Yoga and Trauma.
In Overcoming Trauma through Yoga, Bessel A. van der Kolk, MD explains that, “Trauma may result from overwhelming or violent physical experiences, or from difficult psychological and emotional experiences. Its impact may be sudden and dramatic - or the result of gradual and unrelenting violations of our very sense of self.”
In studies, it has been found that trauma is stored in the body. There are many books that explain the physical effects, and many books on how to release stored trauma. Some people may experience a traumatic event and not label it or recognize it in such a way, and at the same time not understand that the body’s physical reactions are in response to the event. Trauma can create a mind, body disconnect further exacerbating the lack of awareness of the relatedness between the traumatic event and the subsequent physical effects. There may be some in life unfortunate enough to experience more than one traumatic event, compounding the body’s physical reaction, and creating a greater need for awareness behind nervous system arousal - and how to alleviate and reset this arousal on an ongoing basis. Take, for example, a trauma survivor of childhood abuse who later in life suffers from the experience of a tragic or horrific car accident. Or there may be instances for some who experience triggering of original traumatic events that also lead to the need to reset the arousal on a consistent basis.
van der Kolk goes on to explain that, “We now recognize that trauma plays out its debilitating course in the body. In trauma, the body’s alarm systems turn on and then never quite turn off. … We cannot sleep. Our trust in the rightness of things is destroyed. … The body becomes a kind of alien force. We perceive it as unknown, unpredictable, unreliable, even ‘the enemy’.”
If you have experienced trauma, it might be helpful to read more about this in van der Kolk’s book, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. In it he touches on the subject of yoga and what it does for the body suffering from the effects of trauma. Alternatively, he writes the introduction to Overcoming Trauma through Yoga, by David Emerson and Elizabeth Hopper, in which the topic is also discussed. Nervous system arousal and trauma reactions can be managed through understanding the cause and effects, and through finding new habits and ways to live.
In draft.