Living with the residual impact of trauma sucks and the beginning stages of healing can be just as brutal.
When it comes to learning how to process emotions, Body Talk, Body Wisdom, Body Awareness and exercises of the sort can be a trauma survivors' biggest challenge | frustration and I am here to tell you why that is normal AND that there is hope.
Traumatized people tend to disconnect from the body by numbing bodily experience because things are either happening too intensely, to quickly or they do not have the resources to handle it. So it is no surprise we may find exercises asking us to feel sensations and stay aware of the body to be difficult. They are asking us to fully experience the body and sensations the thoughts are creating.
During these times the sympathetic nervous systems get activated – our fight/flight/freeze response and we try to change what is happening. If a resolution is not found, the sympathetic arousal cannot be soothed or discharged and it becomes overloaded Our body's survival response is to adapt by shutting down.
The high nervous system arousal due to trauma and unprocessed experience make it challenging to hold a state of awareness, presence of our body and even mindful meditation. I’m going to share my experience to provide an example of what this may look like and then suggestions of how to work through the difficulty so you can begin to benefit from these fabulous practices.
At the beginning of working with some of the modalities I mentioned above, nothing happened for me. At that time, I questioned the validity of the methods. Sometimes when I would work with Body Wisdom, I could locate sensation in my body, intensely and in a matter of seconds – nothing. Like a faucet being shut off. It was really frustrating especially because I am okay with the icky part of healing and I wasn’t afraid to go through it, it just wouldn’t happen. But I guess I had numbed so much my body had to learn how to feel again, how to be with whatever it was experiencing.
And for some reason, I kept working with these methods. And on the rarest occasions, one would work… a little. And then a little more and a little more. After some time, I realized it is a lot like a meditation practice. You wouldn’t expect to be able and sit in meditation for 3 hours if you have never meditated before. You would start out with smaller sessions, maybe 5 minutes and add on as it became easier.
So, this is my suggestion for you.
If you find these "be in your body and feel what you are feeling" type processes don’t work, keep practicing. Don’t get frustrated and think you are broken or that the process isn't effective. Give it time, be patient and gentle with yourself.
I’ll compare this to a terrified, traumatized puppy dropped off at a shelter. It’s not likely it is going to run over to start to play the moment it arrives. It might sit shaking in the corner and after time start to sniff what is closest to it. Then after hours, days or weeks, of hearing the same voices, sounds, not being forced to do anything that scares it - once it feels it is safe it may start to make its way over to you.
Your traumatized mind and body may need that same time, consistency and patience. Keep going.
The work may not always feel great, sometimes it may feel like it isn’t working, but the subtle shifts will start to accumulate, and you will notice the positive impact of your commitment to your healing ♡
Do you have any questions?
Would you like to share your experience or talk about how to begin the work?
Let's schedule a time to chat.