Mindfulness and Trauma

All human beings have a tendency to relive trauma even decades after it has ended. Those living with the effects of complex post-traumatic stress disorder tend to ruminate and live their lives in a morass of flashbacks and pain.

Mindfulness is an ability that is vital to helping a person heal from traumatic events of the past. It is the ability for a person to be fully present and not overly reactive to what’s going on around us. All humans possess mindfulness. It is not something that needs to be learned. We just need to learn to use it. Yet, while mindfulness is inborn it must be cultivated through the motions of sitting, walking, moving and standing in a meditative and purposeful way. When we practice mindfulness, we can reduce stress, gain insight and awareness, and increase our attention to our well-being.

When we are living in the present moment, our flashbacks are back where they belong, in the past. The past fades, but doesn’t go away, because the mind stays in the now and focuses on where one is and how one is feeling at that moment. The exercise of mindfulness is to concentrate on the sensations of the senses in the now, while simultaneously not allowing memories or emotions from the trauma-time to have free rein.

Instead of causing the survivor to forget or push troublesome thoughts away, mindfulness can bring them out of the past when you are ready and into the present moment to be dealt with. Instead of forgetting what happened in the past, survivors through using mindfulness can instead change the dialogue of what they are saying to themselves internally. Thus, the critic within learns through mindfulness to acknowledge it is okay to make mistakes, but reliving and living within them is not.

Mindfulness helps to connect the dots within the mind, allowing us to see ourselves through the lens of reality that we are lovable and deserve to be loved for who we are. It is much easier to care for oneself when one has a loving relationship with ourselves.