It’s no accident for me that language is a potent tool of healing. For as far back as I can remember, language has been my teacher, my way of organizing and understanding the world. I’ve written poetry since I was an adolescent, and will drop everything (well, almost everything) when a surge of urgent language insists on being born. I know that on the other side of that surrender are insights that would otherwise be unavailable to me. In my own process, locating the words alone, helpless and ruined was essential.
In many ways, healing from trauma is akin to creating a poem. Both require the right timing, the right words and the right image. When these elements align, something meaningful is set in motion that can be felt in the body. To heal, our pacing must be in tune. If we arrive too quickly at an image, it might not take root. If the words that comfort us arrive too early, we might not be ready to take them in. If the words aren’t precise, we might not hear them or resonate with the at all.
Uncovering the right language not only exposes the trauma, it also unveils the tools and images needed for healing. In using this method, I’ve witnessed deep rooted patterns of depression, anxiety and emptiness shift in a flash of insight.
The vehicle for this journey is language, the buried language of our worries and fears. It’s likely that this language has lived inside us our whole lives. It may have originated with our parents, or even generations ago with our great grandparents. Our core language insists on being heard. When we follow where it leads and hear its story, it has the power to defuse our deepest fears.
Along the way we are likely to meet family members, both known and unknown. Some have been dead for years. Some aren’t even related but their suffering or their cruelty may have altered the course of our family’s destiny. We may even uncover a secret or two hidden in stories that have long been laid to rest. But regardless of where this exploration takes us, my experience suggests that we’ll arrive at a new place in our lives, with greater freedom in our bodies and an ability to be more at peace with ourselves.
Mark Wolyn
Emerging From The Dark Night 