Podcast Summary
Identifying and Addressing Trauma Responses: Understanding symptoms of flight response, such as racing heart, anxiety, and overthinking, can help individuals recognize and address underlying trauma. Practicing somatic work, like tapping or mindfulness, can help manage symptoms and promote healing.
Trauma responses, such as the flight response, can manifest physically and emotionally in various ways, making it difficult for individuals to recognize and address them. Flight response, a protective mechanism, can cause symptoms like racing heart, sweating palms, impatience, anxiety, and a constant need to keep busy. People in a state of flight may also experience overthinking, racing thoughts, quick respiration, and physical symptoms like pale or flushed skin and tingling. It's essential to understand these signs to identify and address the underlying trauma. Additionally, hypervigilance, the constant awareness of one's surroundings and others' emotional states, can lead to feelings of overwhelm and the need to escape. Recognizing these symptoms and practicing somatic work, such as tapping or mindfulness, can help individuals better manage their trauma responses and ultimately promote healing.
Stress triggers a fight or flight response, leading to harmful behaviors: Recognize patterns of chronic stress and learn healthy ways to regulate nervous systems to avoid negative consequences
Our body responds to emotional and societal stress in the same way it would respond to a physical threat, triggering a fight or flight response. This response, while protective, can lead to harmful behaviors when pushed too far for too long. For instance, overworking, perfectionism, disordered eating, and numbing out are all behaviors associated with the "flight" response. The speaker shares her personal experience of constantly feeling the need to move and overtrain as a way to cope with stress, which served her well in some ways but became harmful when pushed too far. It's essential to recognize these patterns and learn healthy ways to regulate our nervous systems to avoid the negative consequences of chronic stress.
Struggling to Stay Present During Conflicts: The speaker's coping mechanism of 'going into flight' during conflicts can lead to regressive behaviors like binge eating. Understanding these patterns can help improve conflict resolution skills.
The speaker struggles with staying present in uncomfortable situations, especially during conflicts or intense emotions, and this response is often characterized by physiological changes such as altered breathing and eye contact. This behavior, known as "going into flight," is a coping mechanism that the speaker has used since their early sobriety, and it is often followed by regressive behaviors like binge eating. Understanding these patterns can help the speaker and their partner navigate conflicts more effectively and find healthier ways to regulate their emotions.
Understanding our body's fear response to emotions: Recognizing the body's fight or flight response to emotions can help make emotional processing safer and more productive.
Our bodies have developed a fear response to experiencing big emotions due to societal conditioning and developmental reasons. This fear response can manifest as a desire to run away or numb out when we try to process these emotions. It's crucial to have tools to regulate our nervous systems to do deeper emotional work. When clients come to therapy sessions knowing they'll face emotional processing, some may show up in a flight response, making it difficult to focus and progress. Our bodies are prepared to move or flee when we experience stress, and being alone and present can feel unsafe. The amygdala, which contributes to emotional processing, sends a distress signal to the hypothalamus, which produces energy for fight or flight responses. Understanding this response can help us better navigate emotional processing and make it a safer and more productive experience.
Understanding the impact of trauma on the stress response: Trauma can result in a persistent stress response, leading to chronic stress and potential burnout due to incomplete emotion processing and the production of cortisol.
Our bodies respond to perceived threats with a complex physiological process known as the stress response. This response, initiated by the sympathetic nervous system, prepares us for action by releasing adrenaline, increasing heart rate, and tensing muscles. However, if this response persists, it can lead to the production of cortisol and a host of unwanted behaviors, such as overworking or creating things to stay busy. This constant state of preparation stems from the biological nature of trauma, which can result in an ongoing threat response for those who have experienced early childhood or developmental trauma. It's essential to understand that energy is meant to be moved through us, and when we're unable to fully process and release emotions, we can become stuck in incomplete stress response cycles. Unlike animals, who complete their stress response cycles and return to a state of calm, humans may struggle to fully recover, leading to chronic stress and potential burnout.
Early experiences impact nervous system, but we can change the pattern: Awareness of body signals and neurology principles can help regulate nervous system responses and improve daily life experiences
Our early development experiences can significantly impact our nervous system and lead to long-term issues with stress, mental and physical health, and coping mechanisms. However, it's important to note that we can change this pattern through applied neurology. This approach helps us become aware of our body's signals and cues during high-stress states, allowing us to recognize and regulate our nervous system responses. By understanding and addressing the root cause, we can take new actions and have better experiences in our relationships and daily life. Moreover, it's essential to be mindful of the limitations of breathwork as a solution for everyone. If someone already struggles with their respiration system, focusing on breath alone might not be effective and could potentially worsen their stress response. Instead, applying neurology principles can provide a more comprehensive and effective approach to managing stress and regulating the nervous system.
Breathing affects our nervous system and response to stress: Focusing on breathing techniques can help manage stress and regulate nervous system, but must be practiced gradually and consistently to avoid increasing stress levels
Our breath plays a crucial role in managing our nervous system and helping us regulate our response to stress. By focusing on our respiration and practicing techniques like extending exhalations, we can send a signal to our brain that we're safe and help ourselves come out of a fight or flight response. However, attempting to change our breathing pattern too quickly or forcefully can be threatening to our nervous system and actually increase stress levels. It's important to approach breath work gradually, with consistent practice and repetition, to teach our bodies that it's safe to breathe differently. Additionally, breath work can be used intentionally to access and process emotions in a safe environment.
Creating a safe container for healing experiences: Ensure a skilled facilitator, build nervous system regulation, and have tools to reregulate for safe and effective healing experiences. In relationships, practice self-regulation to prevent harm and maintain healthy attachments.
When engaging in healing practices or experiences that can trigger strong emotions or physiological responses, such as breath work or emotional processing, it's crucial to ensure a safe and supportive environment with a skilled facilitator. This container helps prevent leaving the experience in a dysregulated state, which can lead to panic or further trauma. Building a foundation of nervous system regulation and resilience through training and having tools at hand to help reregulate is essential. In relationships, triggers can cause a chain reaction of stress responses, and both partners need to have the ability to reregulate themselves to prevent harm and maintain a healthy attachment.
Embodying Presence: Calming the Nervous System for Better Connections: To truly be present in relationships and with ourselves, we must prioritize calming our nervous system and making our internal systems a priority, reducing stress and anxiety for better connections
Being present in our relationships and with ourselves is a powerful and loving gift. However, it can be challenging to achieve this presence if we are stuck in a constant state of stress or trauma. To truly embody presence, we must work on making our nervous system and brain feel safe, allowing new beliefs and mindset changes to manifest both mentally and physically. Socially acceptable responses like strong work ethics or intense training, when driven by fear and lack of safety, can ultimately harm our health and prevent us from being fully present with others. By focusing on calming our nervous system and making our internal systems a priority, we can reduce anxiety, insomnia, and other stress-related issues, and truly connect with those around us.
Addressing trauma responses at the nervous system level: Identify trauma responses, engage in supportive communities, and utilize resources like Brain Based Wellness' free neuro series and consultations to build resilience and handle stress effectively.
Understanding and addressing trauma responses at the level of the nervous system is crucial for personal growth and expansion. The Brain Based Wellness team emphasizes the importance of identifying these responses and offers resources such as a free neuro series and consultations to help individuals train their unique nervous systems to react differently. By living in your nervous system and engaging in supportive communities, you can build resilience, handle stress more effectively, and create a foundation for change. To get started, visit brainbasedashwellness.com or rewiretrial.com for free resources and opportunities to work directly with the team.