ALONG THE PATH
Although you know whatever it was that was dangerous has long since passed, oftentimes your body continues to make you over-worried, distrustful, anxious, immobilized, or numb. Instincts we humans evolved with to protect ourselves include the fight, flight and freeze responses. Within these states, there are brain chemicals (neurochemicals), which bring forth life-saving energies designed to deliver us towards a successful escape. However, if these chemical reactions and movements are thwarted, overwhelmed, or expressed in opposition to each other, we remain stuck, frozen in immobility and fear. Once frozen, the process interrupted, we are unable to continue along the natural trajectory towards a reset and restoration. When stress hormones continue to cascade throughout the system unchecked over time, there are, inevitably, long-ranging negative health effects, not just behavioral and emotional ones.
Evolution designed us to be able to reset our systems so we can properly recover and rejoin our loved ones, repaired and ready to run or fight another day. Although this natural ability to reset does not happen automatically anymore in domesticated animals or most humans, it can be recovered and developed. You can learn to sense, tolerate, and integrate overwhelming sensations and experiences in your body. You can learn to come into balance (self-regulate) through developing a combined awareness of both your internal body signals (interoception) and where your limbs actually are (proprioception). The key to being skillful at this is by becoming proficient in physically resourcing your body, generating more of your own safety, nurturance, and compassion. This requires intention and practice.
Whether you choose to heal yourself for the sake of restoring balance, finding freedom, having more happiness, compassion, skillfulness, or something else, your first step is simply to begin. You don't have to walk the path of healing alone once you decide to take it. Almost immediately you will find allies. And I can help support you along the way by acquainting you with six tasks. You must give your best efforts to (1. Orienting) orienting toward safety, (2. Thawing) melting whatever remains frozen, (3. Shoring) shoring up and gathering in whatever may be spilling out, and (4. Focusing) stopping yourself from reliving the worst days of your life. (An unfocused mind will run "what if's" and continuous negative stories inside your head, simply another circular attack re-enacted by you, unintentionally, making you your own worst enemy. This is the demoralizing legacy of unhealed trauma. It can be debilitating, excruciating and it wastes valuable vitality. It is a misdirected defensive response that needs to be refocused and discharged, safely, outwards.) Living with trauma also means enduring the absence of opposite states such as compassion (5. Empathizing) and communion (6. Harmonizing) These are what next must be unlocked. The six tasks are not set in any particular sequence and you may find yourself entering at any point, however, a felt sense of safety (1. Orienting) is, almost universally, a necessary requirement, in order to gain traction with the others.
Although you know whatever it was that was dangerous has long since passed, oftentimes your body continues to make you over-worried, distrustful, anxious, immobilized, or numb. Instincts we humans evolved with to protect ourselves include the fight, flight and freeze responses. Within these states, there are brain chemicals (neurochemicals), which bring forth life-saving energies designed to deliver us towards a successful escape. However, if these chemical reactions and movements are thwarted, overwhelmed, or expressed in opposition to each other, we remain stuck, frozen in immobility and fear. Once frozen, the process interrupted, we are unable to continue along the natural trajectory towards a reset and restoration. When stress hormones continue to cascade throughout the system unchecked over time, there are, inevitably, long-ranging negative health effects, not just behavioral and emotional ones.
Evolution designed us to be able to reset our systems so we can properly recover and rejoin our loved ones, repaired and ready to run or fight another day. Although this natural ability to reset does not happen automatically anymore in domesticated animals or most humans, it can be recovered and developed. You can learn to sense, tolerate, and integrate overwhelming sensations and experiences in your body. You can learn to come into balance (self-regulate) through developing a combined awareness of both your internal body signals (interoception) and where your limbs actually are (proprioception). The key to being skillful at this is by becoming proficient in physically resourcing your body, generating more of your own safety, nurturance, and compassion. This requires intention and practice.
Whether you choose to heal yourself for the sake of restoring balance, finding freedom, having more happiness, compassion, skillfulness, or something else, your first step is simply to begin. You don't have to walk the path of healing alone once you decide to take it. Almost immediately you will find allies. And I can help support you along the way by acquainting you with six tasks. You must give your best efforts to (1. Orienting) orienting toward safety, (2. Thawing) melting whatever remains frozen, (3. Shoring) shoring up and gathering in whatever may be spilling out, and (4. Focusing) stopping yourself from reliving the worst days of your life. (An unfocused mind will run "what if's" and continuous negative stories inside your head, simply another circular attack re-enacted by you, unintentionally, making you your own worst enemy. This is the demoralizing legacy of unhealed trauma. It can be debilitating, excruciating and it wastes valuable vitality. It is a misdirected defensive response that needs to be refocused and discharged, safely, outwards.) Living with trauma also means enduring the absence of opposite states such as compassion (5. Empathizing) and communion (6. Harmonizing) These are what next must be unlocked. The six tasks are not set in any particular sequence and you may find yourself entering at any point, however, a felt sense of safety (1. Orienting) is, almost universally, a necessary requirement, in order to gain traction with the others.