Powerful read. I love what Gabor Mate says about how trauma remains unprocessed in isolation and loneliness. As long as people are lonely, isolated, and disconnected from their bodies, those shaping our dysfunctional society will continue manipulating and controlling us.

A quote that comes up for me is that "It is only in relationship that anything becomes real." So my question is: how different would the world look if we healed the loneliness in our world? I'm imagining that this would change the very ways we heal from individual and collective trauma.

Also, here's a poem that I love that reminds me of the personal responsibility we have to find joy and purpose, despite what we've been through:

“It took me years to understand
that many of us are more afraid of happiness than misery.
Unhappiness becomes a security blanket,
a way to armor ourselves against deep feeling.
On the other hand, happiness has an intrinsically risky quality.
When we open our hearts to life,
we are always vulnerable to loss,
to shattering,
to having it all fall away.
But it can also expand and deepen,
joyfully permeating every element of our life.
Locking ourselves into a negative way of being is a self-fulfilling prophecy:
misery begets misery.
Only through risking something can we arrive at a new perspective.
And most significantly, because the rhythms and tides of one's life
can truly shift in the blink of an eye.
All it takes is one good day
and the whole damn thing can come back to light…”

• Jeff Foster