Welcome beautiful soul! I’m so sorry for the pain and trauma you’ve experienced in your life that brought you here, but so happy you’re taking the steps to get healed. Darkness, trials, and trauma are parts of life we can’t escape, but YOU are in control of how you navigate them, and more importantly, who you become on the other side of them.

What is Soul Trauma?

I take a faith-based holistic approach to healing which recognizes God’s divine design of human beings as body, soul, and spirit, and addresses how trauma affects the whole person through practices that integrate each of those parts. Soul trauma is simply the impact trauma has had on a person’s soul.

The soul is a person’s mind, will, and emotions; it’s the essence of who you are; your thoughts, feelings, and personality. The body connects to the soul through the five senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch), which act as “gates”, allowing things from the physical world to pass through to our mental and emotional world. Your soul is shaped by your experiences and interactions with the physical world—by the things that enter through your body's “gates”.

Trauma affects your soul through your senses. The impact of trauma isn’t isolated to your body—it affects every part of you, and those parts are connected in some way. One of the most interesting and profound connections within the body is that of the brain and heart, two organs that play a major role in your thoughts and emotions—your soul.

How Trauma Impacts Your Brain

Unprocessed trauma, along with your perception of the event, causes your subconscious brain to form core wounds that represent the meanings you’ve attached to the trauma—these become the subconscious beliefs you view the world and yourself through. These include beliefs like I am not loved, I am not safe, I am alone, I am not worthy. Trauma changes the pathways in your brain.

According to the National Library of Medicine, traumatic stress can be associated with lasting changes in the areas of the brain implicated in the stress response, which includes the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex, and is also associated with increased cortisol and norepinephrine responses to subsequent stressors.

Here’s the good news … because of neuroplasticity, the brain can change itself by acquiring new neural pathways and discharging ones no longer in use! Neuropathways are the connections between neurons in the brain—your emotional, thought, and behavioral patterns. The more you use a neuropathway, the stronger it becomes, this is why after doing something for long enough it becomes so natural you don’t have to even think about it.

Trauma and the experience of being stuck in a protective state create neuropathways that deepen over time, almost like a rut in the brain that can be hard to get out of, but thanks to the amazing ability to heal God has wired into your body and soul, these pathways can be reprogrammed, and new healthier pathways can be formed!

What is the Emotional Brain?

The limbic system, also known as the emotional or survival brain, is a threat alert system wired to protect and preserve your emotional and physical safety, along with your sense of dignity, belonging, and connection. The limbic system plays a significant role in moving your body into a protective state. If your emotional brain perceives a threat, it will move your body into a survival state—fight-flight or freeze.

The limbic system is part of the central nervous system and consists of the amygdala, hippocampus, hypothalamus, and thalamus. Your brain is the boss of the nervous system in charge of thinking, feeling, and making decisions. It has billions of neurons that help send and receive messages—via neuropathways. The spinal cord passes the signals between your brain and the rest of your body.

Cue the Heart Connection

In 1991 it was discovered by J. Andrew Armour that, like the brain, the heart has its own network of neurons, neurotransmitters, proteins, and support cells—its own nervous system! The intrinsic cardiac nervous system (ICNS), also called the “little brain” is complex enough to function independently of the brain, allowing the heart to learn, remember, sense, and feel. The ICNS also regulates the heart function and communicates with other neurological systems creating feedback loops.

The ICNS contains about 40,000 neurons, like those in the brain, called sensory neurites. The heart also communicates with the brain in many ways, including neurologically, biochemically, and biophysically. The vagus nerve carries information from the heart to the brain, where signals from the ICNS can redirect to the medulla, hypothalamus, thalamus, amygdala, and cerebral cortex. Research has found that the heart sends more signals to the brain than the brain does to the heart!

Feelings have as much to do with the heart as they do with the brain. It’s a two-way relationship, an intricate connection. The signals the brain sends to the heart are influenced and changed by our emotions, and the heart responds to the brain in complex ways. Both depend on and are influenced by the function of the other, and I believe it’s because of the roles they play in the soul.

Trauma is complex. It impacts every part of your being, especially your heart and brain. It can subtly shape your life or have a profound and lasting impact, especially when left unprocessed. Trauma does an incredible amount of damage but there is hope through the amazing healing power that God has wired into every part of you!

Check out this post, 7 Soul Hacks to Support Nervous System Regulation, for more information on trauma’s impact on the nervous system and simple daily ways to support your nervous system’s health. 3 Life-Changing Tips for Faith-Based Holistic Trauma Healing is another great post that includes three healing practices you can start today!