Healing Trauma By Cultivating Agency

Healing from trauma requires multidimensional approaches and levels of support. This guided meditation is one tool that you can use to cultivate a greater sense of agency and control in your life, helping you learn to feel empowered and resilient.

“Somewhere in the clouds” by Keys of Moon Music on Sound Cloud. Creative Commons.

Transcript

This mindfulness exercise is designed to help you overcome the harmful effects of trauma, To give you a stronger sense of self-agency and control over how you relate to what you've experienced. As you listen to this exercise and all mindfulness exercises, Please remember you're in control of your experience and can do as much of it or as little of it as you wish. No matter what kind of trauma you may have gone through, Large or small, Your trauma involves an incapacity to stop a terrible thing from happening to you. Sometimes this truth can wear on the psyche, So recovering from trauma may require that you at some point increase greater strengths and more capacities within to remember how powerful you are and how important your decisions are. One thing that has helped thousands of others who live with incredible trauma is to be mindful of your own experiences of what we call agency, Of simply being able to make something happen with your own free will and sense of empowerment. This can help us to remember our best self, To know that we have the capacity to take on challenges with strength. This provides the mind with the belief that you are greater than your past, Bigger than anything that's happened to you, And that you are not your trauma. You are so much more and that you can shape your future to be as bright and as healthy as you desire. Agency is just a fancy term for being able to make things happen. If you feel a bit powerless, Helpless, Trapped, Immobilized, Defeated, Or despairing, Then this practice of agency can help turn the tide to reawaken the feeling of what it's like to make things happen, Rather than be fearful of whatever might come next. So with that in mind, We will practice feeling a sense of agency in a guided mindfulness exercise together. Please find a posture that feels relaxed and alert. You may close your eyes or keep them open with a gentle downward gaze. Turn your attention to your mindfulness anchor, Something that you can bring your attention back to when you get distracted or when you need a moment of grounding. This may be your breath following it in and out, Or the feeling of gravity and the weight of your body in its seat. Your anchor could be the feeling of your hands in your lap or any sounds you hear outside of yourself. Take a few deep breaths with nice long controlled exhales to calm the nervous system and help you settle into a calm centered space. One more deep inhale with a long controlled exhale. Great. And now reflect on a time in your life when you felt really good about having attained a goal. What goal do you feel really proud of? What choices and actions did you make? What were some of the little things you did that led up to achieving that goal? Picture these now. See yourself having agency and making those choices, Taking those actions to achieve your goal. Notice how it feels to see yourself achieving your goal. Our little goals and achievements count just as much as the big ones. Consider now how you've added value in situations or to other people. Recall ways that you influence others or played a leadership role perhaps in your family, Friendships or at work. Bring mindfulness to some of the positive choices you've made, All empowering experiences that lead to a greater feeling of accomplishment or agency. See if you can open up to this feeling and let it fill you. Help it last and allow it to become more intense in your mind, Your heart and your body. You have made things happen. You are competent. You are effective and you will continue to be so. Bring mindfulness to any other feelings that may arise like dignity, Self-respect or a sense of possibility. If you happen to feel any resistance to the sense of success or worth right now, That's okay and completely normal. See if you can gently bring your mind back to remembering some of the good feelings after you did something that you're really proud of doing. Feel this sense of accomplishment or agency sink into you and remember that you can tap into this feeling anytime you remember it. You can also sense what it will be like to accomplish more, Even little tasks of the day when you feel satisfied with meeting your goals that contribute to your well-being and the well-being of others. Open to the reality that you can build on a foundation of what you've already done. Let ease spread through your body and mind. If there's a sense of fragility somewhere in your consciousness, It can be useful to imagine a nurturing person. This can even be your adult self now who is holding you as a child, Reassuring you that you will reach goals, That you are special and powerful and that you can get things done and make a difference. And now thank yourself for your courage to remember who you really are, To bring mindfulness to the sense of agency that you have and have always had inside of you ready to unleash at any time. Remember agency is just a fancy term for a feeling of being able to make things happen. So to cultivate a sense of agency in your daily life, Take a pause when you catch yourself feeling helpless and stuck and remember a time when you felt accomplished or successful at having done something and pay attention to the little things that you do each day that make a difference for yourself and the people around you. Thank you for your mindfulness. Take good care.