A Healing Meditation For PTSD

In this meditation, Ed introduces a Mind-Body meditation that soothes the symptoms of PTSD by releasing the traumatic memories of the past and their associated stresses deep within the body. When both are released together, true healing occurs.

Transcript

So in this meditation that we're about to begin,

Start,

What we're going to allow ourselves to do is to get quiet so that we can access the deeper resources of our mind and our body with the purpose and the intent to let go of our stress,

Trauma,

And PTSD.

So to begin,

I'd ask you to please close your eyes.

Just sit comfortably with your eyes closed,

Body supported so that your legs aren't crossed so that your leg won't go numb in a couple of minutes and you don't need to move your hands and put your attention on your breath.

The breath is such a powerful tool.

Not only does it give us oxygen,

But it allows us to release tension on the exhalation.

So fill your lungs up in a nice,

Comfortable,

But deep way.

Not too much that it's uncomfortable and then let it out.

One more time.

Notice how wonderful it is to breathe,

To take that oxygen in.

And with every out breath,

Notice that you seem to go in and I use that word reluctantly.

You begin to go into a deeper nature,

Quietness within yourself.

Imagine you're breathing in energy and light and you're expelling stress and strain.

Good.

I'd like you to just let the conversation just fall off you out of your mind like water on a duck's back and just be in the present moment,

Feeling the breath,

Noticing the rising of your chest,

Of your stomach and the out.

Good.

Now just be aware of your breath without trying to breathe deeply.

Good.

About now,

You will notice that some thoughts will come into your mind.

They may be where's it going with this conversation or it may be about that hot date you have later today or tonight.

What you want to do is when you notice a thought come in,

Just say thank you and come back to being aware of your breath.

Good.

You will begin to notice that you get very quiet or you're quieter inside.

You may lose track of where your arms and legs are.

You're in a non-local place,

Possibly.

We can also describe that as being extended or expanded.

Good.

Invite that in while you always come back to that silence if a thought enters your mind.

Good.

Now in this deep,

Subtle,

Restful place that you're in,

I want you to have a specific thought.

I'd like you to think of something that happened to you along,

Maybe a long time ago,

As early as you could remember,

That was very stressful to you.

Something that might be responsible for your PTSD,

For your trauma.

And I want you just to gently look at it.

If it comes at you like a tsunami,

Then you've already done the work.

But if you need to go in and look at where you were,

Who was there,

Who said what,

Who did what.

And I want you just to think about the stress until you feel your body reacting to it.

Once your body started reacting to it,

I want you to switch your focus from the thought of remembering it to the actual sensations in your body.

Good.

Then you may feel something in your solar plexus.

I want you to put your attention on it completely.

Again,

Try not to think about what happened,

You want to be just on the sensation.

When you put your attention on that sensation,

Wherever it may be,

And it can be in any part of your body,

Most private parts,

Any part of your body.

When you put your attention on that sensation,

Your attention is powerful.

You are a powerful creator and your attention creates and heals.

So put your attention on it.

I'll give you a couple of minutes,

A minute or so to do that.

You may be tempted,

Thoughts may try to come in.

Value thoughts,

Judgments about that sensation.

Ask them to leave,

Ask them to wait at the door for you.

You'll be done with this soon and they can jump on you then.

But right now ask them to stay away and just feel.

Do your best,

This takes some practice,

But just do your best,

Feel it.

Good.

Now,

Three things can happen when you start this feeling process,

It can increase in intensity.

Don't be afraid.

It means that it's unwinding.

It's that spring that's been let go.

You want it to unwind,

So let it increase without fear,

Without fearful thoughts,

Without judgment.

Notice,

Oh,

Look how it's increasing,

It's sharp,

It's moving here.

What you will notice is after some time it will decrease.

Or maybe it'll stay there for a while.

Good.

The second situation is that you put your attention on it and it just releases without increasing.

Beautiful.

You are just untying the anchor now.

It's beautiful.

The third situation that can happen is that it can actually,

The sensation can move in your body from your stomach to your solar plexus to your shoulder.

Go with it,

Follow it.

Say to the sensation,

There you are sensation,

There you are stress.

There you are the stress from the situation that's in my body.

I see you now.

I open to you.

I do not push you away or push you in.

Come on out.

Make yourself known to me.

Heal body.

Start your healing process.

I will allow it.

I won't judge it.

Invite it to release.

It's using your intention.

If for some reason it's not necessarily a memory,

But something you've been told,

It still works the same.

There will be some sensation in your body,

Invite it.

And should the sensation increase,

Which most likely it can with advanced PTSD,

Then imagine you're embracing it like a child who's having a tantrum and you're just holding it and loving it,

Allowing it to struggle and just holding it gently until it just tires out and relaxes.

You know how a child just eventually sticking around and screaming and then eventually let's go and just be there for it,

Loving it,

Not judging it.

And then once it lets go,

It's beautiful.

Take a breath and search the body.

Do a body scan,

Move,

Put your attention around.

Is there anything else going on in your body?

If there is,

Then go ahead and then say,

There you are.

I invite you to come out.

I will no longer judge you.

Come on out.

Heal.

Invoke the body's natural healing process.

Sometimes out of fear of being felt again,

These stresses in the body don't want to come out.

We need to invite them out.

It takes some courage,

But it's a lot better to be a little courageous than to suffer.

So just invite it.

If you do a body scan and there's nothing there anymore,

Go back again in your mind and think of another situation,

Another person,

Something else that contributed to your trauma,

Another time,

Another place,

And think about it.

And then begin,

Then go to the body,

Go to the anchor and see where it is.

And then invite it in.

I'm going to give you a couple of minutes to do that guys.

Okay.

You you Remember not to judge what you're feeling or what you're thinking or what happened Once you move into the feeling the sensation That's what you want to predominantly do is feel and not think beautiful If for whatever reason,

The sensation becomes really strong and you're aware of it,

You could do some breathing while you're putting your attention on the sensation.

You can feel it and breathe into it and breathing into it will help dislodge and help unwind some of these deeper,

More profound stressors that are in the body that are the triggers for your PTSD,

For your trauma,

Or even for your stresses.

Great.

Good.

So now what I'd love for you to do is to just to come back to the chair where you are,

To the room where you're sitting.

Thank your stresses.

Thank your body for releasing,

For showing you what you needed to let go of.

Thank it.

Have some gratefulness.

Yes.

And know that you've released the anchor to many thoughts that have been ruling your life.

Thank yourself.

Yes,

Sabine.

Thank yourself.

Thank your incredible creative nature.

Thank that beautiful,

Innate ability to heal that was given to you by your creator.

You see what we're doing in this meditation is creating an environment.

We're opening the vault door of our hardest felt feelings,

Shame and guilt and not being good enough.

We're opening the doors to that and letting it out.

But what we're doing is we're opening the doors and letting the stream of healing come through us.

We didn't have to create the stream of healing.

We're creating an environment for it to happen on its own naturally.

And you will let go of your stresses naturally.

It'll be natural for you.

Sometimes more comes through than we want.

Sometimes it seems overbearing,

But the body knows what it can handle and will release it.

Just don't be afraid.

Don't judge the emotions,

The thoughts,

The feelings.

You just come back to feeling the sensations.

As you release those anchors,

Then you've released those thoughts,

You've released those triggers.

And what you've actually done is you have,

You have released your innate unconscious reactionary pattern to what goes on in the world.

That's freedom,

Freedom from the slavery of PTSD and stress and trauma.

This is something that you can do on your own practices.

As you practice this more,

You get better and you will see your stress and triggers begin to fall away and your life will get better.

Maybe slowly at first,

But eventually you will see a natural healing occur.

Reviews

Wow, this really helped the inflammation in my hips and shoulders dissolve and I was actually actually able to fall back asleep; thank you so much!!!!!! Incredible

Thank you for this opportunity to meditate with you today, this meditation is very helpful 🫶🏼

A helpful meditation to let go of the stress in the body when waking up with a body full of stress because of traumatic nightmares.
Edit: Just wanted to add that Ed’s voice is very soothing and in itself helps me tolerate intense physical sensations whilst doing this important work. Thanks Ed. 🤩

Powerful stuff. Something definitely stirred. Will be repeating this regularly. Hoping in time I'll dig it all out. Thank you.

Very nice for getting to a place of safety - thank you

Thank you Ed! I’ve been having a really rough period of depression and anxiety and this is the calmest that I’ve felt in at least a week. This is powerful work and I am grateful to have found it.

I appreciate the practical value of your teaching and guidance. You make simple yet powerful ideas accessible and 'do-able' . Thank you 🙏🏻💞

Focused and powerful.

As I recover from lifelong cPTSD this is a tool I will use.

Thank you

Such a nice and soothing voice. Thank you so much. I only wish it was longer.

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, I’m excited to do this again and dive deeper into what needs letting go of and this guide gets me to that space. Thank you so much 🙌🏻🙏🙌🏻

Thank you, I really really appreciate that. A release I have not felt for a long time💜

I need this one tonight. I was almost killed a few days ago. Thank you for being a guide.

Perfect like all the tracks of Ed Vox. Thank you

That was amazing. Thank you for sharing your talents.
You have a kind, gentle soul, and you were put on this earth to heal others. I can see it all in your eyes. 💜💜