To look back and try to feel what you were feeling in the past is really stepping out of the present. In the case of trauma, what happened in the past has sometimes a very significant effect on what is experienced now. So put the attention and the effort into what you are experiencing now, which will likely include all the results of any trauma. That way you stay in the present. Because you can’t go back. You can only learn how to be in what you're experiencing now.
When we do this--when we're completely in the experience of now--things that weren't experienced in the past but are still somewhere within us may arise in experience. And that’s where we experience the release. But we work from our present experience, not trying to recover the past, so to speak.
 | This article by Ken McLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. |
