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Trauma informed Meditation

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I didn't exactly take a "trauma informed" path, but I have found that for me, being able to meditate has taken a fair bit of practice, and acknowledging that some aspects, some forms of meditation, I needed to alter the way I did it in some way to make it workable.

It was a balance between figuring out what was traumatic response, and what was avoidance (not wanting to try something new and weird, not being comfortable straight away, etc).

Has been worth sticking with it for me. But, took a lot of practice and patience.
 
Really interesting article @Rani G thanks for that.
When I’m in a safe head space I love meditation, but that’s been missing a while. Buddhist chanting (not that I’m Buddhist lol) is something that works for me too and doesn’t require the same level of giving myself up to a zoned out state.

Like @Sideways I’ve found I have to alter the ways I’ve done things. Group meditation is definitely out these days unless I’m leading it so I can control myself around other people. (Actually it’s about being around others and feeling freaked out rather than controlling myself).
 
I’m the same as Sideways here. Didn't do trauma informed meditation. Rather altered things to suit me. Eg, holding a large pillow in my lap to help my body feel less exposed. And in the end, giving up entirely on body focused meditation / body scans for a while as they felt too raw, too close to trauma stuff.

i particularly enjoy focusing on sounds as a safe way to meditate for me, have tried usung favourite scents / incense or essential oils too and love that. And I can even focus on breathing now too. To begin with it made me feel panicky but after a heck of a lot of Times doing it just for a minute or two, and slowly building up, I’m ok with it now. Another thing I like is Metta - loving kindness meditation.

It was around 2 years I worked on meditating, starting with 2 minutes a day, not every single day, but most of em.

Something I found amazing Was the increasing ability to sit in silence. Before I found it unbearable - couldn’t stand being on public transport without music or something to read, couldn’t get to sleep without tv on to distract me. And meditation got me to a place where I was ok with silence. I thought that was pretty cool.
 
Thank you @Teasel for sharing, I’m late with my response
Something I found amazing Was the increasing ability to sit in silence. Before I found it unbearable - couldn’t stand being on public transport without music or something to read, couldn’t get to sleep without tv on to distract me. And meditation got me to a place where I was ok with silence. I

It’s more than cool, good to read that you’ve had this experience with meditation! For a few reasons I’ve decided not to Do meditation right now.. highly stressed and too much discomfort although one could argue that right now is the time to practice.. :-)
 
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