Now if you instantly started to sing inside of your head then fantastic! We may be kindred spirits. While we are at it, go ahead and listen to Anna Nalick right now. Don’t worry I’ll be here when you get back.

There, now that we reconnected with an amazing song we can move on. It has been a little break since the last post. So let’s look over what we have learned so far. We have learned that our brain operates on essentially three different levels. We have the Lizard Brain that is very simplistic in the way that it views the world. If functions off of associations and nothing else. Then we have it’s best pal the Monkey Brain. The Monkey Brain gives the Lizard Brain some direction and a little bit of thought, but not enough to look towards the future. Finally we have the Human Brain that houses all of our logical thought centers and our memories. We also learned that when we move into a fight, flight, or freeze (3F’s) response that our Lizard and Monkey brains take charge, effectively cutting off the Human Brain. Finally, we learned about the two systems inside of our nervous system that come into play during the 3F’s, the sympathetic and parasympathetic system.

Now, What do we do about it?

So, what we need to understand is that a lot of times the simple solution is often the best solution, and with trauma that is even more true. There is a simple hack that can alleviate a lot of the problematic parts of a trauma response. The secret is this: Your body cannot both be in the sympathetic system, also known as the 3F’s or a trauma response, and be relaxed. The two cannot coexist. So, all we need to do is relax. See, that wasn’t so hard. Who knew all of your problems could be solved with just one sentence.

If only it was that easy.

The truth is, many times we feel as though we are relaxed when in reality we are tense. Let’s try that statement out. Go ahead and check in with your body, sometimes it helps if you close your eyes, and just move from your head to your toes, slowly checking each muscle group for tension. Chances are there was something that was tense that you didn’t realize before. That is the thing to keep in mind. We are no longer dealing with the conscious mind when we are talking about the 3F’s, instead we are in the shadowy world of the subconscious. Everything we do now will take effort to see. Now it’s one thing to do a body scan and say we are relaxed, but what if I told you that wasn’t as relaxed as you could get.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation has entered the chat.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation is a technique that is used to bring the body into a relaxed state, or what we like to call a relaxed muscle body. It is deceptively simple. What we do is we start at our head and then slowly, muscle group by muscle group, we squeeze a muscle group tight as we can while slowly inhaling through our nose to the count of five. Then we release the muscles group while exhaling out of our mouth. We do this for each muscle group starting at our head moving down to our toes and then back up to our head again. You can do this exercise on your own or have someone guide you through it. For people who suffer from panic attacks or PTSD it is easier if someone guides you through it as you try to establish this new behavior.

So that’s what I’ve decided to do. Below is an option to listen to a short track of me guiding you through progressive muscle relaxation. Feel free to download it on your phone and have it for the next time you have a panic attack. As for now I think this is a good stopping point. This simple exercise can help restore a sense of control that you may have felt like you lost. Next time we will talk about ways to work through trauma, as relaxation exercises only get us so far. I hope you have enjoyed this weeks article and I hope you were able to learn something new while you were at it. Until next time, have a wonderful day and keep living the Wicked Life!