Trauma Info And Meditation

Validation that what our world is experiencing is in fact trauma is the first step in helping our population and supporting ecosystems survive in better condition than when a crisis began. The 2020 COVID-19 crisis is used as an example of a particular trauma that you may not realize if you are not faced with the diagnosis. As a whole, all of us are affected. Isolated or overworked. Confused. Navigating mercurial information. Loss of agency. After this explanation is a breathing meditation.

Transcript

Hello,

I'm Amber Love and I'm here to guide you through a meditation for self-compassion and for those experiencing trauma.

Traumatic events can happen as either a single event or what's called developmental or prolonged.

And as we are in a society today facing a lot of crises you might be experiencing trauma and not actually identify it that way.

So what I'd like you to do is simply realize that it exists and recognize what it is,

That it's a lot going on through your body.

There's the systems of your nervous system connecting to your body and a lot of people have self-doubt.

So avoid doubting yourself and you can even find references that can encourage you to be confident that what you're experiencing is real trauma.

And then as you respond to it and to those feelings another thing is to try to avoid re-experiencing that trauma or being triggered or how we handle triggers.

So meditation can help make us strong enough that those triggers could lessen rather than being as powerful as they are each time if you go without any kind of self-care.

And this is obviously great in complementary medicine where you take that holistic approach.

Do your meditation and your yoga and see your therapist and do everything possible.

Use every tool in your toolbox.

So let's begin with the Hridaya Mudra which is simple and so even people who have dexterity issues should be able to achieve this.

You take your right hand and place it over your heart or the center of your chest and then you place your left hand on top of your right hand.

Find yourself lengthening up through your spine,

Making space,

Relieving the compression of the vertebrae.

Relax your shoulders down.

Begin noticing your breath and it could be anywhere right now.

It's just bearing witness to it.

So we'll work on breathing as we move through the practice.

But what we want to think about right now is some internal focus listening openly to the voice inside our hearts.

Hridaya Mudra supports the heart and respiratory system and since a lot of issues going around through the world right now involve the respiratory system,

This could be something that you could apply to your day,

Multiple times a day.

So if you're feeling a little bit of a pain in the neck,

You can do that.

It'll also help bring attention to your chest and your ribs,

So allow the space as you breathe to open up and expand through those ribs.

And start to find that breath,

Slowing down and perhaps coming to a nice even ratio.

You can count your inhale,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

And then release,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Repeating if that count works for you,

Maybe you have a bigger breath,

You can count to five or six.

We'll do a few rounds of this.

Inhale,

Exhale,

Inhale,

Exhale,

Exhale,

Inhale,

Exhale.

And now if it's okay for your breath,

We'll try holding the breath after the inhale and after the exhale.

So if this is not appropriate for your breathing,

Then simply return to that wonderful even breath.

So we'll inhale for four,

Breathe in,

Two,

Three,

Four,

And hold,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Four,

Exhale,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Hold,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Inhale,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Hold,

Two,

Three,

Four,

And exhale,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Hold,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Find a rhythm that works best for you.

Allow it to continue.

Notice if there's discomfort.

Just allow that to be part of your body awareness.

Allow yourself to harness this control of your breathing,

Something that's usually automatic.

Take one more round of this.

Noticing that as you exhale,

Tension can release and start to soften through other body parts.

Softening your jaw,

Opening your throat,

Feeling the upper part of your chest have more space and expanse within it,

Separating through the ribs,

The upper part of our breathing chambers.

And then as you inhale,

Feeling the ribs expand in all four directions,

Out the front,

Out the back,

And to each side.

Allowing that belly to freely open and expand upward and then pull in gently.

You can either continue holding the mudra or simply allow your hands to rest comfortably.

What I'd like you to do is envision the screen of your mind,

That space that's between your eyebrows we call the third eye.

So you can imagine it like you're being immersed in a whole environment of your own creation.

I'd like you to picture the color red filling up that space.

And if colors don't work for you,

Then see the number seven.

And transition that red to orange or the number six.

Observe the orange changing to yellow or the number five.

The yellow changes to green or the number four.

The green changes to blue or the number three.

The blue changes to indigo or the number two.

So imagine the darkness of the midnight sky.

And then transition back to the color of orchid.

It's like a lavender pink opal moonstone color.

If you've ever seen a rainbow moonstone or the number one.

And take your breath counting down 10,

9,

8,

7,

6,

5,

4,

3,

2,

1.

You are now in a perfect state for meditation as the alpha brainwaves allow you to be conscious and aware in case of emergencies.

Still finding the resilience of being who you are and at the same time being free.

Tell yourself the following affirmations.

I am aligned with energies that support me.

I am aligned with energies that support me.

I am aligned with energies that support me.

I listen openly and honor the voice of my heart.

I listen openly and honor the voice of my heart.

I listen openly and honor the voice of my heart.

There is a Sanskrit mantra that may also work for you.

Om nama shivaya.

Om nama shivaya.

Om nama shivaya.

I honor the God within.

I honor the God within.

I honor the God within.

While in this calm and meditative state,

Being open and receptive to experiencing your body and learning about what's happening,

We can address the issues of the world,

The discussions of social distancing and how that affects us.

Social support is not the same as merely being in the presence of others.

Social support means being truly heard and seen by the people around us.

You need to feel that you are held in someone else's mind and heart.

As humans,

When we feel unsafe,

The first response we have is to reach out and seek help from others.

If no one comes to our aid,

Then we have to move on,

Our bodies will automatically make decisions for us.

You're probably familiar with what's called fight or flight.

There's also freeze and dissociation.

So it's possible that you've noticed any of these different stages going through your body and thinking something is wrong,

But just be aware that this is what our nervous systems are designed to do.

Bottling up any stress or trauma is not the most appropriate way to handle a situation that's this dire.

Bessel van der Kolk says,

Suppressing our inner cries for help does not stop our stress hormones from mobilizing the body.

And he's right,

Your body and your nervous system will take control and follow what path comes natural to it.

And those pathways can be changed as you work with them over time.

Currently in 2020,

As we are experiencing the pandemic of COVID-19,

What you might be experiencing is called a lack of agency.

This is the term for the feeling of not having a say in your life,

Not being in control,

Or even knowing where you stand,

Knowing what happens to you,

Knowing that you have any ability to shape your circumstances.

Agency starts with interoception,

Which is just a scientific word that means it's our awareness of our subtle sensory body-based feelings.

Knowing what we feel is the first step to knowing why we feel that way.

Since part of the instructions from health experts say that we should avoid touching our faces,

Which is just something we automatically do without even thinking about it.

If you can find other pranayama breathing practices,

Like that ratio breathing that we were doing,

That might be quite helpful.

And we'll do it again to round out this practice.

So allow your body to start feeling whole from your head to your feet,

Down each arm to your fingers.

Allow the breath to enter,

Filling up the whole body.

And then exhaling out completely.

Take that big breath in,

Fill everything up,

Allow the ribs to expand,

The belly expands.

You can feel the breath moving all the way down your legs and arms.

And when you're ready to exhale it out,

Imagine it just coming right out the crown of your head or your fingertips,

Whichever way feels possible.

Then inhale for a count of four.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four.

And exhale slowly,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Inhale two,

Three,

Four.

And exhale two,

Three,

Four.

Now I invite you to bring your chin down to your chest and start to rock the head slowly over to the left side.

And then slowly coming back to the center of your chest,

Rock it over to the right side.

Maybe a few more rounds of that will feel good.

When you're ready,

Lift your head back up to neutral.

Pull your face and your whole head back so that you can align your cervical spine.

And bringing a very slight dip to your chin so that it's not protruding upward or outward,

Feeling the length from the tailbone all the way to the base of your head.

And then take your shoulders and shrug them forward up to your ears and all the way around as the shoulder blades move close to each other in the back.

And allow that movement to happen slowly and gracefully a couple more times,

Working out any tension through the shoulder girdle.

Then allow yourself to cross your right hand over your heart and place your left hand over the right.

And start to count up,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Very slowly inviting some awareness to the physical body.

Five,

Six,

Noticing the air against your skin.

Seven,

Eight,

Bringing some movement to the fingers and the toes,

Wiggling them.

Nine and ten,

Welcoming your whole body back to your physical world.

And either stay there or slowly start to flutter your eyes open.

And as you bring yourself to greater awareness in your physical space,

Depending on how you're lying down or sitting,

Maybe you can bring your knees in and rock from side to side.

Or if you're sitting,

Raise your arms up,

Take a breath in and twist to the left,

Lower your arms down.

Then inhale the arms up as you come to center,

Twist to the right and lower your arms down and come back to center.

I wish you peace and happiness and good health.

Thank you for listening today.

Thank you for allowing me to be part of your day.

For further information,

You can go to seekingdharmayoga.

Com.

Namaste.