Releasing Trauma Feels Like...

When people release trauma from their nervous systems, it can be a confusing experience. When overwhelm that has been in our nervous systems for a long time lets go lots of physical sensations can occur.

Think back on the Mutual of Omaha videos where the antelope escaped the hungry lion. Once the antelope knows it is safe he stops running, and is breathing hard. His skin is rippling, and soon he shakes from head to tail as though throwing off a chill. In the next scene, he is bounding away to find his tribe.

As humans, our bodies respond similarly. There can be shaking, temperatures changes, erratic movement, and tingling.

Once we have released the sensation we have been holding, it can seem like we have lost twenty pounds immediately. Fatigue in muscles may show up. There is a sense of inner space; it feels as though your organs are more relaxed. Muscles you usually feel tight in release and let go.

My son says that releasing trauma feels as though he has been carrying something cumbersome that he is about to drop. Then someone offers to help and takes the load. The relief from the weight being taken is the sensation he gets.

All of what I am writing will sound foreign until you hold one of your traumas with awareness in safety with a practitioner.

Everyone is capable of this therapy, but it is hard. There is an absolute fear we all carry when it comes to holding emotions we have been avoiding.

The reward is that once you touch in and release the trauma, it is healed permanently in your body and growth occurs.

If the thoughts of things related to your overwhelm encourage you to employ a coping skill such as smoking, drinking, or eating, to tamp it down, then this therapy is a miracle.

Tamping down on the emotion you are always trying to ignore will keep you tied to your drinking, smoking, overeating, etc.

Learning that you are capable of handling the emotions that keep you a prisoner is empowering.

Feeling the emotions, and naming them will give you more control, more awareness, and more options of how to move forward.

You deserve to embody yourself in a way that allows your strength, beauty, and lust for life to come through.

I am excited to meet you and see all that you hold, so shoot me an email or call for a free consultation.

Books to Read:

Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma Peter Levine

Healing Trauma: A Pioneering Program for Restoring the Wisdom of Your Body Peter Levine, Ph.D.