FAQs Archive - Page 11 of 21 - SmartBody SmartMind

Q: 2. How do I know where the anger energy is? My face wants to snarl, so I am letting it. Then I notice fear in my stomach and sadness in my chest, plus desire to beat the shit out of something with my arms, and shout and growl. Irene says to feel the energy -- is it just those feelings that she means?

The anger energy IS the energy that is wanting your face to snarl, and to beat the shit out of someone and shout. The fear and sadness are most likely part of the internal mechanisms that have helped keep this anger energy at bay. The idea is to try and stay connected to the more aggressive feelings and how they may want to play out, remembering to keep your motions slow, and to stay connected to your body. You can acknowledge the fear and sadness as real, but understand that they are part of what has kept this anger suppressed, and aren’t that useful for this particular work, though of course it’s a good idea to make space for them afterwards, should they still be around. Often times rage will alternate with grief like layers of onion.

Q: 4. Do my arms have to be organized with my right arm under the left, or does it matter? I find doing it the other way more comfortable and less activating.

Nope, whatever works best for you is fine.

Q: 3. Why is it a lesson like this (containment), which is meant to help regulate people, leaves some people feeling more connected and calm, while others get more activated?

It all depends on a person’s history. If someone had trauma that involved being strapped down, or confined in some way, or if one wasn’t allowed to love, care for, or honor themselves, or never got that at all from others, this could be activating for sure.

Q: 2. During this lesson there was a point when I wasn’t able to move my arms and there was a sense of not feeling ‘real.’ Is this me dissociating or going into freeze/shutdown?

Yes, that sounds likely. It sounds like this particular exercise either isn’t soothing for your unique system, or, it was bringing in a sense of safety such that it allowed your system to feel safe enough to feel what was already going on.

Q: 1. Is yawning a good thing?

It depends on why one is yawning. If we are sleepy and ready for bed, that’s fine. If we weren’t sleepy at all and then, after starting one of these exercises, we start yawning like crazy, and/or feel like we are about to pass out, that is an indication that our system is highly activated to the point the freeze response is asserting itself. If this is the case we should stop the lesson, do something else, and maybe try a little less when we come back to it.

Q: 3. When you’re in some degree of shutdown/freeze, is it more difficult to act appropriately in current circumstances that might require fight or flight? Does the freeze response become the habitual response?

Yes, this is one of the real dangers of early/developmental trauma, where it’s very common for freeze to become the immediate go-to option. It paralyzes us in moments when we need to act, or can keep us from sensing an unsafe situation in the first place.

Q: 2. Twig mentioned he sought out danger by riding a motorcycle or fighting with his partner, when his nervous system sensed danger that wasn’t there. Is that a way of saying that when caught in F/F/F, we seek out scenarios that replicate our early trauma?

Yes, though the ‘we’ is often our nervous system seeking out these situations unconsciously, and not our conscious or deliberate choice. It’s a universal theme that we see over and over: a system that is holding unresolved trauma will keep manifesting echoes of the originating conditions, so it might have a chance to resolve.

Q: 1. Can you clarify what neuroception is?

Simply put, neuroception means: our perception of safety, or the flip side, our perception of danger.

Q: 2. After feeling the ‘pleasant’ pain-free side, and then going back to where the pain was, it had either dissolved, or spread and diluted. Does this mean the pain is not real, but is unconscious stuff swirling around, unable to escape?

The pain is real, and it is also changeable! Often, the pain is actually bracing or resistance that is not allowing the emotions and sensations of unresolved trauma to surface. When we spend some time noticing stuff other than the pain, and then go back and forth between these contrasting places, we are getting the energy moving and simultaneously building a resource for our body while not denying the pain, which often allows that bracing and resistance to dissolve.

2. How do I know where the anger energy is? My face wants to snarl, so I am letting it. Then I notice fear in my stomach and sadness in my chest, plus desire to beat the shit out of something with my arms, and shout and growl. Irene says to feel the energy — is it just those feelings that she means?

2. How do I know where the anger energy is? My face wants to snarl, so I am letting it. Then I notice fear in my stomach and sadness in my chest, plus desire to beat the shit out of something with my arms, and shout and growl. Irene says to feel the energy — is it just those feelings that she means?Irene Lyon2019-11-13T13:13:09-08:00

1. What’s the point of this Healthy Aggression work? Will it help me release anger?

1. What’s the point of this Healthy Aggression work? Will it help me release anger?Irene Lyon2019-11-13T13:05:36-08:00

4. Do my arms have to be organized with my right arm under the left, or does it matter? I find doing it the other way more comfortable and less activating.

4. Do my arms have to be organized with my right arm under the left, or does it matter? I find doing it the other way more comfortable and less activating.Irene Lyon2019-11-13T13:02:04-08:00

3. Why is it a lesson like this (containment), which is meant to help regulate people, leaves some people feeling more connected and calm, while others get more activated?

3. Why is it a lesson like this (containment), which is meant to help regulate people, leaves some people feeling more connected and calm, while others get more activated?Irene Lyon2019-11-13T13:01:37-08:00

2. During this lesson there was a point when I wasn’t able to move my arms and there was a sense of not feeling ‘real.’ Is this me dissociating or going into freeze/shutdown?

2. During this lesson there was a point when I wasn’t able to move my arms and there was a sense of not feeling ‘real.’ Is this me dissociating or going into freeze/shutdown?Irene Lyon2019-11-13T13:00:45-08:00

1. Is yawning a good thing?

1. Is yawning a good thing?Irene Lyon2019-11-13T13:00:14-08:00

3. When you’re in some degree of shutdown/freeze, is it more difficult to act appropriately in current circumstances that might require fight or flight? Does the freeze response become the habitual response?

3. When you’re in some degree of shutdown/freeze, is it more difficult to act appropriately in current circumstances that might require fight or flight? Does the freeze response become the habitual response?Irene Lyon2019-05-10T15:30:02-07:00

2. Twig mentioned he sought out danger by riding a motorcycle or fighting with his partner, when his nervous system sensed danger that wasn’t there. Is that a way of saying that when caught in F/F/F, we seek out scenarios that replicate our early trauma?

2. Twig mentioned he sought out danger by riding a motorcycle or fighting with his partner, when his nervous system sensed danger that wasn’t there. Is that a way of saying that when caught in F/F/F, we seek out scenarios that replicate our early trauma?Irene Lyon2019-11-13T12:59:43-08:00

1. Can you clarify what neuroception is?

1. Can you clarify what neuroception is?Irene Lyon2019-05-10T15:26:58-07:00

2. After feeling the ‘pleasant’ pain-free side, and then going back to where the pain was, it had either dissolved, or spread and diluted. Does this mean the pain is not real, but is unconscious stuff swirling around, unable to escape?

2. After feeling the ‘pleasant’ pain-free side, and then going back to where the pain was, it had either dissolved, or spread and diluted. Does this mean the pain is not real, but is unconscious stuff swirling around, unable to escape?Irene Lyon2019-11-13T12:52:58-08:00