There is no one like Brene to explain the beauty in boundaries (and doing the hard work of exploring, establishing and maintaining them) so that we can be our most compassionate and generous selves.
Today I wanted to focus on a deep, dark secret of good therapy and thriving in your day to day life: creating space to let in the good, to take in positive experiences. This is a habit we can all work on developing no matter where we find ourselves in life. Let me explain the unfortunate facts first, then I’ll get to the good stuff: what we can do about it.
Difficulty breathing, heart pounding, chest pain, trembling, feeling like the walls are closing in… having panic attacks or high anxiety is the worst! One thing that I know for certain is that everyone finds relief for panic in different ways so I will offer a few ways that individuals I’ve worked with have found relief while in a moment of panic or high anxiety.
Recovering from PTSD and other trauma reactions is possible, and it it takes time, courage, compassion and patience. To understand how to heal trauma, we need to understand how it is stored in our body physiologically and how our brain works.
Many people don’t realize that even though someone may not immediately have symptoms after an upsetting event, these can come out of nowhere several years later and this can make the symptoms even more upsetting and confusing.
“Trauma” has become a word we throw around in our daily life and is generally understood to be a highly stressful event. Psychologically speaking, though, “trauma” is an upsetting event or stressor (often life threatening) that exceeds a person’s ability to cope with and is accompanied with feelings of helplessness or powerlessness. Given each individual’s combination of temperament, genetics and history, what may be traumatic for one individual may be within the ability for another to cope with, therefore trauma is based on the perception of each individual.
Your deepest hurts often occur in your most important relationships. This, too, is where healing happens: in relationship. That is why seeking a counselor who is well-suited to you and your story is so important: it is the basis of your healing journey.