Category: <span>Stress</span>

Trying To Overcome Trauma? You Might Be Going About It The Wrong Way

Overcoming Trauma: There is increasing evidence that the most efficient and effective ways to treat trauma in our lives is by including how our bodies have held onto these life experiences and keep a person locked in a fight flight or freeze state. As Peter Levine states: “(When) we have a person who is locked in the fight-or-flight response, a person who is functioning primarily in the brainstem, and the language of the brainstem is the language of sensations. So if you are trying to help the person work with the core of the trauma response, you have to talk to that level of the nervous system,” (Levine, 2013). The primitive part of the brain does not have verbal language, it does not use words but instead holds these traumatic messages in our nervous system.

One of the foremost experts in the field, Bessel Van der Kolk describes trauma as a breakdown of the attuned physical synchrony, and is quoted in the New York Times, “Trauma has nothing whatsoever to do with cognition. It has to do with your body being reset to interpret the world as a dangerous place,” (Interlandi, 2014).

Read more at: https://blogs.psychcentral.com/leveraging-adversity/2017/03/trying-to-overcome-trauma-you-might-be-going-about-it-the-wrong-way/

How to handle insomnia

Insomnia effects about 30% of American adults each year. Chronic problems falling asleep at bedtime are often associated with stress and anxiety. Waking up too early is often linked to depression. Either type of insomnia can be caused by a circadian rhythm disorder; meaning there is a mismatch between ones biological clock and normal sleep times.

Key points are to use blackout curtains and keep the lights off or low if you wake up. If you’re wide awake , get up and do something sedate like knitting or sudoku, no computer or phone. Do not eat. If you watch TV wear sunglasses to tone down the light. and do not sleep in in the morning or take a nap. These will further disrupt your sleep timing.

Read more at: http://www.wsj.com/articles/help-for-middle-of-the-night-insomnia-1467048493

8 Tools to get control of your anxiety

Here are some great suggestions to better manage those anxious times in life.

You do not need to know the root cause of your anxiety while you are in the height of experiencing it.   Trying to ” figure it out”  actually increases your anxious feelings. Instead try to decrease your symptoms and try to figure it out later when you are calmer. These tips let your nervous system calm down and let you get in control of your life. For example: get into your body in this moment. Feel your feet on the floor. Shift the weight on your feet and notice the difference the sensation in each part of your foot;sole, top of foot, toes, heel…Then move your attention up to your ankles, your shins, your calves and continue to the top of your head. notice from the inside of your body.

Read more:  https://mindbodywise.com/blog/8-tools-to-get-control-of-your-anxiety/

 

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