Trauma & the Wisdom of the Body
“Our bodies store it all.
The pain and pleasure of our own lived experience. The memories that our mind doesn’t want us to remember. The longing for freedom and truth and justice and love that our spirit cries for. The trauma and oppression of our ancestors. Thousands of years of gaslighting from our culture.
All of it.
Our bodies hold it all.”
- Gwynn Raimondi -
THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE
Bessel Van Der Kolk’s book The Body Keeps the Score was a #1 New York Times bestseller and remained on the best seller’s list for 245 weeks. With the increase of trauma that the entire world feels, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the Trump era, climate change, mass shootings, the wars in Ukraine and Israel, and Long-Covid, people are seeking answers. Van Der Kolk opened the eyes of the world to the fact that trauma doesn’t just disappear. We can’t simply shove it down and be okay. It carries an energy that must settle somewhere and it most often settles in our bodies, if we don’t seek to release it in healthy ways.
NUMBING OUT
Americans are great at shutting off their bodies through food, video games, over-work, TV/movies, social media, drugs, alcohol, and fill in the blank with your favorite form of zoning out. As a result, we have lost touch with the messages our bodies are sending us. Instead of listening to our yawns at 9:30pm that are telling us to get ready for bed, we start another game or another TV show or grab another drink, and we get a second wind. We then stay up until midnight, toss and turn because our brain is still reeling from the screens and/or the alcohol. Then the alarm goes off at 6:00am and we wonder why we feel exhausted. To counteract the fatigue, we grab for a cup of coffee, followed up by a low-quality cereal or a donut, followed up by an energy drink, followed up by burger & fries for lunch, followed up by….you get the picture. We get home from work, hopped up on caffeine, sugar, and processed foods, so we need to wind down with another drink and screens and the entire process happens all over, again.
CRASHING
Following the cycle of uppers and downers and pushing our bodies past their limits, there is an inevitable crash. This crash looks different for everyone. For some, they may start to feel anxious or depressed, for others they may find that they feel chronically fatigued, and for others they may develop high blood pressure or deal with chronic pain. That negative energy has to go somewhere and if it’s not released, it will remain in the body and it will come out in ways that are extremely uncomfortable. For trauma survivors these cycles can be even more severe and the crash more painful. It is your body screaming for help!
“Trauma victims cannot recover until they become familiar with and befriend the sensations in their bodies. Being frightened means that you live in a body that is always on guard. Angry people live in angry bodies. The bodies of child-abuse victims are tense and defensive until they find a way to relax and feel safe. In order to change, people need to become aware of their sensations and the way that their bodies interact with the world around them. Physical self-awareness is the first step in releasing the tyranny of the past.”
~ Bessel A. van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
HEALING: 3 PRACTICES TO CONNECT TO YOUR BODY
Deep Breathing
When is the last time you took a deep breath? No, seriously. When did you last connect to your breath in a way where you consciously felt your breath enter deep into your diaphragm? And upon releasing it, you felt a genuine unfurling of stress and tension from your body. Many folks, upon investigation and reflection, realize that they can’t remember the last time they took a deep breath. American culture demands a 24/7 go-go-go mentality that keeps us in a constant state of fight, flight, or freeze within our nervous systems and that state of dysregulation will keep your breath shallow, fast, or holding. Through deep breathing, we send a message to our brains and nervous systems that it’s safe to relax. The most important part of deep breathing is to make your exhale longer than your inhale. The long exhale says it’s safe to slow down and relax, while the shallow breathing keeps you in a more frazzled state. Deep breaths bring more oxygen to your brain, making it much easier to think more clearly and then to relax your body. Try this pattern of breath: inhale for a count of 4, hold for a count of 2, and then exhale for a count of 6.
Somatic Exercises
Somatic simply refers to characteristics of or impacts on the body and these exercises are designed to help you drop out of your mind and into your body. Peter Levine, Ph.D, the renowned author and developer of Somatic Experiencing, studies the release of trauma in wild animals, particularly prey animals. Imagine that you are an antelope being chased by a lion. You run until you can’t run anymore and the lion gets you. He grabs you by the neck, shakes you around a bit, and then drops you. You play dead (the nervous system freeze mode) and he gets bored and heads back to his pride. While he’s gone, you move into flight mode and get the heck out of there. When you arrive back at your herd, you take a deep breath and shake your body. You literally shake off your entrapment, your fears, your trauma. That release keeps those prey animals from developing PTSD. As humans, our trauma is much different, but the release of the animals is relevant to humans. Somatic exercises help us to let go of all the stress and trauma that we’re holding and return to the restful state of the parasympathetic nervous system. For excellent somatic exercises, check out Dr. Arielle Schwartz’, an EMDR Consultant, Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher, and Licensed Psychologist, YouTube channel, or you can visit a local yoga or Pilates studio.
Silence and Internal Meetings
Silence is under-rated in our culture. The constant buzz of music playing, the TV blaring, a podcast playing on your airpods, traffic, talking, yelling, honking, overriding any internal information we need to hear. As a culture, we’ve become uncomfortable with silence and will do anything to drown out the messages coming from our body. The problem is, we will never connect to our bodies and heal unless we take some time to sit in silence and go inside. In his unique approach to trauma, Richard Schwartz, Ph.D, the developer of Internal Family System therapy (i.e. parts work), challenges us to listen to our thoughts, emotions, sensations, impulses, or beliefs to alert us to internal parts of us who need our attention. Allow yourself to settle in a quiet and comfortable space, close your eyes, and begin to listen. Listen with an open mind and follow those thoughts, sensations, and beliefs to your parts who have messages for you. You may see a burnt out part of yourself who is begging you to slow down, but you continually run over its red flags and push yourself to the edge. This part is screaming at you to stop before you fall off the cliff. When you stop and listen, you can hear its needs and begin to respond. That burnt out part may need you to cancel some social engagements, get more sleep, read, walk, go to the doctor, talk with a trusted friend, and turn off all noise. But you won’t get those messages if you don’t stop, be quiet, and listen.
CONCLUSION
What is being suggested today is for you to slow down, embrace silence, and connect to your body. This is completely counter-cultural and is not an easy shift. You may choose to start quieting the external noise by getting off social media for awhile, which may be initially uncomfortable. You may feel a little twitchy when you realize you can no longer grab for your phone and numb out. However, as you slowly make these changes, you may notice an inner peace that begins to move through your body. You may find that you sleep better, your digestion improves, your anxiety reduces, and you have more energy. It is better to take a break and listen to your body than to have a breakdown.
DO YOU SEE YOUR NEGLECTED PARTS?
ARE YOU READY TO CONNECT TO YOUR BODY AND PROCESS TRAUMA?
Begin Adult Trauma Counseling in Columbus, Ohio. You don’t have have to suffer any longer.