PTSD

Yesterday I got an email with a typical question about my biz and my fear went to a 10/10.

What if she doesn’t like my answer? Will she think I’m selfish? Will my business fail if I answer wrong?

This is a symptom of PTSD: when your level of fear or rage doesn’t match the situation.

Aka you get triggered.

If there was someone threatening me with a knife it would make sense that my fear is a 10/10.

But with this kind of email my fear should be a 1/10 or maybe a 3/10, but not  10/10.

If you have PTSD this big fear trigger could be about your health, your kids, something at work. And the good news is as you heal from the trauma, these reactions will reduce in frequency and intensity. Here’s how:

1. 1. 1. AWARENESSAfter journalling about it I realized that it was connected to a challenging experience in my childhood and I was projecting my parent onto the person who emailed me and that my fear had nothing to do with the person!

         Even though intellectually I understood what was happening, the fear was still clutching my body…

      2. COMPLETE THE STRESS CYCLEThe stress cycle has a beginning, a middle and an end. When you get triggered, you get stuck in the middle and you have to help your body complete the cycle.

         So to process the fear first I imagined the confident dancer part of me sitting back to back with the scared part of me and sending loving energy through her back.

         You can do this with a confident version of yourself or with a person or place that makes you fee like home. Maybe you felt most safe in your grandma’s kitchen so you could imagine yourself there. Or maybe it was at a summer camp where you made close friends. Or maybe it’s literally sitting with your dog or your partner.

         Bring the scared part of you somewhere or to someone who makes you feel like home <3. And this can be done literally or in your mind.

         Completing the stress cycle can happen quickly or it can takes time.

         Yesterday it took time… I’d feel safe then I’d feel a surge of fear… then I’d feel safe and then the fear would rise again.

         So after imagining myself sitting back to back with the dancer part of me, I watched Sing 2 (which I highly recommend! I haven’t watched Sing 1 yet but it’s on my list now!)

         I cried and my nervous system felt safe and refreshed.

         If it’s taking time to complete the stress cycle, you can watch a Pixar movie or show that makes you laugh. Or you can go for a long walk. Or go to a dance class Whatever makes you feel safe and good and at home.

      3. RETURN TO THE TRIGGERAfter watching the movie and a good nights sleep, I easily responded to the email.

         When your nervous system feels refreshed you can return to the trigger and make decisions about your health, your kids, or the problem at work.

         Even though I’ve been doing this work with my nervous system for over 5 years, it still comes up sometimes but I feel much more equipped to process it through and come back to a grounded peaceful place.

         And this is the exact work I do with my clients. I help them process these triggers in our sessions, we do inner child work with the young parts of them that experienced the trauma which led to the PTSD and teach them how to do this work on their own.

If you wanna explore working together, email me at bryn@brynbamber.com” the word PRIVATE and I can give you more info <3.

TORONTO SOMATIC WORKSHOPS

If you want to go deeper with this work IN PERSON, there’s a Processing Trauma Somatically Workshop coming up Sat Jan 13th with myself and the somatic genius Pablo Cortes who has the biggest heart. And we have a few other somatic workshops coming up after that – brynbamber.com/cocoon/

FREE SOMATIC WORKSHOPS

If you want this support ONLINE for free, there are two Somatic Workshops available:

Somatics to Heal Money Blocks

Somatics to Heal Patriarchy