The word trauma...it holds a lot of stigma. When you hear it you might think major injury, assault, catastrophic event, abuse, suffering but underlying all of these is a sense of victim-hood. I used to think (and maybe you did too)that only soldiers experienced trauma. It never occurred to me that as a human being I’m exposed to trauma all the time.

Like a good watchdog, your autonomic nervous system alerts you to danger and can save your life. But just like the watchdog that cries wolf, barking at everything and nothing, soon people stop paying attention.