Effects Of Trauma

Reducing the Effects of Trauma Through Consciousness-Based Creative Writing:
A Personal Reflection

For my senior project portfolio, I chose memoir/creative nonfiction as my primary writing form, or I could say, it chose me. Prior to coming to Maharishi University of Management, I had tried to write fiction, but I would get caught up in doubt about what I perceived was my combination of lack of imagination and underdeveloped writing skills. In grade school, I wrote short illustrated stories about experiences in my life—at that time I didn’t realize they were memoir. Since then, I have held onto the desire to write longer creative stories. In my late teens and early 20’s, I wrote poetry as a form of expressing uncomfortable emotions that needed …show more content…
When we hold onto trauma, there are both obvious and subtle ways this affects us long-term. Dr. Frederick Travis, a renowned brain researcher, says in his book Your Brain is a River, Not a Rock, “Every experience you have leaves a trace in the brain. Your brain is not a static structure: It is a river, not a rock. The pattern of connections between your neurons changes continuously” (Travis p38). So if the brain is able to change on a daily basis, we can rewrite the story of our life, or at least the way we perceive it on an emotional and memory level. We also have the capacity to untag trauma markers through the continued practice of Transcendental Meditation …show more content…
I started with ideas, lists, and free writing that, over time, turned into short stories. Journal entries brought to the surface of my awareness my processing and coping mechanisms. As this process of outflow was happening, I didn’t have “the choice” to switch between types of writing. Everything that came out of the depths of my mind needed to be directed towards fulfilling this one need: outflow, processing, and healing. Essays? Not possible. Reading? Nope. Even projects intended to open the flow of creative expression were uncomfortably challenging. Anything that stalled, postponed, impeded, or distracted me from this process of outflow was almost a level of suffering in and of itself. Once I learned and implemented the tools to begin the process of opening the flow of writing, I couldn’t stop. I found a way to express myself in ways I’ve never been able to do before. About this process, Maharishi says, “Literature is not the outcome of effort. It is not produced in a labored way. No…Such beautiful, natural, spontaneous, effortless expressions, which contain a great range of meaning and feeling in their fabrics, come out to be enjoyed as literary pieces generation after generation”

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