Rick Roberts Life The Blog

About Trauma, Triggers & The Fight to Come Back to Life

A blog by Rick Roberts

The Architect of Transformation.

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Have you ever had a moment where your reaction felt bigger than the situation deserved?

You weren’t “overreacting.”

You weren’t “too emotional.”

You weren’t “broken.”

What you felt was a trigger pulling you back in time dragging you into a moment you already survived, a memory you thought was buried, a wound you thought had healed.

That’s what this song,Trauma Zombies (“The Zombies Call,”) is about.

It’s about the past patterns we thought were dead, but were really just buried and when something in the present hits that signal, that emotional “grave” cracks open… and a zombie climbs out.

Not a literal zombie.

A trauma reaction.

A piece of unfinished pain.

A memory that still carries electricity.

And when it rises, it feels like it owns you.

🌑 GRAVES INTO GARDENS — Where the Concept Came From

I have a framework I call Graves Into Gardens.

Here’s the short version:

When we push pain down, a grave is formed.

When that grave is never tended, what’s buried doesn’t stay buried.

And later when a similar moment or pattern appears it rises like a zombie.

Not to destroy us…

But to demand the healing we avoided.

Pain that is unprocessed always returns.

Not as memories

but as Trauma.

When we ignore pain, avoid emotions, push down trauma so we can “get on with life,” we’re not actually healing we’re burying.

And anything buried without resolution becomes a grave, not a garden.

A grave doesn’t stay quiet forever.

Unmet pain returns.

Old fear replays.

Patterns repeat.

And when those patterns re-emerge?

They don’t come back softly.

They come back like zombies sudden, overwhelming, and dragging you back into a story you should have never had to live the first time.

🎵 HOW THE SONG UNFOLDS

VERSE 1 — The Call of the Past

The opening verse is that moment when something tiny a tone of voice, a look, a word, a situation sends a shockwave through your body.

Your chest tightens.

Your breath shortens.

Your mind collapses into fear.

That’s the trauma signal.

And the zombie horde “inside your mind” wakes up the memories, the echoes, the old ghosts, all pulling you back to a version of yourself that once had no escape.

That’s what triggers do:

They drag you into yesterday even when you’re standing in today.

CHORUS — Naming the Truth

The chorus is the raw confession:

“I hate the zombies of my mind

they drag me back in time

to relive what I survived.”

It’s the moment someone finally says:

“This reaction isn’t about you it’s about a wound that should have died but didn’t.”

It validates the pain.

It names the pattern.

And naming is the first step in defeating it.

VERSE 2 — The Aftermath of Living With Trauma

This verse shows what life looks like after years of unprocessed experiences:

Walking with your guard up.

Always scanning for danger.

Sleeping with “open eyes.”

Being praised for strength while bleeding internally.

This is the life many people live every day without realising:

They didn’t heal

they adapted.

But adaptations are not freedom.

They are just ways to survive.

BRIDGE — The Turning Point (The Lifeguard Moment)

Here is where the healing structure comes in the emotional lifeguard response.

Breathe in.
Regulate the nervous system.
Oxygen brings the mind back into the present.

Let feelings out.
Suppression is what creates graves.
Expression is what prevents zombies.

Call the place of shame by name.
Language drains the power of the traumatic memory.

Share the horrors.
Secrecy keeps zombies alive.
Telling the truth starves them.

Affirm survival and identity.

“I’m alive.”

“I survived.”

“I claim who I am.”

“These zombies have no hold on me.”

This is not poetry it’s psychology.

It’s how the brain rewires threat responses.

This is how you come back into the present moment, how you stop the zombie from dragging you under.

This is important

doing it once does NOT end the trigger.

And that’s where Verse 3 continues the journey…

VERSE 3 — Resurrection Training & The Scale of Resilience

This verse is about the reps.

Psychology often gives the right tool, but not the right expectation.

People think:

“I did the healthy thing so why do I still feel triggered?”

Because healing is not a switch.

It is a muscle.

And muscles grow through repetition.

Every time you breathe through a trigger,

every time you name the shame,

every time you call on God instead of collapsing inward

you are placing another receipt on the table of your nervous system:

“I survived.”

“I’m safe.”

“This is not the past.”

“I am not who I used to be.”

And the more receipts your body collects,

the less power the zombie has.

This is what I call The Scale of Resilience

the gradual, proven strengthening of your emotional body through repeated self-regulation paired with God’s transformative grace.

You don’t kill zombies in one swing.

You weaken them rep by rep, truth by truth, prayer by prayer.

REFORMED CHORUS — Where Grace Turns Graves Into Gardens

This is where the garden begins:

“Your grace in my mind

heals the pain back in time.”

Meaning:

Grace doesn’t erase the past

it rewrites the meaning of the past.

Grace takes graves

and grows gardens.

Grace takes patterns

and creates pathways.

Grace takes trauma

and builds resilience.

God fights alongside you pulling the zombies off your back, walking with you, talking with you, dying for you, healing you all the way through.

This is transformation.

This is resurrection training.

This is why the song ends in victory.

🌱 FINAL TAKEAWAY

Your reactions are not failures.

Your triggers are not weakness.

Your struggle is not proof of brokenness.

It’s proof that something buried is asking to be healed.

The zombies aren’t here to shame you.

They’re here to show you where the garden needs to grow.

And with breath, truth, grace, and repetition

you will grow past what tried to bury you.

God turns graves into gardens.

He always has.

And He always will.

🎵 The Zombies Call (Song Lyrics)

(TRAUMA ZOMBIE)

by Rick Roberts

The Architect of Transformation.

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VERSE 1 — The Zombies Call

The sunrise looks beautiful,

hope rising in the air

but then a signal hits my body

and my heart collapses into fear.

The zombie horde inside my mind

wakes up and storms this place;

and every time the panic hits,

it drags me straight into the past.

I freeze inside my fortress,

a child with nowhere to run.

CHORUS

I hate the zombies of my mind

they drag me back in time,

to relive what I survived…

all those past crimes that should’ve died.

The way you talk to me

Zombies are taking me away

When you break my boundaries

Zombies are taking me away

When overwhelm is swallowing me

my zombies are dragging me away.

VERSE 2 — The Aftermath

The silence felt like safety,

but it twisted into dread;

every shadow looked like danger,

every whisper woke the dead.

I learned to sleep with open eyes,

to flinch before a sound

ready to fight, ready to flee,

ready to hide or hit the ground.

the world saw strength upon my face,

but hope was bleeding out too long.

CHORUS

I hate the zombies of my mind

they drag me back in time,

to relive what I survived…

all those past crimes that should’ve died.

The way you talk to me

Zombies are taking me away

When you break my boundaries

Zombies are taking me away

When overwhelm is swallowing me

my zombies are dragging me away.

BRIDGE

Lord give me strength.

I will breathe in,

let feelings out.

I’ll call by name

that buried place of shame

share the horrors

I won’t let out.

Say I’m alive,

that I survived.

I claim who I am,

who I will be.

These zombies have no

hold on me.

VERSE 3 — Resurrection Training (God + Resilience)

Dear Lord, with your Power and Grace,

I’m learning now to stand again,

one breath, one truth, one step at a time.

The monsters don’t dissolve at once

they fade when Your light rewrites my mind.

You teach me how to face the dark

without becoming what I fear;

to swing the sword of every prayer,

until Your strength is what I hear.

Each time I call Your name out loud,

the undead lose their bite;

each time I tell the truth I hid,

You drag my shadows into light.

Your presence is my practice now

renewal worked like holy reps:

You train my heart to rise again

and not return to who I was.

REFORMED CHORUS

Your grace in my mind,

heals the pain back in time.

Now I live — not just survive;

all those crimes You crucified.

The way You talk to me

You’re dragging zombies away.

The way You walk with me

You’re dragging zombies away.

When You fight for me

You’re dragging zombies away.

The way You died for me

You heal me all the way.

The Elevation

Jesus, you died to set me free

and lived to show me the way

You teach my lungs to breathe again,

You steady thoughts that used to shake.

You turn my whispered brokenness

into a freedom I can take.

Each prayer becomes a step I climb,

each truth a stone beneath my feet;

and in Your light the dead things fall

Your life makes every shadow weak.

FINAL CHORUS

Your grace in my mind,

heals the pain back in time.

Now I live — not just survive;

all those crimes You crucified.

The way You talk to me

You’re dragging zombies away.

The way You walk with me

You’re dragging zombies away.

When You fight for me

You’re dragging zombies away.

The way You died for me

You heal me all the way.

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