02.
Healing Trauma through Meditation

Mindfulness meditation is a powerful and effective tool that can help individuals regulate their emotions and cope with stress. It is a practice that involves focusing one's attention on the present moment, without judgment, and can be used cultivate a sense of calm, peace, and balance in one's life. According to Mayo Clinic, meditation can help individuals learn to stay centered and maintain inner peace, which is particularly important in today's fast-paced world. Guided imagery can be used to overcome over-arousal and soothe the mind and body. By triggering the parasympathetic nervous system, guided imagery can help individuals relax and find inner peace. For those looking to improve their emotional well-being and overall health, mindfulness meditation and guided imagery are certainly worth exploring.

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Some of the clinical benefits of meditation are:

• Stabilizing your attentional focus

• Calming and regulating the nervous system

• Defusing (dis-identifying) from automatic thoughts, feelings, moods and beliefs

• Increased freedom from reactivity.

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Ways Meditation can improve your life:

1. Stress Reduction

The ongoing stress of PTSD can lead to an increase in a stress hormone called cortisol. High cortisol levels, in turn, can result in added issues. Common problems include high blood pressure, fatigue, sleep problems, anxiety, and depression. Meditation has been found to interrupt this cycle. Generally, less stress leads to less cortisol which produces fewer negative outcomes.

2. Changes to Your Brain

PTSD symptoms can intensify due to your brain being unable to regulate emotions and memory. Mindfulness directly addressed these patterns. To get a little technical, mindfulness engages the hippocampus rather than the amygdala. This can effectively reverse the brain dysfunction that is the engine behind many trauma-related symptoms.

To put it more simply, mindful meditation can help get you “unstuck.” PTSD can keep you mired in a feedback loop of negative thinking. As an answer to the distress and lack of control you feel, meditation soothes and counters with acceptance and a more objective perspective.

3. Increases in Positive Emotions

Practitioners of meditation usually have fewer negative emotions. They are more likely to display a higher positive self-image than those who do not meditate. This is essential when working in the realm of trauma recovery.

4. Enhanced Sleep

PTSD is often an enemy of healthy sleep patterns. In particular, a hallmark post-trauma sign is nightmares. Meditation helps you control the kind of runaway thought patterns that can increase the likelihood of insomnia and/or nightmares.

5. Anxiety Control

PTSD usually leads to a state of hyper-vigilance. Your fight-or-flight response is stuck in the “on” position. This ramps up your anxiety levels. Mindful meditation directly counters this unpleasant cycle by lowering anxiety levels and cultivating self-awareness.

6. Self-Awareness

Negative thoughts can often hinder trauma recovery. However, practicing mindful meditation can help increase self-awareness and break these unproductive thinking patterns. By becoming less susceptible to triggers, you can become more open to psychotherapy and continue on your path to healing.