An expert in well-being and personal Transformation, Marcia Teperman specializes in helping people who have experienced trauma heal their hearts and restore authenticity through integrating mind, body, and soul. Also, she teaches people how to close the gap between their life situation and how they would prefer their life to be. Marcia is the author of Road to Recovery – A Journey of Physical and Emotional Healing.
In your experience, what is the critical ingredient for higher levels of well-being?
In my opinion, it is developing a relationship with ourselves through our bodies. Our body is a powerful vessel, full of wisdom and communication. It registers all of our experiences. As in all relationships, we must nurture and give and receive. Our body wants to be nurtured and wants to communicate with us. Through our body, we make sense of our emotions, proactively heal from trauma, and become capable of connecting with others.
What are some of the mistakes you wish you could have avoided?
Life is full of experiences and lessons necessary for our spiritual growth. Most of my painful experiences were created out of how I adapted to my early life and my environment, including the religious and cultural context I was raised. I could not have avoided any mistakes until I realized what drove them, released these stories from my identity, and learned the lessons. Life isn’t about avoiding mistakes. It is about learning from your mistakes so that we can grow.
What actions could someone take to get started on the journey of healing?
90% of our neural pathways are created before we turn 20. This means many of your thinking patterns, beliefs and identity were influenced by the experiences you had and the people you interacted with earlier in your life. Under normal living conditions, that’s excellent news. But if you have experienced a traumatic event, you have to embrace your healing journey.
Embrace Your Healing:
And that’s estimated to be 70% of the adult population, with 20% developing symptoms of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). So please do not let shame prevent you from getting started on your healing. Do not let trauma define who you are and how you live your life.
Dealing With Trauma:
Trauma creates a feeling of disconnect from yourself and the world. That’s because it overwhelms and fragments the nervous system. It impacts the way you perceive yourself and the experiences you are having. It disengages you from your intuition and separates you from the truth of who you are. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Understanding and addressing the impact of trauma on your nervous system helps you separate your identity from the challenging experiences you had in your life. It enables you to become more curious, compassionate towards yourself and others, and more resilient. It helps you embrace growth.
Healing Process:
You can heal. The first step is to be willing to feel and develop self-awareness.
The second step is to be willing to be seen in your pain by reaching out to someone who can create a safe space for you to reconnect with the truth of who you are.
The third step is to honor your pain and the challenging experiences you had in your life as many times as these problematic experiences are re-enacted by other circumstances in the present. Stoicism represses feelings and increases stress and unconscious behaviors that re-create the past. Be kind to yourself.
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