My name is Andy Lightfoot.

I’m creating this website as a labor of love during a lifelong journey of healing from severe Complex PTSD. 

There are a number of aspects that aligned for me in finding the drive to dive into this subject of healing from trauma.

First and foremost, it was selfish. I felt a sense of relief listening to stock trading psychology audio tracks, and I decided to dive into figuring out stock trading psychology because I see it as nuanced and cool. 

It wasn't until I went through an Intensive OutPatient PTSD treatment program, and learned it was largely overlapping with the stock trading psychology program I was studying and the same in many areas, both based on the works of Dr. C. G. Jung, MD. 

Recognizing the better I learn about trauma healing psychology the better I understand stock trading psychology, and the better I learn about stock trading psychology the better I understand trauma healing psychology, I realized I am blessed in this. 

I doubled down on learning both, trauma healing psychology and stock trading (performance under pressure) psychology starting in the Summer of 2021, and I have been learning as much as I can about both in myself ever since, and now I am getting to share it with the world.  

In the process of Self discovery, I learned that I posess.the survival trait, Sensory Processing Sensitivity (HSP) in paradoxical combination with High Sensation Seeking / Thrill and Adventure / Novelty Seeking (HSS) and as a biproduct of trait combination I put seemingly unrelated pieces of information together for a greater intuitive understanding of a subject, I need space to rest and digest, all while craving more knowledge and stimulation, whether I want to shut this feature off or not. 

With that being said, I have aimed this feature directly into empowering people with the best healing information I possibly can, sourced in one place; because eventhough it's helpful and empowering healing information, no one wants to look all this stuff up.

I have an introverted intuitive personality type, so I'm constantly looking inward and analyzing my own operation by default. With C-PTSD, this gives me a front row view to see what my surivival system vs higher mind operation is doing when my awareness toggles between the two. 

I'm doing my best to turn recovery into healing, and healing into personal growth. In my healing I discovered that by deliberately regaining a sense of realized presence from the running mind, I get to experience conscious repetitions in healing. 

Because of this, I strive to realize presence every moment I can, and I am becoming more present more often, minus the setbacks PTSD presents. I also use the recovery of PTSD setbacks for personal growth.  

In the days of my invincible youth, I pushed it to the extreme side of stupid, accumulating psychological trauma exposures, including through forensic crime scene work. I’m paying the price for that now. I still deal with significant PTSD symptoms, don’t look at me like a doctor, I’m not one.

I’m not totally “healed.” I’m healing, and I always will be. This is what I have, and I’m okay with this, knowing what I can do is my best with it.

My expertise comes from lived experience as a guide and mentor in demystifying psychological trauma, healing healthier from it, and making the best out of every situation.

I can help you recognize when someone knows what they’re talking about, point you toward the best resources I know, and talk through those resources and my own experience. But no matter what, the healing is done by you. When you realize you can heal, you begin healing.

Now I better understand what’s happening in my system during a flashback. Knowing doesn’t make it go away, but it makes it a whole lot easier to deal with. Through my own journey, I’ve found that all roads lead back to consciously re-establishing a sense of yourSelf in the present moment.

Recovery turns into healing, and healing turns into personal growth. Recovery begins by reorienting our awareness to this present moment, wherever we are. It’s always here and now. The mind imagines then and when, but it does so from here and now. I want you to see that for yourself, for your own benefit.

Just as there’s no competition in accumulating trauma, there’s no competition in healing from it. We’re all on our own individual journeys together, and we all have to do our own push-ups.

No matter where my mind dissociates to, presence is what I’m realizing. Hence the name Realizing Presence.

I’m choosing to heal, and I am healing. I have setbacks, and I choose to persevere through them. Before I began, I was terrified to look at any of it. The thought alone was overwhelming, especially at first.

Some days my mind gets so “flashed out” that the present moment is the only steady thing I know. I bring that with me wherever my mind goes. It’s a foundation of sanity I can always rebuild from. And let me tell you, my mind goes, and goes, and goes at times.

Some days I fight tooth and nail through pain no one sees, until I run out of strength to smile through it. The one steady thing is presence, and God in presence. That’s where I’ve found relief from suffering.

I have good days, bad days, and neutral days. I wouldn’t trade any of them from my experience of being alive. They’ve helped me know what I know and become who I am today.

This website isn’t perfect. I wish I could make something perfect, but perfection is a standard that exists only in a mind tormenting itself.

Building this website, and the other things I am doing to share healing knowledge allows me to give my pain greater meaning and endure it. This is something I learned from the works of Dr. Viktor Frankl, MD.

The crossroads of my journey led me to create Realizing Presence, LLC.

I built Realizing Presence to serve as a central hub for anyone who is serious about doing the work of healing psychological trauma. 

Doing this allows me to use my own pain for a much greater purpose than myself, meaning none of my pain has been in vain, and in this I am blessed.

I have an unusual temperament in that I process vast amounts of information at a time all the time, whether I want to shut this feature off or not. I don't know if there

I also have the ability to articulate thought (with some rambling). This combined with a vast personal experience of accumulating psychological trauma, recovering from it, healing from it, dealing with set backs in healing from it, recovering from it, healing more, and growing stronger from it. 

With this combination, I'm building this website is to streamline access to the highest-quality information, tools, and resources I have found so far. 

My goal is to help people better understand:

• What psychological trauma actually is 
• How the stress response system works 
• Why we lose clear thinking under pressure 
• How to regain control 
• How to realize that, in this present moment, we are often safer than our minds and bodies believe 

Everything shared here is designed to help you reconnect with the awareness that exists beneath your thoughts, emotions, and survival reactions, as the observer of them happening.

Much of this research I have done on my own.

Like everyone else, I have blind spots and biases. None of us can fully see our own limitations.

If you notice something I have misunderstood, overlooked, or could improve, I would sincerely appreciate hearing from you.

Constructive feedback helps me refine this work and make it more useful to others.

This website is being built in real time as I am healing.

There are days when my own psychological pain makes it difficult simply to hold myself together. Adding intellectual work on top of that is too much, so I work on it when I can, so nothing here is perfect, nor am I.

Some of it may be rough around the edges.

But it's real, it's honest, and it represents my best effort.

Find the leads on here that make the most sense for you, and only you know what they are. 

I will continue streamlining the highest quality resources and understanding as I can

You are watching this project being built one brick at a time.

I am sharing the tools and countermeasures that have helped me:

• Deactivate stress-response operation 
• Restore prefrontal cortex function 
• Reconnect survival brain and higher mind 
• Return to present-moment awareness 

I practice this stuff constantly just go give myself the best chance at living as normal of a life as I can as possible, so I know it works for me and I've conceptualized everything to apply to any human being. 

The core practice is simple:

We deal with emotions, physiology, and psychology in our "system" operation. 

Reducing the intensity, frequency, and duration of emotions with physiology and psychology

Muscle memorizing breathing patterns that mimic vacation mode to default to under stress

Stopping racing thoughts and bringing perceptive awareness back into this present moment

Doing this over and over again, these repetitions are the repetitions in healing.

This process is commonly referred to as self-directed neuroplasticity.

The more often we recover awareness, the stronger that capacity becomes.

My hope is that you learn to do this exceptionally well for yourself.

Realize presence as our most natural state of being

Allow yourself to realize you already have the ability to heal within you.

Allow yourself to begin healing if you hadn't already and accelerate your healing if you have.

Use this website as a resource.

Learn what resonates.

Apply what works.

But ultimately, recognize that you are something greater than your mind has the ability to comprehend, and how this is also what science says. 

When I was younger, I tried to toughen what I perceived as the weak parts of myself.

I overexposed myself to graphic and traumatic experiences, including crime scenes and high-pressure situations.

In many ways, I was also chasing intensity to escape the pain of a toxic home environment. If the external stress was severe enough, returning home created a strange sense of contrast that felt like relief. 

That strategy came at a cost, and healing from those experiences has required deep and ongoing work.

Along this journey, I have discovered extraordinary insights about trauma, healing, and the experience of being alive.

I have come to recognize a stable awareness beneath thoughts, emotions, and survival reactions.

Some traditions refer to this realization as enlightenment.

I do not view enlightenment as an achievement or special status.

I view it as an innate human capacity.

Every person has the ability to realize the aware presence that exists within them.

My hope is to help others discover this directly for themselves.

Through Self-discovery, I realized I have a trait known as Sensory Processing Sensitivity (sometimes referred to as the Highly Sensitive Person trait), found in approximately 15–20% of the population.

This means I naturally process large amounts of information from both my internal and external environment.

I also have strong novelty-seeking and high sensation-seeking tendencies.

This combination has led me into intense environments throughout my life.

Today, I am directing those same traits toward understanding trauma and making healing more accessible for others.

And in doing so, I continue healing myself.

For all practical purposes, I am self-educated.

I only ever considered looking inward at the pain when I thought I could intellectualize my way around it. I thought by choosing to learn about stock trading psychology I could feel better and avoid trauma healing psychology. Little did I know, they are highly overlapping.

Everything I have learned in this field has been through lived experience, intensive study, and personal application.

I do not intend to work in a clinical setting beyond the role of peer support.

What I offer is not a license.

It is hard-earned understanding from the inside out.

I know this information helps me, and I am committed to sharing it in a way that is simple, practical, and useful.

Something we can all do is we can make the best of the situation we're in. 

Good, bad, indifferent, we have the choice to make the best of it. I have Complex-PTSD

Since I'll be healing from C-PTSD for the rest of my life, I am creatiing the best healing resource I can for anyone who can find it. 

Using my pain for healing and the healing of others, none of my suffering is in vain and in this I am blessed. 

I'm grateful and honored to be helping in the grassroots movement of healing 

I know what profound psychological pain feels like.

If the resources I share help people find relief from suffering, this alone makes this work worth it.

If Realizing Presence brings enough value to enough people, it should become self sustaining

If you are in a position to contribute, I thank you if you choose to do so. 

If this website provides meaningful value and you are able to contribute the equivalent of a cup of coffee, your support is sincerely appreciated.

Either way, use every healing advantage you can find here, and heal from where you are.

Keep bringing your awareness back to this present moment.

Hold it here for longer periods of time.

Strengthen your capacity to remain grounded.

Heal your mind, allow yourself to feel better, and normalize it.

All the best,

Andy Lightfoot
Realizing Presence, LLC
RealizingPresence.com