I often experience overwhelming grief, shame, shutdown, or experience a feeling in the center of my chest like a vice grip clamping down in mid-conversation, and or in social situations. When this happens, it’s extremely difficult for me to attend or even get viable sentences out. Then I feel more shame for being unable to engage and enjoy, and it becomes a vicious cycle. If I’m not able to remove myself to take a quick break or reset, how do I manage this in the moment?
Call Tag: shut down
This is my third SBSM and this is the first year in my life I’ve experienced burnout. About five times now where I’ve had to rest for one to two weeks to recover. It usually follows work stress or people that drain me, or doing too much. I had high anxiety for years and then completely shut down before I started somatic work. I had never experienced burnout in my entire life before this. It seems I actually have to do less now with more capacity. Why? If I’m becoming more regulated, am I having less tolerance for stress?
Hey Seth, I’m struggling to feel anything. I hear a lot of people mentioning the reactions they’re having. This is not my experience. Yesterday I went for a Thai massage and never experienced this before. It was very painful. It was very interesting though, as the lady said that my body was stuck, yes, and it needs to thaw out. I’m confused as to whether I should be doing this again or not. Is it forcing the body to move out of freeze?
All right, so today, one big broad theme is freeze. Lots of questions about freeze and different ways that it shows up in different people and what happens as we move in and out of it. To start, one of the things to talk about is the physical manifestations of freeze.
And, then the last thing here, bodywork.
For 25 years, half of my life, my brain starts shutting down at sunset, and it’s worse in winter. I feel drugged, disoriented for hours once it’s fully dark. I can’t do much to affect it. It’s hard to stay present, so I end up making it worse by zoning out on my computer. Early childhood trauma with disassociation, yet this feels different. I’ve had 20 years of insomnia and my nervous system is extra sensitive to change. If early trauma is related to darkness, meaning if this experience is rooted in early trauma that’s related to darkness, why would it take 25 years to express? What are your thoughts and suggestions?