Trauma – The Fullfilment Project

After working in a very challenging job in SEN education in the past I developed bad anxiety and have some trauma. Self-limiting beliefs acted as mental barriers to me improving my health and improving my Fibromyalgia symptoms.

I think my brain was subconsciously telling me that being healthy would put me back in harms way as physical restraints of young people with SEN to keep them and other safe was an essential part of the job, nut it brought its dangers. Having Fibromyalgia meant that I could not do it anymore and was somehow safer. The brain makes up all sorts of beliefs and stories to keep you safe, even if they are not really true.

Fast forward to today and my recent past and I’ve tried positive thinking, focusing on thriving so I can help others and other such things to try and come up with reasons to improve my Fibromyalgia but I kept hitting a mental wall that increased my anxiety and I stopped doing what was obviously good for me. The anxiety of self preservation always prevailed.

I have, for a while, had a fascination with martial arts. I cannot practice them but I love the philosophy behind them. I recently thought about bringing this philosophy into my life and decided to make discipline a key value that i would strive for and I seemed to bypass the mental barriers created by my past trauma and got on with doing my exercises, Chi Kung (Qigong) and eating better. It was as if I had tricked my brain.

Thinking about this I realised that this was possibly because I was focused on the present and not the future, like I was when I was trying to ‘thrive’ in order to help people in the future. It became obvious, as is often pointed out in films and programmes that touch on eastern philosophy, that being in the moment reduces stress and gives us a clearer mind.

I realise that I am not necessarily finding a route through my trauma but it seems less of a barrier and more of something to be curious about and understand when i focus on the present. I think that when we understand trauma it loses its power. So, maybe a sidestep is better than taking it head on when we are not ready to handle such psychological challenges.

A wall is hard to get through but not when you use the door.

Whenever we begin a new year there is pressure to set new goals around health, finance and personal development. Very rarely do these goals continue to be worked on beyond the first quarter of the year. We rationalise ourselves out of them until they fall by the wayside.

The problem is that we all have an unconscious set of beliefs that unconsciously run our lives. Where possible our brains automate things, so the familiar becomes a habit and then it becomes automatic. We do the same things because we always have and our brains tell us to, and then we get the same results.

To change the results in our lives we need to figure out what negative beliefs we have and work on replacing them with better, more effective ones. Negative beliefs about ourselves often come from trauma where the brain comes up with a story to explain what has happened and then turns it into a belief as a self protection mechanism.

One of mine is that I am not capable because in a previous role working with special needs children I made a decision that resulted in being assaulted to the point where I had concussion. My brain interpreted that as ‘making decision and taking responsibility is dangerous ‘ because I am not capable of making good decisions. This is not true but my brain believed it.

I am working on replacing that belief with the phrase ‘I am always capable’. Obviously this will not always be the case but your subconscious believed what it is told, whether consciously or unconsciously. Adding ‘always’ makes it effective.

What unconscious beliefs are holding you back and what can you replace them with?

Make it your new years resolution to find these negative unconscious beliefs and rewire them. Then set your goals.

Tag: Trauma

A Route Through Trauma

2026 Goals: Choosing Your Beliefs