How Meditation Can Help Manage Symptoms of Trauma

Meditation offers practitioners powerful benefits, yet many people are confused as to what exactly those benefits are. In a nutshell, meditation focuses attention in a deliberate manner, taking you from a state of noisy mental chatter to calm and quiet inner peace. And isn’t that something most of us could use?

While meditation has been practiced for thousands of years in the east and – more recently – west as a way to grow spiritually, modern medicine is now finally extolling the numerous health benefits that meditation offers.

Meditation has the ability to reduce stress hormones by calming the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems. These systems are what activate our main panic responses (“fight,” “flight,” “freeze,” or “friend”) to stressful situations. Because of this, meditation can be a wonderful coping strategy for those suffering with trauma.

Is Meditation Better than Medication

Historically, people battling post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been given medication to help alleviate unwanted and unpleasant symptoms. But a new study has found that regular practice of meditation enables some active duty service members battling PTSD to reduce, or even eliminate their need of psychotropic medications and to better control their often-debilitating symptoms.

This is great news for service men and women, and anyone who is battling PTSD. Not only can meditation help to calm your nerves and rewire your brain, it can also reduce the risk of developing negative side effects to many psychotropic medications used to treat PTSD and anxiety disorders. Beyond memory loss and erectile dysfunction, one of the biggest side effects of these medications is depression. That’s the last thing a person suffering from PTSD needs.

How to Begin a Meditation Practice

If you are suffering from the effects of trauma and would like to try meditation, here are some steps you can take to get started:

Find a Group Practice

If you’re completely new to meditation, you may want to join a group meditation course that meets every week. You can usually find groups in your local area through online communities such as Meetup.com.

Be Open Minded

Meditation has long been associated with new age movements. But you would be amazed at the different kinds of people that now practice meditation. If you tend to be a skeptical person, try to have an open mind as you begin your practice.

Be Patient

It’s called a practice for a reason. You won’t “get” meditation overnight. You’ll have to keep at it before it becomes natural for you and you really reap the benefits. Try to have patience and just keep at it.

If you or a loved one are suffering from trauma symptoms and would like to speak with someone who can help, please get in touch with us. We would be happy to discuss the treatment options that would work best for you.

Sources:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201601/meditation-reduces-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-symptoms

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201306/how-does-meditation-reduce-anxiety-neural-level

https://psychcentral.com/news/2018/01/13/transcendental-meditation-shown-to-ease-veterans-ptsd/131167.html

How to Stay Focused in Order to Achieve Peace of Mind

If you’ve been struggling with anxiety, stress, or depression then the phrase “peace of mind” might sound like something from a fairytale.  But I can assure you that “peace of mind” really does exist. And not only that, it’s something that you can accomplish in your own life. Some people mistakenly believe that peace of mind is something that you only experience when things in your life are trouble-free, but that’s not true.

Peace of mind and focus go hand-in-hand. Therefore, when you learn how to stay focused and gain control of your thoughts, you are able to experience peace of mind. If you lack the ability to focus, it’s difficult to experience peace.  The more you develop this habit, the easier it will be to live in a state of constant peace.

What is peace of mind?

If you look up the phrase “peace of mind” on the Merriam Webster website it defines it as, “a feeling of being safe or protected”. However, I believe that the British definition found on collinsdictionary.com is more accurate, “the absence of worry”. It’s achieving a calm state of mind regardless of your situation and circumstances.

The most important step to achieving peace is to acknowledge the fact that you have control over your mind, including your thoughts and how you respond to others. If you refuse to take responsibility for your reactions to others than you will never live in peace. However, when you accept that you are in control of how you respond to people and situations you can begin to make progress in this area instead of living controlled by things that are happening around you.

Here are 7 tips to help you stay focused in order to experience peace of mind.

1. Learn to practice mindfulness meditation

If you have been leery of trying meditation because you aren’t “spiritual” then you should know that scientific studies are being conducted that back the benefits of meditation. One such example is the Cognitive Aging and Long-Term Maintenance of Attentional Improvements Following Meditation Training, published in the Journal of Cognitive Enhancement which states, “The present study is the first to offer evidence that intensive and continued meditation practice is associated with enduring improvements in sustained attention and response inhibition, with the potential to alter longitudinal trajectories of cognitive change across the lifespan.”

That’s fancy wording for basically saying that the study was promising in showing that doing meditation helps to improve your brain’s ability to focus now and in the future. While some people use meditation for spiritual purposes it doesn’t have to be used that way. The physical and emotional benefits are something that anyone can benefit from.

Mindfulness meditation teaches you how to be present in the moment. This allows you to push out the worrying and nagging thoughts that creep into your mind. It helps you take control of anxiety and stress. This allows you to experience peace even if things in life aren’t perfect. And, the physical benefits are numerous. You can read more about the benefits of mediation in my blog post How Practicing Mindfulness Can Change Your Life.

2. Limit your use of social media

There are things that are good about social media, but there are also lots of studies that show the ways that it can be harmful to the mental health of its users. The use of social media tends to cause us to compare the good, the bad, and the ugly of our lives with the highlight reel that friends and family are sharing. The messy parts of your life are never going to compare with the highlights that other people are sharing. Therefore, if you are struggling with peace and constantly find yourself comparing yourself to others on social media it can be best to stay off the platforms.

Social media is also a distraction. It feeds our FOMO (fear of missing out) craving. With access to social media on our phones, it’s easy to be tempted into stopping what you are trying to work on or think about in order to “check” what’s going on with friends and family.

3. Let go of the past

Getting hung up on the things that have happened in the past make it difficult to stay focused on the present and the future. Focusing our attention on things that we cannot change makes it difficult to maintain peace of mind. If there is something from the past that you can correct, then do it. Otherwise, it’s time to forgive others, forgive yourself, and move on.

4. Believe the best in others

It is much easier to maintain peace of mind when you let things roll off your back. If often see the actions of others as a personal insult or assault, you will remain in a constant state of frustration. Your thoughts will feel out of control and you will quickly lose your peace. However, if you focus on believing the best in others you are shifting your thoughts which will make finding peace much easier.

5. Choose your battles carefully

If you make it your personal mission to correct everyone that is doing something you don’t agree with you are going to live in a constant state of strife. And, it will be near impossible to keep your mind focused on what you want to focus on. Just like parents are taught to choose their battles with their children, you want to do the same thing with the people and situations you face daily.

For example, you might not agree with a conversation that is happening between your coworker and your boss, but if you are not part of the conversation it’s best to stay out of it. If you choose to involve yourself you could be putting yourself in a position of choosing sides, putting your job at risk, and adding stress that you don’t want in your life.

6. Make time to journal

Journaling is a great way to release those thoughts that are bogging down your mind. You can write out your stresses and worries and then once they are out of your head, release them altogether. Some people like to rip up or burn the paper as a symbolic way of showing that they are letting go of those thoughts.

Journaling also helps you to process through situations and see things in a different light. Take the time to write about your day, learn from it, and move on from it.

7. Incorporate times of silence and solitude into your schedule

Constantly being in the hustle and bustle of life is a sure-fire way to lose peace of mind and focus. This doesn’t mean that you should avoid people at all costs, however, taking time to get away from everyone else and be in total silence can help you to reconnect with yourself. If you find that you have lost all peace, you might need to take a solitude retreat. You could get away for a weekend alone or simply an afternoon. Find a quiet place to retreat to. Allow yourself to think about the thoughts that have been rolling around in your head. Then, decide how to deal with those thoughts. Allow yourself to recharge during this time.

Sometimes it can be difficult to realize what we are thinking and how those thoughts are impacting us. If you are struggling to obtain peace of mind you could benefit from a conversation with a local therapist. They know the right questions to ask to help you get to the root of your struggle. Then, they can provide you with actionable steps to help you find and live in peace.

How Practicing Mindfulness Can Change Your Life

“Mindfulness” is a word that’s gotten a lot of attention lately. It sounds good, it’s usually accompanied by calming images that look very appealing, and most of us accept on principle that mindfulness must be a good thing. If you have a sense that mindfulness is something that you need more of—but you’re a little sheepish to admit that you’re not entirely sure exactly what it is—don’t worry. You are so not alone.

You may have heard of mindfulness in the context of some other concepts – yoga, meditation, therapeutic strategies, and relaxation skills—and that’s because mindfulness really does have a place in a variety of different approaches to stress management, focus, and wellness. At its most basic level, mindfulness is a self-chosen, self-directed way of thinking that allows us to disengage from stressors that seem all-consuming.

Yes, mindfulness is a wonderful thing!  Let’s take a moment to reflect on what mindfulness really means – and also what it isn’t—and then consider how incorporating a practice of mindfulness into our lives can be a really powerful and pragmatic life tool.

The best way to understand mindfulness is to break the word down into its component parts. The word mindful is literally a combination of the words “mind” and “full”. To be “mindful” is to deliberately pay attention to or fill one’s mind with a specific point of focus. That’s why mindfulness meditations always have some point or object . . . the breath, a mantra or phrase, an image, a particular part of the body, etc. When we engage in mindfulness practices, we deliberately and purposefully fill our mind with one point of focus.

Just as we can focus our attention on anything, we can also fill our minds with anything we choose. Mindfulness is a kind of exercise in focus. Mindfulness is different than focus in the sense that the point of focus has been identified expressly for the purpose of creating relaxation, stillness, soothing, and calm.

Often, we become hyper focused on a stressor or problem. It might seem as if—and you might have yourself saying to another person—“I just can’t stop thinking about ______!” This can feel very true when we’re preoccupied or overwhelmed.

And to some degree, this is true: we’re not wired to stop thinking in general, let alone about something stressful. If we could stop thinking, something would be terribly wrong. Our brains are designed to think. A much more practical and viable alternative to stopping thinking about something stressful is to engage in mindfulness, or the deliberate practice of focusing our attention on one thing so that it does not become engaged by another (the stressor).

Here’s an example of how mindfulness works when it comes to “stopping thinking” about something stressful or upsetting:

Let’s pretend you “can’t stop thinking” about something someone at work said to you during a meeting. You feel hurt and disregarded, and it seems like you can’t stop replaying the whole thing in your head over and over, and getting upset all over again.

The replay of this stressor has a number of elements. One is the visual memory: the setting, who was there, etc. Another element is words . . . the words that the person said and maybe what you said in response (or didn’t say but wish you had). Your “mind is full” of the images and words that make up this event.

Minds are a little bit like record players . . . they can only play one track at a time. Similarly, you can only replay one set of words and images at a time. If you mindfully focus (fill your mind) on a neutral or soothing phrase (that you read, verbally repeat, or write), you literally cannot focus on the words of the stressful conversation. It doesn’t matter if the phrase is a bible verse, a nursery rhyme, a Sanskrit mantra, or a Clint Eastwood movie line … your mind will not be able to play those words and the words from the upsetting event. If you deliberately work to mentally picture a relaxing beach or patio, or focus on an actual picture, you cannot simultaneously picture the conference table from the meeting at the same time. Mindfulness is the deliberate activity of filling one’s mind with pleasant, soothing, or neutral sensory input so that no room exists to be filled by the most recent stressor.

If there is a tricky part of mindfulness, it’s deciding to do it. There’s a part of us that—no matter how much we may say we want to stop thinking about the stressor—doesn’t in fact want to stop. Most of us get a slightly addictive and of course completely false sense of control by hyper focusing on a problem, even though doing so makes us miserable.

Try it. Next time you find yourself obsessing about an unpleasant interaction you had with someone, just pause and start saying the word “sunshine” to yourself out loud, while picturing a sun-drenched landscape. This is mindfully focusing on sunshine. And there will be no room for any distressing thoughts.

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