I’m where I grew up, and the trauma triggers are everywhere. Yes, I know, we all have them in some way, shape or form — childhood traumas, generational traumas, and/or our current shared global traumas. That commonality doesn’t lessen their impact to each of us individually. Saying “just get over it” belittles our lived realities and our mind/body stored reactions to them.

If they are things that happened during our very formative years, the trauma is embedded in us and exorcising them is not easy. It takes emotional labor to identify them, deal with them, and find a way to release them from our bodies while breaking long-embedded patterns.

And so I ride my bike. The circles formed by my feet pedaling take me backwards and forward at once. And eventually I am present. It is then, and only then, that I can bless and release each no-longer-acceptable to me pain and pattern, and let it go. As, perhaps, you have done as well.