If you’re currently experiencing chronic pain, it can feel like you’re constantly fighting against yourself. We can support ourselves through these difficult symptoms with grace toward ourselves and supportive practices that honor our symptoms.
It’s common for survivors of sexual trauma to experience chronic pain, including areas like their jaw, back, and pelvic floor, leading to discomfort and frustration. With gentle strategies, we can soften the tension that keeps us from comfort, and restore balance in our bodies. I welcome you to join me as we explore yoga for chronic pain after sexual trauma and ways to explore this practice that honors this type of trauma.
Chronic pain isn’t all in our heads, but can result from our nervous systems being in an unbalanced state
While injuries, surgeries, or other known medical conditions cause some types of chronic pain, we might feel lost or confused when our chronic pain seems to come out of nowhere, or has no direct cause.
If you feel you’re shifting from constantly on edge to no motivation, and even other symptoms like feeling irritable, craving being busy, or feel overwhelmed by daily life, these are a few common signs that your nervous system is out of balance.
I welcome you to learn 27 signs you have a dysregulated nervous system in this post for a deeper look into causes and symptoms.
When our nervous systems are in an activated response, we brace our bodies for stress and survival. This leads to tension in our bodies, which tends to go unnoticed for a while, until it begins to feel like tightness and tension. Maybe we hunch our shoulders, tighten our pelvic floor, or clench our jaws to protect and brace for subtle stressors.
We may experience tension more often when we’re around certain activating moments, places, or people that remind us of our traumas. It’s common to feel frustrated with our bodies when we face this tension after surviving trauma, and I offer a gentle reminder that your body is just trying to protect you by bracing.
When facing chronic pain from a dysregulated nervous system, we can support ourselves with gentle practices that bring us back into balance, leading to less holding in our minds and bodies
A supportive way to honor sexual trauma, regulate your nervous system, and relieve tension is with gentle trauma-informed yoga. Practicing yoga through this lens takes extra care into the symptoms and experiences of trauma survivors to give you a more supportive, restful practice.
Many forms of yoga can regulate your nervous system, but trauma informed yoga ensures that teachers have extra training and knowledge into how trauma affects our bodies and nervous systems, and offers ways of teaching practices that don’t leave you feeling pressured into doing anything you don’t want to.
Classes also explore practices that give you a wide variety of options to choose from to find the techniques that best support you. This includes:
- Breathwork like diaphragmatic (belly) breathing
- Meditation like a visualization of warmth or light softening tense areas. I welcome you to explore my free healing light meditation for a full transcript.
- Yoga poses like child’s pose, reclined bound angle (butterfly) with blocks under knees, legs up the wall pose, supported bridge with a block under your low back, cat/cow for spinal movement, supine twist
- Use of props like bolsters, blankets, blocks, and chairs
- Somatic exploration like shifting your awareness between comfort and discomfort to soften tension.
- Invitational language that offers multiple options so you have full control over your practice.
I also offer a gentle reminder that trauma-informed yoga is supportive for chronic pain, but doesn’t replace medical care. I welcome you to speak with your care team before beginning any type of movement-based practice.
When exploring yoga for chronic pain, we can deepen our practices by giving ourselves grace and patience
It’s okay to explore a practice and feel like nothing has changed, just like sometimes we explore a class and feel like a completely revitalized person. I welcome you to find a practice that feels supportive for you, exploring at a pace that honors your energy levels. You don’t need to practice every day with hour-long classes if that doesn’t feel supportive.
It can actually be more beneficial to your nervous system to honor your limits, remaining in practice as long as you feel focused. When we remain in practices for too long, we may disconnect from ourselves, or push our nervous systems to their limits too soon.
A ten-minute practice a few times per week is a perfect starting point, and could even be enough for you to notice changes in the future. The more you listen to your needs, preferences, and honor your body, the less pressure you’ll place on yourself, and the more curious you’ll become (instead of judgmental).
A holistic approach to healing can include more than traditionally holistic practices
I welcome you to explore all avenues that you feel will support chronic pain. That could mean speaking with your medical team for now, then slowly exploring other options. The more resources you explore, the more abundant your healing becomes.
You don’t need to explore one type of yoga, or even one yoga teacher. What feels right and natural for you and your health will guide you to the most supportive care plan in the long term. Your choices and preferences matter.
Beginning a gentle nervous system regulation practice
If this post resonated with you, I invite you to explore my free private trauma-informed library, the Cozy Corner. This includes classes that honor sexual trauma healing, nervous system regulation, and tension release – all supportive for gently easing chronic pain after sexual trauma. There is no trial period, this is an entirely free resource to use as long as you like. I welcome you to learn more below!
