Rewiring (CBT – Cognitive Behavioural Therapy)

The past used to come back

without asking.

Not as a thought

as my body.

Heart racing.

Hands shaking.

Me suddenly back there,

even though I wasn’t.

I knew I was safe,

but my body didn’t.

It saw the faces.

It braced for impact.

It forgot what year it was.

That’s what trauma does.

It keeps the alarm ringing

long after the danger’s gone.

Cognitive behavioural therapy

didn’t take the memory away.

It didn’t tell me to “move on”.

It taught my brain

how to come back to now.

So when the memory shows up,

it doesn’t take over anymore.

I can see it

but the faces aren’t the same.

They’re unfamiliar.

Grounded in the present.

A reminder that this moment

is different.

My body listens now.

Not perfectly.

But enough.

The shaking passes.

The tightness eases.

I can breathe through it

instead of drowning in it.

I still remember.

But I don’t relive it.

This is what rewiring looks like.

Not erasing what happened

just learning that I survived it.

And maybe you’re here

because some part of this

sounds like you.

If it does,

know this:

your brain can learn safety again too.

Slowly.

Humanly.

In its own time.

And you don’t have to be finished healing

to move forward.