Take Control of Your Life: A Toolkit for Healing

In this episode, I’m making the topic of trauma easier to understand by taking you step by step through my recent revelation that I was struggling with past trauma.

I need to say up front: this episode covers sensitive material, including discussion of trauma and sexual assault. If this topic isn’t for you right now – please skip this episode.

I was one of those people who thought I didn’t have trauma. And you may be like that too.

But if you have trouble managing emotions, expressing your feelings, dealing with upset, you go on edge easily, you have trouble focusing, or you struggle with anything like anxiety….

This will be very eye opening.

The words “trauma” and “nervous system” are thrown around like candy online.

I want to share the profound things that I’ve learned about both topics and how I’ve started to address and heal the trauma in my nervous system.

This episode is personal, it’s important, and tactical, and most of all – it’s packed with tools you can start using right now.

I hope this episode opens your eyes in the way that it did mine, and makes you not only understand this topic – but yourself a little bit better.

And, to go deeper, I have a free 9-page workbook for you that serves as a companion to this episode to help you with your own healing.

Just click here to access it. 

Xo Mel

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In this episode, you’ll learn:

• 0:58: This episode is one of the most important I’ve ever created because of the powerful impact these learnings have had on my life. It will be the same for you.
• 7:40: What is trauma anyway?
• 8:40: Do you recognize yourself in these signs of past trauma?
• 10:00: Getting honest: my personal story.
• 21:15: What happens to me when I hear the sound of crunchy snow (and how this applies to you).
• 24:00: Do you have to remember trauma to heal from it?
• 30:30: If I have little-T trauma, does that mean my parents are to blame?
• 34:40: This is what your nervous system is (and it’s not what I used to think).
• 43:15: Here’s why your triggers were helpful then and why they’re not now.
• 50:00: How can you get yourself out of survival mode and start to focus again?
• 54:00: The difference between your two nervous systems.
• 56:30: Six takeaways to help you switch from fight or flight to rest and recovery

Resources and go deeper:

• For Closed Captions: Watch on YouTube and turn on “CC.” For instructions to turn on closed captions, click here.
• The Mel Robbins Podcast: Signal Award Winner. Thank you for your support!
• Newport Institute: The difference between big T and little t trauma
• Harvard Health: Understanding the stress response
• What is trauma? Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps The Score
• British Journal of General Practice: Childhood Attachment
• The Washington Post: Trauma in infancy can have a lingering effect throughout life
• The Gottman Institute: Reclaiming Our Stories From Trauma
• The Boston Globe: Chaos and Trauma, being a nurse during Covid
• NBC News: Psychedelic therapies are on the horizon
• New York Times: Cold Water Plunges: Can They Really Reduce Anxiety and Depression?
• BRC Recovery: Treating Complex Trauma, An EMDR and IFS Approach
• Dr. David Baldwin, “Primitive Mechanisms of Trauma Response: An Evolutionary Perspective on Trauma-Related Disorders.”
• Dr. Sigrid Breit and team: “Vagus Nerve as Modulator of the Brain–Gut Axis in Psychiatric and Inflammatory Disorders.”
• Dr. Robert Howland: “Vagus Nerve Stimulation.”
• Dr. Nicole LePera: How To Do The Work
• Dr. Nicole LePera: How To Meet Yourself workbook
• Harvard Heath: “Understanding the Stress Response.”
• Mark Wolynn: It Didn't Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle

If you uncover or have a history of trauma, consider enlisting the support of a trained therapist. This podcast episode and the companion workbook are not meant to be a substitute for therapeutic support.