When Our Trauma Response Keeps Us From Growing
Expanded and Contracted
REASONS I GIVE MYSELF NOT TO MOVE FORWARD
“ I am too old”
" I don’t want to go there—lets just leave it in the past”
“ I’ve tried _____ and it didn’t work”
“its too overwhelming”
Our trauma responses make themselves known when we try to seek healing. Whether fight, flight, freeze or fawn, they have kept us safe since childhood by creating patterns of behavior when we feel a certain way. Things may have been done to us or just the environment we grew up in may have been too much. The overwhelm gets stored in the physical body, as sort of an energetic charge that is ready to respond the moment the body feels overwhelm. It doesn’t really distinguish between your too much mother-in-law or your too much laundry. Overwhelm is overwhelm and trauma response responds—you freeze up around your mother-in-law , you freeze around doing the laundry.
WHAT’S THE TIPPING POINT?
These patterns stay in place until:
we are hurting enough to change them
we learn enough about ourselves to want to change
we become vulnerable enough to receive
When overwhelm sparks the body’s trauma response it is usually lightning fast and falls below the level of our conscious awareness. So just like we don’t have to relearn how to walk every morning, our body has a patterned way of emotionally responding from it’s storage units of past events. “It’s just the way I am” you think. But this “I amness” is often the crux of our suffering because it leaves us reacting instead of relating It also leaves us lonely and isolated from the rest of ourselves and other people.
HOW TO START
‘The mere idea of taking apart the energetic structures that have kept us safe for decades in and of itself can cause our trauma response to become activated, preventing us from engaging in the healing we need. So what do we do?
Look, Listen and Read. There is so much availability of material to read online, in books, listen to in podcasts and view on videos. Education about what you are experiencing is the first step, and a very safe one too .
Somatic Meditation This is the absolute best thing to do on a daily basis and its FREE. It enables you to begin to form a new relationship with yourself by spending time with yourself. Mindful exercises and practices that keep you inside your body and emotions are the key here. Contact me for a free instructional session.
Engaging in Healing Sessions committing to deep level work on a regular basis with gifted healers. Just like MD’s have specialties and varying capabilities your healer should have the capacity for what you need healing with and a track record of working successfully with your condition.
Need assistance with learning embodied presence practices? Eileen is an alternative healer who has completed 15 vision quests enabling her to be a clear and effective conduit for your personal growth. She has worked with somatic breathwork practices for the last 9 years and is a certified Unified Mindfulness Coach Contact Eileen@relaxandexpand.com