Simple Techniques to Help Settle Your Nervous System
/Do you struggle with sleeplessness? Are intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, or nightmares wearing you down? Is negativity about your trauma frustrating you mercilessly?
When trauma happens, the sense that you’re unsafe and out of control goes deep. Your brain and body need relief from perceived threats. Conversations about your trauma just won’t do the job.
Yet, you may feel ill-equipped to find calm without the aid of your therapist. Still, as helpful as your therapy sessions are, most of your life happens outside of them. To manage the fallout of trauma and feel safe enough to live your life well, self-soothing and self-regulation are key.
Somatic therapy pioneer, Dr. Peter Levine, notes that, as a traumatized person, you require reliable techniques or a toolbox of helping activities to ground and comfort you when tough memories and sensations arise.
Below, I’ll outline 3 body-oriented techniques you can use whenever or wherever the sense of danger and discomfort threaten to overwhelm you. Soon, with practice, you will feel more empowered and capable of claiming calm between therapy sessions.
Best of all, these techniques are not complex or based on verbal practices. Thus, they are easily recalled and executed when panic or fright rush in.
In fact, these methods are so simple, effective, and proven that legions of experts attest to their ability to help clients of any background with a wide variety of painful experiences. They are proven resources for dealing with traumatic responses in an immediately soothing manner.
Don’t discount your ability to help heal yourself. Your body and mind are wired for cooperation. The ultimate goal is to feel safe and able to move forward feeling safe and powerful on your own. Your work with your therapists and your solo work are simply two sides of your recovery.
The “Hug” or Self-Holding Technique
If you are feeling particularly scatterbrained or “all over the place” as a result of trauma, you can rein in your mind and body with a holding exercise. This supports awareness of your “container”. That is to say that your body holds your feelings and sensations. You have the ability to locate them, feel them, and keep them from flying about in disquieting ways. Thus you feel more settled and self-controlled.
Instructions:
Place a hand beneath the opposite arm.
Place the other hand atop the upper part of the first arm (you should be embracing yourself).
Pay attention to your bodily sensations. Quiet your mind.
Allow yourself to gently settle into the hug.
Relax into a sense of support and containment. Notice any shifts internally or your perceptions of the space around you.
Give yourself any opportunity to sit and be soothed.
The 5 Step Self-Soothing Hands Exercise
If you are trying to cope with a high state of upset or arousal, this multi-step technique may be an ideal way to slow things down and restore calm. Each step can draw you out of the traumatized state and help you self regulate. You’ll likely feel safer as you progress through the technique.
Instructions
Place one hand on your forehead and one hand on your heart. Feel any sensations between your hands. Is there a temperature change or difference in energy flow?
Place one hand on your heart and one hand on your belly. Acknowledge the sensations between your hands.
As you complete the steps simply continue to notice your sensations. Dr. Levine advocates remaining in position until you feel clear “shifts”. Again, allow your body to regulate and soothe itself.
Again, these exercises can provide you a much clearer sense of boundary within your body while smoothing out roiling emotions and sensations that might undermine the sense that you can create safety for yourself. Your commitment tho body-oriented techniques are often restorative and a source of hope. Discuss them with your therapist to gain more support and glean more ideas.
If you want to know more immediately, feel free to read more about trauma therapy here and contact me for a consultation soon.