Trauma Release Exercises for Awakening and Nondual Realization with Christina Guimond | LM

Recovering from trauma through tremoring with David Berceli | Living Mirrors #64
• Recovering from trauma...
Chris Guimond is an awakening and nondual realization guide who works with the Trauma Release Exercises that I’ve previously spoken about on the podcast. You can listen to my interview with the creator of the TRE approach, David Bercelli (episode 64), if you want more detail on the practices. Chris and I connected over the fact that we’ve found the combination of TRE and nondual integration to be incredibly powerful, yet no one else in this space appears to be talking about it. On her own journey, Chris worked with previous podcast guest Angelo Dillulo (episode 110), and he has now started recommending these practices too, thanks to Chris. I think we’ll see this combination spread in years to come so I'm very grateful to Chris for her work promoting TRE in the awakening and nonduality space. I hope you enjoy the conversation.
christinaguimond.com/
#shadowwork #nonduality #awakening
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We live in a world filled with suffering, where attempts to help have been split into largely separate scientific and spiritual communities. As a spiritually engaged neuroscientist I hope to communicate how these seemingly separate world views can be reconciled. I produce weekly videos on topics at the intersection of neuroscience and wellbeing, including consciousness, meditation and psychedelic science.
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[@benwansbury7412]

Hearing James say that he was surprised that he didn't get more of an enthusiastic response when he first started talking about his experience with T.R.E. makes me wish I had shared some of my experience sooner. Never mind. I will share now how much value I have got and how enthusiastic I am about this practice. About 7 years ago, due to psychological aspects of developmental trauma, I finally reached breaking point and had what they used to refer to as a nervous breakdown, triggered by an attempt to stop smoking, that left me crippled with anxiety, sleep deprivation and a knot of tension in my neck and scalp. (Alas not accompanied by a non dual awakening experience.) I eventually became aware, through the help of my sister, that my nervous system had gone in to a trauma response. She was on a path of healing her own developmental trauma and had some experience with T.R.E. She taught me the exercises to initiate the tremoring process and guided me through it a couple of times. I then did it on my own a few times and soon realised that I no longer needed to do the exercises to get the tremors going. It seems that my body had been reminded of its capacity to release stress in this way. Now I could decide to allow this process to happen and it would. I can echo the sentiment that Christina and James talk about. I can clearly feel the difference after a tremoring session. It is such a reliefs to be to be able to shake off stress in such a simple, natural way. After a session great sighs of relief come naturally and I feel deeply relaxed and calm and grounded. I am so grateful to my biology that this mechanism of deep release is part of the repitoir of behaviours I have inherited, and to my sister for showing me how to awaken it. I too feel that the rediscovery of this phenomenon could be much more widely promoted as a preventative to physical and mental health difficulties and as an intervention in mental health crisis situations. I seriously think it could save lives and doubtlessly very much suffering. Just the direct personal experience of going from overwhelming anxiety or stress to a quiet tranquil state in, say half an hour and realising that it is an intrinsic capacity of our bodies functioning is incredibly empowering and inspires hope that we really can heal and, importantly, that it's not about working everything out in your head.
I'd also like to share another personal experience that accords with Christina and James' accounts of intentional psychedelic journeys. In a more recent chapter in my ongoing healing I have taken part in some ayahuasca retreats. Although well aware that I couldn't know how the sessions would play out for me I was of the attitude that any benefits would be gained after, what may be, a more or less harrowing experience. Many people spoke of getting what you need and not necessarily what you want. Happily the setting was just perfect for me and on entering the first session I felt very comfortable, safe, well supported, calm and curious. (Which is telling of the experience and integrity of the retreat facilitators as my default temperament was anxious and overthinking). All three of the sessions I took part in that weekend followed the same trajectory. The medicines effect seemed woozy and soothing and when I laid down and closed my eyes wave after wave of energetic release passed through me. The tremors went on for hours and I was totally ok with what was happening, even though it was unexpected, because I understood it to be trauma being released. Interestingly there was no associated autobiographical material coming up, just bizarre geometric imagery accompanied by a sense that some sort of process was occurring, some sort of reconfiguration. In the later part of the sessions i had many insights, seeing beliefs I had held about myself as just constructions in the mind and that they had just been deconstructed. It seemed too good to be true that such empowering transformations of the mind could be so painless....and beautiful. The tremoring response was more energetic each night and by the third night, sitting cross legged on my mat, my body vibrated so vigorously I was virtually levitating! I didn't drink a second cup as I was pretty exhausted and felt that was quite enough for one night. I was 'done.' The second time I attended one of these dragonflyeurope retreats the tremoring was very minimal. I got the impression that the medicine unlocks the body's natural healing intelligence and if it knows how to and there is the need- it shakes.

[@FetterMuncher666]

TRE and Nondual awareness inquiry, that's a great combination indeed!

[@mintakan003]

My nondual teacher taught that after an initial awakening, even if abrupt, transforming to the core, is unlikely to relieve all suffering. In the ancient traditions, they talked about the persistence of "vasanas" and 'samskaras", which takes a lifetime (or more), to work through. Still it's an attitude of "getting rid of stuff", along with a largely negative view of the body. It's an overly simplistic view of "good" and "bad".
There is also the issue of fundamental paradigms. Is it "up and out" (transcendence), or "in and through" (immanence). It seems, what is spoken about, in this interview, ... is the latter. The body has a wisdom of its own. It wasn't until when I got introduced to the western psychotherapeutic perspective, more precisely, the "somatic awareness" version of it (Carl Rogers, Eugene Gendlin, ... notion of the "felt sense"), that I saw the body itself, was a gateway to healing.
The other major theme in the psychotherapeutic process, is that it's not realistic to get rid of all suffering. Rather, oftentimes, the therapeutic goal was to increase the client's "capacity to hold".

[@madameblatvatsky]

Thank you, very interesting 😁