How yoga can help us heal from past trauma

Ajay0 · Jun 23, 2022

Insightful article on how yoga can help us heal from past trauma.

How yoga can help us heal from past trauma

Talking and knowing what happened and being able to articulate it (psychotherapy and other such remedies) is an essential part of treatment, but the more important aspect is getting us back in our bodies. It is in this context that a mind-body approach can help us heal from trauma more effectively. And yoga is one of the better tools that can do the trick.

Bessel van der Kolk says triggers make us uptight and frightened about what we’re feeling inside. "When you slow down your breathing with yoga, you can increase your heart rate variability, decreasing stress."

Yoga has great relevance here, because it goes directly to sensing and befriending the body. "You become comfortable in your own skin. Yoga opens you up to feeling every aspect of your body’s sensations. It’s a gentle, safe way for people to befriend their bodies, where the trauma of the past is stored," he says.

Bessel van der Kolk says studies have shown that after regular yoga, the areas of the brain involving self-awareness get activated, and those are the areas that get locked out by trauma and that are needed in order to heal it.

He says mainstream medicine and psychiatry aren’t aware of the full potential of yoga for the treatment of trauma.

"Doing yoga in groups may activate the mirror neuron system of the brain, which is a system damaged by trauma. So, practising yoga and meditation in groups might give people a deeper sense of belonging," he says.
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JonJRR88 · Oct 18, 2022

Hatha Yoga is certainly calming. The US NIH has actually confirmed it has scientifically proven medical benefits in the area of stress reduction. So, you know, that is all good.

But really, it should be accompanied by therapy.

The person really should be assessed for PTSD. If someone has PTSD, the therapies for that, definitely include meditation and Hatha Yoga. But work is also needed, directly, on re-wiring the brain, working on the amygdala, etc.

General PTSD article from the Mayo Clinic:

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - Symptoms and causes

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