The Profound Relationship between Our Physical and Emotional Health By Anna DuPree, BFA, LMT
There are specific methods of mindfulness that can allow the “stuck” experiences or emotions of trauma to move out of the body, allowing the nervous system to finally come out of fight, flight, or freeze mode.
70 www.sghealthandwellnessmagazine.com
I am sure you can remember a time in your childhood when you really did not want to do something. Maybe it was going to school, visiting Aunt Mabel, or doing something else that made you uncomfortable. Then, poof! Like magic, you had a stomachache, a headache, or an anxiety attack.
You may have been told that these symptoms were “all in our head.” However, scientific studies are finally catching up to what our bodies know intuitively. Recent Mayo Clinic research states that “poor emotional health can affect headaches, muscle pain, chest pain, fatigue, low libido, stomach upset, and sleep problems” (mayoclinic.org). Research is also catching up on the effects of trauma in the body. Trauma is defined as an intensely distressing or disturbing experience, which means our trauma is deeply individual. What is deeply distressing to one person may be a regular Tuesday to another. According to a study found in Good Therapy, emotional or physical trauma “pushes the activation of the nervous system beyond its ability to self-regulate” causing it to stay “on” (goodtherapy.org). Those that get stuck in trauma experience a whole range of negative
