I am a Trauma Informed Embodiment Coach. Healing is possible for women who have trauma. Big T, Little T, Complex, Sexual, Religious, any form of trauma. Check out my content and ways we can work together.
Not Every Tool Works Every Time - When vagal stimulation isn't working...
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Not Every Tool Works Every Time Series Continued... Vagal Stimulation is a big thing right now. And I love it! Makes sense to me because there are lots of awesome tools included in what is called vagal stimulation. There are tools to stimulate the eyes, the ears, the face.... And these are only some of the tools. The vagus nerve is like a traveler. It's called the wandering nerve because it goes all over our body. Most nerves carry messages from our brain to different parts of our body, but the vagus nerve is special because 80% of its messages go from our body to our brain. That's why it's a big deal right now! Tapping into our vagus nerve is a great way to get into our body and start to learn our body's language. So let's talk about when vagus nerve stimulation doesn't go as planned... I want to offer an AND here. Even when things don't work like we want, it's a chance for us to learn more about our bodies. It's like our body saying, "Hey, listen up!" And we get a chance to learn how our body is speaking to us. Let me give you an example. Say we learn this thing called Vagal Ear Stimulation. We use it when our ears hurt, and it usually helps. It relieves pressure and pain. But one time, it doesn't work. Our ears still hurt, and we freak out a little. The freak out might look like.... Being tempted to think I've done it wrong, there is something wrong with me, or it just doesn't work for me any more. This way of thinking can tell us something important about our Sideways (how we are viewing ourselves). Maybe that's where we should be looking and working right now. When the tool doesn't work like we thought, it's like our body saying, "Hey, look over here!" Maybe our ears hurting is our body's way of telling us to pay attention to how we think about the pain. It's like our body wants us to notice something we might have missed before. Are there narratives we can explore? Are they helpful or unhelpful? Are we judging or minimizing our pain or something related to our pain? Maybe we need to celebrate and honor the last work we did around our ears and integrate that into our healing? (These are just some ideas, any other things come up for you?) And maybe the freak out means we need to feel somethings... Is there fear? Is there shame, hurt, anger, or sadness? Something else? And what if the freak out is because.... The pain actually got worse.... So again we can get another view from our sideways... Or it could also lead us to us sit with the pain long enough to process and release some trauma. And perhaps we wouldn't have let ourselves feel something long enough to get to this point of release. And often, all the times we have gone through the cycle of... having our ears hurt, using the vagal ear stimulation, and then the pain lessening, or going away... Doing this cycle over and over again, has built up some capacity within our body, to be able to finally, in this moment, when it seems it's no longer working.... release this specific trauma. So actually, maybe it is working, just differently. Because this "not working", brought us to the point of being able to get close enough to this specific trauma, in the way it needed, for it then to release. Our body really does know. Just sometimes, our "go to" tools just look a little differently. We can't use the same approach every time. Many times we can and when we can't, it means our body has something good to teach us. And it's ok if we want it to be different. If we want it to be predictable and the same tool always work the same way, every time. And healing doesn't work that way. It's not linear. Our trauma came in ways we didn't expect, that's why it's trauma. So the way it will heal might also, often, come in ways we don't expect. And it will be just the way our body needs. It's amazing. Remember, ❤️ You Matter. Your Healing Matters. You Are Worth It! P.S. Here is my podcast from last week. I'd love to hear if you are interested in learning more about working with me using somatic EMDR. If so, Reply with the words SOMATIC EMDR and I'll send you some information. |
Hi! I'm Cami
I am a Trauma Informed Embodiment Coach. Healing is possible for women who have trauma. Big T, Little T, Complex, Sexual, Religious, any form of trauma. Check out my content and ways we can work together.
Not Every Tool Works Every Time Series Continued... This is the last week of this series. Over the course of this last month we’ve talked about when different bottom up tools don’t work and what to do. When.... Meditation Vagal Stimulation Noticing Sensations Don't Work. I also shared what to do when Trauma Education doesn’t work. And today, I’d like to share what to do when the Sideways tool doesn’t work. Sideways means the watcher. It’s how we view our trauma triggers in our body and all...
Not Every Tool Works Every Time Series Continued... Learning about trauma can be really helpful. In fact, trauma education is on my list of Top Down tools because it can explain why we act certain ways. When trauma takes over, we can understand that we are not crazy, we’re just reacting to what happened to us. And, even if other people don’t get it, learning about trauma can be a way to help them understand us better. But it’s important to remember, we’re not learning about trauma to convince...
Not Every Tool Works Every Time Series Continued... In the work of healing trauma, I often invite others (and myself) to notice different things in our body. To notice, means to pay attention. To turn inward. I share something and offer a noticing practice by asking you to notice what is happening in your body.... Or notice what is not happening.... And notice what your mind or heart might be doing.... And notice your breath.... This is a short list of things we could notice. And any of these...