The Biology of Trauma® With Dr. Aimie

You know the thing that would help. You have known for a while. You still have not done it.

Dr. Aimie recognized herself in the research on learned helplessness. For a long stretch of her life she expected everything to be hard, expected to fail, and quietly stopped trying without ever deciding to. It is not laziness. It is a body that learned effort did not matter and powered the effort down.

In this Part 2 conversation, recorded in Josh Trent's Austin studio, they talk about what separates resting from escaping, why the drive built on your own wound eventually stops working, and how a little safety is enough to take the next step.

This is Part 2 of two. Part 1 is here: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/why-do-we-escape-instead-of-rest-josh-trent-on-emotional-epigenetics

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

02:04 How to tell resting from escaping

04:25 The three questions behind your purpose

06:48 Why the fuel of your own wound stops working

07:58 Grieving the old identity

10:05 Why showing up takes borrowed energy

13:24 Conditioned happiness and the opposite he found

17:18 The Seabiscuit story and learned helplessness

21:45 Recognizing the pattern in someone else

26:49 What most people misunderstand about a leader

30:20 Freedom fuels flow, fear fuels force

31:27 Why curiosity needs safety first

 

RESOURCES:

Take the free 2-Minute Assessment for Stored Trauma. Discover your primary pattern of responding when life becomes too much, then see how the other four show up.

Get The Biology of Trauma book. Read Chapter 13, on why the body will not rest until it feels safe, and how to start building that safety.

Josh Trent hosts the Wellness + Wisdom Podcast

 

Full show notes: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/why-is-not-trying-a-survival-response-not-a-weakness-with-josh-trent-part-2

You finally have an evening with nothing in it. Twenty minutes later you are on your phone.

Josh Trent spent most of his life in a body that did not know how to rest. A clench in his stomach. A breath that stayed high in his chest. His first memory is of being a boy watching the adults around him be angry, unable to change it and unable to leave. The bracing stayed for thirty years.

Dr. Aimie and Josh talk about why stillness can feel unsafe, what separates real rest from escape, and why so many practitioners hold grief in a diaphragm that will not drop.

This is Part 1 of two. Part 2 releases July 30.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

01:22 How one question from childhood shaped an entire life

05:11 What happens when you know something is missing

09:24 How patterns get passed down through a family

13:49 The moment feeling became the way back in

17:12 Feeling an emotion in your body for the first time

18:38 Why practitioners carry grief in their bodies

19:31 What worries a wellness leader most about his own industry

23:57 Why social media makes it harder to feel

26:20 The difference between rest and escape

RESOURCES:

Take the free 2-minute assessment for stored trauma. Find your primary pattern of responding when life becomes too much, then see how the other four show up.

Is it stress or is it trauma? The guide that walks through the difference.

Josh Trent hosts the Wellness + Wisdom Podcast. 

Full show notes: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/why-do-we-escape-instead-of-rest-josh-trent-on-emotional-epigenetics

Why do I crash every time I finally slow down? Maybe you feel fine all week, then crash on the weekend. Maybe an open Saturday fills you with a quiet dread. So you fill it. An early bike ride. A full list. Anything to keep moving. Many people call this high-functioning burnout. It has a name, and it has a cause.

➡️ Full show notes: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/episode-184-why-you-crash-when-you-slow-down-the-pattern-of-depletion

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

01:34 — Why do I crash every time I finally slow down?

04:03 — What is the pattern of disconnection, and why do I feel numb or distant?

04:33 — What is the pattern of disruption, and why do I feel stuck and unable to move forward?

05:03  — What is the pattern of depletion, and why do I feel like I'm running on empty?

05:15 — What is the pattern of dysregulation, and why does my nervous system overreact or under-react?

05: 32 — What is the pattern of disease, and how does stored trauma become physical symptoms?

06:30 — Why is the pattern of depletion the one that hides?

08:52 — Why does the crash come with the rest, if the rest did not cause it?

11:22 — How are stress and burnout different to my biology?

12:53 — What is capacity, and why does low capacity turn stress into overwhelm?

16:33 — What does it mean to live at two speeds, fast and stopped?

18:35 — How does depletion show up in my biology, from magnesium to ferritin?

Resources/Guides:

Stress or Trauma Guide — a free guide to tell a stress response from a trauma response, and see the sequence your nervous system needs next.

➡️ Full show notes with links and resources: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/episode-184-why-you-crash-when-you-slow-down-the-pattern-of-depletion

Most of us were told to grieve, to rest, to be present. Nobody taught us the skill. In Part 2, Dr. Aimie and neuroscientist Dr. David Rabin get into heart rate variability and resilience, why anxiety masks itself as focus, and why grieving is a skill your body has to learn. Feeling safe enough to feel is where the work begins.

➡️ Full show notes: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/why-grieving-is-a-skill-what-hrv-reveals-about-resilience-david-rabin 

01:03 — Why is heart rate variability the key marker for resilience?

03:08 — What is intention, and what is it in the nervous system?

04:08 — Where does intention fit if you have lived in hypervigilance?

08:18 — What practices in therapy get in the way of healing?

11:28 — How do you apply these principles in a full, busy life?

16:33 — How do you grieve a loss, and why is grieving a skill?

Listen to Part 1 here.

Resources/Guides:

Get the "Is It Stress or Trauma" Guide. Know whether what your body is carrying is stress or something deeper.

➡️ Full show notes with links and resources: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/why-grieving-is-a-skill-what-hrv-reveals-about-resilience-david-rabin

Stress was never the enemy. Your body was built to use it. What wears the body down is chronic stress with no recovery on the other side. Translational neuroscientist Dr. David Rabin splits stress into two forms. Eustress builds capacity. Distress, carried over time, moves the body toward disease.

➡️ Full show notes: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/eustress-distress-difference-means-for-your-body-david-rabin

In This Episode You'll Learn:

01:25 — What does the equation eustress × time = ease actually mean?

06:19 — How does the meaning you carry from the past shape your stress response?

07:37 — Can a person experience post-traumatic growth decades later?

09:19 — What creates safety so the body can reorganize?

11:00 — Why is a soothing touch such a powerful signal of safety?

13:55 — Why is rest the key to resilience, and where do you start if you cannot rest?

Resources/Guides:

If you want to know whether what you are carrying is stress or something deeper, this free guide walks you through the difference. Get the Stress or Trauma? Guide

➡️ Full show notes with links and resources: https://www.biologyoftrauma.com/post/eustress-distress-difference-means-for-your-body-david-rabin