Podcast Summary: You Make Sense
Host: Sarah Baldwin
Episode: How Trauma Can Keep Us From Our Embodied Spirituality
Date: February 11, 2025
Episode Overview
In this profound episode, Sarah Baldwin explores the intersection of science, spirituality, and trauma healing. She discusses how unresolved trauma impacts our ability to access spirituality and embodiment, emphasizing that nervous system regulation is a key unlock for genuine spiritual connection. With deep personal anecdotes and practical guidance, Sarah reframes healing work as "holy" work, and breaks down the steps toward reconnecting with one's sense of presence, love, interconnectivity, and trust in the universe or higher power—whatever form that may take for the listener.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. Defining Spirituality: Beyond Religion
- Spirituality ≠ Religion: Sarah distinguishes spirituality from organized religion, noting both the supportive and alienating aspects of religious upbringing, and how institutional dogma often clouds the essence of spirituality ([01:10]).
- The Four Pillars of Spirituality:
- Connection: To self, others, nature, and a higher mystery ([05:20]).
- Presence: Full engagement in the current moment.
- Love: Knowing and experiencing oneself and others as inherently lovable.
- Surrender: Letting go of control and trusting in the flow of life.
- Quote:
“All the great spiritual teachers… were trying to teach about spirituality, which is three real things: connection, presence, and love.” – Sarah ([03:15])
2. Trauma’s Role in Blocking Spirituality
- Trauma as Disconnection: Trauma, defined as an overwhelm of the nervous system in unsafe situations, gets “locked in time” due to lack of safety or empathic witnessing ([12:00]).
- Relational Nature of Trauma: Most trauma happens in relationship—and since spirituality is about connection, trauma often disrupts our innate spirituality ([13:35]).
- Presence & Regulation: Trauma rewires the system to live in the past or future (hypervigilance), making presence—the core of spirituality—almost impossible when dysregulated ([15:10]).
- Quote:
“So when we have yet to fully embody our healing work, we’re going to struggle to embody our spirituality. And I want to normalize this.” – Sarah ([17:30])
3. Why Spiritual Shaming is Harmful
- Sarah calls out spiritual bypassing and shaming found in some religious or spiritual circles: “You’re anxious/depressed/disconnected because you’re just not doing it right.” She refutes this, locating the real issue in the nervous system and trauma, not moral or spiritual failing ([18:45]).
- Quote:
“That messaging... is completely and wholly untrue. What science actually tells us is the reason why so many of us struggle to access our spirituality... is because of trauma.” – Sarah ([18:20])
4. Anger with the Universe: A Vital Step
- Healthy Aggression: Naming and processing anger toward God/the Universe for one’s pain is necessary for spiritual integration, especially for people healing from religious trauma ([23:10]).
- Rejecting platitudes like “this happened for you,” Sarah validates listeners’ resentment and suffering.
- Quote:
“It is so important... to let ourselves be with that so we can release it. Resentment... will kill you, literally. Because internalized anger becomes illness in our bodies.” – Sarah ([27:55])
5. Nervous System Regulation as Spiritual Foundation
- Regulation’s Ripple Effect: Regulating the nervous system is not just psychological—it is the “fertile ground” for presence, love, surrender, and spiritual connectedness ([31:00], [34:10]).
- Notable Moments:
- Sarah describes multiple intense spiritual moments arising from nervous system regulation rather than mystical experiences.
- Quote:
“There will never be words for how extraordinary the most ordinary moment can be when you are safe to be here and be alive. I don’t think there’s anything more spiritual than that.” – Sarah ([36:25])
- Integration, Not Escape: True spiritual living isn’t about bypassing the body, but inhabiting it—regulation makes embodiment possible ([40:15]).
6. Plant Medicine, Psychedelics, and Safety ([41:49])
- Discussion on the risks and benefits of using psychedelics (ayahuasca, psilocybin, MDMA) for trauma healing.
- Less is more: Trauma work requires titration, not overwhelm. Plant medicine can potentially open too many “boxes” of trauma at once, risking overwhelm and setback ([43:00]).
- Integration & Capacity: These tools can support healing, but only after building adequate nervous system capacity and with careful integration.
- Quote:
“The deal with trauma work is less is more. You never, ever want to overwhelm your nervous system, because what is trauma? Overwhelm.” – Sarah ([42:18])
7. Practical Steps for Embodied Spirituality
- Connect with Your Body: Simple practices—mindful eating, hand on chest to feel breath, journaling, or presence exercises ([51:00]).
- Connect with Nature: Touch a tree, feel the earth, engage with animals, absorb sunlight ([52:10]).
- Initiate Dialogue with Source: Whether through prayer, meditation, or meaningful self-talk, build a personal relationship with “the mystery.”
- Presence Activities: Music, movement, savoring flowers, basking in sun (even jumping on a trampoline!)—as small acts of embodied spirituality ([54:47]).
- Quote:
“Putting music on in your home and letting your body move to the music is a spiritual act, because what is that about? Self-love and connectivity.” – Sarah ([51:24])
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
-
On surrender:
“Spirituality at its core is a surrender into the truth that we don’t know anything... What do I know? Not much. And to feel safe to have that as the truth—only when we’re anchored in safety inside ourselves.” – Sarah ([09:40])
-
On spiritual longing and regulation:
“For so many years, it was impossible to let people help me... Even as spirituality was the center of my life, my whole life.” – Sarah ([21:46])
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On heaven as regulation:
“Hell isn’t some underworld... Hell is being trapped inside of this perpetual place you cannot escape. That feels worse than dying... And what I think heaven is... is really freedom from that here on earth.” – Sarah ([37:11])
-
On embodied spirituality and atheism:
“I laugh with them because I’m like, you’re spiritual. You are! And they’re like, oh, no, I’m not. But... it’s like, look at you in nature. That’s spirituality.” – Sarah ([11:14], echoed again at [51:04])
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On plant medicine risks:
“If I would have gone and, early on, without building capacity in my nervous system, and done plant medicine, all of those boxes… might open all of them. And… it might overwhelm my system.” – Sarah ([45:00])
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On the function of spirituality practices:
“If we want to deepen our spiritual practice, part of the spiritual practice must be regulating our nervous systems. That’s why I think it’s holy work or spiritual work.” – Sarah ([34:09])
Important Timestamps
- 00:00–05:19 | Introduction & personal context, spirituality vs. religion
- 05:20–10:20 | Four pillars: connection, presence, love, surrender
- 12:00–17:30 | How trauma disrupts connection, presence, and love
- 23:10–29:00 | Processing anger at the universe and the necessity of expressing healthy aggression
- 31:00–38:00 | Nervous system regulation as spiritual foundation, embodied awakening stories
- 41:49–48:43 | Plant medicine, psychedelics, titration, and trauma risks
- 49:08–55:22 | Audience questions—why spirituality feels inaccessible when dysregulated; practical spiritual strategies
- 54:47–end | Everyday spiritual actions (nature, movement, presence); lighthearted closing advice (e.g., jumping on a trampoline!)
Conclusion:
Final Invitation from Sarah:
Sarah encourages listeners to step into embodied spirituality by anchoring first in nervous system regulation. She normalizes all experiences and urges compassionate self-acceptance, insisting that “everything about you makes sense, all parts, always.” The pathway to embodied spiritual living is neither shame nor striving, but gentle, practical reconnection with self, others, nature, and the great mystery—one tolerable step at a time.
For more on Sarah’s teachings, sign up for her newsletter (linked in show notes).