Moving Beyond Trauma

yourself to stay for another two minutes despite that.
Impulsiveness is avoidance. By nature, impulses feel urgent, but the second you call out that false sense of security for what it is, you can begin to practice new behaviors. You can think of impulses as little windows presenting themselves to you so that you can keep cracking them open a little bit wider, opening up more and more room for healing to stream into your life.

Beware of Impulses

As you are working toward creating a healing lifestyle, pay attention to impulses. Impulses tend to arise because we don’t want to be in a state of discomfort and our impulsive desires or behaviors offer us a way out. An impulsive desire such as “I need ice cream now” is often just the reaction to “I can’t tolerate the way I feel in my body.”
The next time you notice that you are feeling a strong impulse, practice stopping for a moment and recognizing what discomfort you are trying to avoid. Then ask yourself if instead of following that impulse you can instead lean into the discomfort, even for a short amount of time. Maybe you can wait another ten minutes before going for that ice cream. Or maybe, in a different circumstance, rather than fleeing a party immediately, you can recognize that you feel uncomfortable and ask your

his exercise is about giving yourself the space and permission to experience spontaneous body movements. Our body develops a kind of inflexibility and rigidity in response to trauma, which prevents us from moving fluidly. This exercise is intended to bring you back to the embryonic fluid, where you moved with ease and freedom.

Free-Flow Dance Exercise

Self-Soothing Exercise

Start here if you scored very high or high on the interoception assessment.
This exercise is designed to help calm the nervous system and begin to build boundaries and safety in the body. Physical and emotional boundaries go hand and hand and help us form a distinct identity. Boundaries also help us protect ourselves and define what is acceptable.
Set a timer for five minutes and notice how you feel at the end of that time period. If five minutes feels like too much, see if you can start with three minutes and build from there.
Put on some gentle music, something melodic so that you can connect with the sound.
Wrap your arms around yourself and hold the safe container of your body. See what it feels like. What do you notice when you hold yourself?
Rub your palms together. Notice the heat, energy, and friction being created in your body. Now, rub the bottoms of your feet together and, again, notice the heat, energy, and friction.
Place one hand on your stomach and the other hand on your heart. If it feels comfortable to you, close your eyes. Feel your breath rise and fall as you listen to the music. Observe any sensation you might be feeling in your body. Do you feel your heart beating? Do you feel the movement of your stomach? Just notice and see if you can release all judgment and, instead, sit with the sensations.
Advanced Exercises

Boundary Exercise

This is an advanced exercise that

regular basis as a way of keeping your nervous system regulated on an ongoing basis.

Taste

I do not recommend using taste as a dominant tool (especially if you have a history of or are currently dealing with disordered eating). While we all have our comfort foods that can calm and regulate our nervous system, using taste as a soothing mechanism includes many complexities that go beyond the scope of this book.
Use the information you gleaned from this exercise to identify some new tools you can use when you find yourself in a moment of feeling overwhelmed, dysregulated, or disoriented. Write down or keep with you the scents, textures, sights, and sounds that soothe you in a place that you can easily access. When you find yourself in need of calm or soothing, you can redirect your senses to those things that calm your system. Even better, you can begin to build resiliency in your nervous system by calling upon these senses on a regu

Notice how different scenery makes you feel.
If you notice that particular sights are soothing to you, keep a picture of that sight either on your phone or printed out and readily available. Or, if you prefer to see certain sights in person, perhaps try stepping outside or taking yourself on a walk the next time your nervous system needs some TLC.
Sound

Pay attention to which sounds and genres of music feel comfortable to you. Or perhaps you notice that being outside and listening to the sounds of birds tweeting or water running is calming and peaceful for you. Once you have determined what feels relaxing, put together a playlist or take note of the sounds that will nourish your system each day. Spend a few minutes with these sounds daily.

Sight

We all ground differently in our senses, and some of us ground through our visual sense. I invite you to go to a museum, look at art books, look at pictures, notice the colors, and notice what thoughts and feelings come up for you as you observe. Get curious about what shapes and colors appeal to you. Do you notice any patterns?
Or, perhaps you simply like the more general visual landscape of nature. Go outside and look around. No

egin to discover what different textures feel like against your skin. I invite you to visit a fabric store and take yourself on a tactile journey, exploring the different textures and shapes. Once you have discovered a few textures that feel calming to your system, put them in your toolbox. Perhaps you keep a piece of this fabric in your pocket and touch it when you feel anxious.