Accumulated Trauma & Compounding Chaos (And what we can learn from the legacy of Billy Dayoc)

Life sometimes hands us big knockout punches. The big blows that put you on that mat.

Sometimes.

Yes, a some of the trauma we encounter is like a TKO. It knocks the breathe out of you and places you on the ground, leaving you struggling to get back up…

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But other trauma is the small stuff that accumulates…

… if “big T” trauma is the equivalent of a single knockout punch, then this “little t” stuff is the equivalent of, well… stepping in poop as you walk through a Texas cow field on a hot summer day.

It sticks to your shoes and you brush it off, until you don’t…

… or until you can’t.

… and each step in it makes walking forward more difficult…

… and makes it MORE likely that you’ll step into even more…

… and before long the small stuff accelerates and is so much larger than you imagined.

… and, of course, everyone smells every everywhere you go— even LOONGG after you’ve left the field where you acquired the poo.

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And then there’s the layer of adverse childhood experiences, and all the things that CAN be picked up throughout life, things that just seem “normal” when there is no other grid for normal— expect for the compounding chaos that you just know as “life.”



People can only carry so much. We don’t come with an unlimited capacity to carry grief and stress and pain and pressure and the effects of guilt and shame and sin.

We weren’t designed for it.

We were created for paradise with a perfectly good God.

But that’s NOT what we’re experiencing this side of heaven…

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And that leads us to the story of Billy Dayoc…

.. and the observation that the military CAN BE a massively impactful chapter of someone’s life…

… as can the other things experienced while serving / adjacent to serving / before serving / after serving / etc…

… but it’s just one chapter. Not to minimize it, but…

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There are so many other factors that happen in life that we need to address…

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📓 Grab Andy’s book (or audiobook) “Soul & Spirit | Health + Healing” = www.GY6.online/SSHH 

📕 Join the book launch team for James’ upcoming book = www.GY6.online/james 

⭐️ James’ website = www.JamesForVets.com 

📳 The Adverse Childhood Experiences Assessment = www.GY6.online/ACE 

📺 Watch Michelle Hoffman’s Emmy-award winning video about James = www.GY6.online/blog/james 

📺 The short video describing the difference between PTSD and Moral Injury = www.GY6.online/blog/which 

📺 Video with all of the suicide stats Andy mentions in this episode = https://www.gy6.online/blog/suicide 

📺The video on accumulated trauma = https://www.gy6.online/blog/accumulated 

🎙️GY6 live events = www.GY6.online/events