The thing is, getting exposed to trauma triggers without sufficient calm is no joke. Big chance of just retraumatizing yourself. Mantra calms.
(This is also why treatment like CBT sucks for trauma - it brings up the triggers, but talking is not sufficiently calming in itself.)
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a profound feeling of "it doesn't matter/it's dealt with" is necessary to end the a trauma. Nothing will go away till you don't care. Getting to an emotional state where you don't care is the trick, but possible.
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they're not necessarily the same thing. You can give a problem to God (whoever/whatever that is) and feel it's dealt with, if you have enough faith. Otherwise, detachment is the key.
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get used to looking at feelings in the body and that they aren't you. Meditate on feelings in the body. Are they you?
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the core is realizing that fear is just a sense object, not your and not important. It's not the easiest thing, but when you get it, it's an "aha!"
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I don't feel like this is very great for handling "live" traumas.
This is the sort of insight that helps break the cycle of forming new ones, by depersonalizing what's already there.
It doesn't help much when your life is going to pieces. Calming w/o resorting to insight does.
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Insight practice really dials up the intensity of what's there when you're triggered. I found it very destabilising when I was having rage fits.
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interesting. I found it useful, but I may be the minority. What worked for you?
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I read a bunch of books on trauma and (still need to re-read to deepen this understanding) came back with the impression that the key is that feelings get stuck somatically. Need to be released.
The 3rd Cutting Machinery step is very close to somatic experiencing therapy.
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The key:
Calm and detachment needs to be cultivated. Breathing techniques, mantras, or whatever.
Then the feelings need to be elicited. A therapist or a deep insight practice helps here.
Finally, they need to be felt, and potentially reacted to (trembling, crying, tensing...)
my experience is that in standard shamatha practice steps one and two will happen. Three is usually discouraged, but would be easy enough to add.
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Three is completely essential to releasing the physiological aspect of the trauma!
Detachment may mean problems of the body don't bother you, but they're still there.
And most people will never get that detached, so they need that release.
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So I felt this tension I hadn't realized I was holding in start releasing. And with it, pure horror.
Memories of the news breaking. Moments where I'd been unable or unwilling to give them enough space.
I felt this terribly intense urge to cry.
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