Listening… to your nervous system
Trauma in childhood can impact development in many ways. One of those ways is the ability to recognize the cues the body gives us.
Think about it…
How do you know you’re hot or cold? That you’re hungry? That you need to drink some water? There isn’t a big bell that goes off over your head, or cue cards that someone hands you - you just notice it!
If a child is not paid attention to, they don’t have a chance to connect the dots that feeling tired could mean not just that they need sleep, but maybe they need to drink some water, eat some food, or get out of the heat - because their caregivers didn’t respond to those cues either.
Let’s also think about feeling upset. If every time a child started to get upset, they were scolded, ignored, or worse, they would of course learn to suppress or ignore those signals in themselves. And then, we have a person who doesn’t realize they’re upset until they’re PISSED, and maybe taking it out on everyone else.
If this sounds like you - not noticing you’re upset till it’s too late - this message is for you…
Notice!
Taking the time to slow down and notice your body will slowly allow you to handle feeling uncomfortable.
Starting with just 10 deep breaths a day can build that ‘tolerance’, and recognition of what’s going on.
Then in therapy, you will build more tools and tricks to increase that time and intensity that you can handle feeling upset without totally flooding your system!
Once you start tolerating that discomfort, you can ask yourself what the signals in your body are telling you. Test it out …
Drink some water and have a snack and see if that brain fog lifts.
Get some more sleep and see if you feel less annoyed and convinced everyone else is the dumbest person you’ve ever met.
Wear the proper clothing for the temperature and see if you feel calmer and you can think clearly.
It’s amazing what our body can tell us, if we just listen.