Restoring Safety in the Body After Trauma, Anxiety & Addiction
🌀 Understanding the Body’s Alarm System When you've experienced trauma — whether it's a single event or chronic emotional stress — your nervous system gets stuck in survival mode. You may live in a cycle of: - 🔥 Fight – anxiety, anger, panic - 🧊 Freeze – dissociation, numbness, shutdown - 🏃 Flight – overthinking, restlessness, avoidance - 🙈 Fawn – people-pleasing, self-abandonment These aren’t personality flaws — they are nervous system responses trying to keep you safe. But when they get stuck “on,” they create chaos in the body and mind: - Constant anxiety - Hypervigilance - Emotional overwhelm - Physical tension or chronic pain - Addictive behaviors to escape discomfort 🌿 Somatic Therapy: Healing Through the Body Somatic therapy teaches us that the body holds onto trauma, even when the mind tries to forget it. Instead of only talking about your pain, somatic healing helps you: - Listen to your body’s signals - Regulate your nervous system - Release stored stress, tension, and trauma - Reconnect with a sense of safety and presence This is essential in healing anxiety, trauma, and addiction — because the nervous system must feel safe in order to heal. ⚖️ The Window of Tolerance This is the optimal zone where your body and mind can function with clarity, calm, and balance. When we’re outside this window, we may: - Feel overwhelmed, panicked, reactive (hyperarousal) - Feel shut down, dissociated, disconnected (hypoarousal) Somatic tools help widen your window of tolerance — so you can feel emotions without being consumed or numbed by them. 🧘♀️ Core Tools: Grounding, Mindfulness & Somatic Awareness 🔻 1. Grounding Techniques (For When You Feel Unsafe, Anxious, or Spinning Out) These bring you back into your body and the present moment. Try these: ✅ 5-4-3-2-1 Method - Name 5 things you see - 4 things you can touch - 3 things you hear - 2 things you smell - 1 thing you taste or feel ✅ Barefoot on the Earth, Stand on grass or soil. Feel the energy of the earth absorbing your tension.