Yoga | CPTSDfoundation.org https://cptsdfoundation.org The Foundation for Post-Traumatic Healing and Complex Trauma Research Tue, 16 Sep 2025 14:36:53 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://cptsdfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/cropped-Daily-Recovery-Support-Globe-iPad-Fav-32x32.png Yoga | CPTSDfoundation.org https://cptsdfoundation.org 32 32 When Body, Mind, and Emotions Hold Too Tight https://cptsdfoundation.org/2025/09/16/when-body-mind-and-emotions-hold-too-tight-2/ https://cptsdfoundation.org/2025/09/16/when-body-mind-and-emotions-hold-too-tight-2/#comments Tue, 16 Sep 2025 14:36:53 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=987501516

The Weight of Tension: bare with, this is quiet an extensive blog written to answer a couple of questions by some of my readers I have also added a video link to help you get a feel for this Nervous System Informed Approach to healing.

Before You Begin: As you read this, set a clear intention—to explore, to understand, and to bring awareness to the tension you may be carrying. This is not a substitute for medical or therapeutic care, but rather a resource to enhance and empower your healing, your choices, and the way you experience life. You are not meant to live in a state of perpetual urgency and chronic tension. As I know, tension became my way of being and the only way I knew how to be to a point that even releasing tension felt alarming.

A body locked in tension creates a life that feels tight, restricted, and urgent. Every decision becomes heavier, every interaction more serious, and even rest is tainted with an underlying sense of unease. Tension isn’t just a physical experience—it’s a nervous system state that shapes your perception of reality.

Chronic muscular tension is a signal, not just a symptom. It tells the story of how your nervous system has been responding to life—whether through bracing, guarding, or suppressing emotions. A tense body mirrors a mind that is on high alert, constantly scanning for danger, caught in loops of overthinking, or unable to let go fully.

The Neurobiology of Tension

The brain and body are in constant communication. When stress, fear, or unresolved emotions are present, the sympathetic nervous system (fight-or-flight) takes precedence, releasing cortisol and adrenaline to prepare for action. This creates a cycle of hyper-vigilance, where even moments of stillness feel like something to be endured rather than embraced.

The insula, a brain region responsible for interoception (our ability to sense internal sensations and states), becomes hypersensitive under prolonged stress, making us more aware of discomfort yet unable to break free from it. At the same time, the prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain responsible for rational thought and decision-making—can become hijacked by limbic system overactivity, making it harder to think clearly, regulate emotions, or feel at ease.

Tension, in this way, is not just a tight muscle—it’s a reflection of an overburdened nervous system.

To support rewiring our brains, it is important to remember how we are wired for movement. From birth, movement is not only essential for survival but also for the development of motor control, proprioception, and emotional regulation. As modern neuroscience continues to uncover, conscious, intentional movement is a key pillar in nervous system restoration—particularly for those recovering from chronic tension, trauma, and pain-related conditions.

One of the most compelling frameworks that explains how movement influences pain, nervous system regulation, and recovery is the Gate Control Theory of Pain, which highlights how sensory input from movement can override pain signals. This, coupled with research on mechanoreception, nociception, and joint stability, provides a strong foundation for understanding why yoga, somatic practices, and other movement-based therapies are highly recommended for trauma and nervous system healing.

If I may explore with you the biological mechanisms behind pain and movement, the role of the vagus nerve, and why movement-based interventions like yoga are an essential part of recovery.

The Gate Control Theory of Pain (Melzack & Wall, 1965) explains how pain perception is influenced by competing sensory inputs. It is based on the interplay between:

  • Nociception: The perception of pain (pain-specific nerve pathways).
  • Mechanoreception: The perception of movement, pressure, touch, and temperature.

Pain signals travel along small, slow-conducting nociceptor pathways, while non-painful sensory signals travel along larger, faster-conducting mechanoreceptor pathways. The “gate” in the spinal cord can be closed when the brain receives competing sensory information from movement, pressure, or proprioceptive feedback.

Why This Matters for Pain and Nervous System Dysregulation

When a joint is strained, immobile, or stuck in an abnormal position, the surrounding muscles become stiff and guarded, leading to pain, weakness, and altered movement patterns. This dysfunction creates a sensory imbalance, where:

  • Reduced normal sensations (mechanoreception) → Leaves more “space” for pain signals to dominate.
  • Pain pathways become sensitized → Leading to chronic pain syndromes and increased sympathetic nervous system activation.

Thus, engaging in movement—particularly movement that restores normal joint function and mechanoreception—can significantly reduce pain perception, downregulate the sympathetic nervous system, and restore the body’s ability to feel safe in motion.

Short-Term vs. Long-Term Approaches to Pain Regulation

  • Temporary fixes: Medications, passive massage, and other external interventions may provide relief but do not restore sensory balance.
  • Longer-lasting effects: Conscious, active movement (yoga, functional movement, somatic practices) restores normal joint mechanics, increases sensory feedback, and gradually reduces the dominance of pain pathways.

Yoga is one of the most researched movement-based interventions for nervous system regulation, pain relief, and emotional resilience. Studies show that yoga:

  • Activates the vagus nerve: Encourages parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) dominance, which helps counteract chronic stress and sympathetic overdrive.
  • Regulates pain perception: Increases mechanoreceptive input, reducing chronic pain sensitivity.
  • Promotes neuroplasticity: Helps the brain rewire old pain patterns by encouraging safe, rhythmic movement.
  • Enhances proprioception and interoception: Strengthens body awareness, helping individuals reconnect with sensations beyond pain.

Key Research Findings on Yoga and Pain Management

  1. Neuroimaging studies have shown that yoga can modulate pain perception by increasing grey matter density in brain regions associated with pain regulation (Villemure et al., 2013).
  2. Clinical trials on chronic pain conditions (such as fibromyalgia and low back pain) demonstrate that yoga significantly reduces pain intensity and improves function (Cramer et al., 2013).
  3. A 2021 systematic review found that yoga-based interventions improve vagal tone, reduce inflammation, and enhance stress resilience (Pascoe & Bauer, 2021).

Tension release techniques and movement are a core principle of nervous system restoration and trauma stress recovery. All too often, there is immense stored stress in our fascia, muscles, and organs. The nervous system thrives on rhythmic, coordinated movement, and research overwhelmingly supports that stagnation exacerbates dysregulation and pain. Incorporating movement-based interventions into a nervous system restoration protocol involves:

  1. Prioritizing movement that feels safe → Avoiding forceful stretching or over-exertion and instead focusing on slow, mindful movement.
  2. Engaging in whole-body movement → Strengthening neuromuscular coordination rather than isolating muscles.
  3. Restoring joint stability and function → Through exercises that enhance mechanoreception and reduce pain signaling.
  4. Tuning into interoception (body awareness) → Rebuilding a sense of safety within the body.

“Move often. Move well. Move with Your Breath, Move as a whole, integrated body.”

Intention as a Counterbalance to Emotionally Based Physical Tension

Just as tension shapes experience, intention has the power to reshape it. Intention is not simply wishful thinking; it is a deliberate and embodied choice to shift from unconscious reaction to conscious response. Neurobiologically, intention activates the medial prefrontal cortex, strengthening our ability to regulate emotions, override automatic stress patterns, and engage in mindful awareness.

Setting an intention before your movement practice —whether for ease, for presence, or for release—creates a new pathway for the nervous system to follow. It signals safety to the body, allowing tension to soften rather than escalate. This doesn’t mean forcefully relaxing or pushing through discomfort; rather, it means becoming aware of tension and the more subtle releases that arise with slow rhythmic movements while connecting with your breath and body as a whole with curiosity rather than resistance. Think about he difference between toned rather than tight, between suppleness rather than stiffness.

Releasing the Grip: Practical Steps

  1. Pause and Scan – Take a moment to scan your body. Where do you feel tightness? Is your breath shallow? Simply noticing without judgment creates space for change.
  2. Breathe with Depth – Slow, diaphragmatic breathing activates the vagus nerve, shifting the nervous system out of fight-or-flight and into a state of ease. Try inhaling for four counts, holding for four, and exhaling for six.
  3. Unclench the Jaw, Soften the Hands – Small shifts in the body can send signals of safety. When the body receives the message that it is safe, the mind follows. Titrate a little tension release at a timed pause to notice.
  4. Name the Emotion – If tension has built up due to unresolved emotion, name what you are feeling and even ask ‘how would it like you to be with it today?’. Studies show that labeling emotions reduces limbic system overactivity and promotes regulation.
  5. Move with Intention – Gentle movement, stretching, or shaking out tension resets stored activation in the body. Movement reminds the nervous system that it is not stuck.

Set an Intention now and enjoy this short practice: https://youtu.be/A_lTsmudnkU

The Path Forward

A life of tension is not inevitable. It is not your natural state, nor is it your burden to carry indefinitely. The body is meant to oscillate—to move between activity and rest, engagement and relaxation. Through intention, awareness, and small daily choices, you can shift from a state of dysregulation, characterized by gripping and reduced underlying signals, to a state of flow between all systems, including the lymphatic, by allowing bracing to give way to relaxation.

This is not about erasing tension, but about transforming your relationship with it. The more informed ways you listen, the less the body will need to shout. The more you allow, the less it will need to resist. And the more you bring intention to your experience, the more life will meet you with ease.

Photo by Terry Vlisidis on Unsplash

 

Guest Post Disclaimer: Any and all information shared in this guest blog post is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing in this blog post, nor any content on CPTSDfoundation.org, is a supplement for or supersedes the relationship and direction of your medical or mental health providers. Thoughts, ideas, or opinions expressed by the writer of this guest blog post do not necessarily reflect those of CPTSD Foundation. For more information, see our Privacy Policy and Full Disclaimer.

]]> https://cptsdfoundation.org/2025/09/16/when-body-mind-and-emotions-hold-too-tight-2/feed/ 1 Poets Lie, Bodies Don’t: Movement Journaling with Mindy Levine https://cptsdfoundation.org/2024/09/09/poets-lie-bodies-doesnt-movement-journaling-with-mindy-levine/ https://cptsdfoundation.org/2024/09/09/poets-lie-bodies-doesnt-movement-journaling-with-mindy-levine/#comments Mon, 09 Sep 2024 09:29:23 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=987498438 If “the moving finger writes, and having written, moves on,” as poet Omar Khayyam wrote, then I wonder if the moving body also writes in its own way. I think it must, for I see that trauma-informed yoga does exactly this. When we are not curious about the sensations in the body, we don’t know what we could know about the stories told there. Writing gives us what’s in our minds—very useful, but not everything. And sometimes a distraction, a refusal of part of our story.

Movement journalling is an experience of a relationship inside the body. I roll my shoulder and say, “This is my ‘Rice Krispies Pose’—Snap! Crackle! Pop!” I make light of this new language that I lack words for, although it has a name: interoception.

I consider Khayyam again. “Poets lie. This is important.” I feel something reliable in these words, but I don’t know what. Trauma-Informed Yoga (TIY) instructor Mindy Levine reacted.

“I wanted to stretch up, open arms, reading this,” she said.

Body-Brain Conversations: inside and outside your nervous system

“It sounds like your body’s response to my brain’s output,” I said.

“Yes…’Poets lie. This is important. I think when folks believe something as ‘truth,’ it’s without room to change perspective; it’s so limiting. I don’t think poetry or movement has a responsibility to truth. Neither reason nor logic are hinged on truth.”

This shocks me in several ways, and musical memory intercedes. “But what is truth? Is truth unchanging law? We both have truths—are mine the same as yours?” sang Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar. Andrew Lloyd Weber’s lyrics challenge the notion of One Truth.

I don’t like the idea that truth isn’t absolute reality, and for the same reason, I don’t like the notion of “moral relativism.” It sounds like anything can be justified if it serves personal convenience. I long for a standard. Mindy’s next remark helps.

“Am I Doing This Right?”

“Often, ‘truth’ gets connected with, ‘am I doing this right,’” she said. “It’s so…limiting.”

Biomechanics, one of her interests, would appear to be limiting, too, I think.

“My practice with yoga evolved into a fascination with biomechanics.” I look puzzled. “It’s laying the groundwork for personalizing yoga to the person, not the pose.”

Oh.  Trauma-informed yoga rejects the perfect pose and, with it, the power to declare whether a given body is “wrong.”  That judgment is about someone else’s body, from a brain that doesn’t inhabit it…and from an entitlement that doesn’t exist unless we, the students, give it away. The movement is the perfect expression of truth for the person making it.

Trauma-informed yoga finds power in the body that moves, not in the mind that judges nor the critic that watches. Authority belongs to the body and the ongoing conversation it has with its own brain. In a typical Western yoga class, authority rests outside the body-brain system you have and awards it to the critic who can’t feel the difference between pain and growth in your body. And who will tell you that “pain is your friend”—as my Aikido instructor remarked—and that the perfect pose is The Truth? Being the author of a good throw changes a reality, but it’s not “true.” It changes what is true.

Maybe truth must be relevant if it is to matter. That’s subjective, but “relevance” describes when that particular truth matters. Something could be true but inapplicable to your body.

What Does Your Body Want Now?

“What does your body want now?” Mindy remarked. “Stillness? If stillness isn’t comfortable, then movement. Movement’s purpose is to open more possibilities for movement. But it isn’t a reason for movement. It just is.”

“A body in motion wants to stay in motion,” I said. “A body at rest wants to stay at rest.” I chuckle. “Unless it’s like yours. You like motion.”

Mindy laughs. “It’s conversational. If a situation has left me doubtful or unsure, I explore balancing. If a situation has left me panicky, I lift weights.” She pauses. “That’s not advice.”  Even in this conversation, the subject-matter expert declines the authority to declare what I should do. I appreciate this. The approach applies to much more than yoga—it attacks the whole idea of entitlement, of authority delegated to someone else, or taken by someone else, over me or you. The root of trauma. The thing that brings us here.

An Invitation to the Dance: Biles, Ballet, and Basketball

“Dancers may be more interoceptively aware.” Mindy looks up a study. “Dancers are often expected to work while injured. It’s an ideal and a culture.” I frown. Lipizzaner horses dance, but if anyone ever tried to force these Spanish School horses perform (Lipizzaner Stallions | Videos | Viking Cruises (vikingrivercruises.com) injured, the persons responsible would be shunned, shamed, and prosecuted for animal cruelty.

“Gymnastics, too.” I think of Simone Biles, of her experience of “the twisties.” A gymnast who doesn’t know where she is in space, moving at the speed of Olympians, could kill herself landing badly. And yet the rage directed at Biles for daring to self-care, to assert her own authority over her own body, was astonishing, infuriating. People who don’t get off the couch felt entitled to attack her for failing to entertain them. Football players get carried off the field and fallen basketball players get huddled even by members of the other team. Horses get cared for. But not gymnasts?

The gymnastics audience doesn’t own, train, or even know Simone Biles. And that yoga instructor tapping your elbow into “position” may have injured you to get a perfect pose that will get broken in a moment’s move, and pain you for days.

I wince. I want to get happier. “Did you see that Chicago news story about the black cat who fell five stories and was video-recorded landing on its feet and walking away?”

“That’s interoception.”

“And the feline spine’s extra vertebrae.”

What Yoga is for: Ethical Living

“Yoga is about you,” Mindy said. “Yoga is not ‘to feel better.’ It’s not outcome-based. It’s about being in your own life, it’s about being in charge of yourself, it’s about being autonomous. It doesn’t mean bad things don’t happen to you. It means they don’t have to define how you think about your choices in the Now.” I consider this. The event may have removed a choice for me, but I don’t have to think of myself exclusively in the context of that event. Now it is history, and while it may change my choices, it doesn’t take away my ability to make choices. It’s not as if I have died. It’s acknowledging that I have changed, and the change is reflected in my current choices. How I look at my history—my judgment—my interpretation—it can change how I choose to apply the events and what I learned from those events.

“Trauma is what happens when autonomy is taken away,” I say, slowly.

Mindy nods. “Yoga is ethical living: not investing authority outside of your body, over your body.” Despite what happens.

Related Reading

Yoga and journalling: Svādhyāya, or the “Study of the Self” talks about how writing and yoga can mutually reinforce body-brain conversation. Especially good for those who feel compelled to write about yoga while doing yoga. (Did I do this? Yes. Yes I did.)

Moving the body moves the mind: the movements you choose in yoga can tell you something about how you’re changing. Citta vritti, the thought-eddies of your head, can be monitored, showing you how you and your thoughts are separate.

Photo by Florian Klauer on Unsplash

Guest Post Disclaimer: Any and all information shared in this guest blog post is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing in this blog post, nor any content on CPTSDfoundation.org, is a supplement for or supersedes the relationship and direction of your medical or mental health providers. Thoughts, ideas, or opinions expressed by the writer of this guest blog post do not necessarily reflect those of CPTSD Foundation. For more information, see our Privacy Policy and Full Disclaimer.

]]> https://cptsdfoundation.org/2024/09/09/poets-lie-bodies-doesnt-movement-journaling-with-mindy-levine/feed/ 1 Healing from Childhood Trauma – It’s An Inside Job https://cptsdfoundation.org/2023/09/22/healing-from-childhood-trauma-its-an-inside-job/ https://cptsdfoundation.org/2023/09/22/healing-from-childhood-trauma-its-an-inside-job/#comments Fri, 22 Sep 2023 09:24:26 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=249834 I enjoy reading the sayings on my meditation app. I’ve also enjoyed sharing some of them in various places on social media recently. Today, I found one that connected for me, immediately, but that I hadn’t heard in its current iteration before: “Nobody can bring you peace but yourself,” by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

As I read it, I realized I’d originally connected with this sentiment in Al-Anon meetings in relation to the phrase “It’s an inside job,” author unknown.

I was so taken with this way of thinking that I went on Chat GPT and asked for different ways of saying the same thing, and the AI came up with 12 versions. The one I liked best is “Peace is a journey you must take on your own.”  

My version is “Peace of mind is a journey you must take on your own.”

They’re all true, but I like that last one (even as a small voice inside wants to call me a traitor for looking at an AI’s interpretation for inspiration).

For those of us with histories of trauma, finding peace of mind isn’t easy. We tend to look everywhere for the solution, except inside ourselves. It feels scary to go there. But what I’ve found over the years is that inside is actually a very safe place. We think of it as scary because our memories of bad people and scary events live there too. But, the actual experiences were external, and they’re over. In the present moment, inside myself, I can find peace.

The secret is to be very present — to remember and ground into the current reality instead of allowing our minds to carry us away into the past. But our minds aren’t actually the enemy, either.

The real enemy at this point is fear. It’s fear that keeps us going over and over scary things from the past, like a scratched 45 rpm vinyl record (if you know what I’m talking about you’re likely older than 40).

Science now says that we humans have what’s called a negativity bias. We continue to replay past events in our minds because that negativity bias is designed to keep the memory fresh, so we don’t forget, so we’ll never let that happen to us ever again.

We tend to be very afraid of looking at this negativity bias, but really, the scary stuff was all external. We internalized it, thinking that somehow we were responsible, and somehow we needed to change, so they would change. That isn’t true. We’re not responsible for another person’s behavior, only our own.

The problem is that while this negativity bias was really important when humans lived in places where there were tigers in a cave around the corner or quicksand on that muddy forest path, it doesn’t work well for what we encountered as kids. First, the people involved are, or should be gone from our lives, and secondly, we’re only punishing ourselves by replaying these memories. They are not saving our lives.

There’s another saying I remember from somewhere too – “It’s okay to look back at the past. Just don’t stare.” It’s attributed to a journalist – Benjamin Dover. This, I think, is true wisdom. It’s important to recognize that these things happened, but to live our lives in fear of them happening now doesn’t serve us. It only keeps us locked in and afraid to open the windows of our hearts and minds to the magic that exists in the world, if we’re willing to trust in ourselves.

Change doesn’t happen outside. It IS an inside job. The hard work, then, is to recognize our own strengths, to believe that we’re enough, to know that we’re really okay and capable of our own internal change. Because, yes, change is needed, but mostly what needs changing is our perception of how we deserve to be treated, and what we decide to allow in our own lives.



For me, this journey forward was jump-started by the Al-Anon program and turbocharged when I started taking yoga classes.

Over the years both the 12 steps and yoga together have shaped my perceptions and strengthened my resolve and my healing skills. The wisdom of these two modalities, so different on the outside, are incredibly compatible and actually pretty similar when you start breaking down the concepts and comparing them. What 12-step programs offer is emotional and mental support. What yoga offers is mental and physical support. Taken together, the package is whole-istic (my word), which allows myself and others to find tools that help us cope with the past and thrive in the present. Yoga as therapy for trauma is better than medication for CPTSD, according to Dr. van der Kolk, and 12-step programs give us the foundation to build a new and better life.

My thought? Use EVERYTHING that works for you. Don’t stop. Rinse and repeat.

Celeste Mendelsohn
IAYT Certified Yoga Therapist

 

Guest Post Disclaimer: Any and all information shared in this guest blog post is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing in this blog post, nor any content on CPTSDfoundation.org, is a supplement for or supersedes the relationship and direction of your medical or mental health providers. Thoughts, ideas, or opinions expressed by the writer of this guest blog post do not necessarily reflect those of CPTSD Foundation. For more information, see our Privacy Policy and Full Disclaimer.

]]> https://cptsdfoundation.org/2023/09/22/healing-from-childhood-trauma-its-an-inside-job/feed/ 4 Trauma-Informed Yoga: Interoception (Our Felt Sense) https://cptsdfoundation.org/2022/09/07/trauma-informed-yoga-present-moment-choice-making-2/ https://cptsdfoundation.org/2022/09/07/trauma-informed-yoga-present-moment-choice-making-2/#respond Wed, 07 Sep 2022 12:53:11 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=244664 Many of us have a superpower survivor skill. We’re able to read the room, scope out the nearest exit, understand what the shuffling footstep means, and instantly react to that slight facial expression change others never notice. We become exteroceptive1 geniuses, a powerful tool that got us through 100% of our worst days.

All our energy was outward toward our relationships and what others may do. With trauma, the actions and behaviors of others set in motion what we needed to adapt to in order to survive. They weren’t accountable for the choices we didn’t get to make or the ways in which we turned off our inner world to try and make sense of our outer world (and within those relationships). We were staving off chaos and a deep sense of annihilation.

To keep ourselves alert in our environment, we learned how to turn off our inner sensations, what we call interoception.2 Feelings of hunger and thirst, noticing our heart rate and breath, as well as our emotions were not needed to survive. In fact, those inner sensations and emotions may have induced more relational trauma and we learned quickly to stop feeling those things. When moments became utterly intolerable, dissociation became another superpower. As Judith Herman writes in her book, Trauma & Recovery, “Dissociation appears to be the mechanism by which intense sensory and emotional experiences are disconnected from the social domain of language and memory, the internal mechanism by which terrorized people are silenced.”

Our inner landscape, the silenced part of ourselves, can feel like an emotional minefield exploding at unexplained moments. Sensing thirst or hungry can feel odd. Integrating and expressing anger or vulnerability can be an overwhelming task. And yet, living life without the opportunity to feel our existence is profoundly hard.

We deserve to feel the life we deserve to live.

With trauma-informed yoga, the invitation is to explore sensation within a safe relationship with the facilitator and those participating (which takes time). You’re welcome to choose how you’d like to move and perhaps your choice, supported by your body, can be felt. Maybe as you move your arm, there could possibly be some sensation around your shoulder. Your action of movement perhaps can be felt in your body. Sometimes this happens and sometimes you may not feel anything, or those feelings may feel intolerable. But moment by moment, your choices can disconfirm the automatic reflex to read the room, to place all your focus on the outside.

Perhaps new feedback loops of choice and sensation can offer you moments of presence, moments of feeling the here and now, inside. A quote from Alan Fogel’s book, Body Sense: The Science and Practice of Embodied Self Awareness, “Interoception is a way of monitoring ourselves so that we can ease the felt pain, expand the felt joy, and make sure that we get the resources needed in any given moment.”

With relational trauma, we need relational healing. With trauma-informed yoga, together we can each experience our own sensations in a shared, authentic experience. Yoga gives us the space to practice our practice, to disrupt the unknowing with the knowledge, with the potential of knowing.

In deep gratitude to all those who bravely share time and movement in this way.

Guest Post Disclaimer: Any and all information shared in this guest blog post is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing in this blog post, nor any content on CPTSDfoundation.org, is a supplement for or supersedes the relationship and direction of your medical or mental health providers. Thoughts, ideas, or opinions expressed by the writer of this guest blog do not necessarily reflect those of CPTSD Foundation. For more information, see our Privacy Policy and Full Disclaimer.

]]> https://cptsdfoundation.org/2022/09/07/trauma-informed-yoga-present-moment-choice-making-2/feed/ 0 Trauma-informed Yoga: Present Moment Choice Making https://cptsdfoundation.org/2022/08/03/trauma-informed-yoga-present-moment-choice-making/ https://cptsdfoundation.org/2022/08/03/trauma-informed-yoga-present-moment-choice-making/#respond Wed, 03 Aug 2022 10:46:02 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=243815 When facilitating trauma-informed yoga, a fundamental component of our time together will be the exploration of present moment choice making.

What is Present Moment Choice Making?

Life is lived in the present moment and then the new present moment and so on. It’s not a bullseye to hit and then you’re done with it, but rather a flow that attunes to your own rhythm. When we have survived trauma, our protective and survival adaptations can make it feel like our trauma is an ever-present past. It invades our moments in ways that are unique to our own experience, ranging from panic to dissociation and all the blends and flavors in between. It can make living in the present moment terrifying and painful.

We didn’t have a choice back then. Our only goal was to survive. We had to turn off choice-making (an emergent property of safety and connection). For example, if I was being chased by a bear, my whole system will turn towards one thing-survival. It doesn’t matter if I wanted to take that hike or if I was hungry or how I felt about friendships, politics, anything. And then perhaps every time I walk outside, my whole self is on alert, sensitive to any cue or clue that there is a bear nearby. I can feel like I’m always about to be chased by a bear. Being on alert for danger and threat, choices once again feel inaccessible.

There is a possibility of new feedback loops, the possibility of “creating autonomic pathways of safety and connection,”[1] meaning that I no longer feel like I’m always about to be chased by a bear. Perhaps trauma-informed yoga can invite moments to disconfirm the patterns of protection with patterns of connection. Moment by moment.

Part of what is baked into trauma-informed yoga is that we’re not alone. We’re doing this present moment thing together. It doesn’t mean the same, it means together. If I wanted to choreograph a yoga sequence and have the whole class perform it in ways that I think are correct, then I’m not offering a choice. I may offer some options but it’s within the aesthetic, performative container. I may feel like a bear to some people.

So what I offer is an invitation. And if you’d like, we can try it here.

As you’re ready, you’re welcome to maybe lift your arms. Maybe it’s forward and up or maybe it’s to the side. The pace and range of motion of how you’d like to lift your arms (if you’re lifting your arms) is totally up to you. And if we were together, you would see me exploring the lift of my arms, making a choice of how I’d like to lift them as well. Maybe it’s similar or maybe we’re moving in different ways. If it feels interesting to explore, there could be some sensation, some felt sense inside as you lift your arms. Maybe it’s around your shoulders or maybe somewhere else. There’s always space for not feeling anything or noticing anything. That’s totally okay. Or maybe there’s something that’s awakening that feels intolerable and you’d like to stop moving your arms. You’re welcome to stop and it could be for any reason. There’s no right or wrong in the way that you are choosing to move or not move in this moment.

As you’re moving your arms, maybe you notice your breath, your inhale and your exhale. If you’d like, you could experiment with your movement having some relationship to the rhythm of your breath, or maybe you’d like to move faster or slower than your breath. You’re welcome to engage with your movement choices, as feel useful to you at this moment.

And that was present moment choice making. If you gave that a try or read my words and imagined the movement, you may have noticed some of the questions living inside my words. What do I want to do in this moment? How would I like to move my arms? And as I’m making that choice for myself, can I feel that inside my body in some way?

Sustaining some curiosity about how you’d like to engage with trauma-informed movement is a way to embody (beyond language here) that there isn’t a bear at that moment. Perhaps those moments and those choices you deserve to make for yourself are ways to disconfirm that ever-present past.

Thank you for being willing to read this and perhaps try some movement.

[1] Dana, D., & Porges, S. W. (2018). The Polyvagal theory in therapy: Engaging the rhythm of regulation (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology) (Illustrated ed.). W. W. Norton & Company.

]]> https://cptsdfoundation.org/2022/08/03/trauma-informed-yoga-present-moment-choice-making/feed/ 0 What is Trauma-Informed Yoga? https://cptsdfoundation.org/2022/07/20/what-is-trauma-informed-yoga/ https://cptsdfoundation.org/2022/07/20/what-is-trauma-informed-yoga/#respond Wed, 20 Jul 2022 18:49:03 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=243650 “No intervention that takes power away from the survivor can possibly foster her recovery, no matter how much it appears to be in her immediate best interest.” Judith Herman

There may be a time when you reach out for the support and care you deserve. It could be by reaching out to a compassionate friend, a therapist, or to a peer in your community. At some point, they may say to you, “Maybe try yoga or mindfulness or meditation?” And then you enter a yoga class. You bravely harness the energy to put on some “yoga clothes” and walk into a yoga studio with varying degrees of stimuli (boutique of tight and expensive clothing, scents, promotions of class packs, communal changing room, etc).

I’m going to generalize here based on conversations I’ve had with people I work with and therapists I collaborate with and my own experience as a student and facilitator of yoga for over twenty years. This is not every class nor every teacher. But it happens and for those who have felt traumatized in a yoga class, your voice deserves to feel heard. To those who may read this and feel defensive or offended, I hear you also. I hope that we can gracefully lean into the discomfort together.

There isn’t a requirement when being certified by Yoga Alliance to become a yoga teacher to learn about trauma and how it’s held in our bodies. Nor is there any outside governing or regulatory body when receiving a yoga teacher certification.[1] This is important to note as many yoga teachers don’t know what they don’t know if it’s not being taught. Unfortunately, without regulation, many schools and lineages of yoga are caught in a cycle of coercion on one side of the spectrum and horrific abuse on the other end.[2]

The byproduct of this type of education in western yoga teacher training is a looping of information and teaching styles that have become what we very often encounter when we walk into a yoga studio. For some, that familiarity and predictability can be comforting and feels like a deep connection to a practice that serves them. For others, it can feel like something quite different.

Our nervous systems are built for survival. Our system is constantly surveilling each moment and letting us know if the moment is safe, dangerous, or life-threatening.  Below consciousness, our nervous system is taking in millions of bits of information from inside of us, from our environment, and from other nervous systems (person-to-person relationships). When we have endured trauma, our system can become highly sensitive to cues of danger. It’s how we survived. [3]

What is being offered in a yoga class? What are the cues?

There is an inherent power dynamic in a yoga class between a yoga teacher and a student. And when it comes to the subtlety of our mind-body-spirit connection, there is an added vulnerability to that dynamic. Someone can give me the pathway towards peace and zen? I will try anything, do anything because I’m in so much pain.

And then class begins. The yoga teacher usually stands in the front and then walks around the room. There’s a sequence of movement and breathwork. The teacher tells me/instructs me/commands the following:

  • When to breathe and breathwork practices
  • How to move and very specifically
  • How to stack my bones
  • Where to place my feet
  • Where to gaze
  • How to feel or what to do so I can feel a certain way
  • May offer beginner to advanced options making movement hierarchical
  • Use language that is commanding
  • Tell me I can’t drink water
  • Tell me to endure the pain
  • Lay still
  • Close my eyes

And so on and so on.

This scenario is another situation to adapt to and survive. This is another power dynamic in a relationship and an environment where I have no choice. I can please my teacher by doing the right thing or the safe thing (very often movement cues are cushioned with safety from injury, which is a myth).[4] I will have to turn off my internal sensations to endure and cooperate with the external guidelines. I’m good at it – it is my superpower – being able to read the room and figure out how to do what’s expected of me. Or maybe, in service of survival, I disappear and go on autopilot. Then there’s the silent aftermath of this minefield. The inner narrative of how even yoga can’t help me or that there’s something wrong with me and that yoga doesn’t work. I can’t breathe right or move right. Everyone is so flexible and coordinated and I’m clumsy and restless and on alert. Everyone can lay down with their eyes closed with the teacher is walking around the room and I’m about to have a panic attack.

What is trauma-informed yoga then?

As a trauma-informed yoga facilitator, it is vital for me to understand and learn about trauma. It’s crucial to understand my scope of practice and to have safety guardrails and boundaries. My presence is one of compassion while having the capacity to deeply listen without an agenda or the need to fix it. It’s important for me to understand my own nervous system so I don’t enter the space dysregulated because of that superpower mentioned above (others will be able to immediately and below consciousness may sense my nervous system state as unsafe in some way).

Trauma-informed yoga is about sharing power, safe relationship, and offering space for the possibility of present-moment choice-making. If I’m hyper-focused on technique, methodology, ideology, curating my brand, and so forth then I am (as Judith Herman writes) taking power away and fostering disempowerment rather than recovery through empowerment and agency. I have failed, not you.

“No intervention that takes power away from the survivor can possibly foster her recovery, no matter how much it appears to be in her immediate best interest.”

If this has resonated with you in any way, you’re not alone. There are other options and choices and ways to explore this practice. Thank you for taking the time to be here with me. I will continue writing and advocating for trauma-informed yoga spaces.

Mindy Levine facilitates the trauma-informed yoga program at the CPTSD Foundation. She is trained as a volunteer crisis counselor with Crisis Text Line as well as being a TCTSY-F (Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga Facilitator). She recently published an article about Utilizing Polyvagal Theory practices in trauma-informed spaces for the international journal, “Voices Against Torture.” More information about Mindy and her work and writing can be found at https://www.mindylevine.org/

References:

[1] Yoga Alliance (YA) as quoted on their website is the largest nonprofit association representing the yoga community (yoga schools register with YA and then yoga teachers can be certified by YA).YA also has a stance on government regulation and is against it, as stated on their website and last updated 6/8/2016.

[2] Highly recommend Matthew Remski’s book, “Practice and All is Coming: Abuse, Cult Dynamics, and healing in Yoga and Beyond.” I’m not advocating for regulation, only that you can’t be disbarred or have your license revoked like in other professions.

[3] Principles of Polyvagal Theory (neuroception), created by Dr. Stephen Porges

[4] According to well-researched principles of pain science, it is multifactorial: physical, psychological, and social factors. Therefore, claiming a certain movement as safe from pain/injury is trying to give two-dimensional answers to our complex three-dimensional selves. Oftentimes these cues used in yoga have no basis in science.

 

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