Wisdom is nothing but a preparation of the soul, a capacity, a secret art of thinking, feeling and breathing thoughts of unity at every moment of life. ~ Herman Hesse
For the past nine years, I’ve been thinking about the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences. In 2010, I wrote about the ACE Study for Raising Arizona Kids magazine: www.raisingarizonakids.com/2010/04/casting-light-shadow-abuse/, and that article changed my life in many ways.
The welfare of the world’s children is in constant focus in my perspective. I’ve worked to do whatever I could to share the story of the study, to support others who are advocates for the well being of children, and, to explore healing modalities that allow people to discover and use ones that bring relief from the traumas they suffered as children.
Now, my current awareness is on adverse experiences that adults—grown-ups—feel. Their traumas involve feelings of failure at personal and professional levels, the near-daily pain of living in a world where injustices occur and inequality rules, and, deep disappointment by the actions and speech patterns of people who are positioned as leaders.
How you handle angers, traumas, and disappointments in your career, in your spirituality, in your relationships relates back to what you learned as a child. Since it is true that adverse experiences happen to people of all ages, I believe humans need and want dialogue on aspects of healing across the entire timeline of a lifetime.
Thanks to the ACE Study, the effects of trauma on a child’s brain and a child’s future are known. There is no one study—yet there are many studies—about what I’m calling AGEs.
So, what do you do when you experience an AGE?
How does an AGE stick in your adult brain and continue to affect your health?
I don’t have the answers to those questions, but I do submit that AGEs caused by society need to be submitted to a healing process, too. Please, I welcome your comments. Let’s figure this out together, in this community we’ve created.
For the moment, my best advice is this: Know your ACEs, and face your AGEs, for both exist on your road to wisdom.
Mary -
I think you're on to something for sure, and it raises two intriguing lines of inquiry for me:
1) as one of the other commentators mentioned, secondary trauma that comes from being a nurse or a teacher or a first-responder is REAL and takes its toll in ways that only recently has been acknowledged;
2) at the risk of being accused of making everything about race - I can't help but note that the chronic trauma associated with being African-American or Latinx in the US of A, regardless of SES or other traits (e.g., sexual-orientation, gender-orientation, immigration status, etc.), for most of us amounts to adverse grown-up experiences, ranging from daily hassles to major violence against us. This is especially true in the fresh, new backlash that is the current administration and its cult of followers.
How do we raise critical awareness and strategic action with the compassion that needs to accompany our connection and mutual support to one another given the traumas folk experience in adulthood? Good questions, for sure.
Thanks for this thoughtful line of examination, Mary. As I say - I truly believe you are on to something important.