THE BITTER COLD TRUTH

On this bitter cold, sunfilled weekend in Chestnut Hill, a historic suburb in the northwestern part of Philadelphia, I  took a walk up Germantown Ave and  came across this shocking truth on the front lawn of the Presbyterian Church. There is a memorial posted by a group called Heeding God's Call that can be found at www.heedinggodscall.org

331 TEE SHIRTS FOR THE 331 PHILADELPHIANS MURDERED DURING 2012, MOSTLY BY ILLEGAL GUNS. While I walked through the memorial graveyard made up of stick crosses, that hung tee shirts with name, birthday and the age of the victims whose lives were eclipsed by gun violence, I felt a profound sense of vacancy and senselessness. As their untold stories were left blowing in the wind, I noticed how young most of them were. 15, 20, 25 years of age. I became more and more saddened. I was reminded of the collected shoes of victims of the Holocust that lie in the Holocaust Memorial in Washington, D.C.  I was reminded of how I felt the first time I went to Gettysburg, Pa. and walked on the bloodshed fields of the Civil War. More soldiers killed there than anywhere else at one time. Brothers killing brothers.

Battles in the fields, battles in the streets, battles in the homes, battles in the schools and battles in the psyche. Our world of agression and trigger happy reactions, has cost us our humanity and our most precious relationships. Learning to deal another way isn't easy when you live in a hostile environment. Most people who have experienced repetitive aggression have become the less understood survivors of PTSD.  Unfortunately, the lines can become blurred enough that sometimes, victims of post traumatic stress disorder can also become later the perpetrators of violence themselves. When PTSD occurs, individuals perception is altered in such a way because their senses are heightened into a hypervigilance that is wired for survival. When this takes over, a chemical reaction occurs that signals the fight and flight responses of the sympathetic nervous system to kick in. Cortisol hormone is released from the adrenal system that heightens one's capacity to react and the rest becomes history. His story or her story, but mostly a story that now reveals a passing, a loss, a moment that can not be retrieved or revisited. 

So what are the alternatives? Yes, we need to review, then revise the guns laws and put the legislative government to task. Yes, we need to redefine how we, as a society, view mental illness and remove the taboos associated; while we roll up our sleeves and help tormented individuals and families get the support required. Yes, we need to bring our brothers and sisters out of neighborhood war zones. What else? We, ourselves,  need to learn and teach our children, new ways to respond, not react, to hostile environments. How often do you snap unnecessarily at your love ones when you are feeling pressure or angry? We need to develop new tools of resolution that end our limited choices of confrontational engagement. After all, are we not deemed to be the inheritors of a higher consciousness? Can we not find a way to feel empowered and peaceful at the same time? 

Activity that helps to increase the experience of relaxation and creativity belongs to the region of the Autonomic Nervous System called the parasympathetic. When the parasympathetic is engaged on a consistent enough basis then it can play a key role in countering  stress triggers and support greater self regulation. This will bring about a control of one's reactive impulsivity when triggered by danger, perceived danger or excessive stress.  It will also create a more even temperment and develop a prolonged sense of wellbeing. Such training can be found thorugh means of healing massage, meditation, yoga, tai chi, Zen practices, creative processes, and extended exercise that puts you in the "zone" as a emptying state of mind.

For those of you who saw the latest movie Life of Pi, you realize the moral of the story is that, in the rare occassions that we are met with survival conditions our Tiger will emerge and react accordingly; but otherwise, if we don't learn to tame the Tiger within, we are a victim to an inevitable passing.   Peace