Knowing ourselves well and understanding is not an innate human characteristic as some may believe. We often travel through years of our lives unbalanced and unaware. Taking the time to look inward, taking those first steps to realizing there may just be more to life is simply opening the door towards emotional self-awareness; the key to our own personal freedom. It’s here we can learn to raise about anger and fear by releasing insecurity and our need to be judgmental towards others.

Being mindful is more than just the ability to be present in the moment. It’s the overall ability to recognize and overcome anxiety as we face it moment by moment. It’s a deep sense of personal well-being and inner peace experienced once we’ve removed a significant of the emotional baggage, we all carry around. In other words, it takes more than just meditation and yoga to be sustainable; it takes the higher level of consciousness we reach by relieving the subconscious of trauma.

Trauma is not always as traumatic as we’ve been led to believe. Our innocence and inexperience coupled with the dependance we have on our caregivers makes for some very vulnerable years. And the truth is, very often the adults we depend upon are not as emotionally mature or ready for the responsibility of parenting. All children need to feel fully safe, accepted and loved unconditionally. Anything less leads to confusion and insecurity. In other words, childhood trauma is a lot more prevalent than you may expect.