FIERCE SADNESS How to shift from freeze to activation

Imagine an organism with eyes and ears and tentacles that reach out into the environment to be constantly monitoring for safety and for danger. Imagine that organism also has features that monitor its internal environment to ensure that it, too, is functioning properly. We are that organism. Our body’s biology includes a system that is always present and attentive to what is going on in and around us. This system, called neuroception, is the automatic, autonomic perception of our world on a deeply subconscious level to ensure our safety at all times. Our organism’s main goal is to survive. Neuroception is our nervous system’s answer to that need.

For many of us, the presence of this feature of our nervous system hides beneath our radar because we have been blessed to live in places where our needs are taken care of and our safety is not at risk. But maybe, once upon a time, in our past we did have some threat to our sense of survival. Maybe we lived in a situation where we were placed at risk on a daily basis through the condition of emotional or physical abuse.

Take, for example, a child growing up in an emotionally abusive environment. Maybe one parent is an alcoholic. Maybe they have a parent who suffers from mental illness. Maybe the other parent is absent or perhaps they just don’t know how to handle the situation for themself. This child might live in this condition for years, or even for over a decade. Consider the people of the Ukraine. One day living their lives in ways similar to you and I, and the next day their survival is threatened by tanks and bombs and a military presence.

Even just living one day in these kinds of terrors is dramatically disabling, but most forms of abuse or war don’t just take place in one day, they take place over a period of time. The nervous system becomes habituated, patterned to the situation in order to do its job of survival. That pattern might become one of total terror at the slightest noise or the nuance of a facial expression. That kind of daily terror can become a ‘Monopoly Moment’ for the system: go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200. Even though the circumstances have changed and, perhaps, the threat is no longer present, the nervous system is stuck in that state of frozen paralysis. The only safe choice is to turn inward to the feeling of dorsal vagal incapacitation.

Yoga Therapy and Somatic Therapy and Education can provide gentle care to help the nervous system prepare to release these habits once the person is safely out of the offending situation. These therapies can provide a great set of tools to help mitigate the longer term effects that will likely be lingering for some time after the situation has been resolved. And they can help a person to rehabilitate themself and re-pattern their thinking and the response of their body to non-threatening circumstances that remind them of the original trauma.

When someone has suffered serious and long-term or life-threatening traumas, it is of critical importance that they be removed from the situation. But once safety is assured, power and courage can be developed. With the help of a qualified and experienced therapist, through body sensation, movement, breath, and other tools, support can be offered that allows health to be restored. Getting to this kind of help and support quickly is vital. We don’t want the nervous system to remain in this state for prolonged periods.

Here are a few simple tips that anyone can employ to start the healing process from stress, trauma, or PTSD. These steps can be amplified with the help of a sensitive and qualified practitioner, but even a little self-care can offer ample rewards.

Try these tips if you find yourself stuck in a state that you have found causing you to become tight, brittle, frozen, unable to act, or experiencing a loss of motivation. If you receive a benefit from these, you may be able to shift yourself enough to get up and out and into a better place - like a walk around the block or in nature. If you feel that you need more support than this, it might benefit you to reach out to a qualified Somatic Therapist, or a Yoga Therapist, or a Mental Health Practitioner. No one should have to suffer for undue time from things that happened in their past. There are ways to find balance when you are ready. Try these tips to get yourself ready.

Notice the feeling of frozen in your body. Where do you hold that feeling? What does frozen feel like to you?

Allow yourself to sit with the feeling (which you probably already are unconsciously), but become 100% present to it. See how much of your attention you can give to this feeling of “frozen” (or however you would describe it to yourself). Notice how you do describe it to yourself.
Breathe into that part of your body where the feeling is living. Breathe out of that part of the body where the feeling is living. Breathe in and out of the body with 100% of your attention and be gentle.
Now, ask your body (really yourself) what would you like to do? What do you want to do with this feeling right now? And then wait. Let the answer come. Don’t rush it. Sometimes it will come instantaneously, like that part of you was just waiting to be asked. Sometimes it will feel like you are not sure who you are talking to and you might doubt that an answer will come. Trust. Breathe. Ask. Be gentle. Be patient.
Once the answer comes, you might find that you can’t sit still any longer and you are ripe and ready to take action. If that is the case, then you may have quickly achieved the shift you desire. If not,…
Ask another question: Am I ready to take action on this? Am I ready to create a plan for action?

If you need help following these steps, reach out to me or to someone you trust. If you need something more than this, there is help that you can find. If you cannot find someone near you, most therapists are now quite capable of working remotely, so make that call or send that email. Now is always the right moment to take the steps to save your own life.

Madelana FerraraApril 13, 2022