5 Benefits of Embodied Healing

Many who have suffered from trauma, addiction and/or alcoholism have seen tramatic or very stressful events in their lives. Our bodies are absolutely amazing and part of our body/brain unconsciously works for survival. You may have heard of flight, flight, submit, freeze, and fawn where the Limbic system takes over to protect from danger. These are life-saving autonomic processes that can continue after the danger has passed. An example could be a veteran whose body would quickly respond to loud noise as a life-saving process. However, after the war, that same vet wouldn’t be able to go out or walk down the street without fear of excessive anger or feeling like they need to fight for life with sudden loud noises. Another could be a child who does everything they can not to make their alcoholic parent angry however when they become adults the trauma response kicks in when they hear their partner walking in the door and rush to “fawn” over them in order to survive even though the situation has changed. These automatic (non-cognitive) trauma responses can cause shame and feelings of worthlessness. The rub here is that even after the danger has passed, these responses can still be deeply embedded within our bodies, minds, and spirits.

How do embodiment practices help?

Many times in order to block out sights, sounds, touch, smell, etc that are all implicit reminders of terrible events our bodies “shut down” or weaken interoceptive pathways from our bodies to our brains as a means of protection. The less that is felt or the more that is felt (overwhelming information) the fewer trauma responses your body, mind, and spirit reacts to. Many live separate from the body in order to tolerate life. Feeling and living within one’s self is being fully alive. Embodiment is vital for healing and for long-term healthy living.

Here are 5 ways embodiment can help heal survivors of trauma or addictions:

Finding safety within one’s self. You might think this seems easy, but it is one of the most overlooked parts of people recovering and finding healing for themselves. A basic sense of safety within one’s self is needed in this world to function and live a happy decent lives. Feeling safe when stress comes up matters. Feeling safe going to the grocery store matters. Feeling safe at night to gain needed rest for your body and soul matters. Your body and brain know that sensory input from your regular environment is safe matters. We don’t find real safety outside of ourselves. Real safety is found within.
Strengthening Interoceptive Pathways to Change Behavior. We have interoceptive (Felt Sense) pathways from our body to our brain that have been encoded by past experiences. These pathways tell the brain when there is danger. A simple smell or touch that reminds the body and then the brain about a past event can set off alarm bells and a trauma response can ensue automatically. These pathways can be changed through the practice of safe predictable embodiment by building more robust interoceptive pathways that hence directly or indirectly change behavior through healing pathways that were encoded with danger.
Feeling and Connecting with Emotions. The number one issue most therapists talk about is clients not being able to connect with and identify feelings. How do you know when you’re sad? You might know from feeling a lump in your throat when you’re holding back tears or maybe you feel a heaviness in your chest for instance …. not everyone feels sadness the same. Many can struggle to feel their body or to notice that lump in their throat which makes it impossible to connect with or label an emotion. Embodiment practices strengthen the ability to feel – to feel your heart beating, your breath…..the lump in the throat when sad.
Feeling true Kindness toward one’s self. Many people who have been through trauma or addiction can struggle to just tolerate themselves. Through a non-prescriptive approach to embodiment and allowing clients to have their own real experiences (without giving them one we think they should have) they can start to approach the concept of friendliness toward oneself. Friendliness opens the door to curiosity and exploration of the whole person.
Your Body as a Resource. Many times when people talk about healing, they might start talking about relaxing or calming. This can feel scary to someone who is hyper-vigilant and on the lookout for danger. Many of our balancing the nervous system is different than down-regulating or calming. It is possible for self-regulation to occur through embodiment however let’s note that self-regulation can be a part of the healing process but it is not the whole healing process. What is really important is to be able to find what works to feel safe, grounded, and empowered in that moment, right now. Remember what works today might not work tomorrow and what works for you may not work for someone else.

Healing through embodiment is a personal hopefully noncoercive process that when met with a non-prescriptive approach and empowerment can change lives.

Stay tuned as I dig deeper into each of the 5 ways embodiment can help heal trauma!

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Trauma Informed Breath & The Nervous System

Breath is the doorway to the nervous system, meaning that yogic breathing techniques can change the way we feel quickly. Many times in yoga these breathing practices can be meant for calming or revving up the nervous systems to gain energy. For those who have suffered from trauma, it is important to tread lightly when approaching breath.

Trauma informed breathing is meant for interoception – being able to feel or notice that your breathing to help heal and balance the nervous system system through interoceptive pathways from body to brain. However, because breath is so sensory and can greatly effect a person – it can also be triggering for those who have been through complex (more than one trauma or re-experiencing) or developmental trauma (trauma started as children). Triggering means that the person can feel great fear, become highly anxious or a trauma response could kick in.

Another aspect around breath is how quickly and strongly it can change your nervous system. Many survivors of trauma are already hyper vigilant with revved up nervous systems and it usually isn’t beneficial to continue to raise energy even if it feels “good” in that moment. When we are using breathing techniques that are not meant to up regulate the nervous system if the breath work is practiced incorrectly due to teaching or embedded automatic breathing patterns due to trauma these “calming” breath practices could also up regulate your nervous system causing dysregulation like panic attacks, severe anxiety, difficulty sleeping or insomnia – just to name a few.

You might start adding in breath work to your class or with your clients by noticing the breath in movement or connecting movement and breath. Remember just showing up and noticing or feeling their body is a lot for those who have been through trauma. Other trauma informed breathing practices could be added in after some time as a higher dosage.

So the point of this blog is to tread lightly and understand how to facilite trauma informed breath techniques – our clients deserve that kind of seriousness and deep ahimsa practice from us a practitioners.

Finding Our Center : Recovery Focused Yoga

Feeling discombobulated? Off kilter? Out of balance?
I have felt exactly that way at different times in my life. In fact, it showed one day during a yoga training. The teachers at the time commented that maybe they needed a”discombobulation” room to put people in until they were more grounded. Well, that didn’t feel good and note to self – could have been said in a more compassionate way. Never the less, it was another reminder of what it feels like to have my energy moving in every which direction. To feel rushed and breathless as my mind runs a hundred miles an hour moving from one thought to the next.

Finding our center creates a strong connection and balance between body, mind and spirit that enables us to withstand or embrace the energy that surrounds us. Grounding creates a resilience that connects deep within the soul. We gain an acute awareness of what is happening around us and are able to act with thought and integrity.

When we are centered, we are our most authentic selves. Authenticity allows us to be who we truly are from the core of our being. With regular practice, we can show up to life with a sense of stability and peace with that spreads outwards and vibrates in the world around us.

Centering ourselves can be a simple regular practice and it may not look the same for us all and it also may not look the same depending on what is happening in our lives. Perhaps you start by noticing your feet in your shoes as you are waiting line somewhere or maybe you notice each time your feet touch the ground as your walking. Possibly you’ve started a mindful movement practice or a meditation practice of some kind. Maybe you’ve started a quiet gardening practice and you can feel the earth as your planting. Perhaps you sit in nature creating art work or start journaling regularly in a safe quite space. Centering is the practice of calming the mind and connecting with the earth or universe around you.

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#resilience #recovery