Jim Cogley’s Reflections: Tues 7 July – Mon 13 July 2026

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Tues 7^th July – Trauma

It is not the traumas that we suffer in childhood or anytime later in life that make us emotionally ill but our inability to express the feelings that are associated with that trauma. It is not what has happened but what is blocked that is the problem.

Wed 8^th July – Our Bodies Remember

Herein lies an important truth. Our bodies remember everything that has happened to us long after we have tried to forget. A traumatic event happens, a car accident, sexual abuse, a major bereavement, a relationship breaks down, a huge disappointment and the traditional advice that we tend to buy into is ‘Try and put it behind you and get on with life’. That sounds like great advice if only it worked! In reality, it’s a form of serious denial where a painful memory is blocked out of consciousness while the emotional components are relegated to the realm of the unconscious. It is from there that they have even more power to influence our conscious life in terms of moods and behaviours. It is our unacknowledged emotions that affect us from deep within, they drain our energy as we try to keep them hidden, our lives become an existence and eventually our issues can manifest in our tissues as our bodies begin to speak what we have never spoken.

Thurs 9^th July – A Cancer Phobia

I once knew a woman, long since departed, who lived for many years with a cancer phobia. As so often happens our fears become our reality and that is what she died from. For thirty years she was on medication to block out what was essentially a horror story. First her marriage broke up and shortly after, her only daughter became pregnant by a married man who, on hearing the news, denied ever knowing her. She gave birth to a child with a serious disability and shortly afterwards took her own life. The granny then took on the responsibility of rearing that child and managed to do a wonderful job. Thinking her trauma to be unbearable, from the beginning she was given medication, but never taken off it. The trauma remained buried and unresolved but the emotions that were not processed became projected and took the form of a cancer phobia. Deep down it was still death that she feared with the real fear being that of dealing with her daughter’s death.

Fri 10^th July – A Trauma Released

On a number of occasions, I have had the experience of my home being broken into and robbed. On one of those I narrowly escaped being attacked and had my computer and some other items taken. Unfortunately, I was lax in backing up material and lost much of the contents of a new book I was writing. Needless to say, I was as mad with myself as I was angry with the intruder. Next morning, life continued as usual and while working with someone during counselling I became aware of my leg beginning to shake. Applying my own knowledge of trauma, I waited until the session was over and them began to allow my body to do what it needed to do in terms of releasing. I let it shake and shake and shake until it settled back into a normal state. Meanwhile, I used colourful language in a therapeutic manner and let rip with how I really felt. No amount of talk therapy would have made any difference, it was my body that had carried the trauma, and it was at a body level that it needed to be released. After that I was fine and had no long-term fears of such an incident recurring or of carrying anything forward except a resolution to be more careful about backing up material in the future!

Sat 11^th July – Recognizing the Symptoms

Many of us carry trauma in our bodies that has long since been erased from our conscious minds. The real danger is that the associated symptoms go unrecognized and become misdiagnosed. Many are treated for endogenous depression and told that they lack serotonin. Certainly carrying the emotional baggage of trauma will affect the chemical balance in the body but which comes first? So, what are some of the symptoms that while obvious so often go unrecognized? Just feeling stressed out and having angry outbursts is quite common. Usually, the sleep pattern is poor and often there’s jumping in one’s sleep and disturbed dreams. Others begin to find us emotionally unreachable, relationships suffer and we tend to isolate ourselves. Many report feeling just a shadow of their former selves and that the light of life has been switched off. Generally, with trauma, everything gets blamed except the real problem.

Sun 12^th July – Sower of my Heart

I sometimes look in amazement at the monstrous machines in our fields that can do everything from ploughing, harrowing and seed sowing all in just one operation. My mind goes back to one of my earliest memories of my father sowing grass seed with an instrument called a fiddle. It had a bow and a wheel with large veins and with pulling and pushing the bow back and forth the seeds went flying in all directions. For a child whose eyes of wonder had not yet dimmed this was a great source of fascination. Christ seemed to use this analogy of seed sowing a lot to present his message and how his words can either bear much fruit or be lost forever. Certainly, in my own life there have been a few whispers of Spirit, that I call seeds of the Word that have borne fruit beyond my wildest expectations. Just one comes to mind from 25 years ago that simply said, ‘Go to the Wood’. That began almost a career in wood- making symbol for teaching that at this stage have touched thousands of lives.

A story is told of Martin Luther King who one day got double booked to give a speech. Arriving at one venue he had only a short time to catch a plane to the next. Unable to give his speech as planned he summed it up in a few lines: You write a Gospel, a chapter each day, by the deeds that you do and the words that you say. People read what you write either faithless or true. So what is the Gospel according to you?

The next few lines I added myself so I can’t give King the credit! The deeds that we do and the words that we say are like seeds that we sow in our vessel of clay. People see what we’ve sown either by the weeds that have grown or by the harvest we’ve shown.

Here is a reflection I came across that is based on the Parable of the Sower.

Lord, take my hand and walk with me

Into this field you’ve sown

With precious seeds – your gift to me

Let’s see how they have grown.

First we see a little patch – some seeds had fallen there

Unprotected trodden on – the birds have carried them away

Oh, if only I had listened and taken much more care

They would be here today.

On we walk and then I feel some stone beneath my feet

How could tiny seeds have grown – in this hardness and the heat?

Oh if only I had used my tears – to moisten where they lay

They would be here today.

Then we notice where a patch has grown – but all we see is weeds

I can feel the ache within his heart, as he searches for those seeds

I look at him and feel so sad – my tears begin to flow

Tears of shame that in my fear

I didn’t let them grow.

Then I feel a surge of love – and look up to behold

Beautiful flowers dancing with joy – all in a haze of gold

I embrace you Lord with heartfelt thanks and pray I’ll play my part

In sharing your abundant love

Sweet Sower of my heart.

Mon 13^th July – A Victims Story

Trauma happens when we have survived a harrowing situation physically but part of our emotional reality has got left behind. It is that part that trips us up. A lady I once knew in Canada ceased all normal contact. For no apparent reason. I felt that I had done something on her that I was totally unaware of. I knew many of her friends and talking to them it became clear that her behaviour towards me was part of a pattern, she had also cut off contact with them and stopped answering calls. Nearly two years later she was found dead in her flat and that was only by accident. At the deposition of her ashes back here in Ireland all her former friends gathered to say their farewells. Most expressed their regret at the loss of friendship with her. Then someone mentioned her nearly being killed in a hit and run accident and that ever since she had behaved very different. Suddenly the light of understanding shone and together we realized that she had been not just a road accident victim but also a victim of Post-Traumatic Stress.