There are some people on this site in agony, suffering with post-traumatic stress and all the anxiety, numbness, depression and "stuff" that goes with it. And so, because that's true here for people on this page and for those many on this page work with I'm sharing about the most affordable (free) and easiest tool (guided imagery for trauma survivors) I know of.
This is what I turn to when I can't talk, cry, do yoga or guided imagery and when I'm sure nothing will help or shift of change. When I go to bed, it automatically comes on when I turn my bedroom light on at night. EVERY night. SO it's just there and on and if I don't want it I have to turn it off.
Why?
Because when I feel post-traumatically stressed it will be hard to remember that guided imagery is a tool, a help, a resource and one I can bring myself.
So, this is for those of you privately sharing that it's a hard time (you know who you are) and for the others who won't, don't and can't share even that.
These are free and online: http://www.healthjourneys.com/...ple/FeaturedAudioSpa
I recommend the Health Journeys downloads for trauma or grief or betrayal. Those all help. And there's a whole series for Post-Traumatic Stress. To me, the Invisible Heroes book by Bellaruth Naparstek is more powerful and helpful than the new Bessel van der Kolk one. She was ahead of the times talking about body work and the limits of talk therapy years and years ago.
I appreciate that so much.
Anyhow, my own personal experience with guided imagery and post-traumatic stress is here if anyone is unfamiliar with the process.
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Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) turn me into an involuntary time traveler. I look like a middle-aged woman but I feel like a terrified child. I will myself to make coffee, drive carpool, and finish work while under siege. It’s my own mind I’m battling, amped up on adrenalin or flattened by excruciating numbness. I’ve tried sitting meditation to regain control, but it is as effective as hitting the brakes when the car hydroplanes. My tires need traction. I don’t want to be one with crashing.
“No one has to override fear the way a trauma survivor does,” explains Belleruth Naparstek, author of Invisible Heroes: Survivors of Trauma and How They Heal. In sitting meditation, the “mind can suddenly release intensely distressing images and memory fragments.” That’s certainly what happens for me.
Naparstek, the godmother of guided imagery, is a therapist and now an advocate for people with PTSD. She has become my go-to resource because her audios are customized with words, music, and content sensitive to trauma. She believes not only that trauma is manageable, but that it can be healed."
Read More: http://spiritualityhealth.com/...alue-mental-pictures
I hope this helps. Post-traumatic stress, relapse and pain is real. Keep on hanging in there! It can and will shift. And believing it won't is part of the symptom not the end-all truth.
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