Cellular Memory

It is now common knowledge that all traumatic experience is lodged in the cellular memory. Even perhaps the unresolved traumas of our ancestors passed down through our DNA. This means that we’re vulnerable to a present experience in the here and now triggering that memory and flooding us with those same feelings from long ago. The most obvious example is a way a car backfiring can unleash a PTSD veteran’s memory of gunshots. From this extreme all the way down to a stern rebuke in a classroom taking us back to a moment when a mean teacher shamed us in front of the class. 

 

But it also works the other way. The way the smell of a freshly-baked pie brings us back to the warmth and comfort of Grandma’s kitchen. Or a song on the radio evokes our first kiss. The mere feel of an old blanket brings us the same feeling of security we felt as a 5-year old. 

 

So it was a great pleasure when an SF School alum I taught for 11 years came to my Jazz Workshop yesterday, now as an adult Special Education teacher. The smile on his face as he reunited with the Orff instruments he used to play all those years, played familiar clapping plays with the fellow participants, sang the songs he used to sing with his same old teacher leading the class, was a grand pleasure for me to witness. And for him to experience as all the happy memories flooded in. He spontaneously testified before the class that he was a kid (and is an adult) “on the spectrum” and that much of school, even our lovely supportive school, caused him stress and anxiety. But that music class was his safe place, his happy place, where he felt at ease, competent, comfortable and joyful. 

A reminder to all us teachers that providing safe and happy classes for all kids gets deeps into their cellular memories and will echo down the years their whole lives. May it be so!