Last issue we talked about the importance of understanding our inner world and how we collect wounds on our journey through life.
Developing insight requires basic knowledge of our developmental process.
From the moment of our existence our environment is shaping us into the person we become.
Very few people have memories of their experiences from birth to six months, yet this is a highly influential period for forming our identity, our security and feelings of basic trust.
As a baby your responsibility was to just be and to receive unconditional nurture and care.
You required an available and responsive caregiver to meet your survival needs.
If you received this, you experienced a sense of well-being, a strong foundation of trust and a good self perception.
The message you received was people can be trusted and I am worthy of care, establishing an elemental building block to forming a healthy self image.
If your caregiver was unreliable or environment unstable you developed unhealthy beliefs of the world and your place in it.
You determined that people can’t be trusted, feelings of not belonging and feeling unsafe.
Your developing brain was at work processing this information which is then stored in your amygdala, part of your emotional brain that detects threat and links emotions to memories.
If you didn’t receive unconditional care your amygdala acts like a highly sensitive alarm clock.
It responds to any perceived form of physical or emotional threat, sending you suddenly into fight flight or freeze mode.
In childhood it might manifest in tantrums; in adulthood you might notice anger, anxiety, shutdown or withdrawal.
If you notice that you are easily triggered by innocuous comments or events or have difficulty in trusting others, it might be worthwhile examining your early history.
Understanding your foundations is the first step in healing.
