
Uncover if Chronic Stress and Trauma Are Stuck in Your Body And Things You Can Do to Release It
In this video, I cover 3 things:
✅ Key signs to help you uncover chronic stress and small-t trauma in your body
✅ Key signs of saftey in your body
✅. A few things you can do to release tension in your body, so you can feel safer, calmer, and more relaxed.
Rather read the blog?
Here it is…
Have you ever had butterflies in your stomach? Your heart beating fast, pounding in your chest feeling like you’re really hot your hands are sweating too all for no apparent reason at all?
Perhaps you were suffering with dysregulation of your nervous system. Or small trauma.
Hi I’m Sarah Gowans Massage therapist and cranio-sacral therapist at BlossomingMe.
Today I’m talking about early warning signs of your nervous system. When it’s dysregulated. When your body is settling back into its normal after you’ve suffered a dysregulation attack, and three things that you can do to help your body settle for itself.
Early Warning Signs
Some early warning signs of [a] dysregulated nervous system in your body, or the fight-flight response. Same thing. You might feel emotions like panic, fear, irritation, or even anger. You might even just be simply confused. These are all signs that you could be suffering dysregulation in your nervous system. Physically you might notice messages from your body, like the butterflies in your stomach that I mentioned. Your heart pounding and beating fast in your chest. Your body might be really hot or really cold, your hands might be sweating, pupils dilating and you’re really hypervigilant. Looking at everything for [the] feeling of fear. You might be suffering then with poor sleep. Either you can’t get to sleep, or you keep waking up from sleep. You might even be feeling frozen to the spot. A sense of immobilization, helplessness, even hopelessness. Or simply brain fog and confusion.
Signs Your Body is Feeling Safe and Returning to Normal
Whilst recognising when your body is stressed. When it doesn’t feel safe, and you don’t feel safe in your body. It’s also an important skill especially to know when your body is calming down. Things like your breathing is returning to normal. So pay attention when you feel safe.
Breathing Slows
When your breathing starts to slow down, get deeper feel more comfortable, and regular. Also your muscles. Noticing tension in your muscles easing. Safety often corresponds with a release of tension.
Muscles Relax
Relax muscles, particularly around the jaw, the neck, and the shoulders. These are really positive signs that your body is coming back to normal. It’s settling. A stable heart rate, can indicate that you’re becoming calmer. That you’re noticing that your environment may be becoming safer.
Heart Rate
Your heart rate tends to decrease from a heightened state, back down to a low more normal state. The butterflies might disappear. The digestion system is settling down and relaxing.
Temperature and Perspiration Levels
Also temperature. When you feel safe, your body can return to a normal temperature. That overheating or really cold sensation is coming back to a normal feeling of comfortable and warmth. This can decrease the sweating as well if you were sweating due to stress rather than a hot day. Your body, no longer being in this fight-flight response, is coming back to itself. And settling. And reducing those sensations.
Grounded and Present
Grounding. Feeling connected to the ground, to the earth. These are signs of safety. You might get a grounded feeling. A feeling of being connected simply to the ground. Where you can notice what’s going on around you, and feel more present, and aware of your body’s connection to its environment. This sense of being grounded or rooted in the present moment is often a really really positive sign. And you might become more centered and less scattered. That can help your thinking to be clearer and you might find it easier to think and make clearer more rational decisions.
Use these to calm your body down
You can use these in reverse, to actually help to calm your body down. You can decrease sweating and normalize your temperature, by dunking your hands into cold water. Splashing some on your face, your arms. This can help to cool your body and bring it back to a normal temperature.
With your breathing, you can focus on that, to normalise your breathing. You can use vibration and breathing exercises. Simple things like humming, [and] singing. This can vibrate your vagus nerve, and that can help to settle your nervous system. Breathing exercises, like Sara Raymond talks about, with “long, low, quiet, and slow breathing”. Where she talks about focusing low breathing, into the bottom of your lungs. Really, really deeply, so that you get a really full breath in, and out. Breathing as slowly and quietly as you can.
Relaxing your muscles is another way. Stretching, self-massage, any kind of movement that you enjoy. This can bring you back to a more relaxed, less tense body. It can ease the tension out of your body. Also, by doing it, you are feeling like you are helping yourself, which psychologically, can also help to relieve that tense feeling. And that sense of helplessness, and hopelessness, to disappear.
A grounded feeling. You can walk in nature, notice the environment around you. Look. What can you see? What can you hear? What can you smell? And what can you touch? All of these different things can help you come back to the present moment rather than worrying about anything in the future or the past. Come back to right this moment, so that you can feel more safe in your body.
A final note.
It is important to know that everybody experiences these signs differently. Individual responses can vary. Responses to stress, and also responses to safety. So you want to make sure that you know your body, what is going to work for you. So choose one or two of these activities. Find something that feels good for you.
Developing these mindful and body-focused self-awareness skills, can help you to tune into these signals more effectively. So regular practices, such as deep breathing meditation progressive muscle relaxation and more can all aid in promoting a sense of calm and safety in your body.
Thank you for listening today and if you did get value from this video please like it share it with your friends and of course if you have any questions please comment below.
Namaste
Sarah xx
ps. To help you even more, I’ve just written a Cheat Sheets series, to help you uncover if chronic stress and small-t trauma, may be affecting your body. So you regain your sense of safety, resilience, and well-being.
About Blossoming Me
BlossomingMe offers a fully integrated approach to your wellbeing. Located on Sydney’s Upper North Shore. Sarah is our Craniosacral and Remedial Massage Therapist and health and lifestyle coach. She can help relieve those problematic knots, tightness and other specific ailments to promote a healthy recovery. These complementary massage therapies can be combined to suit your needs, and include: craniosacral therapy, shiatsu, acupressure, reiki, remedial, swedish, and body-mind-massage.
Our qualified Osteopath, Alexis, offers a drug free, minimally invasive, “hands on” treatment focusing on the musculoskeletal system with its associated muscles, tendons, ligaments, membranes, bones and joints. Alexis takes a functional approach. This means that she focuses on the way a component (body part, tissue or group of tissues) performs its role, as well as the way the body works, performs and integrates as a whole. Our team can support you to improve your posture and therefore your overall health.
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