In my previous post EMDR Anyone? I wrote about this body-based form of psychotherapy as a relatively quick and effective way to address consequences of trauma that repeatedly get triggered in our lives. We tend to relive over and over again the aftermath of such emotionally-charged events with anxiety, depression, self-abuse, mistrust, scarcity, etc. You may tell yourself that you've never experienced trauma, but I would bet that everyone has had one if not many traumatic experiences over the course of their lifetime.
Of course "emotional upset" as a result of a troubling event can be one end of the trauma spectrum, the other being debilitating outcomes from things like rape, abuse and war. Just making it through childhood with parents, peers and teachers reflecting you back to yourself as either good or bad, smart or not-so-smart, attractive or not and on it goes, constitutes trauma in my eyes. Countless of us spend the rest of our lives peeling away the layers of self-conceptions that don't reflect who we really are in order to be fully alive and fulfill our true potential.
What I've discovered over and over again is that, because our emotions are bodily responses to the events of our lives (emotions, from the Latin emovere—to move out), trauma lives in the body. Even language bears this out with expressions like "gut wrenching" and "heartache". And no amount of thinking away by trying to understand alone, can free us from the bondage of our deep-seated feelings. “Until recently, this bidirectional communication between body and mind was largely ignored by Western science, even as it had long been central to traditional healing practices in many other parts of the world, notably in India and China. Today it is transforming our understanding of trauma and recovery" (Bessel van der Kolk, M.D. The Body Keeps the Score).
Darwin also wrote about body-brain connections that we are still exploring today. Intense emotions involve not only the mind but also the gut and the heart: “Heart, guts, and brain communicate intimately via the ‘pneumogastric’ nerve, the critical nerve involved in the expression and management of emotions in both humans and animals.” This Vagus nerve connects numerous organs, including the brain, lungs, heart, stomach, and intestines. As a matter of fact, gut health (our Second Brain), where 95% or our body's serotonin is produced, has been directly linked to depression and anxiety disorder (Gut Reaction).
Trauma of any kind can disconnect us from the inner sensory landscape of our bodies. Because all of our information comes in through the senses resulting in our feelings and thoughts, many people become out of sync with their authentic self as well as the people around them. Our bodies can either become hypervigilant to danger (fight flight) or too numb to enjoy ordinary pleasures or to absorb new experiences. Our ability to have control over our lives or agency (choice), starts with what scientists call interoception, our awareness of our subtle sensory, body-based feelings.
Many methods of treating trauma tend to bypass the emotional engagement system (Van der Kolk) and instead focus on the cognitive abilities of the mind. More common still has become the use of drugs (psychopharmacology) to address issues like depression and anxiety, alleviating the symptoms rather than addressing the root causes. Granted, medications can be life-saving solutions for some mental health disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but the use of antidepressants and antianxiety meds even among children has skyrocketed in the last decade. This fact also ignores the reality that every drug we take affects other systems in the body because the body and mind are one interconnected unit (Smoke and Mirrors).
Reconnecting with our senses is necessary not only to overcome trauma of any kind, but to also be fully present on our lives. Being acutely aware of everything around us through breath, touch, sight, sound and taste is the foundation of becoming our most authentic selves and effective communicators. Just as much as we strive to be mindful in our lives, so should we cultivate our bodyfulness. In the book Bodyfulness by Christine Caldwell, the author explains-- “think of the mind as the circulating flow of information throughout the body and our nerves and blood vessels as major highways conducting that flow...Inner sensation is critical for the body’s ability to take care of itself."
Through the vagus verve and the peripheral nervous system connecting every cell in the body, we have the remarkable ability to monitor our inner and outer wellbeing. Interoceptors (inner) "have been correlated to emotional intelligence and the ability to make good decisions: the more we can track our inner state, the more we literally know what we feel; and the more we know what we feel, the more we can know what we want as well as understand the feelings of others" (Caldwell). Our senses help us monitor our innermost clues about our health and wellbeing.
Our capacity to monitor our external world comes from our exteroceptors. Our vision and hearing form this group. We have senses that monitor our borders, such as taste—we are sensing something that was outside but is coming inside via the mouth—and smell, as we sniff molecules in the air that enter our nose. Touch that is sensitive to pressure can be in this group, as it senses something making contact with our skin. We could also put kinesthesia in this group, as it tracks our body’s relationship to the space around it...Our body, in order to survive and thrive, needs to monitor the external environment, our borders, and our insides ”(Caldwell).
It's not easy in this day and age to be fully connected to our senses. We eat too fast and miss too much of what occurs around us simply because we're moving too fast. This profoundly impacts both our physical and mental health. We take a pill for headaches, anxiety and asthma-- the body's way of telling us there is something wrong-- rather than adapting to the inevitable stress in the modern world by taking the time to re-train the body to integrate bodyfulness into our daily lives. It's important to be productive, but at what cost? Once we make it a priority to be intimately alive in our bodies, everything else will shift for the better.
This is the heart of the Bodymind Method. Learning how to utilize the body in the way it was intended. Not just a s a vehicle of transport and an aesthetically pleasing object, but as the source of all that we experience in our lives that feeds the way we show up in terms of health, productivity, love and satisfaction. In my next post I'll give you some concrete ways of reconnecting with your vital sensory awareness. Once you acquire a few simple tools and begin a daily practice you can do any/everywhere, you will notice remarkable changes in the way you move through your life and how others respond to you. Take a moment to just breathe deeply and take in what's going on around you. Mind Your Body to be fully alive in everything you do.
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