A positive mindset can help you navigate the emotional and physical toll of chronic conditions, but staying optimistic is challenging. Somatic, or body-based, therapies can support you by building emotional resilience and encouraging the body's natural healing.
Stuck in Survival Mode
The autonomic nervous system is adept at keeping us safe using survival responses such as fight, flight, freeze, and fainting. But with trauma, the nervous system gets "stuck" in survival mode.
Trauma can be due to childhood physical abuse or emotional neglect, a car accident, infidelity, a chronic condition, or another devastating event. Unresolved trauma can later lead to disproportionate reactions to events, such as shrinking in your posture when a safe person raises their voice or panicking when your partner forgets to call you after work. In these situations, your nervous system is functioning perfectly, but it is misreading cues as potentially dangerous, based on past traumatic events.
Healing by Releasing Trauma
Research has demonstrated positive effects using Somatic Experiencing to treat patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and those who treat them, and also in reducing trauma experienced by toddlers following surgery.
State Shapes Your Story
Nervous system regulation is also an effective tool. This practice often focuses on the vagus nerve, which connects the brain to the heart, lungs, and digestive tract. Eighty percent of information on the vagus nerve travels from the body to the brain.
That body-to-brain communication helps explain why nervous system regulation can influence not only how we feel physically, but also the thoughts and stories our mind creates. In fact, the state of your autonomic nervous system shapes the story told by your mind. Thoughts in the "sympathetic state" lean toward angry or fearful, while in the immobilized state, thoughts often begin with "I can't."
Remaining positive can also be challenging due to the brain's negativity bias, which developed to help early humans quickly recognize dangers. That's why you remember rainy Saturdays and forget sunny ones, or notice the few times your partner isn't paying attention.
Negative thoughts can be especially intrusive at bedtime. One technique that can help is cognitive shuffling, where you visualize random scenarios: for example, playing with a dog, riding a merry-go-round, watching a sunset. Research suggests cognitive shuffling may improve sleep quality.
Growing Stronger Relationships
Body-based therapies can have even more profound effects on your relationships with others and with yourself. It's learning to sit with the discomfort, welcoming those feelings, and allowing yourself to be upset or sad.
Vooing into Safety
Somatic Experiencing founder Peter Levine, PhD, offers a simple exercise to help when you are stressed or feeling despair. Take a full breath. As you exhale, make the sound "voo" in a very deep tone, directing the vibration into your belly. Repeat this sound two more times. Then rest and notice the sensations, feelings, thoughts, and images.
By Shawn Radcliffe
Disclaimer: This article is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Somatic therapy and nervous system regulation practices are not a replacement for professional mental health treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional if you are experiencing trauma, chronic illness, or mental health challenges.
