Releasing trauma from your body after sexual trauma can lead to frustration and confusion, but there are simple ways to create room for more release. Shifting your mindset is a powerful step to discovering emotional, physical, and spiritual transformations that lead to feeling lighter, more energetic, and more at peace.
I invite you to join me in this post as we explore three gentle mindset shifts while you release trauma from your body so your practices are more impactful, effective, and enjoyable!
Six Ways To Release Sexual Trauma From Your Body
Before we explore mindset shifts, I welcome you to explore different ways you can release trauma. When you find something you enjoy, it’ll be much easier to return to, leading to long term progress.
Below are six ways to release trauma from your body:
Trauma-Informed Yoga: This is a gentle, mindful approach to teaching yoga that honors the lived experiences of trauma survivors, while incorporating nervous system regulation strategies. I invite you to learn more about this style of yoga here.
Somatic Practices: These include techniques like shaking, tapping, and self-holding exercises.
Breathwork: Deep, intentional breathing, like diaphragmatic breathing, calms your body and balances your nervous system.
Meditation & Visualization: You might explore guided meditations focused on safety, grounding, and body awareness.
Creative Expression: This includes writing, drawing, journaling, or movement to process emotions with a creative outlet.
Trauma Release Exercises (TRE®) – Developed by Dr. David Berceli, TRE® is a body-based practice designed to help release tension and stored trauma through shaking and other techniques.
These methods send signals to your nervous system that it’s safe enough to rest. This allows your body to complete the stress response and begin releasing tension from a dysregulated nervous system.
3 Mindset Shifts To Release Trauma From Your Body
Once you chose a modality to release trauma that speaks to you and feels good in your body, I invite you to make your practice even more effective with these mindset shifts that lead with softness.
I invite you to explore these mindset shifts to ease your way into your practices, knowing you can end at any time.
1. Compassion Goes a Long Way
All too often, we might find ourselves in judgment of the practice or even our own bodies. You might feel you should progress faster than you are, or that maybe you’re not meant for trauma release.
A gentle mindset shift to welcome release is becoming more compassionate and kind to ourselves. Just like any journey, we can’t expect to have immediate results on the first day and there will be setbacks and times we fall off the wagon.
This is totally okay.
I offer you a gentle reminder that there is no deadline to meet, no need to rush, and there is nothing wrong with you. Take all the time you need, and you might find that when you become gentle with yourself during practice, you’ll carry this into your daily life.
Here are a few affirmations you might add to practices to send yourself more compassion:
- I made time for myself today, and that is enough
- It’s okay to take my time.
- Even if today feels hard, I am still healing in ways I cannot see.
- I release pressure on myself and allow myself to simply be.
- I choose to allow my healing to unfold at its own pace
You also might choose to place your hands on your heart and send yourself compassion before each practice to set the stage for more kindness and self love.
2. Trusting the Process Creates Long Term Progress
I know how tempting it is to experience your first trauma release and chase the feeling every practice. This can lead to judgment later on because we may feel we failed if we don’t have the same results every class.
I welcome you to trust the process and know that when you give your body the right amount of rest and relaxation, it will naturally heal and release. I actually think it’s amazing how softening and relaxing (instead of hustling and pushing ourselves to the limit, like many messages for success) is how our bodies restore themselves.
The more we judge ourselves and cling to an outcome, the less our practices will be effective and the more we might blame others or ourselves. It truly is a complete surrender to the outcome. This practice of surrender is a key fundamental of yogic philosophy, known as Ishvara Pranidhana, one of the five niyamas.
Related Post: A Simple Guide To Yoga Philosophy: A Trauma-Informed Yoga Perspective
When you look at the long-term process, it won’t matter as much if you have a practice that felt dull or like nothing changed. I like to think of it as every practice works for us in the background, making changes we can’t notice immediately.
Instead of wondering how to recreate the exact practice that caused a trauma release, we can think of it more like the culmination of every practice leads to an eventual release.
3. Leading With Abundance Creates Endless Possibility
Abundance isn’t just a term meant for money. It can be used in every area of our lives. Whether it’s love, friendship, opportunities, and even healing, abundance is a mindset mentality that also focuses on release.
We release the need to reach an exact outcome in an exact amount of time. It also creates more room for more possibility.
An example of this is how we might think we have to choose between holistic healing or more traditional methods through healthcare and therapy. We might see entire articles about which is better.
An abundance mindset says, “Why not both?”
Why can’t we go to traditional therapy, explore art and music for healing, and also practice yoga?
We can apply this to our trauma release journey by switching our thinking of “Which one is best” to “How many seem like something I would enjoy?”
The more you explore what speaks to you instead of trying to find the one perfect thing, the more we open ourselves to progress and also enjoying the process.
Overview
Healing from trauma takes time, patience, and self compassion. I also invite you to explore support options to create a well-rounded care plan and ensure you’re getting the best treatment possible.
A consistent practice that welcomes gentle mindset shifts creates a supportive trauma release journey with more ease, grace, and kindness.
Ready for the next step?
If you’d like to put these mindset shifts to work right away, I invite you to join me in the Cozy Corner, a free trauma-informed yoga library and community focused on common symptoms and themes related to sexual trauma. You’ll explore somatic exercises, breathwork, grounding, meditations, and tension release. I invite you to join me inside!
