In The Body Keeps the Score, author Bessel van der Kolk says, “The past is alive in the form of gnawing interior discomfort.”1 When we experience trauma, the protective part of ourself is frozen in that traumatic time and thinks the past is still happening. This protective part still thinks we’re six years old, twelve years old, and so on. Even if the trauma occurred long ago, when we’re reminded of it, we’ll react with the stress of that time because our body thinks it’s occurring now.
