The first essential ingredient in trauma recovery is finding, or creating, a sense of safety. Safety was lacking during the traumatic event, and your brain instinctively knew the danger.
To recover, you need to raise the level of safety that your nervous system feels both consciously and unconsciously. Safety can be as simple as keeping your eyes open while you relax, which keeps your awareness in the present moment. People with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often find it very difficult to relax fully. Closing their eyes means fragments of memory about the traumatic event quickly start to come into their awareness.
If this happens, try opening your eyes for a minute, then closing them again, then opening them again if you feel yourself slipping back, and so on. Notice what the room looks like. Turn on the light if it is dark. Get up and move around, or just move your hands while you remain sitting. Focus on how the movement feels.
This leads into the second main ingredient of trauma recovery, which is to become deeply aware of your body. The focus should be in the present moment. To do this, we must turn our mental gaze – the “mind’s eye” – inward.
Focusing inward, like relaxing, is something many people with PTSD struggle to do. During a very stressful or life-threatening event, part of our brain disconnects from our central awareness. We may lose touch with some parts of our lived experience, while other parts become dominant and central to our awareness. This shift in our state of mind has everything to do with survival instincts kicking in at the moment of danger.
Trauma can therefore disconnect us from some of our most physical sensations. As survivors, after the fact, this disconnect can push us into a mental state where we overthink things – or we may constantly remember disturbing bits and pieces from the moment of danger. These flashbacks may happen suddenly and uninvited, dominating our daily lives and damaging our sleep. Or they may hover below awareness, affecting us subconsciously.
The result may be a drip-drip feeling of anxiety about almost everything. We might be particularly anxious around objects, people, or situations that remind us of the danger. There is often an underlying feeling that our life might still be in danger, or that if it is not, we are somehow guilty of something terrible.
This disconnection starts off as a natural, life-supporting instinct. But if it goes on beyond the dangerous situation in which we needed it, we can develop PTSD or other health problems. Living with disconnection between our body and mind is itself a further source of stress.
For trauma recovery, we need to learn to connect deeply with our body – at any time we want.
This inward mental focus is about becoming aware of the present moment, but also of the way your body feels in all its parts and processes. Your mental gaze should focus inward, rather than noticing the space around you.
Gently notice whatever you can about how your body is feeling, right here and right now, whether pain from overworked muscles, an ache from an organ, a sense of ease and comfort somewhere else in your body, or general fatigue or energy. Become aware of the sensation of furniture or the floor under your body. Maybe the air has a certain temperature.
This exercise is not about trying to change any of the sensations or feelings. There is no need to alter or control either your thoughts or feelings. You are not trying to remember anything or plan anything.
Recovery from trauma means we need to be able to just “sit” with any feelings of discomfort that we become aware of, as well as comfort we may notice. Try not to pass judgement on the way you are feeling. Merely notice it. This soft, quiet exercise allows the brain to connect with the body.
In summary, any activity that deepens the connection between the mind and the body, with an awareness of the present moment, is helpful for trauma recovery. It could be something as simple as a walk in nature or a 15-minute rest lying on your bed. It could also be more structured, like a TRE session or perhaps Tai Chi or yoga.
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