Trauma affects our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and body. Survivors often find themselves tense, nervous, anxious, and fearful, holding onto the remnants of the past. The body remembers and keeps the score of what we survived.

What is Hypervigilance?

• From APA: A state of abnormally heightened alertness, particularly to threatening or potentially dangerous stimuli.

• https://dictionary.apa.org/hypervigilance 

• An increase in assessment for potential threats resulting in automatic responses/reactions 

• This can be

• Tone of voice

• Facial cues

• Lack of response 

• Certain stimuli like sounds, touch, smells, etc.

Common Thoughts & Beliefs Related To Hypervigilance

• “Something bad will happen”

• “I don’t like to be touched”

• “Someone might try to harm me”

• “The world is a dangerous place”

• “I cannot trust…”

• “Bad things happen in new situations”

• “Try to control as much as you can”

• “People will leave me”

• “People will reject me”

What is Muscle/Body Armoring/Guarding?

• A learned behavior from early past experiences due to growing up in unsafe environments and adverse experiences 

• Protecting ourselves through tensing parts of our bodies to mitigate harm/abuse/violence/etc.

• Example: A survivor of childhood trauma learns that their home and caregivers/parents are violent/abusive will tense their body to anticipate such abuse and violence from occurring

• The more and more your body learns a pattern such as tensing parts of your body, the more and more this will be an automatic response

Common Symptoms of Body Armoring

People who are tense in their bodies tend to have somatic symptoms such as:

• Holding in your breath and/or irregular breathing 

• Stomachaches 

• Shoulder pain

• Hunched shoulders 

• Back pain

• Poor posture 

• Migraines

• Headaches

• Teeth grinding

• Gastrointestinal problems

• Nausea 

• Disconnection from one’s body (not even realizing one’s body is tense since it has become ‘normalized’ and ‘habitual’) 

• And more

The 5 F’s - Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn & Fright

• The body learns to respond after an adverse experience/traumatic experience

• Fight

  • Going toward

  • Anger and rage

  • Wanting to release tension by fighting

  • Saying no

  • Pushing

• Flight

  • Going away

  • Needing space and distance

  • Leaving and running away

  • Backing up

  • Hiding

• Freeze

  • Dissociating

  • Being silent and still

  • Here, but not here (floating out of one’s body)

  • Common response for survivors of sexual violence

  • Playing dead to avoid further pain

• Fawn

  • People pleasing

  • Fear of conflict

  • Anticipating needs

  • Forfeiting one’s needs/wants

  • Highly attuned to others’ emotions

• Fright

  • Fear and terror

  • Shakiness

  • Anxiety

  • Worry

  • Heart race increasing

  • Jumpiness

The Body Keeps The Score - Bessel Van der Kolk

• “Traumatized people chronically feel unsafe inside their bodies: The past is alive in the form of gnawing interior discomfort. Their bodies are constantly bombarded by visceral warning signs, and, in an attempt to control these processes, they often become expert at ignoring their gut feelings and in numbing awareness of what is played out inside. They learn to hide from their selves.”

• “Being able to feel safe with other people is probably the single most important aspect of mental health; safe connections are fundamental to meaningful and satisfying lives.”

• “Trauma victims cannot recover until they become familiar with and befriend the sensations in their bodies. Being frightened means that you live in a body that is always on guard. Angry people live in angry bodies. The bodies of child-abuse victims are tense and defensive until they find a way to relax and feel safe. In order to change, people need to become aware of their sensations and the way that their bodies interact with the world around them. Physical self-awareness is the first step in releasing the tyranny of the past. In my practice I begin the process by helping my patients to first notice and then describe the feelings in their bodies—not emotions such as anger or anxiety or fear but the physical sensations beneath the emotions: pressure, heat, muscular tension, tingling, caving in, feeling hollow, and so on. I also work on identifying the sensations associated with relaxation or pleasure. I help them become aware of their breath, their gestures and movements.”

Babette Rothschild’s The Body Remembers

• Autonomic Nervous System: Precision Regulation: http://www.somatictraumatherapy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/ANS2.jpg 

• “Well, in trauma therapy I try to teach clients to be aware of what is happening in their bodies, and to identify signs of nervous system arousal, and also nervous system relaxation, so that they can know what’s beneficial to them and what’s detrimental to them. I also highly recommend that therapists develop this capacity in themselves to closely track their own bodily sensations, and their own emotional responses, so that they can know how they are responding to the therapy that they are conducting with the client.”

• From http://www.somatictraumatherapy.com/the-body-remembers-an-interview-with-babette-rothschild/ 

Resmaa Menakem’s My Grandmother’s Hands

• “So one of the things about the animal part of the body is that even though me and you are in this room, this nice place, there’s a part of the body that’s saying, “Yeah, but what else is gonna happen?” Even though you know nothing’s behind you, letting the body know it actually helps some pieces. Now, if you get reps in with that — not just do it one time or just when I tell you to — what you may notice is that you have a little bit more room for other — literally, for other things to happen that can’t happen when the constriction is like that.”

• “So in terms of a practice, this is a very simple practice. If you’re listening to me right now, one of the things I want you to do is I want you just to sit for a second. And I want you just to stare straight ahead. Just look straight ahead. And as you’re looking straight ahead, just notice what is actually landed and what is actually still kind of in the air.

  All you’re doing is just kind of noticing what’s happening: noticing how much you dislike my voice; noticing how much you dislike, or you like, some of the things that Krista said. Just notice those pieces. Now what I want you to do is look over your left shoulder, and use your neck and your hips — so turn, and look over your shoulder. And then come back to center, and now look up. And look down. Come back to center. And now look over your right shoulder, using your neck and your hips. And the reason why you use your neck and your hips is that I want you to engage that psoas and engage some parts of the vagal. And then now come forward. And now just be quiet and notice what’s different.

  What’d you notice?”

• From: On Being with Krista Tippett. Resmaa Menakem ‘Notice the Rage; Notice the Silence’

How To Release Bodily Tension/Self Practices That Can Help Body Armoring

• Movement of some sort like walking

• Exercise of some sort

• Progresive muscle relaxation

• Dance 

• Singing

• Yoga

• Stretching

• Qigong 

• Taking a warm bath

• Personal massagers 

• Massage balls 

• Deep breathing and breath work

• Measure your heart rate through a FitBit or other device to see when your heart rate is elevated or not

• Listening to guided meditations

• Repeating realistic affirmations and reminders 

• Using temperature to help with tension (if hot, wash hands with cold water and/or use 1-2 ice cubes on hands and face to cool down)

• Mindfulness (establishing a practice to become more in tune with your thoughts)

• Bodyfulness (establishing a practice to become more in tune with your body)

• Self soothing (do things that feel good when overwhelmed and tense such as: 

• See a list of ways to self sooth here

How Long Does This Take?

• It depends

• Healing is non linear

• Everyone heals at a different pace and rate 

What Can I Do?

• Practice (it takes regular, consistent effort and time to establish a new habit from the automatic response of Armoring and tension)

• Patience (changes takes time)

• Find a daily practice from the list above that works for you

• Be kind and practice self compassion

• Seek out physical therapy, acupuncture, massage therapy, etc.

• If it’s hard to do it yourself and keep yourself accountable, find a professional to help you like a licensed therapist or a support group 

• Seek out a coach who specializes in somatic issues like through the Somatic Experiencing institute 

What Types Of Approaches & Therapy Might Help Me With Body Armoring & Tension?

• Somatic Experiencing

• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

• MDMA Assisted Therapy

• Yoga Therapy

• Meditation

• Mindfulness

How Does Therapy Help With Tension & Armoring?

• Treating the underlying cause such as trauma 

• Receiving knowledge, skills, and theory about trauma, the nervous system, the window of tolerance, disassociation, maladaptive and adaptive behaviors, etc.

• Provides a consistent space for the client to practice new skills and try new things without judgment 

• Having new experiences (corrective experiences or aha moments) with the therapist 

• Confronting things slowly in a controlled environment (rather than avoiding or distracting)

Resources

• TRE (Tension, Stress and Trauma Release)

• Thomas Hanna Somatics

• Somatic Experiencing

• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

• MDMA Assisted Therapy

• Polyvagal Theory

• Living Within The Window of Tolerance: The Different Zones of Arousal