: From Trauma to Growth
How adversity can become a catalyst for strength, clarity, and meaning.
Table of Contents
Abstract
This study examines the problems and solutions of trauma, especially why some people fall apart from adversity while others use the trauma to grow. Adversity will impact every person at some point in their life. However, when adversity strikes, a combination of attitudes, personality, beliefs, and mindset can turn the experience into an opportunity for growth. A history of trauma related conditions, including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder are chronicled and compared with research Post-Traumatic Growth. Factors leading to growth include emotion awareness and management, positive reinterpretation of the experience, mindset, and social connections. Prevention includes social emotional learning programs in schools, as well as teaching coping skills. Seek out failure, be unafraid of adversity, and use challenges as a catalyst to incremental growth over a lifetime.
Adversity will impact every person at some point in their life.
Introduction: The Inevitability of Adversity
Imagine a life where no harm will ever befall a person and life just seems to find a way to work out for the best. Now, visualize another life, where the worst possible event seems to happen regularly. Perhaps a person loses a limb at work, goes blind due to a rare eye disease (like the authors niece), or simply loses the person they love the most. While these examples may seem extreme, life tends to resemble the second scenario more than the first and people need to be prepared to survive traumatic experiences. A personal experience should solidify adversities presence. As a well-respected seasoned teacher and community leader in an affluent city at the heart of Silicon Valley, the author lived a fairly charmed life, until he received a call from the local police department. Unfortunately, a false accusation had been placed and the full power of the justice system was in full swing. Through a lengthy process in trial, ample evidence proving the author could not have been at the scene of the crime twenty years ago was disregarded. Shortly after incarceration and restriction of freedom were the result. After four years tucked away from society, his fiancé, could no longer handle the lack of physical intimacy and chose to walk away. Needless to say, this experience is considered adversity or a traumatic experience. However, a choice had to be made, the situation contained the power to either destroy a well-lived life or help the individual grow. People are a collection of their experiences over their lifetime. Traumatic experiences happen to everyone at some point or another. Individual responses to trauma or adversity shape the lives of people every day. Two outcomes are typical with trauma or adversity: a person can either implode and allow their life to unravel or they can use the experience to improve. Success and failure, a fulfilling marriage and a divorce, good health and disease, and outstanding performance and being fired are possible results from the culmination of each outcome of adversity. With so much riding on an individual’s response to adversity, how can one ensure positive results? When adversity strikes, a combination of controllable factors including attitude, personality, beliefs, and mindset can turn the experience into an opportunity or catalyst for change and growth.
Imagine a life where no harm will ever befall a person…
Trauma and Its Consequences
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
While destruction from trauma is well-documented throughout history, the possibility of growth from adversity is a more recent discovery. Vast amounts of research, document how trauma can lead to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In fact, Rebecca Tolley, author of A Trauma-Informed Approach to Library Services, reports that physicians after the Civil War dealt with “nervousness and its effects on physical health.” While notes written by Sigmund Freud discussed the “emotional roots of soldiers suffering from shell shock” (4). Most of the original research on PTSD involved veterans of war. Daniel G Amen, M.D., author of Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, explains that PTSD follows a traumatic event by “resetting the brain to a perpetually more active state.” Symptoms include: “recurrent upsetting thoughts or dreams of a past traumatic event, panicked or fearful response to experiences that resemble that past event, efforts to avoid thoughts or feelings associated with past trauma, feeling future shortened, and being easily startled with constant anxiety or fear of future bad events” (141). PTSD symptoms are well defined and breakdown into key points of reference. The driving force to the development of PTSD, turns out to be a feeling of helplessness during a traumatic event. Loss of control is the trigger as demonstrated in Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman. A rat with the power to pull a lever that stops the electric shock experienced by two separate rats does not develop PTSD, but the rat without control over the lever does develop PTSD (181). Another study also involving rats, discovered that stress introduced early in a rat’s life caused “brain changes later in life,” when exposed to similar stress. This vulnerability of the earlier traumatized is set by the amygdala being “primed to find danger” and respond or overreact (182). PTSD sufferers are in a constant state of stress as a result. According to Richard O’Connor, Ph.D., author of Rewire, “the amygdala, the fear center of the brain, gets stuck in the “on” position, and keeps on telling the adrenal glands to secrete more adrenaline and cortisol, the hormones that keep us prepared for danger. In a vicious circle, the hippocampus, the part of the brain that is supposed to override the amygdala, becomes damaged and unable to slow down the stress response” (158). In essence, one traumatic event rewires the brain and changes the body chemistry causing chronic stress and anxiety and leading to drastic overreactions to normal situations that resemble the trauma event. Violence, panic, dissociation can all be triggered by normal interactions with loved ones or strangers. O’Conner supplies the reason these overreactions occur, “PTSD scrambles the memory system in your brain. When your memory is scrambled any you’re reexperiencing the emotional impact of events all over again, you’re likely to confuse the past with the present and blame trivial current events for your reactions” (158-159).
Chronic Trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
Unfortunately, the children take the brunt of the destructive responses. While PTSD is considered an acute disease, people who are traumatized continuously suffer from Chronic Trauma Syndrome, or a chronic PTSD. Any form of child abuse or physical or emotional abuse can lead to Chronic PTSD. In addition to symptoms of acute PTSD, the prolonged trauma causes the victim to believe their symptoms are normal and they are to blame for their tormentor’s episodes. O’Conner uses a prominent neurological scientist, Allan Schore, to detail how “childhood experience influences the wiring of the circuits in the child’s brain that will determine his or her adult social and emotional coping abilities. It can make a difference in our ability to experience and control our emotions, in our self-concept, our ability to form relationships, our ability to concentrate and learn, and our capacity for self-control” (164). Childhood experience that is positive with at least one loving parent builds trust and confidence in a child. However, trauma experiences in childhood can lead to anxiety and anger later in life. Tolley calls trauma early in childhood “adverse childhood experiences (ACE’s).” She claims that children are vulnerable because they “lack coping skills and capacities of adults” (4). Between 1995 and 1997, Kaiser Permanente conducted a study that changed the world’s perception at the time that only poor minority populations experienced ACE’s. They found that “nearly two-thirds of study participants reported at least one ACE. Surprisingly, a majority of the seventeen thousand participants in the study were white and middle class” (4). First PTSD went from only affecting war veterans to everyone who experiences trauma with a feeling of powerlessness can suffer from PTSD. Now, Chronic PTSD or borderline personality disorders can affect anyone with a traumatic experience at any point in their lifetime.
While destruction from trauma is well-documented, the possibility of growth is a more recent discovery.
The Possibility of Growth
Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG)
Around this time period, research for recovering from trauma and more importantly growing from adversity began in earnest. Post‑Traumatic Growth (PTG) is the term psychologists Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun coined to describe the positive psychological change that can occur as a result of struggling with highly challenging life circumstances. Unlike resilience, which is the ability to bounce back to baseline, PTG suggests that people can actually surpass their previous level of functioning after trauma.
Studies have shown that PTG can manifest in several domains:
- Personal Strength – individuals often report feeling stronger and more capable than before.
- Appreciation of Life – trauma can sharpen awareness of what truly matters, leading to greater gratitude.
- Improved Relationships – many survivors describe deeper intimacy and compassion for others.
- New Possibilities – adversity can spark new directions in career, lifestyle, or purpose.
- Spiritual or Existential Growth – some find a renewed sense of meaning, faith, or connection to something larger than themselves.
Examples of PTG have been documented across contexts: cancer survivors reporting greater life satisfaction, combat veterans describing stronger bonds with their units, and individuals who endured natural disasters finding new purpose in community rebuilding. Shawn Achor, in The Happiness Advantage, highlights that bereavement, chronic illness, heart attacks, and even refugee displacement have all been linked to measurable growth outcomes.
What makes PTG distinct is that it does not deny the pain of trauma. Growth and suffering coexist. The trauma is not erased, it becomes integrated into a new narrative of strength, clarity, and possibility.
Early Research and Shifting Perspectives
Since everyone experiences traumatic events in their lifetime, it is amazing the research on growth is only twenty-five to thirty-five years old. Before this new research and even today, some researchers and the general population believe there are only two paths that result after trauma. According to Shawn Achor in The Happiness Advantage, psychologists tell soldiers heading to combat that they “will return either “normal” or with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” (109). Though there is a plethora of studies proving a third path (Post-Traumatic Growth) some still do not believe it exists because researchers have focused on concepts that lead to growth separately. Integration of the key concepts that create growth from adversity is needed to make this concept general knowledge. Achor explains, “while psychologist Richard Tedeschi admits that the idea itself is ancient, it has only been in the last twenty-five years or so that this phenomenon, the possibility of something good emerging from the struggle with something very difficult, has been the focus of systematic theorizing and empirical investigation” (110). For the first time in history, studies prove great suffering or trauma can lead to positive change and growth.
Growth and suffering coexist. The trauma is not erased; it becomes integrated into a new narrative.
Emotional Intelligence and Resilience
Self-Awareness and Emotion Management
Emotion plays a crucial role in how people handle situations and experience life. Some of the original research that hinted at the possibility of growth focused on emotional intelligence (EQ). Daniel Goleman, explains that “students who are anxious, angry, or depressed do not learn because they do not take in information or deal with it well.” Memory is state specific with good moods enhancing both memory and problem-solving (85). Many people have experienced re-reading the same page over and over again because of a nagging thought that just will not go away.
Motivation, Empathy, and Relationships
The IQ or a measure of how smart a person is in a general sense has been around for many years. At one time, IQ or a measure of how smart a person is in a general sense has been around for many years. At one time, IQ was the only intelligence measure and was thought to predict success. However, IQ only proved to explain a person’s academic intelligence and only slightly affected a person’s overall success. Many years later Gardner discovered that people have multiple intelligences in a variety of categories. In other words, every person is smart but in different ways. For one person, music may come naturally while for another manipulation of numbers may be second nature. Gardner’s theory on multiple intelligences covered many categories. Salovey and John Mayer expanded on one of Gardner’s multiple intelligences called intrapersonal to create emotional intelligence (EQ), with five categories. EQ includes:
1. “Knowing one’s emotions: self-awareness or recognizing a feeling as it is happening.
2. Managing emotions: the ability to shake off a bad feeling. Resiliency.
3. Motivating oneself: the ability to delay gratification in the service of a goal. Leads to production.
4. Recognize the emotions in others. The ability to have empathy or understand what others need.
5. Handling relationships: the ability to manage emotions in others. Leadership,” (37-38).
Salovey and Mayer’s body of research found that lapses in any of the EQ domains can be repaired and through effort improved (38). EQ describes coping skills that can be used in life and potentially with trauma patients. Introspection or the examination of one’s own thoughts and feelings must be triggered by the person in question. This process must start with self-awareness or else the feeling will just continue unabated until it either builds or leads to action. Unfortunately, awareness of a feeling is not sufficient without utilizing that awareness to dig into the coping toolbelt to help a person manage or change their emotions and thoughts. After a person is able to manage their emotions and return to a better mood, they must learn to delay gratification in under to meet goals they set for themselves. Motivation requires overcoming impulses to act. In a study to test impulse control in four-year old children, Daniel Goleman presents the marshmallow challenge. Most children have difficulty resisting a sweet snack for any length of time and that is exactly what this study asks them to do. A delicious marshmallow is placed in front of a child with the instruction that if they wait, they will receive an additional treat. Resisting impulse is the root of all emotional self-control. Those children who demonstrated restraint or impulse control at four-years old were discovered later in life to be more, “socially competent personally effective, coped with frustration, less likely to freeze or go to pieces under stress or become rattled and disorganized under pressure, embraced challenges, more self-reliant, and trustworthy” (72-74). Luckily, for the rest of the greedy children who could not resist the gravitational pull of the irresistible marshmallow, there is a glimmer of hope. Goleman’s research suggests emotional competencies, like impulse control can be learned and improved and emotional aptitude is a meta-ability that determines how well other abilities are utilized (74). Control over one’s emotions and impulses, acts as an ability multiplier, improving all abilities even ones seemingly unaffiliated with emotion. The process of emotion offers insight into why management improves other aspects. Joseph Burge, Ph.D., author of Why Do I Do That?, explains that all human emotion involves “physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience” (187). In other words, a feeling causes the body to react and either negatively or positively affects our conscious experience. He suggests awareness as the key to a better experience by becoming aware of the feeling and by reading the body tension and increased heartrate identifying anger. Burgo claims that a person can create their own chain reaction by doing something with the body sensations (188).
The Role of Happiness and Gratitude
A smile is a powerful mood changer and has the ability to affect those around, adjusting their moods as well. In the book Happy For No Reason by Marci Shimoff, a study is described on the heart. “The heart has an energy field. The Institute of Heart Math corroborated an electromagnetic field around the body extending outward from the heart roughly five feet in diameter which is 5,000 times that of the brain. They used a measure called the heart rate variability (HRV), which reflects a person’s emotional state” (118). Negative emotions are shown by the HRV to cause an “erratic pattern or incoherence in the heart rate,” this incoherence has been shown to damage the body. Thankfully, the opposite is also true. “Positive emotion causes coherence in the HRV, which increases good hormones like DHEA for anti-aging, normalizes blood pressure, improves cognitive function, strengthens immune system. The three good emotions are appreciation, love, and gratitude” (119). The body is a fascinating machine that literally runs on emotion. Bad emotions cause medical issues inside and outside the body while good emotions protect and strengthen the body. Dr. Caroline Leaf in her book, Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess, expands the effects of emotion. “The Quantum Zeno Effect says that whatever we think about the most grows because we are giving it energy” (145). She found, “whatever is experienced in the mind is experienced in the brain and body. Toxic energy from toxic, accumulate if not dealt with and later explode” (207). Thoughts are energy that can affect each person either positively or negatively. In order to feel better, a person must choose a thought that feels progressively better than the last. A word of caution is offered by Leaf, research determined that the human mind left untended will naturally seek out both negative thoughts and feelings. To counterbalance the negative toxic energy, a three to one ratio was discovered. It takes three positive thoughts to balance the scales of one negative thought or feeling (199). Since thoughts, especially negative thoughts build on one another, stopping them early becomes crucial. Thoughts create emotions and enough positive thoughts and feelings over time can lead to a good mood and eventually happiness or a state of happiness. As an emotion, happiness can lead to many positive outcomes. Achor claims happiness is a precursor to success in every facet of life, “data abounds showing that happy workers have higher levels of productivity, produce higher sales, perform better in leadership positions, and receive higher performance ratings and higher pay” (41). Happiness has a biological effect on the brain and body aiding a person in pursuit of goals. Ricky Griffin, an author of Organizational Behavior, describes job satisfaction as an inner reflection of a person’s emotional feelings and attitudes about their job. Research suggests, job satisfaction is stable for most people over time and even the same in different jobs. Happy employees are more productive (121). Productivity is at the heart of what makes a company successful, with productivity being one of the core behaviors assessed in an employees’ performance evaluation. However, since happiness is largely responsible for production, instead of focusing on performance and productivity, firms would be wiser to spend time bonding employees and measuring happiness through surveys. Some of the most successful companies have adopted happiness strategies to boost job satisfaction. Google provides time and activities to encourage play in employees. A full arcade, billiard and ping-pong tables, cafeterias designed to fit all tastes and provide ample time for coworkers to enjoy, volleyball and basketball courts, and other amenities meant to foster happiness can be seen on a walkthrough of a Google campus. Ten percent of a Google employees’ day may be spent on an interest project with the intent of making the environment and community better. According to Michael G. Aamedt, author of Industrial/Organizational Psychology, “people satisfied with their jobs and life in general have higher self-esteem and a feeling of being competent, are emotionally stable, and believe they have control over their lives” (368). A feeling of control over a person’s life allows them to make changes for the better. All a person can control are their thoughts and emotions. If a person uses negative emotions and thoughts as indicators, they can adjust to create more positive thoughts and emotions. Enough positive thoughts and emotions can lead to a state of mind. Strong emotion, both positive and negative can influence the way people interpret and handle situations that occur throughout life.
Emotion plays a crucial role in how people handle situations and experience life.
Mindset as the Difference Maker
Fixed vs. Growth Mindset
Mindset is an important factor in transforming life experiences into a positive experience. A mindset is simply how a person sees the world. A deeper explanation is gifted by the mind of Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, “each of us tends to think we see things as they are, that we are objective. But this is not the case. We see the world, not as it is, but as we are- or as we are conditioned to see it” (28). The lens by which a person experiences the world is a reflection of their inner world and, therefore can be adjusted. In Covey’s words, “the lens is a paradigm and in order to change a situation, a paradigm shift is required” (32). Before shifting paradigms, it is important to understand what factors help create a paradigm or mindset to begin with.
Locus of Control
Researchers have discovered many factors that create the lens from which people see the world. Locus of control is defined by Griffen as, “how much people conclude that their behavior has a direct effect on their circumstances. An internal locus of control is a belief that each person can control their lives through their behavior. An external locus of control is a belief that fate or other people are responsible for their circumstances” (93). An example can help illustrate the difference. The author’s sister almost dropped out of high school and delayed attending college because she believed every bad grade she received was due to her professor’s personal dislike of her. Her external locus of control put her grades outside of her control. The opposite would be a similar student understanding that additional studying and a conference with the teacher will produce better grades. Griffen gives the benefits of internal locus of control as “higher job satisfaction, job commitment, motivation, performance, success, social integration, and lower conflict and stress” (93). From research cited earlier, a feeling of powerlessness over a person’s life can lead to stress disorders but feeling in control leads to Post-Traumatic Growth. Locus of control is a factor to creating a growth mindset. In a groundbreaking book, Mindset, Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D. describes two opposing mindsets. “The fixed mindset is a thirst to prove oneself over and over again due to the believe that a person’s qualities are carved in stone” (5). On the other hand, “the growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts, your strategies, and help from others” (7). Dweck found that people with the growth mindset utilized best effort to learn and improve and find success (99). A key marker to growth mindset is using setbacks to motivate (99), and take control of processes that lead to success and maintain them (101). Mistakes, setbacks, and obstacles are unavoidable and must be dealt with. Adapting a beginners mindset helps a person adjust their paradigm. At the beginning of any new skill, a person celebrates small successes and uses mistakes to learn from. When a person becomes an expert, every mistake becomes a big deal and can demotivate a person. Maintaining a beginner’s mindset on all activities causes a person to celebrate mistakes and stay in a growth mindset. Goleman attributes a similar quality to hope with a definition he shares from Snyder, “hope is believing you have both the will and the ability to accomplish your goals. Having hope means not giving in to anxiety, a defeatist attitude or depression in the face of difficult challenges or setbacks” (78). Similarly, Daniel Goleman describes optimism, as a strong expectation things will turn out well despite setbacks versus a pessimist who accepts blame and attributes it to an attribute they can not change (79). Shawn Achor confirms that an optimistic explanatory style predicts academic and athletic success and lads to faster recovery from surgery (124). Optimism is a difference maker and so is explaining oneself in an optimistic way.
Optimism, Hope, and Positive Reinterpretation
Adopting a positive mindset that allows a person to believe they can change their circumstances through effort and improving ability is important to growth. Post-Traumatic Growth has been proven with countless studies. The worst events that can befall a person have been shown to faster positive growth. Shawn Achor claims, “bereavement, bone marrow transplantation, breast cancer, chronic illness, heart attack, military combat, natural disaster, physical assault, refugee displacement,” (109) can all lead to growth and have. Studies have shown “increases in spirituality, compassion for others, openness, and even, eventually life satisfaction. After trauma, people also report enhanced personal strength and self-confidence… and a greater intimacy in their social relationships” (110). Mindset is truly the difference maker. Many of the mindset strategies lead to growth, such as: “include positive reinterpretation of the situation or event, optimism, acceptance, and coping mechanisms that include focusing on the problem head on” (110). He suggests choosing a positive counterfactual that helps a person feel “fortunate and not helpless” (102). An ABCD model is recommended where the letters stand for: “Adversity, Belief, Consequence, and Disputation.” Since adversity can not be changed a positive belief or reaction is required. Positive beliefs and positive consequences are linked. However, a negative belief must be disputed by choosing a positive counterfactual (125). A word of caution from Ray Kurzwell, author of How to Create a Mind, warns that once a mind fixes on a way to look at something it is difficult to see from different perspectives. The brains interpretation influences the person’s experience. His research shows that people are “constantly predicting the future and this expectation influences what is perceived” (31). Ensuring the mind sets on a positive interpretation is the growth trigger. Combatting a negative mindset can alter a person’s reaction to a situation and produce growth. A positive mindset is a game changer in transforming adversity to growth.
Mindset is an important factor in transforming life experiences into a positive experience.
Emotional Awareness
Notice emotions as they arise, name them, and use tools like breathwork, journaling, or reframing to shift perspective. Emotional intelligence is a skill that can be strengthened with practice.
Growth Mindset
Adopt a growth mindset by viewing setbacks as opportunities to learn. Use the ABCD model: Adversity, Belief, Consequence, Disputation; to challenge negative beliefs and replace them with constructive interpretations.
Gratitude Practices
Daily gratitude lists or reflections can rewire the brain toward optimism. Research shows it takes three positive thoughts to counterbalance one negative thought; gratitude accelerates that process.
Social Investment
Build and maintain strong connections. Every supportive relationship lowers stress hormones and provides a buffer against adversity. Humor, appreciation, and shared experiences strengthen these bonds.
Healthy Habits
Exercise, sleep, and mindfulness are not luxuries; they are resilience practices. Neuroplasticity research shows the brain rewires itself through repeated positive behaviors.
Future Directions: Why This Matters Now
The world is not becoming less stressful. Global crises, economic uncertainty, and personal challenges are constants. What changes is our capacity to meet them.
Resilience research is still young, only a few decades old, but its implications are profound. Schools are beginning to integrate social‑emotional learning, businesses are investing in employee well‑being, and therapy is evolving with tools like neuroplasticity training. The next frontier is integration: bringing together emotional intelligence, mindset, gratitude, and social connection into cohesive programs that can be taught, practiced, and scaled.
For leaders, this means building organizations that don’t just survive disruption but grow stronger because of it. For individuals, it means reframing adversity not as an interruption to life, but as part of the path to strength, clarity, and meaning.
The call to action is clear: resilience is not optional. It is the skillset of the future.
Resilience is not optional. It is the skillset of the future.
Conclusion: Choosing Growth Over Collapse
While adversity can be simulated in the laboratory and trauma can be researched in rats, trauma to people can only be researched after a traumatic event. Mass traumatic events contain a social aspect, but individual trauma has to be reported before a person can find help. Perhaps anonymous trauma centers could be created that focus on the skills and coping skills proven to create growth from adversity. However, since most factors have been discovered separately, research should be on advancing a program to specifically help survivors of trauma. Schools should conduct research on students who have experienced trauma, but also offer social skills and mindset training. Prevention must be the call to action. EQ training in schools needs to be the priority and valued as much as academics. Happy students learn, so happiness surveys are a method of finding at risk students. Assessments still need to be designed for EQ, growth mindset, and optimism. Gratitude can be taught and practiced daily to create optimism. Poverty zone schools should be targeted and funded, for these programs will fail without funding. The government needs to adjust curriculum for public schools. Businesses can start a nation-wide transformation by focusing on engagement and happiness for its employees. Parenting classes must be mandatory and offer how to teach coping skills at all ages. Due to the prevalence of ACE’s, researchers should focus on children and the efficacy of social emotional programs. Skill training and best practices ae of utmost importance. An integrative approach is required to achieve a happier population that can handle adversity. The key here is research has already proven these skills can be taught, learned, and improved through effort. Everyone will face adversity in their life but no one deserves to suffer the rest of their life when the skills to end the suffering can be learned.
How have you grown through adversity?
Final Wrap Up: Integrating Resilience Into Daily Life.
Adversity is unavoidable and only those prepared will be able to weather the storm and find the path to growth. Attitudes, personality, beliefs, mindset, and social investment are tools that must be harnessed to turn adversity into an opportunity for growth. Initiating a more positive outlook and adopting a growth mindset, by putting a positive spin on the adversity, while relying on support from social connections is all that is needed to grow from the worst life has to offer. Seek out failure, be unafraid of adversity, and use challenges as a catalyst to incremental growth over a lifetime.
Resilience is built in moments, not milestones.
References
The book looks at the psychology of the work place and describes the type of individuals who do well and those who do not. As a high stress environment, work is a useful environment to uncover characteristics that lead to success and failure. Humor is also discussed as a strategy.
In the book, Achor argues for a paradigm shift from success leading to happiness, to happiness leading to success. He discusses various strategies to achieve happiness and gives research on PTSD versus Post-Traumatic Growth. Factors leading to growth from adversity are directly referenced.
Amen discusses PTSD by defining it and describing its symptoms. He then discussed interventions and treatment. While he discusses the mechanism of mental illness for many conditions, PTSD fits in with the purpose of this paper.
The book describes many processes of the mind, helping to explain how each functions. Burgo explains human emotion and the process of being aware of body signals leading to self-management of emotions, which relates to the emotion factor of growth.
Byrne describes gratitude and how it affects the mind. She offers and easy to follow forty-day guide to building gratitude. Gratitude is a factor of growth.
In this book, Covey describes strategies for happiness and success. He discusses paradigm and how to shift the paradigm. Paradigm relates to mindset and this source is valuable to the section.
Dweck is the originator of the growth mindset. She defines both the growth and fixed mindsets and demonstrates in every facet of life how a growth mindset is beneficial. The growth mindset is the backbone of the mindset section.
This book discusses strategies for finding peace, relying on many studies. Enayati describes gratitude and its effect on stopping desire. Gratitude is an important growth factor.
This book made emotional intelligence a general knowledge fixture in schools and homes across the world. EQ is defined and characteristics of developing EQ are offered through research. Additional research is shown for factors leading to both PTSD and growth, which directly relate to this paper.
Gorney describes touch and its benefits to all mammals. Particular attention is paid to humans and newborns. Touch fits in with social connections, a factor of growth.
Griffin talks about business psychology and how to build a foundation for employees to succeed. Locus of control is discussed as well as specific strategies leading to employee job satisfaction. Job satisfaction relates to happiness and productivity while locus of control is part of mindset, both are used in their sections.
In this book, Kurzweil beautifully describes perception and how it can become fixed. He also shows how expectations change conscious experience. Perception directly relates to mindset.
Leaf uses clinical research to describe a five-step Neurocycle that has been scientifically proven effective for eliminating negative emotions and thoughts. Additional strategies are described as well as why a process is needed to help the mind. Leaf’s neurocycle is instrumental in strategies for growth and recovery for PTSD.
This book describes the history of counseling and describes the main discoveries and therapy styles. Different therapies are detailed, how they are used, and their benefits. Therapy types to help PTSD and trauma survivors are mentioned and used for this paper.
O’Conner uses research to show how the brains of humans become wired a certain way through trauma and life experience. He then uses the concept of neuroplasticity and therapy techniques to create a path to rewire the brain overcoming past roadblocks. Trauma is covered and defined. Strategies help repair trauma.
Shimoff describes methods of increasing happiness through positive emotions and thoughts and social connections. A study is mentioned by HeartMath that describes an electric field extending from the heart around the body. Both negative and positive emotions re described and there are effects on the electric field are detailed. Emotion is a factor of growth.
This book defines trauma and its history. Childhood trauma is highlighted and shown to be prevalent across all populations in one large study. This study is used to demonstrate cause for how trauma should be dealt with.
Social Connections and External Factors
The Power of Human Connection
Internally, emotions and mindset are important to overcoming adversity as both allow for a proper reaction and positive reinterpretation of trauma. However, the outside world must be taken into account to create a full picture of how growth is achieved. Social connections if left unattended can become sour, toxic, and manipulative. People can control their own thoughts, feelings, and perception but are powerless to control these things in others. Just because a person has a positive inner atmosphere does not mean they will be successful if the external environment does not cooperate. Luckily, powerful tools already exist to deal with the external environment and maximize it for superior growth. Human contact is necessary, if only to offer support or show love. Cynthia Gorney, writer for National Geographic, reports that human beings need comforting touch and the presence of others in order to stay healthy (45). She offers an example in newborns, “the right kind of skin-to-skin touch produces specific, measurable improvements in human babies’ health too: heartbeat, weight, resistance to infection” (55). Neglect and lack of love and touch in early childhood leaves lasting scars late into life. Touch is known to reduce stress in mammals. Every connection matters. Furthermore, social connection alone has a calming effect. Shawn Achor claims “each connection lowers cortisol levels helping people recover from stress. Social connection helps interpret adversity as a way to grow” (178). The quality and number of connections or social connections helps’ shoulder the burden of adversity allowing a person to feel they are not alone.
Humor, Gratitude, and Community
Michael G. Aamedt, discusses an often, overlooked factor in a good social connection, humor. Humor has the power to change a person’s perspective during a stressful experience. Humor can also be a buffer or bridge when discussing an uncomfortable topic. “Staton claims studies show that laughing through a funny movie has the same effect on your heart as ten minutes on a rowing machine” (578). Perhaps the benefits of humor are why so many people list a person that can make them laugh as a top priority in dating. Another priority for women is feeling appreciated by their significant other and that comes from an internal feeling of gratitude. According to Rhonda Byrne, author of The Magic, “gratitude works through the law of attraction, which governs energy. Thoughts and feelings are energy so whatever you think or feel is attracted to you” (6-7). Throughout Byrne’s book, she suggests writing out ten people or things a day to be thankful for or grateful for each morning and then before bed to read them. Simple strategies help a person grow gratitude. In addition, Amanda Enayati, author of Seeking Serenity, offers a path to positive emotion. “Many studies have shown that experiencing gratitude can make us feel happier and free us from the cycle of constant desire” (137). Interesting enough, people are not grateful because they are happy but “gratitude has proven to be a significant cause of positive outcomes. When researchers pick random volunteers and train them to be more grateful over a few weeks, they become happier and more optimistic, feel more socially connected, enjoy better quality sleep, and even experience fewer headaches than control groups” (Achor, 98). Gratitude is a path to optimism and hope. To be grateful for what a person has, sets a positive state of mind. On the other hand, always wanting more means a person will never be satisfied, leading to a negative state of mind or the scarcity mindset. The silver lining can be found in all situations, especially in adverse situations. A person who has suffered tragedy and developed PTSD, may have trouble with this concept but there is hope.
Therapeutic Approaches
Daniel Goleman suggests how to help PTSD, “relearning can occur through games repeatedly played with changing outcomes. The traumatic memory can be replayed in a low anxiety setting, desensitizing, and allowing nontraumatic responses. By giving tragedy a better outcome, a person can feel they are no longer helpless” (184). Therapy used to be the only method used to treat PTSD and trauma and still has value, especially for real young children or for suppressed memories. In Introduction to the Profession of Counseling, by Frank A. Nugent and Karyn Dayle Jones, they discuss many therapy strategies. Art therapy tends to create hidden references to trauma that can be therapeutic. “Painting and drawing are safe ways for children to express suppressed feelings or “tell” what has been forbidden to talk about” (185). Another therapy discussed is group therapy. The feeling of isolation and helplessness from trauma can be “expressed in a supportive group with those who have experienced a similar experience, which validates trauma as communal and relieves the solo burden of carrying it alone” (148). Often times, a person new to therapy can not express their emotions and a group or therapist can express the other person’s emotions for them. O’Connor offers a few more therapy approaches. In exposure training, a patient is gradually exposed to associations with their trauma event and confronts their abuser, rehearsing possible outcomes. Acceptance of the emotions and situation occurs and the brain is rewired a little each time. Ther story-editing approach has a person write down how they feel about the event over multiple nights, allowing the person to move the memory to long term. Many benefits from story-editing are documented. Mindfulness training works by accepting both thoughts and feelings rather than allowing them to overwhelm. O’Conner also claims establishing a “secure, steady relationship in which you feel safe and accepted, helps greatly with both traumatic experiences and borderline states” (169). A scientific solution is offered through Dr. Caroline Leaf and her 5-step Neurocycle. “When an event happens use breathwork to calm the mind and prime to react positively. Next use the process of directed neuroplasticity: Gather (look at thoughts and feelings), Reflect (How are they hurting?), Write, Recheck, Active Reach (apply or put into action)” (52). A process like this allows a person time to develop a more normal reaction to all stressful situations. Research demonstrates a “notable corrective effect in trauma” (55). Neuroplasticity is simply the proven idea that a person’s brain is malleable and can change through effort and practice. This is the concept Leaf utilizes in her cycle. In addition, Leaf recommends “limiting the detox of toxic thoughts to under thirty minutes a day (207), learning new skills, which reduce anxiety and depression up to 81%, and understanding that it takes sixty-three days to embed the memories into long-term and forming a new habit” (209). Neuroplasticity proves a person can always take back control over how they think and feel. Just as the body changes with exercise so does the mind with Leaf’s Neurocycle. She says, “during exercise the muscles secrete hormones into our bloodstream in that scientists are calling hope chemicals” (271). A person needs to be capable of managing their internal environment and their external environment. Marci Shimoff, claims, “psychology studies found good social relationships is the strongest predictor of happiness” (243). People, touch, social investment, gratitude, therapy, mind management, humor, and exercise can help insulate a person and aid recovery from trauma.