Mindful Moves: Trauma-Informed Insights

  When Stress Speaks Louder Than Words: Why We Struggle to Listen Under Pressure We’ve all had moments where someone’s speaking to us, maybe delivering important information, difficult feedback, or bad news, and yet we can’t seem to hear a single word properly. It’s not that we’re being dismissive or don’t care. It’s that our system has already gone into survival mode, and in that state, true listening isn’t just hard; it’s almost biologically impossible. Understanding why this happens is vital, not just for our own awareness but for how we lead, care, and connect with others, especially in high-stakes environments like health and social care. When we start to see this through a trauma-informed lens, the pieces begin to make a lot more sense. The Physiology of Not Listening Let’s start with the body. When we’re under stress, our nervous system responds automatically. The vagus nerve, the key player in our parasympathetic “rest and digest” system, goes offline, and our sympa...

When We Keep Going: The Strange, Brave Dance of Progress Have you ever noticed how life rarely moves in a neat, straight line? We’re taught that success is all about relentless forward motion, hustle harder, push through, and never give up. And yet, anyone who’s ever done anything hard knows that progress doesn’t always look like a single upward climb. Sometimes it feels like we’re wading through mud. Other times it’s two steps back, one step forward—or worse, we stand still for what feels like forever, holding our breath in the middle of the unknown. So what is it that makes us keep showing up, even when every part of us wants to quit? The Fuel Beneath the Frustration If you ask people what keeps them going, the answers are as messy and varied as we are. For some, it’s love—for a child, a partner, or a dream version of themselves they’re not ready to give up on. For others, it’s sheer stubbornness, the refusal to let life win without a fight. Sometimes it’s hope in disguis...