Trauma is part of being a human being. We will all experience some kind of trauma in our lifetime, and we will all respond to it in different ways. From the violence of sexual assualt, to war and conflict, and the subtle systemic violence perpetuated by institutions (think of how First Nation people might be 'othered' by legal and policing structures), to the heartbreak experienced by how we were parented and other relational dynamics, we absorb life's trauma into our brains and bodies. It is accumulative, too. Even if we haven't experienced a great trauma in a single event, many of us experience little ones - expectations from work, bullying, deep empathy for the suffering of others. Currently, even if we might not be experiencing overt 'violence' - the rubber bullet, the slap, the rape - many of us are experiencing it vicariously - our nervous system is tweaked by what is going on in the world.
I speak to my own personal experience when I say how rattled I am by the violence in the world currently - the restriction of freedom of movement, the knee on the neck and slaughter of a man in America leading to riots in an already fraught country, the screaming online about what people shouldn't do to prevent the virus surging again. I feel it as a flutter in my heart centre, a clenching of the jaw, a tightening of the eyes, a fluttering in my stomach. Although PTSD is not my lived experience, this empathetic trauma helps me understand the extremes of suffering that those who have a direct experience of violence might be suffering. The small violences committed on my own person enable me to empathise with the larger violences on humanity as a whole.
And so, the world wonders how to heal, as if there's a direct bandaid or cure to our suffering.
How do we heal from this trauma stuck in our nervous systems?
There's a saying that the 'issues' are stored in our 'tissues'. The violence of trauma becomes stuck in the physical body because it affects our brains. For example, deep trauma might affect our language centre, so that we cannot express or articulate how we feel and what happened to us. It might 'stick' in our amydala - the fight or flight response - so that we are hyper aware and hypersensitive. It might impact our memory. This can all affect our pain centres, inflammatory responses, the way we hold our bodies. We are left with a very real 'felt' sense in our bodies that can be very uncomfortable. Many of us would do anything rather than face it.
Yet face it we must, if we are to heal or even begin to journey along healing pathways - whether these are personal, or part of collective response. For example, how do we collectively begin to make a difference to the lives of LGBTQI, or make an impact on effects of racism? We cannot even begin if we ignore it, or shy away from it, or pretend it doesn't exist. At the same time, we don't need to jump into action and 'do' anything - sometimes we just need to hold space for others who are directly impacted by acts of violence and trauma, sitting with it in our hearts. Sometimes we just have to feel it, and to sit with the discomfort. From there, we can move to more compassionate spaces and begin a bigger process of interpersonal, social and cultural healing.
Yoga as a Healing Tool
I speak to my own personal experience when I offer yogic practices as a tool to healing. They have helped me over the years, and I know that yoga offers very real physical resources to 'move' the body through trauma. Through repetition and rhythm, we can calm and regulate the nervous system. Through mindful practices, we can come into the 'now', and be aware of how we feel and how we respond. Yoga gives us a sense of choice and agency and control of our experiences through physical expression and movement. The breath too is a 'shape' or 'form' that allows us to control our regulatory response.
Yoga - whether it's in a studio space or our own personal spaces - gives us a chance to safely open up to healing. We walk into these spaces with a willingness to heal and an openness to do so. We can 'show up' to the discomfort that we are experiencing. Pain, they say, is a great indicator that we are moving in the right direction. If you're hurting at the terrible things going on in the world, then you are a beautiful, genuine, actual human being. We have to celebrate the noticing of that.
Thus, if you notice the sensation of our suffering, then we can be grateful that we can hear it and notice it. Being grateful for the sensation allows us to be a little more at ease with what is arising.
A Tool for Regulation
There's a wonderful tool that I have learned, and that yoga trauma teachers instruct, to help us cope with the rising of sensation in our body.
I am sure you would recognise the sensations that can be difficult to cope with, like the ones I described above - the pain in the chest, heart flutters, belly flutters, throat, eyes, jaw. It's a real front body sensation. Personally, it can feel as if I'm floating or buzzing into space. The trick is to use a tool that will bring in the opposite, like grounding to the earth.
Feel tight in the jaw? Loosen the muscles there. Working with dualities is really, really useful. Pressing into the thighs can bring the energy that is sitting in the chest downward. A hunching of the chest can be counter by a moving of the shoulder blades toward each other. A desire to run out of the room for me is best countered by deep, slow breaths that anchor me to the present moment.
Being Uncomfortable is Healing
A few days ago I joined in a Zoom gathering of yogis led by a woman who runs teacher trainings and works to support refugees, asylum seekers and a very diverse range of social groups that lack the privilege to show up to a yoga class or have access to the tools that many of us take for granted.
I appreciated the assertion of what I already know - that yoga is a wonderful tool for healing, helping us meet with what is going on rather than switching off. If we don't listen to what is arising within and without us, we cannot heal.
One of the most powerful things that came out of the session for me was a quote I will leave you with here that really resonated with me. Rather than give a wish of a smooth way and softness, a consolatory hug that ignores the reality of lived experience, this sentiment suggests that healing work is hard, but it is the work that needs to be done, and is very much part of what it is to be human.
“May your roads be rough and the disturbance be your sanctuary,” Bayo Akamulafe
We should never shy away from the work that needs to be done to heal. May you have the tools to begin your journey.
This post is in respones to @naturalmedicine's challenge this week that asks us to consider what can be done to heal from violence. Everyone is welcome to join in - please check the pinned messsage on the Natural Medicine blog. Last entries due in next Saturday morning 9 am UST.
With Love,
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I do appreciate what Yoga has given me.
I remember one time, smoking Jurema DMT, I was crying and I couldn't help how afraid I was. I couldn't focus. I couldn't let the medicine in. I was just so afraid I couldn't stop crying and the song Respira by Natalia Doco started playing.
The song calls you to breathe, so I did that, over and over again and the medicine started going in following the song's rhythm and suddenly I began to move my shoulders and a ton of nodes were released. I arched my back and the same happened. And I started feeling okay. I was no longer afraid but breathing, releasing, feeling calm, feeling peaceful.
And the medicine told me "Do yoga" and showed me how our negative emotions get stuck in our body when we don't move it -like blocking the way for the emotions to go out. She showed me how yoga lets us release those locks so we can "clean" the path for all emotions to flow and therefore be able to live in the present. Like a river.
Just copy-paste, add pictures and your post is done. "Like a river..." she said to @riverflows. 😆
Should I do that? 😂
This actually is a really hard contest for me hahaha
Yoga is pureness :)
I also love that about yoga - that working the hips opens the chest and loosens a tight shallow breath... that the legs realigning helps my tight next and shoulders as my balance shifts.
A also love and agree that perhaps the thousand little traumas and exposure to systemic violence outweigh and case more damage, in the end, than one "big trauma" that is given attention and care.
Beautiful post - wish you safe travels. x
Thanks so much. I could easily write another post more specific to current events.. I will have time in quarantine! Xxx
I learned yoga is quite effective for healing. I want to start and encourage my wife as well, any idea or resources for starters?
Does she do other physical exercise? What kind of person is she? Does she meditate? It's hard to recommend as yoga is so diverse xx
#POSH
"Pain, they say, is a great indicator that we are moving in the right direction. If you're hurting at the terrible things going on in the world, then you are a beautiful, genuine, actual human being. We have to celebrate the noticing of that."
This is profoundly true, and beautiful. I've had severe experiences with both physical and psychological pain, it's taken me years to realize that it wasn't always my own, but that I was actually channeling the pain of others. Recently, I decided to open myself to it willingly, and in so doing I found enormous pleasure and freedom.
Thank you for the insight on how to counter certain physical discomforts by actively promoting tension in different parts of the body, it's a practice I've been applying for some time instinctively, but seeing it described here is magnificent corroboration of its value and importance.
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The world currently is going through the most difficult phase collectively and now it becomes each one of our responsibility to be in a state of sanity and also help those around us who are not in the capacity to think along the lines. Truly Yoga and Meditation does help one to maintain the balance. My life has evolved just with my regular practice and I can see the difference at all levels.
Lots of Healing energies being sent to every single soul and living being on the planet. 💚💚
thanks for your lovely comment @nainaztengra!!!! I'll for sure be doing a lot of meditation and yoga during this time in quarantine too. Keeps my mind strong! Much love and many om's. xx