How Can Yoga Help With Trauma?

Not every stressful event will be experienced as trauma. There are various types of trauma. Some people develop symptoms from a stressful event that resolve after a few weeks, while others may have a long-term effect. Traumatic events are actually common, and most people experience them at least once during their lives. People can recover with the help of family and friends, but there are effective treatments for those who need extra support.

Any event that involves experiencing or witnessing an accident, serious injury, threatened death, or sexual violence has the potential to be traumatic. There are many types of traumatic events. Some common stress or traumatic events are-

Workplace Trauma: 

Workplace trauma happens when anyone works in a toxic environment where the negative aspects of a company’s culture overcome the positive ones. Everyone has different expectations when they approach the working field. However, a minority group of people experiences adverse psychological and behavioral effects. These effects include stressful reactions, health risk behaviors, and psychiatric disorders

Racial Trauma: 

Racial trauma refers to the result of racism, racist bias, and exposure to racist abuse in the media. Racial trauma can affect many aspects of anyone’s life. It can affect the ability to have relationships, concentrate on school or work, and feel safe.

Complex Trauma:

Complex trauma represents children’s exposure to multiple traumatic events. These traumatic events are severe and pervasive, such as abuse or profound neglect. These usually occur early in life and can disrupt many aspects of the child’s development. It may also affect the formation of a sense of self. 

 

Yoga Therapies Which Help To Heal Trauma

The traumatic disorder is a challenging illness that can come to dominate the lives of those it affects, and a variety of strategies are often required to manage the emotional and physical symptoms that define it. The use of evidence-based techniques from yoga to aid in the recovery of trauma is a promising area of yoga therapy. Yoga can reduce symptoms of trauma by emerging scientific research points toward several mechanisms.

Here are some yoga therapies which help to heal trauma:

 

Pranayama: 

Pranayama means the movement of an individual’s energy, prana, through the breath. It helps to regulate the breathing system and spread oxygen more steadily and evenly throughout our bodies. 

Whenever one person experiences a stressor, his bodies tend to hold or quicken the breath. This response reduces oxygen in the body and triggers the sympathetic nervous system, increasing the distress. Through pranayama, one can not only relax but decrease the pain and tension they feel and hold in the bodies.

Asana:

According to the literal meaning, Asana is “a seat.” It refers to any pose that uses specific positioning and alignment of the body. Asana is done to find a sense of strength (shtira) and ease (sukha) within the physical, psychological, and spiritual self. 

Trauma can often lead a person to feel disconnected from their bodies. By practicing asanas, one can bring awareness of and connection to specific places in the body. 

Talk therapy:

If anyone has been traumatized, they are likely to have a very distorted relationship with the body. Yoga has great a great effect because it goes directly to sensing and befriending the body. 

Talking with the person and knowing what happened is an important part of treatment and also the most important part is starting to regain ownership of the body.

End Words:

Waiting too long to seek counseling to control your anxiety and stress can cause more odds will stack against you. Even if it’s too late, there is no way of telling how much you need help with actually seeking a professional therapist. Ultimately, it’s never too late but, doing things early will help you recover faster. 

If you’ve been traumatized and want to get control over this in the future, you can check out PIES Fitness and Yoga Studio. We have several types of Yoga Therapy for seniors and juniors by which everyone will be able to experience the benefits of yoga.