Thank you, Beth ❤️⁠

⁠Meditation can be healing for trauma survivors. It can help you feel lighter, find clarity & learn how to navigate thoughts, feelings & emotions. It can also be triggering. Full disclosure, meditation did not work for me in the beginning & truthfully it just won’t work for everyone. I found it to be disorienting, but once I started using trauma-informed techniques everything changed. I would like to offer some tips that helped me learn how to use meditation as a healing tool.⁠

⁠🌙 Meditate somewhere you feel safe. Before you begin, become familiar with your surroundings & the sounds around you. I found it helpful to have an “escape” plan before I got started (for me this was being in a room that didn’t feel claustrophobic, making sure the door to my bedroom was open & I could easily see what was happening outside the door).⁠

⁠🌙 You don’t need to close your eyes. I do close my eyes but I give myself permission to open them as often as I needed to. I open them to refamiliarize myself with my surroundings & the sounds around me. You can also gaze down & leave your eyes open the whole time.⁠

⁠🌙 Before beginning, I enlisted a “security blanket.” This could be an object I can touch that makes me feel safe, calm, or comfortable. Or it could be a part of my body. For example, maybe my hands make me feel safe. So maybe I’m holding my own hands or rubbing my palm with a finger, or maybe my eyes are open the whole time & I’m focusing on the palms of my hands. Focusing on, or coming back to something that makes you feel secure can be helpful. ⁠

⁠🌙 Stop & start as many times as you’d like. If you begin a meditation & start to feel triggered, stop immediately! Know that this does not mean you did something wrong, you’re broken, or you failed. I did this a lot when I first got started. Go at your pace & listen to your body! Trust yourself ❤️⁠

⁠🌙 Work with a trauma-informed professional. Working with a professional can make all the difference. They provide an environment to guide you through the process safely & with fewer triggers.       ⁠

Please reach out to a healthcare professional for support if your grief has become too much to handle & remember that you are not alone ❤️

⁠You can listen to this meditation series on Insight Timer following this link.

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