I hope you’re being so gentle with yourself. The past several weeks have been a lot. Not only do these massive disasters affect us physically and financially, they can certainly affect us psychologically and emotionally as well. You have been in a very traumatic, full-spectrum situation, experiencing incredibly devastating loss, intense adrenaline and panic, apocalyptic scenes, and also the rush of relief (for some), the outpouring of love and support of community, and immense gratitude for heroic actions. It’s a lot.
It’s an immense amount of physical, psychological, mental, emotional things for your system to process. So, first, let’s just really take in that statement and take a deep breath in and out with me, just acknowledging yourself for everything you’ve been feeling, and everything everyone else around you has been feeling. There are many frazzled nerves, so let’s return again and again and again to places of deep compassion and kindness for yourself and others.
There are various levels of trauma being experienced, so here’s a clearer picture of what is going on inside the body and what you can do about it.
To simplify what world renowned trauma specialist, educator and psychologist Dr. Peter Levine shares: in nature, when animals are threatened, they go into fight, flight, freeze, or fawn stress responses to danger. When the threat has dissipated, animals naturally shake their entire bodies vigorously. They are literally “shaking it off.” Their bodies will do whatever they can to release the traumatic feelings from the body by this shaking motion. In other words, they instinctively go into a somatic healing response. This is just so automatic and brilliant, helping the trauma move through and be released from the body, as much as possible. For the most part, this process very quickly assists the animal in regaining a sense of safety so that it can continue living and not be completely paralyzed by fear.
Unfortunately, the human body doesn’t seem to do this quite as automatically, but we are able to consciously do it. It’s so important that we process and move our traumas so that they don’t remain in our systems and negatively impact our lives going forward.
Below are some basic ways to help move trauma out of your body. Please know that you may need to do a variety of these and may need to repeat the processes multiple times.
- Move your body. This can be dancing, hiking, running, yoga, kickboxing, whatever. The more you move your physical body, the faster it will process and release the internal chemicals and hormones it’s been releasing during these intense times. Your body is brilliant and is designed to self regulate. You can help this with exercise.
- Shake your body. Be an intelligent animal and consciously shake your body. You can start with some basic somatic movements, like gently bouncing up and down. If that is feeling good, you can add some rhythmic breathing that matches your movements. Swinging your arms from side to side, moving your head left and right… anything that is repetitive will be releasing and soothing to your nervous system.
- Get really hydrated—inside and outside of your body. Drink lots and lots of water. Water is the most ancient and effective cleanser to flush out the emotional and physical toxins from your body. Also, right now, the air is extra dry (and toxic in some places). If you can get an air purifier and/or humidifier, this could be helpful.
- Feel the feelings. I know allowing yourself to fully feel something can sometimes be overwhelming, and as scary as it may be to allow the feelings, it truly is the most healthy thing. You don’t want to hold and keep any of that trauma in your body. You are invited to cry (quietly or loudly), you are invited to scream into a pillow, you are invited to let all the unexpressed upset come out. When you release it, you will feel lighter and more capable.
- Other forms of expression. Writing, painting, cleaning, volunteering… are all healthy ways to express and emote.
- Connect with community. Doing practices in community can be extremely helpful and healing. It is important to know you are not alone, and that communal healing is powerful medicine for everyone. Try to attend some community gatherings, and/or create some and invite others.
- I also highly recommend getting professional help from specialists who are trauma-informed. There are many service providers (myself included) that are offering free or low cost services at the moment to people who have been directly impacted by the fires.
If you have some other ideas or perhaps are offering some community gatherings or support, please share with us so we may share with our readers.
May we continue to experience gratitude for all that we have, and may we continue to help and share what we have with those who have less.
