Archive for Focusing

Overworked Amygdala Triggers Panic in Abuse Victims

Have you ever had the experience of beginning to cross the road and suddenly finding you’ve jumped back onto the sidewalk without even knowing what you were doing? Then you notice. You almost got hit by a truck. Wheww! That was a close call.

How did you do that? It was automatic. You didn’t even register that your life was in danger.

That’s because the amygdala, the part of your brain’s limbic system takes over in such emergencies to assure your survival. There’s no time to think. To think would mean losing that precious second needed to jump free. Read more

Does Your Trauma Cause Triggers in You?

People who have suffered childhood trauma are usually bothered by what we call triggers. Triggers may be smells, sounds, sights or situations and although the stimuli are innocuous in the present, the brain remembers them as life threatening. These particular stimuli are associated with some terrifying event in the past.

The brain remembers them and our survival system goes into action. It’s the amygdala that sets off the alarm. It signals danger so that we can fight or run. Our hearts start pounding, sending a good blood supply to our arms and legs to help us run or fight. All ability to think would be wasted at such a time. We now act on reflex and are capable of feats we couldn’t imagine in a normal state. Read more

8 reasons why focusing may be for you

Have you ever heard of Focusing? It’s a sort of inner yoga and it may be just what you’ve been looking for. Focusing teaches you to access your own deepest, wisest self. It takes you to a deeper level of awareness than is ordinarily possible. It teaches you to be with yourself in a compassionate, caring way.

Check out the reasons it may be right for you.

1)Are you wondering what underlies your anxiety, shyness, depression, malaise?
2)Do you have voices in your mind telling you you’re no good, stupid, unworthy, lazy, dirty, bad?
3)Do you feel you’re to blame for the bad stuff that happens around you?
4)Do you have trouble being compassionate with yourself?
5)Do you have trouble making decisions?
6)Do you look to others to tell you what’s right?
7)Would you like a sure-fire way of knowing your life is on the right track?
8)Would you like to experience yourself as a unique and wonderful organism in the universe?

In other words, would you like to have a way of knowing what’s right for you without asking somebody, tossing a coin or getting out the Ouija board?

Would you like to be able to check inside your body for guidance? Focusing teaches you how to recognize your body’s signals, those physically felt responses to your life that are meant to keep you doing whatever is life seeking for you.

In my book, Confessions of a Trauma Therapist, I tell how Focusing helped me safely access my repressed memories of child sexual abuse and how this practice guided my healing. If that sounds useful to you, I’ll suggest some ways you can learn to Focus.

You can learn to Focus from the Bantam paperback by the same name or go online and find a teacher at www.focusing.org. It’s simple to learn and, as most profoundly simple things, it can take you to some very deep places.