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A workaholic describes a person married to their work, unable to detach themselves mentally and emotionally. From a societal standpoint, we respect those who work hard and go after their dreams which can be a reflection of collective trauma. Working a lot can be an outlet, just like alcohol use disorder and drug addiction, to provide us with escape from our struggles and trauma.
I’m a Workaholic
I have identified triggers and experienced some huge aha moments on my healing journey, yet I still wonder why I have a hard time putting myself first. I have huge professional dreams that started with this blog and writing a book, Wild Moon Healing. I work a full time job in corporate America while furthering my education and writing to help me create my dreams. Earlier this year I took on too much and gained my weight back which has affected my body in bad ways.
I am an emotional binge eater, but that was not the source of my weight gain this time as I have learned much about my triggers. This time I simply took on too much and started eating takeout again, for every meal, leaving my self-care behind. I make myself busy doing great, beneficial things for my future but to the detriment of my physical body.
Welcome to my new aha moment: workaholism is another escape for me.
Click on this image to listen to my coaching session with Christine Hassler on her podcast Over It & On With It. She helps me go further and I realized that what is missing is nurturing. I was never mothered by my mom. Now I have to learn to do that for myself.
Signs of Trauma
For years I have lived in my head while pushing unresolved trauma down. I’ve used alcohol, cigarettes, and food to try and keep my emotions from surfacing. Now I realize that working a lot can numb emotions and sensations that live in our body just like other addictions. When you overwork yourself, you may notice your trauma in other ways such as:
· Taking anger out on your partner.
· Eating excessively or eating low nutritional foods.
· Stressing out intensely.
· Working out (or inactivity) in ways that cause you physical harm.
· Drinking to alter your state of conscious.
This year I’ve been fortunate enough to experience new healing modalities that help unresolved trauma to surface. Everyone needs to pause, feel their feelings, and grieve their trauma. The main forms of healing modalities I currently practice are:
· Meditation
· Sound Healing
· Breath Work
Healing Trauma
Not only do these healing modalities bring about a state of calm and balance to the mind, body, and spirit, they helps to loosen up stuck emotions so you can release them. Stuck emotions are energy just like everything else and stored in the cells of the physical body. These are some of the ways to access suppressed emotions and release them organically.
Meditation allows you to zone in, instead of spacing out. This practice is a way to train your attention to mindfulness and awareness. Sound healing brings on profound states of relaxation. Every cell in our body vibrates and has an optimal frequency. Sound healing normalizes our vibrational frequency on a cellular level. Breath work is a way to manipulate your breathe rate and depth to influence you mentally, emotionally, and physically.
Identify a Workaholic
You know if you work too much. If you do, you may have trauma that needs healing.
If work is your excuse for letting other things go in your life such as your relationships, you purposefully work late, take on overtime, or take on additional shifts to avoid being home, or are overly stressed and take it out on those around you or your own body, you may be using work as a means of hiding from trauma.
Try connecting with your body and listing for the messages it sends you. Engage in the healing modalities listed above to increase your vibrational frequency and release trapped emotions organically. Add essential oils to your practice which have much greater value than just smelling wonderfully as they derive from high vibrational plants and offer therapeutic value. Also, add physical activity in healthy ways appropriate for your current condition.
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