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From Triggers to Triumph: Tools for Healing Trauma With God · Arise Women of God

• 0:00
  Have you ever had a PTSD experience where you've been through some traumatic thing and then something little will happen and it will trigger you all over again?
• 0:10
  Well, with everything going on in the world today, we thought this would be a very good episode to have right now.
• 0:16
  What do you do when you get triggered into that fight or flight response?
• 0:22
  And we're going to give you some amazing tips and ideas on how to solve this and doing them wisely with God's help.
• 0:31
  So stay tuned.
• 0:32
  You're going to leave this episode feeling so much better.
• 0:37
  Are you awomanwhoknowsGodiscallingyoutosomething more,butyou'reunsurewheretostartorhowtogrowit intosomethingimpactful?
• 0:46
  Youarenotalone,andyou'rein the rightplace.Welcome totheAriseWomenofGodpodcast,ashowforChristianwomenwho feelcalledtoshine hislight andstepintotheirdivinepurpose.Each week, you'llhearstoriesoffaithfulwomen,bothfromtheBibleandtoday,whoheardGod'svoiceandchosetosay yesevenwhen itfeltuncomfortableoruncertain,tostepwith faith intotheunknown.You'llwalk away withencouragement,spiritualinsight, andpractical steps tofollow thoseholypromptingsinyour ownlife.Solet'sarisetogetheraswomenwarriorsoflight.Let'sdo it God'sway,God'sstrong.Hello,andwelcometoanother episodeoftheAriseWomenofGodpodcast.I'myourhost,TamaraK.Andersen,andjoining metodayisong.
• 1:41
  Hello, andwelcome toyouforbeingheretoday.,OO o Good morning, everybody.
• 1:47
  I'm excited for this episode.
• 1:49
  I talk a lot about mental health, as everybody knows.
• 1:52
  I weave it into everything, but it's because it's so connected to spiritual health.
• 2:00
  They go hand in hand.
• 2:01
  So I'm really excited for this episode.
• 2:04
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 2:06
  And so I think, especially with all the traumatic stuff going on nowadays that, you know, we know we live in the days before the second coming of the Savior.
• 2:16
  We've read the prophecies in the Bible.
• 2:18
  We know that before all this wonderful stuff is going to happen and there are miracles happening, let's just be honest.
• 2:25
  But there's also traumatic things.
• 2:27
  And traumatic things have a tendency to kind of bring us to our knees.
• 2:33
  As Bonnie was saying last week, we find we.
• 2:37
  We seek after God more in these traumatic circumstances.
• 2:42
  I lived through a tornado when our family lived in Arkansas, and let me tell you, tornado sirens kind of trigger me now.
• 2:48
  Do you know what I mean?
• 2:50
  You know, we.
• 2:51
  We hear of earthquakes and tornadoes and tsunamis, and that doesn't even count all of the human disasters that are created.
• 3:01
  The assassinations, the school shootings, everything going on.
• 3:06
  Bonnie, you got a text this morning from a friend that lives very, very close.
• 3:13
  Why don't.
• 3:14
  Why don't you tell me a little bit about that and that will kind of help us introduce this episode today.
• 3:19
  Yeah.
• 3:20
  So she lives really close to the university where Charlie Kirk was shot.
• 3:25
  And it happened at Utah Valley University, for those of you who don't know, in Orem, Utah.
• 3:32
  And she lives about a mile away from there.
• 3:35
  And this morning she went out to water her garden, and all of a sudden these sirens just come blaring by her street and she just froze.
• 3:49
  And she describes in this text how she froze, she panicked, she.
• 3:57
  How did she put it?
• 3:58
  This guttural moan just came out of her body.
• 4:02
  It's as if she had an out of body experience.
• 4:04
  She was hearing herself just react to this trigger of the ambulance going by or the sirens.
• 4:13
  And in that moment, her practicing of how to calm down from a panic attack kicked in.
• 4:22
  And that's the part that I'm so excited about to share with you.
• 4:26
  And that she did exactly what she had been taught to do and what works for her.
• 4:31
  She put her hand on her heart, she started doing deep breaths, and she started to pray.
• 4:38
  And it calmed her down almost as instantly as the panic attack arose.
• 4:45
  And the reason we bring this up is because these kind of reactions after a traumatic event, regardless of what kind of trauma it is, whether it's abuse or the shootings or natural disasters or a car accident, whatever it
• 5:03
  is, anything that throws your life into chaos has the ability to create this.
• 5:12
  These panic attacks.
• 5:15
  And in a way, you guys, this is a good thing.
• 5:19
  I had a life coach tell me years ago, before I became a life coach, that triggers were a good thing.
• 5:28
  And I remember going, what?
• 5:29
  You are insane.
• 5:31
  How in the world is having a panic attack and breathing really heavy or disassociating or freaking out, like feeling like a bear is going to attack me?
• 5:42
  How is that a good thing?
• 5:44
  And he said it's because it's your body's way of telling you that you have something that needs to be healed and that you're out of harmony with yourself and with your creator.
• 5:57
  He wasn't Christian, but he still used that language.
• 6:01
  And as I have pondered on that, and the more I learn about trauma and the more I learn about PTSD and just mental health in general, the more I realize how right he is.
• 6:15
  So anything you want to add before we launch into what to do and how you can be like My friend, and have it be an automatic response to calm down.
• 6:27
  Yeah, Well, I just want to tack on what, like, almost 25 years ago, I was in a really bad car accident.
• 6:33
  And it was one of those car accidents that wasn't really our fault.
• 6:38
  The lady had popped her tire instead of pulling off the freeway to the right.
• 6:41
  We were in a freeway in California.
• 6:43
  She pulled over to the left hand lane and parked in the carpool lane and then ran across four lanes of traffic to the call boxes.
• 6:51
  This is, you know, pre cell phones or not a lot of people had cell phones.
• 6:55
  Anyway, so we come around this bend in the freeway and see this car in front of us with no brake lights on, no hazard lights on.
• 7:02
  If you see a car in front of you with nothing flashing, you assume it's moving, right?
• 7:07
  And so we came around the corner, and by the time we realized, oh, my gosh, that car is coming up so fast, you know, I mean, we'd hit the car, and it.
• 7:15
  First of all, it's a miracle we didn't die.
• 7:18
  We probably should have.
• 7:19
  You know, we were going 70 miles an hour down the freeway.
• 7:22
  And so I know that was a miracle.
• 7:26
  But for several years after that, anytime I would see a parked car, even on the side of the freeway, I would start the panic.
• 7:35
  And I'm like, okay, Tamara, I know this is something like you were saying, that needs to be addressed.
• 7:41
  It needs to be healed.
• 7:43
  And a lot of how I did that back then, I journaled.
• 7:48
  I would journal about things or talking them out with people.
• 7:51
  I didn't have a counselor at the time, and so I would just talk it out.
• 7:55
  My husband was in the car with me.
• 7:57
  I ended up in the hospital for a week and a half, and he was just treated for outpatient care.
• 8:03
  So I was able to talk to my husband about the car accident.
• 8:07
  And so it just helped to have somebody to process that with so that eventually and work through it with God.
• 8:16
  Because I, you know, I told God, I don't want to feel this way.
• 8:19
  Anytime I see a parked car on the side of the freeways, it's an overreaction.
• 8:22
  But I did need to heal it in myself.
• 8:25
  And I've noticed as we get closer to the second coming here, that every once in a while, God will prompt me, tamara, you need to go see your counselor again.
• 8:36
  And sometimes I'm like, I don't even know what I'm supposed to talk about.
• 8:39
  But I get there, and, you know, something comes up that I need to unpack.
• 8:43
  But I think God is calling us to unpack as much as we can to get it out, get it off our shoulders.
• 8:53
  Because this is going to be a time when there's going to be a lot of things happening, right.
• 9:00
  These are perilous times that we're living in.
• 9:03
  And so we need to be prepared and vessels of light, we need to know how to handle this, but also to get things off that we don't have to carry around anymore so that we can be that calm
• 9:18
  in the storm when these traumatic things happen.
• 9:22
  So whether you're in a traumatic state, it's okay.
• 9:25
  You know, we get that, right, Bonnie, it's part of life.
• 9:31
  But the invitation is then, okay, if you're there, what can we do to move forward?
• 9:38
  And so that's what we're going to dive into a little more today.
• 9:41
  Beautiful.
• 9:42
  Thank you for sharing that story.
• 9:44
  And one of the ways that worked for you for healing.
• 9:48
  That, that's beautiful.
• 9:49
  Journaling is an excellent technique.
• 9:52
  We're going to cover just a few techniques because we have some additional resources for you to look at.
• 10:00
  A while ago I ran a support group for women who are healing from abuse trauma.
• 10:05
  There's a really small support group.
• 10:07
  It was Christian based.
• 10:08
  And during that support group I had the impression to create various videos on healing, PTSD and what to do if a trigger comes.
• 10:20
  And I personally really love meditation.
• 10:23
  I know meditation kind of has.
• 10:26
  It's a little bit polarizing in the Christian community.
• 10:28
  So let me explain.
• 10:31
  The way I do it is called a guided meditation and it's more like prayer.
• 10:36
  It really just helps.
• 10:38
  We begin with deep breaths and you imagining and visualizing connecting your heart with God's heart.
• 10:47
  And then you have the opportunity to speak to him and to hear what he says back to you.
• 10:54
  And that's one of the reasons why I love journaling.
• 10:56
  Because the journaling technique technique can do the exact same thing when you journal out your prayers.
• 11:03
  I don't know if anyone's seen that movie War Room, but she writes out her prayers.
• 11:08
  It's such a great movie.
• 11:10
  And so journaling to God is another great, great technique.
• 11:14
  But then taking the opportunity to let him journal back to you and allowing yourself to just free write and see what comes out.
• 11:26
  And I think you will notice that as you do either technique, you will start to hear God's voice.
• 11:31
  So the these videos that we're going to put down in the show notes will help you know when to recognize that you're being triggered and recognize what's happening to you.
• 11:44
  And then there's a Ton of different techniques.
• 11:47
  There's different breathing techniques, there's some journaling techniques.
• 11:51
  There's the vagal nerve technique.
• 11:54
  Well, there's silver videos, so we'll put those down.
• 11:56
  I have other videos, too, that are not by me that I love.
• 12:00
  And I recommend to people that I will also give Tamara to put in the show notes.
• 12:04
  So I would suggest that before you select a video, you.
• 12:08
  You say a prayer and you say to heavenly Father, God, you know me, you know my situation.
• 12:16
  Which of these suggestions is going to be the best for me right now?
• 12:23
  And then trust your intuition.
• 12:25
  Right.
• 12:25
  Last week we talked about praying and learning how to practice the skill of hearing God's voice and how he speaks to you.
• 12:33
  Hopefully you've been doing that, because again, here's another opportunity for where God can guide you specifically for your needs and for your children's need.
• 12:45
  As a matriarch in your family, whether you are a mother or an aunt or a grandmother or a cousin, you have a unique ability to nurture as a woman.
• 12:59
  You've been given these beautiful, divine gifts to help.
• 13:04
  And as a part of that, we.
• 13:07
  In order to be that calm in the storm that Tamara was talking about, it's really hard to be that when you're not calm yourself.
• 13:16
  Right.
• 13:18
  I think we can all think about experiences when our kids have been having a temper tantrum or they're freaking out about something and it starts riling us up.
• 13:30
  And I went to a therapist once, or she was a life coach, I guess, but.
• 13:35
  And I said to her, my main goal is I want to learn how to be calm in the chaos.
• 13:42
  And she said, okay, well, we've got to calm the storm within before you can calm any storm without.
• 13:49
  And I thought that was really poignant and very true.
• 13:54
  And I have found that as I do this work internally myself, what's really interesting is not only can I be calm for my kids now, for the most part, I mean, let's be honest, I'm still human and I
• 14:07
  still have my.
• 14:08
  My moments, but it's a lot easier now.
• 14:12
  But what's interesting is that as I have learned how to do that for myself and I'm modeling the behavior, I didn't even have to really teach it to them and sit down and teach it so much.
• 14:24
  They were noticing, and they use a lot of the same techniques.
• 14:29
  And what's interesting, too, is as I have become more calm and steady, and in my family's life, they have just naturally become calm and steady.
• 14:42
  Tamara, you have a scripture on your paper that fits.
• 14:48
  feeling drawn to this verse.
• 14:49
  In second Timothy, chapter one, verse seven, it says, for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
• 15:00
  And that speaks to spiritual gifts that we can receive and we can ask for those gifts of the spirit.
• 15:08
  You know, God, help me to be able to overcome this spirit of fear with your power, with your love, with a sound mind, with a clear mind.
• 15:18
  In times of trouble.
• 15:20
  I know that often when.
• 15:23
  And we've had several instances where we've had panic situations, we've had kids with seizures, kids with autism, throwing tantrums.
• 15:30
  So there have been.
• 15:31
  Yeah, like Bonnie, I've lived through family situations that are traumatic, right?
• 15:37
  And.
• 15:38
  And so often when a situation like that arises, I say probably the fastest prayer in history.
• 15:45
  Dear Heavenly Father, help me with this situation.
• 15:47
  I need clarity, I need peace.
• 15:49
  You know, help me to.
• 15:51
  To kind of be that calm in the storm and help me know what to say.
• 15:56
  I've got a kid bawling their eyes out.
• 15:58
  I don't even know what to say.
• 15:59
  I don't even know what's wrong at this point.
• 16:00
  Do you know what I mean?
• 16:01
  And so simple, quick prayer, pulling God into the situation, because often those situations are too heavy and for us to bear on our shoulders alone.
• 16:12
  But if we're shouldering it with God, if we're yoked to God, if we'd done even a little bit of prep work that day, a morning prayer, even while you're cooking breakfast, or you read a verse of scripture, you're
• 16:26
  listening to inspirational music, something that has helped kind of ground you in Jesus that day.
• 16:33
  When you call on him in an instant, he's there, right?
• 16:36
  And he's going to be there when you call on him, whether you've prepared or not.
• 16:40
  I'm just going to say that as it is, he's there.
• 16:44
  You know, he's there.
• 16:45
  There are angels surrounding you, so call on God to help you and then lean into Him.
• 16:53
  Those are some thoughts.
• 16:54
  So to build on that, I have found that my marriage was in a lot of trouble in the beginning of our.
• 17:01
  Of our marriage.
• 17:02
  And it came to a total head at the beginning of COVID And I think a lot of people are in that same situation as I've talked to a lot of women again in that support group, and.
• 17:13
  And with my coaching and stuff like that time.
• 17:17
  And it's created a lot of anxious children and anxious families and just anxiety in society as a whole.
• 17:25
  And what God taught me was that part of the Reason why we weren't healing our family before was because we didn't include him in on the healing.
• 17:36
  We were going to secular therapists who, even though they may have been Christian, they didn't bring God into the equation.
• 17:47
  And that was the game changer for us, was bringing him in and asking him specifically, what do I need, what does my spouse need, what does my kid need?
• 18:00
  And looking for those specific things.
• 18:02
  And I feel like when we do that, he will lead you to the right practitioner, to the right tools, to the right video, to the right scripture, to the right song, whatever it is.
• 18:14
  So with that being said, one of the tips that I feel is really important right now as we're dealing with the aftermath of this is to set a calm environment in your home.
• 18:26
  And how do we do that?
• 18:27
  Well, that's going to look different for everybody.
• 18:29
  For me, I play calming music.
• 18:32
  I play a lot of when I want to work out and when I want to like clean the house, I turn on Caleb or I.
• 18:39
  My praise and worship music or Forest Frank.
• 18:42
  If my kids are cleaning with me, they love Forest Frank.
• 18:44
  So I turn on Forest Rank.
• 18:46
  I don't personally love the rap, R and B type style of music, but they love it.
• 18:52
  So I'm like, all right, whatever.
• 18:53
  Whatever's going to get you moving and still be a upbeat, encouraging, inviting the spirit kind of song.
• 19:02
  I prefer like Bethel music and like Hillsong and Lauren Daigle and stuff like that.
• 19:07
  So anyway.
• 19:08
  But you find whatever will help set the stage, not just inviting things in.
• 19:14
  Right.
• 19:14
  But it's keeping things out too.
• 19:17
  And Tamara had a really good suggestion, so I'll stop and let you say it.
• 19:22
  Oh, the suggestion I have if you are needing to cast out the adversary, because let's be honest, he is always trying to encroach on us, on our homes, on our souls.
• 19:33
  It's a constant battle.
• 19:34
  It's a daily battle for our souls, especially if you're trying to do what is right.
• 19:40
  You have a target painted on your back.
• 19:42
  So we have another awesome resource for you on Women warriors of Light website.
• 19:46
  If you go to the store, we have a whole bunch of free resources in there.
• 19:49
  And one of them is our Cast out the Adversary workbook.
• 19:53
  And it's, it's.
• 19:54
  It's just a short, maybe 15 page workbook and it talks you through.
• 19:59
  It's got Bible verses in there.
• 20:01
  It's got a beautiful image in there that you can.
• 20:04
  That I actually have saved on my phone that walks you through how to cast out the adversary.
• 20:10
  So that is A powerful resource, casting him out.
• 20:13
  But anytime you cast him out, you need to bring light in to fill the void, because if not, the adversary will just rush right back in.
• 20:21
  So cast him out, bring light in.
• 20:23
  You know, you can do that through, like Bonnie was saying, through music, through Bible verses, through positive affirmations, through gratitude.
• 20:29
  Gratitude is another super amazing way to bring light into your soul.
• 20:38
  And when I was in that car accident, I had like a little tiny, maybe three by five journal that was a little spiral bound thing.
• 20:47
  And I'm amazed as I look back on that journal that some of my first entries after, and I was dealing with a broken collarbone, so my handwriting was atrocious.
• 20:57
  But I ended up listing all the things I was thankful for because of the car accident.
• 21:04
  You know, I was thankful that my kids weren't with my husband and I because I don't think they would have survived.
• 21:09
  I was thankful that Justin was released from the hospital so quickly.
• 21:14
  And so even in traumatic times, turning to gratitude can be very calming and healing because you're looking for, well, how did God bless me even in that traumatic situation, you know?
• 21:33
  And that helps put a positive spin on a hard thing.
• 21:37
  After a tornado went through our neighborhood in Arkansas, one of the positive things that came from that was we worked together as neighbors to clean up.
• 21:49
  People just didn't go to work the next day.
• 21:51
  And so we just helped each other.
• 21:52
  Who needs help now?
• 21:53
  We just kind of go from house to house.
• 21:55
  And do you know what that did for our community?
• 21:57
  It strengthened our neighborhood community amazingly, because we were out there loving and serving and having positive connections with each other.
• 22:07
  So the adversary is going to have a ton of negative things happen in these latter days, but look for the miracles.
• 22:16
  Look for things to be thankful for.
• 22:18
  I think that's a really, really positive tip.
• 22:21
  And it's called trauma learning.
• 22:24
  So back to the mental health, right?
• 22:26
  Like it is legit, a way to your pain and your suffering into joy and a way to release the pain and suffering when you can learn from the pain and see what lessons you gained from it, the person
• 22:41
  you've become and the good things that came just by going through that exercise.
• 22:49
  It actually releases and let go, lets go of all of that trauma and the suffering that you've stored in your body.
• 22:58
  I have another video on that channel.
• 23:00
  I'm trying to remember what it's called, but it talks in more detail on that.
• 23:04
  So if you're listening to Tamara and you're going, lady, you're crazy.
• 23:09
  What good could possibly come from XYZ event that just happened in my life.
• 23:13
  Like, how in the world can I possibly be grateful for this cancer or for my child passing like you guys?
• 23:21
  We have so much empathy for you.
• 23:24
  You have been through hard things.
• 23:27
  And I acknowledge that life is not easy and that the pain and the suffering is real.
• 23:35
  So please don't misunderstand what Tamara is saying.
• 23:37
  We're not dismissing it.
• 23:40
  You're not pretending it didn't happen, right?
• 23:43
  When you find the gratitude, it doesn't ignore.
• 23:47
  This is not toxic forgiveness.
• 23:49
  This is not sweeping things under the rug.
• 23:52
  This is just for finding the good that can be had from it.
• 23:57
  There's a scripture and can't ever remember exactly what it says, but says something about exchanging beauty for ashes and how God will make good things come from the bad in our lives.
• 24:08
  I have seen this over and over and over again in my life, and that is why this topic is on this particular podcast.
• 24:18
  Because it's all about arising, right?
• 24:22
  We can arise from the ashes.
• 24:26
  We can be that Phoenix.
• 24:28
  We can be the Paul that turns around.
• 24:31
  We can be the tax collector that turns around.
• 24:35
  We can be the woman taken in adultery that turns around.
• 24:39
  God is a God of turnaround.
• 24:42
  That is what repentance is.
• 24:45
  It's continually turning our face to him and becoming like Him.
• 24:51
  That's what the invitation is.
• 24:53
  And so I know we need to wrap up this episode.
• 24:55
  So if I can leave you with any other words of advice, it's that you can do this.
• 25:02
  That is beautiful.
• 25:03
  I think we will just conclude with the scripture that Bonnie was sharing.
• 25:06
  I went and looked it up and just so I could have the.
• 25:09
  The right reference for it, but it's actually in Isaiah, chapter six one, and this is beautiful.
• 25:16
  It says, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me.
• 25:20
  And then he says, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek, he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them
• 25:35
  that are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, and to give unto them beauty.
• 25:49
  And for ashes the oil of joy, for mourning the garment of praise, for the Spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.
• 26:05
  And I love that.
• 26:07
  May you find that your wounds through Jesus can be bound up, that he can take the ashes and make them beautiful flowers and trees that blossom into eternity.
• 26:23
  That is his goal for you.
• 26:25
  So have hope, no matter where you are right now, that that is possible.
• 26:32
  That joy and peace and love will heal all traumas through Jesus Christ.
• 26:43
  fortuningintotheAriseWomenofGodse, WomebroughttoyoubyWomenWarri of Light.
• 26:49
  Women Warriors of Light.
• 26:50
  howtomove forward inyour callingorjusttiredofdoingit alone,visitwomenwarriorsoflight.comyou'llfindresources,accountabilityandacommunityofwomenwhogetit.Sometimesthecallingfeelsbigger thanyou.That'swhenyouneedsteady remindersofthepowerfulGod whocalledyou.Subscribenow forweeklyweeklyinspirationandthe courage tokeep going.Becausewithhim,nothingis impossible.Andyou'renotthe onlyone Godiscallingthatfriend onyourheartrightnow.
• 27:25
  Sharethisepisodewithher.Yoursmallactofobediencecouldbe thebreakthroughshe'sbeenpraying for.
• 27:32
  Until next time.Mayyouarise, walk God's way andstandGodstrong.