Do you ever look around and feel like you are living on edge?
As humans, we can struggle to feel comfortable in our own skin and to simply be. So much of this struggle can be linked to trauma from life experiences. Sadly, our responses to triggers can cause us to react from a past imprint rather than to the context of a present life experience. Trauma expert and author of The Body Keeps the Score, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk writes,
“Trauma causes people to remain stuck in interpreting the present in light of an unchanging past.”
Dr. Bessel van der Kolk
If you have experienced anything that makes you resentful, you may be tripping a trauma wire. This fires off programs of abandonment, betrayal, shame, and inadequacy.
Living without a sense of safety for much of your childhood (or adulthood) wreaks havoc on your nervous system. Fight, flight, or… freeze? In times of safety, this vagal system supports rest, digestion, and regeneration. However, in times of perceived danger, this system mounts the more ancient defenses of disassociation or fainting, including dizziness, nausea, and intense fatigue. Let’s study 5 ways you can encourage your body to feel safe enough to increase the benefits we just talked about!
5 Ways to Send Safety Signals:
- Binaural beats: This is a soundwave therapy that sends two different frequencies to each ear, inducing brainwave states consistent with relaxation, relieving insomnia and anxiety associated with hyperarousal of the nervous system.
- Tapping, also called Emotional Freedom Technique. This self-directed methodology reprograms your thoughts through acupressure point stimulation and affirmations, allowing the body to let go of traumatic life experiences by calming the nervous system.
- Grounding: Research has shown 15 minutes a day of mindful grounding to have great benefits!
- Weighted Blankets offer an experience of being contained and held while meditating or sleeping.
- Kundalini yoga: Ancient technology that seemed to anticipate our modern struggles, kundalini yoga and meditation focuses specifically on the vagus nerve and stimulation of its complexes for greater internal regulation.
If you are looking to get to the root cause of your health, contact our office today.
