can also see it in some of, you know, it becomes evident in your results as well. What makes it happen that when you're moving in one direction, something throws you in a totally 180-degree different direction? This is that unresolved stuff that has not been worked on.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

This is so good. So, Rashid, so really our subconscious, I know you're an expert on in this area, our subconscious is a place from where we create our lives. So if people have trauma and they're oblivious to it, tattooed in their subconscious, they need to change and heal that subconscious or that soul so that they can move forward. Is that what listeners need to start thinking about?

SPEAKER_03 25:07

So I want them to think about the quality of their experiences because that's going to be really the best indicator of what's going on with them. And consider whether or not they've had some of those experiences that I've I've spoken of. Um, because you can you can tell or you you have the ability to become somewhat aware of what's going on in your subconscious programming by way of what's happening on a daily basis. So if you find yourself, if you set an intent and then you find yourself acting all outside of that intent, okay, that's letting you know that you've got some behavioral patterns that don't match up. And once you begin to pay attention to them, um that kind of gives a hint of what may or may not be happening. And then I always say, you know, when you're applying your attention and your intention, it's like focused laser light. So when you end on something and then you give your attention to it, it should be focusing in and honing you in on what it is that you desire. Of course, you have to do the work, but you know, everything starts in the mind first and then becomes a physical manifestation. So if you're finding yourself intending and giving your attention to things, and yet you still have these stumbling blocks, you still have these barriers to your success, that's a very, very real and key indicator that yes, there's some unresolved stuff that needs to be worked on. And we all have work to do on the inside. So I don't want people to hear this and feel like, oh, the sky is falling or you know, the house is burning down. But I'm just saying that if you want to be firing on all cylinders, if you want to be an optimum premium performer, these are things that you have to do. Of course, people deal with trauma and or they get through life without dealing with the resolved trauma. But, you know, again, we're talking about quality of life. If you want truly the best for yourself and you want to really experience the law of attraction in its fullest and feel your connection to the divine, then you got to get rid of those barriers. You'll know when when things are well because you'll start to experience synchronicities or meaningful coincidences. Um, and and they let you know, okay, I'm I'm on point, I'm doing well now because you feel connected, you feel that energy, and and things are happening, but when that's not happening for you and you feel these barriers and things are holding you back, typically that's that's letting you know, okay, we got some work to do.

SPEAKER_02 28:07

Yeah, boy, this is so good. If I wasn't recording this, I would get up and run around my house, but I can't do that right now, R. And and I love the way that you said if you have 100% of your attention on your intention, things would have to shift and move in your life. Yes. You know, that's just awesome. So, what should people do if they say, okay, I'm recognizing some stuff, I don't want to be in therapy all of my life in Rashid. I don't want to focus on the past. What should people do if they're beginning to recognize something not right? That's my southern uh dialect, you know, to say, why I really need to go inside because you know a lot of people are like, I don't want to be in therapy, I don't want to focus on the past. The law of attraction said you should be focusing in on the future.

SPEAKER_03 29:01

Um, so I would say you definitely I would recommend therapy or coaching. Um, some something to help you with moving past your barriers. Um but the best thing you could do is be present in your day-to-day experiences. That's where you have the time to be grateful and experience gratitude. So, you know, your your goals are like they're like a target.

SPEAKER_01 29:33

All right.

SPEAKER_03 29:33

Your attention and intention, they hone your focus in onto the target. So it's like if you have an arrow, if you don't have that attention and intention focus in it, you got a target in front of you, but you're just gonna be shooting all around and never hitting a target. So attention and intention are necessary to get your aim, get you scoped and just keyed in on the target. But again, the target may be a future thing, but the important thing is to experience it in the present. But you can't have that type of presence if you're embattled with things that are continue to plague you and make you feel less than your best. So, you know, my slogan is count your wins, because it basically means be grateful for everything that you have. And as you begin to experience gratitude in the moment and you can start to enumerate different things that you're grateful for, the more gratitude you have, the more things you'll have to be grateful for. It's like a self-fulfilling cycle, and that allows you to be in the moment, having an experience of the thing that you desire and the thing that you really are intending on, even though you may not physically feel it in your presence. That's what tips the scale and gets things moving on the non-physical plane. So we got the physical plane and we got the non-physical plane. Your spiritual work is your inner work, which causes things to begin to um materialize in the not in the spiritual plane so that it comes off into the spiritual plane as you begin to work on it. So you need to be good in the moment. You need to have that, you need to have all of the presence of experiencing happiness, joy, and radiating uh the feeling of accomplishment or pleasure or love or whatever it is that is part of whatever it is that you desire. You need to feel that in the moment. And as you continue to have more and more of those moments, that creates like this vacuum or it creates um what I call critical mass. Enough, enough energy will kind of surround that idea and and your energetic field to start to be able to magnetize those things and bring them together.

SPEAKER_02 32:04

Well, that's good. You know, I talk a lot to women, let's talk to men today. Um, men, you guys hold everything in. How are you doing? I'm fine. How's it going? Everything's great. I'm like, do y'all know more than two or three words? How do you feel that men have been traumatized? And how does a man begin to even acknowledge, yeah, that's what's happening with me?

SPEAKER_03 32:32

Um, so it's kind of like uh a whole different ball game dealing with men, um, because men have been socializing to this notion that they have to be strong and they have to deny their feelings. And so men, excuse me, it's almost a badge of courage or excuse me, a badge of honor almost to not be an emotional man. Because for men, emotions can be kind of like a sign of weakness. And so when men are out in the world, it's for men, there's this notion that I can't show weakness because if I show weakness and I'm fooled for whoever is trying to, you know, make um ill attempts at me or or misuse me. So men don't like to acknowledge their emotions, but in being unemotional or denying their emotions, what men or what we're doing is men is we are shutting off some of the the greatness of who we are. So sometimes men look at it being emotional as a feminine thing or things that women do. I'm a Scorpio, that's a water sign. So water signs are typically of the most. Yes, we're day what one day apart. Yes, but oftentimes water signs are very, very emotional, and I know I'm an emotional person. Now, growing up, that wasn't good for me, but that's why I was very I fought a lot. Um that was my way of protecting myself, like that was a thing for me. But as I got older, I began to understand myself, and I understand that there's a need for balance. So, yes, you can be emotional and and you can be you can be able to control your emotions um and keep them in proper perspective. But if you want to manifest something, you got to use your emotions. There's no way that you're gonna manifest something. You can't just be a blase person and think you're gonna have all of the wealth and all of the greatness that is available to life. You gotta have that feeling, like abundance beyond anything else is a feeling.

SPEAKER_02 34:52

Oh, I'm feeling that, Rasheed.

SPEAKER_03 34:55

It's it's the feeling of wow, this is wonderful. Um I'm kind of ashamed, but I'm gonna tell you a story.

SPEAKER_02 35:04

Tell me a story. Hey, we're shameless on this show. Keep going. But when we were in Savannah, we and for my international listeners, that's another city um about four or five hours south of Atlanta that's on the water.

SPEAKER_03 35:22

Yeah, so when we were um taking our little getaway in Savannah, we went to uh what is it? Is it Ruth Chris? Whatever the the the place yeah uh uh we spent a couple hundred dollars at the restaurant, and it was such a good experience. We turned around and we went back the next day and probably spent more that time, but it was just like why not? And is is I'm not saying this to be boastful, but I'm saying like when you're experiencing the moment of abundance, um, and and and just feeling good about things, then you're kind of like unfiltered, you're you're not held back, and so at that time it just felt good to just be free and go back again. Now, of course, financially we were we were able to do so, but yeah, I wouldn't typically go to Roose Chris two days in a row in the same week or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 36:28

That's it's a great experience and great food.

SPEAKER_03 36:31

Oh, the food was oh, oh it was special. That's why we went a second time. Head to be, yeah. But that's the the whole point is that when you're in the flow, when you're experiencing abundance, it's kind of like you're emotional in those processes. It's your emotions that create that magnetic attraction. So that's what I'm saying is men, we we kind of we try to depress our emotions or keep them hidden or hold them back, and that doesn't necessarily serve us. It serves us in terms of maybe, you know, the the the key concept of being safe or not being harmed by someone because you always have your guard up, but in actuality, it's not serving you to be having a full expression and being present in the moment of whatever is going on. So with us men it's difficult.

SPEAKER_02 37:32

So, so you know, I work with men, you know, during my career, and um there's not a safe place for men to really come and be vulnerable, real and raw, and still be perceived as quote unquote a man. And you know, you and I both know the stats on sexual molestation and the trauma that men have, and in their adult lives, sometimes it comes out as anger, rage, workaholism, performance-based, you know, all of that. So I just want to say to the men, and I'm ahead have Rasheed to give out his information at the end of the show. Rashi would be a great place for all of my male listeners to really go to. He's a guy, uh, he's an alpha male, and he can really relate to everything that you're going through. So at the end, Rashid, I want you to make sure you give out your information. So, so this is so good. So, what else would you like to share with people about trauma? I mean, is there hope? Is there hope on the other side of trauma? What would that look and feel like for listeners?

SPEAKER_03 38:48

Oh, it is absolutely hope. Um it's the, you know, depending on what level of trauma you're experiencing, the trauma itself can make you feel hopeless because there's just no way out of it. You feel like oftentimes people who are experiencing trauma and complex trauma, they feel like it's just their lot in life that they're supposed to be going through this.

SPEAKER_02 39:10

That's good.

SPEAKER_03 39:11

There is help. Um, and I personally um I have a uh just a bag of different techniques and skills that I employ to help people get through trauma. Um I'm a hypnotherapist, but I do a whole lot beyond hypnotherapy. Yeah, you think trauma is not something that you have to give your life over to. You can actually get through the trauma and process it. But oftentimes the trauma is just so overwhelming that people would rather not deal with it and just kind of take their knocks with whatever comes up when they're triggered, versus you know, figuring out a way to process it. But I have skills and techniques that allow you to process your trauma that are a little less intrusive and don't cause traumatization.

SPEAKER_02 40:06

So talk a little bit about we got maybe 10 minutes, um anxiety and depression. So is uh uh anxiety and depression, are they cousins to trauma? That's all in the same family. What's your thinking around that, Rashid?

SPEAKER_03 40:24

Well, at one time trauma was considered um an anxiety um impairment. Um, but I think trauma is a lot more than that. Um so anxiety and depression, um, they are kind of like precursors to trauma. They can be, or they can also be the um the effects of trauma as well. So um being too anxious and overly depressed can lead to trauma or behaviors that cause trauma, and then trauma also causes on the back end anxiety and depression. When you're traumatized, you don't feel safe, um, you're always on guard, um, and that makes you anxious. And then as a result, you can become depressed because, like I said, you feel like there's no way out. Um, one of the things that I failed to mention that is a big issue with trauma, is that it affects your brain. So um, Bessel Vanderkook, which was one of the forerunning um trauma experts in the field, kind of makes an analogy of trauma being like having a brain injury. Some some similar things happen when you're traumatized, is when you have a brain injury. But one of the biggest things about trauma, when you're being traumatized, you don't have access to your full brain when you're being triggered by trauma. So a traumatized person finds themselves in their limbic brain or their primitive brain, and that part of the brain deals with um um emotionalism, survival, and um survival instincts, and it's a very um right now type of um mindset where you're impulsive, you're angry, okay, frustrated, you're confrontational because those are survival types of um attitudes. I can see that you're not a very good decision maker, you don't have access to your prefrontal cortex and your executive functioning, so you don't even have access to your speech and language centers. So oftentimes people who are traumatized can't even articulate what they're experiencing, and that's part of what causes the shutdown as well, because they feel like I can't even get it out. So people who are not gonna understand me, something is wrong with me, and nobody else is like this, you know. They feel they isolate themselves because they feel like no one can understand.

SPEAKER_02 43:11

Who that's profound? So, are you saying that when people are in trauma or traumatized, they don't have us um access to a certain part of their brain? Right, that's exactly what I'm saying. Yes, I never heard that before.

SPEAKER_03 43:26

Yeah, so your prefrontal cortex, it gets short-circuited. So your decision making, your timing, speech and language centers, all of those things get short-circuited when you're being triggered by trauma. And so this is why, again, we have to deal with these things. When we look at because I've worked with people with trauma, I can see and feel it through the things that they say and the way they behave. The average person might not be able to understand that. So we'll look at traumatized people, we'll be like, why won't you just do such and such? But it can't. When they're triggered, when they're in the throes of a traumatic experience, they can't do those things. They literally are brain impaired. But this is how the brain works intentionally, because again, it's about threat perception. So when trauma happens, your brain is perceiving a threat and it's saying, okay, we're going to shut all that other stuff off and we're going to just deal with our survival skills. Who that's cut?

SPEAKER_02 44:31

Who that's I love the way you explain that. So a guy who is traumatized and may be oblivious to it because he doesn't have access to uh his frontal lobe. He may be making financially crazy decisions in business. So he may start a business and it not working. Would that be an example of that?

SPEAKER_03 44:52

Because things because triggered you just not making good decisions. Good. You know, I think of it like risky behavior, risk-taking behavior. So oftentimes guys who experience trauma, they're belligerent. Like they they they're argumentative, they're on edge a lot, um, they're confrontational. Um, it doesn't take much to, you know, they have a short fuse and they spark real easy, or they do things that are kind of risky. Like, you know, you might see them driving down the expressway, doing a hundred and pushing their car as far as it can go. And the whole thing behind the risky behavior is they want to feel like they have some control. Trauma makes them feel like their life is out of control because they can't control the trauma. So there's control and pushing your own limits, being in that, being kind of like on the borderline of safety and unsafe. And so that's how they express it unbeknownst to them. So a lot of times we look at people like guys. I remember in school, there was a guy who was a fighter, and I remember he used to talk about how he would blank out. That's that's one of the biggest traumatic expressions, is like when you go blank and you're doing stuff, but you don't know you're doing it. Yeah, that's that's when you're in the depths and throes of a traumatic uh trigger.

SPEAKER_02 46:26

Um this is so good. Go ahead, Rashi.

SPEAKER_03 46:30

And I was gonna say, women as well um have their own risky behaviors.

SPEAKER_02 46:35

We know that, Raishi. So what are some things that we might do?

SPEAKER_03 46:41

Um, sometimes a woman might just kind of give in and just feel like she don't care. And um, so a lot of times we might look at women um who are um promiscuous or whatever, and just you know, kind of not taking care of themselves in terms of their um sexual side. And so we might look at them and be like, why is she? But this is the part of her brain that's saying, okay, you're in this, this, you're being triggered, but you can control it by you being risky. Your control, this is how they feel like they're taking control back by experiencing or you know, being risky or taking risks themselves that they feel like they can manage. Uh sometimes people just overdrink. Yeah, the drinking is a way of kind of suppressing the emotions that come from the trauma. And so men and women oftentimes will overindulge in drugs and alcohol, and this is where addiction oftentimes comes from, because they're trying to not have the feeling that is bothering them.

SPEAKER_02 47:55

That's good. You know, we both have heard people say, you know, I just I just blacked out, and I'm like, how could you black? I don't know how I got home. I'm like, okay, then, you know, Roshi, this is so good, and it's so needed because, like you in 2020, I realized, and God brought me back to the issues, the unresolved issues in the lives of people. And I know you're doing all kinds of seminars, webinars, master classes, you coaching, you counseling. Tell us what your services are. How can people reach you? Are you available to coach anybody in the world or or what? What's going on? Your contact info.

SPEAKER_03 48:42

So, um, excuse me, you can reach me at um coach. This is my email, coach at mental infinity.com. Mental M-E-N-T-A-L Infinity I-N-F-I-N-I-T-Y dot com. Also, my um number is 404-482-0360. Now, for your audience members, if you feel like um you might be experiencing some trauma or have experienced trauma, um, I will do a free trauma assessment.

SPEAKER_02 49:15

Um, so I I I'll do that was so good. OMG, and that is just a small snippet of Rashid Edwards. Can you see the wisdom that he has? Can you see? I love it how he taps into the brain and the frontal lobe and how he really dispels, you know, just the uh I'm just gonna say the stereotype behind trauma, because on some level we all have or are going through that. And you see, God wants to heal you of that, release you of that, so that you can begin living your best life, uh, so that you can begin to heal yourself and begin to move forward. Well, I'm gonna have to have him back, but I just wanted to give you a snippet of what that experience was like. So, guys, if you want to reach out to him, you can go to his website, imcoachedwards.com. And um he has his number on here, 404-4820360. So reach out to him for for a counseling or a coaching session, guys. You know, you y'all hold stuff in all of the time. This is your opportunity. I've always said that a man knows another man. And even when it comes to me being a powerful counselor and coach, I believe that in some situations that a man can relate to another man and understand another man better than I could. And so reach out and get the help that you need. Remember, I talked about shame. Let's put shame in the backseat. Shame said there's something wrong with you. Gil said you did something wrong. This was so good. I hope you enjoyed a little peep into uh our experience on the platform together. So share this. This is mental health month, awareness month. It should be all year long. I mean, that should be a priority in our lives. So share this on your platform, share it um with your coworkers, with your family member. If you know of somebody who's going through something, make sure that you share it. And as I say every week, you know, the same energy, power, and love that is holding the galaxies together at this moment. That planet, I think, is 44 billion stars in the solar system. That same loving, giving spirit is on the inside of you and is working in through and for you. Have a great week, everybody.