Many years ago, as college student, I was attacked from behind.

I “moved on” from this incident, but I noticed a very strange behavior. I felt really uncomfortable if anyone walked behind me. Even if they were on the other side of the road.

What was that all about? It took me almost 3 years to connect the dots between my past trauma and my behavior.

The question that I kept coming back to was why couldn’t I shake it off. In other words, what’s wrong with me?

The good news is that our responses are driven by our subconscious, which has only one role to play: to keep you safe. Why is that good news? Because it means there is nothing wrong with you.

• You are not lazy
• You are not a failure
• You are not dumb
• You do not have to prove your worthiness to someone else to have success

The key to changing your behavior is to retrain your subconscious and help it feel safe. In other words, it is important to release the connection between the original situation and the dis-empowering emotions you developed about it.

Sometimes, the emotions go away on their own, as they did with my fear of pedestrians near me. Other times we need a helping (tapping?) hand to uncover those long buried emotions and release them from your subconscious.

Reach out for a no obligation conversation if you find you are struggling with past trauma and it’s impacting your quality of life.