Before we start, please know that I interchange the words trauma, tension, shock, freeze. They are at their root the same. Then when not resolved, they become too many and too heavy, and lead to the same result - OVERWHELM.
Trauma predominantly affects the autonomic (aka automatic) nervous system. The autonomic system controls the bodily functions you don’t have to think to do, such as breathing, digestion etc.
How fascinating - the autonomic nervous system also controls your muscles, which affects your movement.
You can’t expect electricity to work without pushing the switch, just as much as you cant expect the muscles to work without the nervous system switching them on.
So you can be the best gym bunny around but if you are holding trauma, your muscles are switched off.
Stored trauma in the nervous system can limit our ability to exercise and move freely. The body's instinctual response to overwhelming experiences is to brace and protect itself, often manifesting as tension in the body.
What does this stored trauma feel like?
Heaviness
Rigidness
Immobile
Inflexible
Stuckness
Weakness
No tone
Which can lead to injury.
Which can lead to injury.
How can we physically let go of trauma?
It is important to prioritize safety as the first step in addressing trauma.
This can look like:
-doing most of your releasing movements with your back on the floor. (Safety)
-breathing in a variety of patterns
-shaking and light tapping
-diagrammatic breathing
-humming
And then the following:
Coming out of freeze or tension requires both energy and time. It looks like this:
Mitochondria provide the energy necessary for stress responses, and the autonomic nervous system assesses available energy before engaging in a response. In order for the nervous system to properly assess, it needs time! (NB that’s why quick fixes don’t work cos you automatically put the body into shock/tension).
Understanding the right kind of energy for trauma recovery is crucial.
You have to listen to your body to do the above. We do need movement to activate the cells energy (energy will bring back life) but just enough, but not too much!!!
Somatic exercises, involving working with the body in a slow motion - TIME - will be helpful in trauma recovery. Somatic’s does this because it directly influences the nervous system, firstly by allowing the body the opportunity to assess its flexibility, which then leads to the ability to handle all stress.
In closing, the resources available to us during overwhelming experiences influence our body's survival mechanisms at THAT time. So in other words, you want to continuously be supplying a catchment net of healthy resources to REDUCE the ripple effects of trauma when it comes.
Trauma encompasses more than just the events and steps that occurred during the traumatic incident. Implicit memory, (the body's memory) involves sensations rather than words. The overwhelm experienced in the past can resurface in the present, and working with the body in the present moment is essential. Somatic movement is a physical resource available to help our bodies release stored trauma.
For more on Somatic movement ideas, click here:
https://www.restoring-health.net/free-educational-content/infinity-moves