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The impact of one traumatic childhood experience can affect the rest of our lives even if we have repressed it or forgotten it. When we don’t know how to process trauma, it gets stuck in the mind and body. Healthcare providers often miss the connection between past trauma and current anxiety, depression, and health, financial, and relationship problems. If we don’t identify the cause correctly, it’s harder to cure the problem. The World Health Organization says that over 70 percent of people experience trauma, with an average of three events per person, and 78 percent of people who had a traumatic experience develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Most think of trauma as rape, war, terrorist attacks, violent personal assaults, and natural disasters. It’s much broader than that, however, including anything causing us to feel lack of control, like emotional and mental abuse, bullying, betrayal, the pandemic, global warming, serious medical diagnoses, loss of a loved one, and prejudice. Trauma can cause us to feel disconnected from ourselves and others. Research shows that spending just 5 minutes in nature allows our heart rate to slow, our muscles to relax, and our mind to quiet. 15 minutes in nature causes a reduction in the stress hormone, cortisol, and 90 minutes results in reduced mental preoccupation with problems and increased connection to others and the world. Nature benefits the exact parts of the mind and body that are affected by trauma. Please join us Thursday to learn how to engage with nature to relax; tune into the somatic wisdom of the body to face lingering trauma and rewire it; and to work with painful experiences to transform them and heal ourselves and the world.