Wellbeing Improvement When You Have Trauma

Article contributed by Abigail Balkus, Wellness Expert

Wellbeing work, such as seeing a health coach, joining fitness/yoga classes, and speaking to a nutritionist, can seem like unnecessary life additions while you are dealing with the effects of trauma. However, our mental and physical health are connected, working together to keep us happy and healthy. Seeing a mental health specialist, such as a therapist or psychiatrist, might be your priority, but taking steps to improve your wellbeing alongside this psychological work can be helpful and encouraging.

Maybe you are currently in psychological treatment .. or you are on a waitlist for treatment, or even beginning to consider your treatment options. Desiring to improve your complete wellbeing is possible at any level of your trauma-healing process. Working with a Well-Me-Right expert can be an extremely useful addition to your healing journey. Wellness practices can be utilized to overcome trauma indirectly and directly. The aspects of the Wellness Wheel: intellectual, physical, social, spiritual, financial, emotional, environmental, and financial wellness; are all affected by the impacts of trauma. So what is so encouraging is that we can also power-up 🔥 all of these wellness aspects to help us fight the impacts of trauma that affect our daily lives! With severe trauma, much more than wellness work will likely be necessary to help you fully heal and feel and act your best, such as seeking psychological help. However, taking steps towards all-around wellness while venturing on your healing journey can ease the difficulties of trauma healing, and it is helpful to utilize a wellness expert that specializes in working with clients with such trauma.

Trauma-sensitive wellness coaching is, dare I say, essential to your proper healing. When experiencing daily effects of severe trauma, seeing a wellness expert without trauma-sensitive coaching is like going to an ayahuasca retreat that does not include an integration follow-up. Yes, the trip may have been mind-changing, but some oomph is needed for this mind-change to be positive and lasting. The same lesson applies here, severe trauma in the human body requires careful coaching or there is the possibility for the individual to be further hurt or relapse into old stress reactions. Let’s give one simple example: YOGA CLASSES. Who would have thought? Isn’t yoga supposed to be calming, relaxing, and healing? Why would I need trauma-sensitive yoga classes?

Okay.. having a specialized trauma-sensitive yoga teacher is not an absolute end-all be-all necessity. However, consideration of severe trauma during a yoga class can be make-or-break towards trauma healing. For example, yoga can include lots of hip-opening poses, yet the hips are one of the main areas where trauma is held. Individuals experiencing PTSD are likely to have very tight hips and/or experience emotional upheavals when practicing hip-opening poses in a yoga class. Having a trauma-sensitive yoga teacher not only can give you the proper space and support to process these upheavals, but they can better prepare your body, and thus your nervous system, to move into these impactful poses. I have a few friends with PTSD who have relayed negative yoga experiences due to heavy emotions arising and a lack of support during a class. Or, their experience was on the positive end due to receiving personalized yoga therapy as a part of their treatment. If you experience PTSD, it is important when working with any trained professional, to have a consideration for your sensitivities.

Receiving these special considerations does not mean that you have to stop going to your favorite yoga studio or pay big bucks for a specialized wellness program. If you are on a budget while navigating your healing journey, don’t worry, you can still receive the care that you deserve. In addition, your trauma experiences may be a sensitive subject and you are not looking to let the whole neighborhood know. Here are some tips to stay discrete and low budget💰🙈 when adding wellness practices to your healing journey.

Go to a “regular” yoga (or other wellness) class.

Options…

Let the teacher know that you carry severe trauma.

Be discrete and decline the physical adjustments offered.

Be discrete and say that you have a physical pain that does not allow you to do certain (triggering) poses.

Ask for advice from your psychologist/psychiatrist

It is important to let your doctor(s) know the other practices that you are pairing with your treatments, and they will often be able to offer advice for how to not trigger your trauma during these, or how to deal with triggers. Plus, it is possible that the doctor(s) will say that these practices are safe not to be triggering.

Take sessions with a newer trauma-sensitive wellness expert.

We tend to think that seeing a professional new to the coaching scene may be a bad idea and that they “do not know what they are doing”. However, upcoming experts are a great option to stay on budget while receiving quality service. Likely, these experts have the same training and learning experiences as more recognized coaches, and just need a warm-up in their coaching confidence. Additionally, if recently trained, these experts might have more up-to-date content, research, and technological knowledge from their education. Give a new expert a try, they are likely working very hard to make their coaching for clients as successful as possible.

Educate yourself.

While seeing a wellness professional opens a straight and secure healing route, there are many options for self-education. Self-education on wellness practices will open up unlimited interesting and introspective paths; which can be a fun adventure into new subjects, but possibly confusing as well. However, you know yourself best and whether or not the budget-friendly option of a meandering self-exploration process is right for you. If you decide to pursue your wellness journey with an expert, you can still self-educate yourself – overtime, you will likely see your personal wellness knowledge bank becoming expansive and deep🧐. Below are some domains where you can dip into the subjects of wellness.

Read books.

Listen to podcasts.

Follow social media accounts.

Find and attend community wellness workshops and events.

Make friends with like-minded, trustworthy people (maybe from the above⬆️ community workshops) & discuss wellness together!

Wellness Practices/Sessions That Directly Heal Trauma

Yoga Therapy          

Yoga therapy differs from traditional yoga classes by its personalized and targeting nature. Yoga therapists are more highly trained than general yoga teachers, with an added education in mental health issues. The yoga therapist will utilize conversational and body movement aspects in tandem to strategically aid your specific condition. Yoga therapy is a great up-and-coming wellness session for trauma healing. Well-Me-Right currently has a range of yoga therapist sessions available – have a good search through the options and see what therapists align with you personally, and book a discovery call (when possible).

Meditation

Meditation works in an opposite, yet parallel healing route to psychotherapy treatment. Psychotherapy treatment operates by “dredging up” trauma history to uncover and clearly process these events1. Meditation works to heal trauma in a “trickle-down” method by slowly digging deeper into specific brain regions and clearing out the muck. With consistent, long-term meditation practice, you will slowly find yourself becoming more calm and at-peace, but the exact areas of healing will not be clear. Guided meditation is recommended for beginners, as well as working with a meditation coach2.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness involves, you guessed it – being mindful. Filling our daily tasks with more mindfulness allows us to be more aware of what is happening inside of our bodies and minds. When we are aware of the cues from our body when we think a certain thought, feel a distinct emotion, or see a certain person or place, the connection between our mind and body becomes more clear. Clarity and distinguishment can greatly aid trauma recovery by not only making our daily experiences more meaningful and pleasurable, but by empowering us on our healing journey as we improve our understanding of ourselves. Increasing your daily mindfulness can be incredibly simple, and mindfulness coaches are also a valuable option.

Easy Daily Switches for Mindfulness

Don’t do ANYTHING else while you eat. Avoid watching, chatting, or listening to anything while eating. Be present and mindfully enjoy your meal.

Doing chores… do the chores. Same goes as above⬆️: when you are doing chores such as cleaning, folding laundry, washing dishes, do just that - slowly and carefully. When working out or enjoying nature. Same goes here too… do absolutely nothing else but the main action you are doing.

As you can see, multi-tasking is not a part of mindfulness. Doing only one thing at a time, especially our least favorite tasks, can seem boring and monotonous at first. However, over time, mindfulness will greet us with a fuller experience in which we almost feel like we are living longer because each day is so much more eventful and precious. Remember, before handheld technology, this was the normal occurrence for humans.

Self-Care  

Low self-esteem and a paired lack of self-care are often side-effects of experiencing severe trauma. Introducing self-compassion into our lives is an important step to overcome the lack of inherent worth that may have been ingrained into you through trauma. By adding self-care practices to your life, you can begin to heal the aching pieces of yourself that have throughout your life (or during traumatic periods), by yourself or others, missed out on being shown unconditional love. Improving your self-care can help increase your self-esteem and self-worth by demonstrating that you have the power and strength to heal. Plus, self-care activities are usually calming and joyful. Choosing your self-care plan involves reflecting on your interests and the activities that are comforting and fun for you. Read over this list of self-care examples and choose what matches your interests, brainstorming other personal options along the way.

Self-Cares Ideas

Take yourself on a date💃.

Do an activity alone that you have

been waiting to do with someone else.

Such as seeing a movie that you have been excited to see,

visiting a garden or park, seeing a band, or trying a new restaurant.

Don’t wait for someone else to show you the love that you deserve, treat yourself🫶.

Show love ❤️ to your body. This is not about getting fancy and expensive treatments in order to look good for others, but taking the time to give your body care and attention.

Give yourself a deep foot massage

Nourish your body with nutritious, filling meals.

Go to a yoga class.. especially yin or rejuvenative yoga.

Take a warm, lush shower🚿 and rub your muscles with lotion afterwards.

Take time to give yourself a facial. Buy or make a face mask and give your face a gentle massage throughout.  

Set boundaries 🙅. Time to release that people-pleasing tendency that has been burning you out. Reflect upon your friendships, relationships, and family connections. Has anyone consistently been crossing a boundary? Do they support you? Have you been communicating your boundaries? Do you separate from individuals when they do not respect your boundaries… or do you give them chance after chance? Now is the time to take a good look at your support circle and if they are really supporting you or dragging you down. In addition, you might see a personal problem with communicating your boundaries. Drawing boundaries communicates to others that you have self-respect and deserve (of course) to be treated right.

Become your most authentic self 🤩. In the process of pleasing people we can forget about supporting our own wants and needs. Deciding to heal is a great first step to start prioritizing yourself. During this time, it is wise to re-evaluate your lifestyle and if your daily activities align with your true self. Have you just been melding with the activities and interests of your current or past partners or friends? What makes you happy and is important to you? The options are endless. What educational topics do you want to delve deeper into? What sports are fun and exciting for you? What music puts a smile on your face? Every single day 24/7, even during work hours, can be enhanced with your passions and pursuits! Put yourself first by doing the things that bring you joy.

Thanks for reading! I hope that this article can help ease your concerns while navigating your trauma healing journey. If you felt that you related to specific topics in this article and would like further guidance from me, feel free to contact me and look into booking a session with me: a trauma-sensitive wellness expert and yoga teacher on Well-Me-Right. Good luck with the process! You got this!

About The Author

Abigail Balkus is a wellness expert with over five years of career experience in this field.

She has a bachelors in psychology, with a minor in health and wellness, a masters in health and social psychology, and she is a yoga teacher certified.

She follows her own teachings "practicing what I preach", as she follows the yogi lifestyle and an overall healthful, wellness lifestyle that she has learned throughout her studies.

She has experience with a broad range of backgrounds, such as individuals in all ranges of socio-economic statuses and with a variety of minority statuses.

References

Young, S. (2016). The science of enlightenment: How Meditation Works. Sounds True.

Moral, A. (2017). Guided Meditation:A Regimen for Mental Health. Indian Journal Of Health And Wellbeing, 8(2), 180-182. Retrieved from https://www.i-scholar.in/index.php/ijhw/article/view/147220