What Does It Feel Like to View Art When High

Assistance Now! Activities are ten quick, unproblematic, practical and like shooting fish in a barrel to remember activities designed to become you back into the Resilient Zone if yous need assist now! because you're either besides amped upwards (high zone) or too checked out (low zone). This helpful set of resiliency building strategies is taught in Community Resiliency Model (CRM) trainings.

Here is the illustration for the art print I created giving the overview of all ten Assist Now! Activities (more info near the art pint is at the finish of this article).

Source:

visit the Trauma Resource Institute website

visit the Trauma Resource Plant Facebook Page

TRI offers trainings in the Trauma Resiliency Model and Community Resiliency Model

I highly recommend taking the CRM training which is open to any member of the public who wants to larn more than near self-regulation and how to become resilient in the face of stress, anxiety and symptoms related to trauma recovery.

Three Zones – High, Low and Resilient

In my experience of PTSD, during the last nine years since the accidents (2007-2016) I was pretty much e'er stuck in the High Zone or in the Low Zone. If I didn't appear that way it was just because I was masking it by controlling my behavior, but my torso was notwithstanding highly stressed – "buzzing" with stress – inside, and I could get easily thrown into the deep end if triggered because I was a "live wire." I was also simultaneously in the low zone – bare, checked out, securely and overwhelmingly tired, numb, invisible to myself, not "habitation," paralyzed and unable to react to annihilation happening around me – similar a blank piece of paper or newspaper doll.

I can go triggered many times a day, so I never experienced the resilient zone very often until recently. Merely last month I finally began to feel like I could fill some moments with feeling prophylactic and relaxed and information technology didn't have hours of work to do it but came a piddling bit more naturally. I really have been able to feel that feeling of prophylactic since I learned to do Somatic Experiencing in 2010, only information technology was difficult to achieve and simply recently it'due south been easier to achieve.

And so – what happens when we are bumped out of the Resilient Zone and into the High or Low Zone?

Characteristics of the High Zone

The Loftier Zone is when yous're experiencing hyperarousal or activation of your brain and nervous organization.

In the High Zone you may feel: nervous, anxious, panicking, terrified, hyperarousal, hyped up, amped up, hypervigilant, having a meltdown, tingling with fear, irritable, jittery, hyperactive, "out of your mind" which ways very dissociated due to hyperarousal, floating, "losing it," going off the deep end, feeling like you're having a mental and/or emotional breakdown, freaking out, spazzing out, manic, buzzing, a live wire, angry, all of a sudden totally overcome with rage.

Y'all may experience shaking / shivering, shortness of breath, shallow animate, flushed face, dizziness, headache, nausea, muscle tension, digestive upsets, like you could pass out, changes to vision or hearing, a feeling of not being in control of yourself.

Characteristics of the Depression Zone

The Low Zone is when y'all're experiencing hypo-arousal of your brain and nervous arrangement.

In the Low Zone y'all may feel: depressed, tired, sad, down, exhausted, isolated, disconnected, a sense of paralysis, non wanting to move, low energy, numb, flat affect (meaning no emotions), completely zoned out, checked out, spaced out, invisible, blank, unresponsive, stock still, frozen, immobile, dislocated, deadened, despondent, dissociated, unable to appoint in what is going on around yous, indisposition.

Characteristics of the Resilient Zone

When you return to your Resilient Zone, you're at-home merely also alarm. You're not likewise nervous or angry, and non too depressed or checked out either.

The Resilient Zone includes feeling:

calm and alert
balanced
relaxed
awake
natural rhythm and flow in the nervous organization
we accept the best capacity for flexibility and adaptability in mind, body and spirit
we can think clearly; the thinking brain is dominant (non the survival brain)
handle emotions better
manage the body improve
we can choose how to react to situations; our reactions are nether our control

Both At the Same Time

Sometimes nosotros may go back and forth between loftier and low constantly, like being on a roller coaster. One thing I accept noticed is that sometimes I take both high and low in my body simultaneously. The feeling I sense the most might be the feeling of being wearied, for case, just if I tune in there is a kind of highly stressed feeling in my body at the same time on a subtle, nearly ephemeral level.

Guidance for Doing Help Now! Activities:

The Goal. The goal of doing these activities is to signal safety to the Survival Brain.

Sensation is a Language. The Survival Brain understands the language of sensation. You communicate with it by becoming aware of sensations in your body.

The Importance of Tracking. In some Assist At present! activities information technology'south important to put all your attending on, or "track," your body sensations, so that you can communicate with your Survival Brain and allow it know y'all're safe.

Twenty Seconds. Most of the time, 20 seconds of holding your attention on a positive or neutral awareness will reset your trunk to be in the Resilient Zone. During that xx seconds of deep sensation placed on the sensation, your Survival Brain is listening and receiving the message that all is OK and it gradually reorganizes itself to reply to safety instead of danger.

Neutral is Awesome. A neutral awareness is just every bit helpful to focus on equally a positive sensation.

Programmed to see Negative. We are programmed by nature to focus on negative sensations and experiences to survive them. Then it tin can accept a picayune actress try to focus in on positive and neutral sensations.

Sensation Words. Utilize sensation words (like "hot"), rather than emotion words (like "angry").

Orienting. The Survival Brain also understands "orienting." When you orient, you really look around the environment around you – scan the environment – with new eyes, examining things y'all may never have noticed. This activeness helps your Survival Encephalon understand that in that location is no danger, and this helps you come to feel inside yourself and inside your body that you are actually safe. Scanning the environment is hard-wired into us as it's nature'due south fashion for animals to orient to existence safe.

Key Questions:

Where is that sensation located in your body?

Where do y'all feel the well-nigh _________? ("relaxed", "calm", whatever the positive or neutral sensation they mentioned is)

How does your body know it'due south __________? ("relaxed", "at-home", whatever the positive or neutral awareness they mentioned is)

Helpful Quote: "When the alarm bell of the emotional brain keeps signaling that you are in danger, no corporeality of insight will silence it." – Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score.

Assist Now! Activities

a girl walks with a supportive man, she focuses on her feet legs and arms

1. Walk

Find someone willing to walk with you for a lilliputian bit.

Walk together.

Or, if no support person is available, you can do this practice walking effectually by yourself too.

Notice the feeling of your feet touching the floor or ground. What practice the bottoms of your feet feel like? What about the tops? Is the ground rough or smooth? Tin y'all sense how the pressure level goes first on your heel and then moves to the front of your foot?

Pay attention to your arms. What practise they feel like swaying as yous walk?

Notice the feeling of your legs moving.

Some sensations y'all might have: heaviness, pressure, swaying, breeze, air, friction where one part of your body rubs against another.

Tell the person y'all're walking with what sensations you notice.

a girl pushes with her hands against a wall while thinking about the muscles in her arms and legs

2. Button Confronting a Wall

Stand facing a wall or securely closed door (one that won't open if pushed on).

Put both palms against the wall and lean your body towards the wall.

Push button against the wall and notice the muscles in your upper artillery, forearms and hands. Pay attending to how they feel while pushing the wall.

Push harder. Pay attending to how your shoulders and dorsum experience while engaging your muscles.

Pay attention to how your legs and feet feel, pressing against the floor.

You may feel: pressure, strain, tension, contraction, rut

Exhale.

Allow all the stress in your body get into the action of engaging your muscles and pushing against the wall.

Notes:

The recommendation is to focus on sensations in muscles because a lot of fight and flight energy gets stuck in the muscles, but yous can focus on any sensation in your entire body besides. The idea is to exist present with your body equally it experiences the exertion of the act of pushing, and just "be with" it by placing attention on sensations that ascend.

Adept areas to focus on is where your feet button into the flooring and easily push into the wall, because these points likewise help ground yous and connect y'all to the physical globe effectually yous.

Variation:

Back Against a Wall

This is not an official Assistance Now strategy, but it does assist settle and footing.

Lean your upper dorsum and caput against a wall. Lean into it. Relax. Sense how the wall and building are supporting your body. Printing a picayune fleck into the wall. Notice that you can see all points around you and know nothing is dangerous. Having a wall backside ways you can orient to the whole space and nobody can startle y'all from behind, this can calm the animate being mind.

A young man sits in a room pointing to colors and shapes

3. Wait for Colors / Shapes

Await effectually. What colors practise you meet?

Name 6 or more colors you can find where you are. (It takes around 20 seconds to name six colors, unless y'all're super speedy)

It's OK to name the same color more than once if you see it in more than 1 identify.

Keep naming colors until you brainstorm to feel similar y'all're in your Resilient Zone again.

Make sure to await all effectually yourself for colors – near and far, upwards and down, right and left, in front and behind.

This focuses your attention on physical things in the here and now.

Also colors of objects brings your focus to mundane things that have nothing scary associated with them.

Variations:

Shapes. Instead of colors, proper name different shapes you run across effectually you.

Shadows. Indicate out where you see shadows in the infinite effectually you.

Note – I added these 2 variations – they are not part of the official list from CRM.

4. Count Backwards

Count backwards out loud.

Ideally yous should do this while walking around, but you can effort it while sitting or standing and see how it goes.

This one should be washed according to counting ability. For children who know their numbers and can hands count down from x, and so begin at 10. For anyone who has already learned numbers up to 20, begin with 20.

When you're done, if you need to at-home downwardly more, merely begin counting backwards again. Keep counting backwards from whatsoever beginning number you feel like until you are calm once again.

Information technology usually takes twenty seconds of tuning into something that feels neutral or positive to "reset" your nervous system. In this example counting is a pretty neutral activity, so counting from 10 twice, or from 20, covering 20 seconds, might begin to return you lot to your Resiliency Zone.

a boy drinks a glass of water; you can see the water go to his stomach

5. Drink a Drink

Get a cold potable of some kind like water from a fridge, ice h2o or h2o from a water fountain.

Drink slowly and pay attention.

What does it feel like on your lips? Tongue?

Then swallow and see if you feel whatsoever cold going down your throat.

If you don't experience it that's OK, but observe that you lot couldn't sense it and only felt warmth. The noticing is the important part.

Take some other sip and again pay attending – what does the water experience like in your oral fissure? Does information technology make your mouth feel common cold anywhere?

If you have a room temperature beverage that is fine. But drink very slowly and feel the liquid in your mouth as you drink.

Some qualities y'all might discover: sloshy, smoothen, warm, cold, refreshing, flowing.

a hand touches 5 objects - tree bark, cloth, plastic, wheat and a pillow

half-dozen. Touch Objects

Bear upon different objects effectually you lot and notice their textures and characteristics.

Some things you might notice: polish, hard, soft , rough, tickly, cold, warm, irregular texture, spongy, ridges, furry, fuzzy.

a girl is surrounded by images of wind, ice, sun; she is feeling different temperatures on her skin

7. Temperature

Does the air feel warm or cool to y'all, in general?

Do you feel whatever air hitting you that feels cooler than the rest of the air?

Exercise you feel any function of your body that feels actually warm?

How does your face feel in comparing to your breadbasket?

Does ane side of your face feel cooler than the other?

How do your hands feel? Are they cooler than your feet?

Are your anxiety libation than the meridian of your caput?

Continue noticing temperatures until you feel calmer.

Comparing two parts of your body can assist yous deepen your focus because you have to pay attention more when trying to figure out what the differences are.

an ear is seen with different sounds entering it - a cricket, bird, truck and air conditioner make sounds

8. Listen for Sounds

What sounds practise you hear?

You may notice things like: humming, bravado, "white dissonance," birds, machine, crickets, depression hum, medium hum, children playing, ticking, wind whistling, leaves fluttering, creaking, dripping, tree frogs.

Name half dozen or more sounds you hear.

a woman looks around in a circle and certain objects catch her attention

9. Notice What Catches Your Attention

Wait all around you and notice which things your eyes focus on. Which things catch your attention as y'all look effectually? Name them.

one face on the left has the eyes closed, the face on the right has the eyes open

x. Open Eyes

If you have a trend to permit your eyes to shut in order to go into yourself and shut out reality, try opening them in a relaxed, soft way and slowly await effectually.

Treat this as an experiment.

For some people it helps their nervous arrangement, for others it may not.

Having your eyes open and available to observe if there is any danger effectually tin can tell the body that there is no danger.

But if y'all open your eyes likewise large, it might make your trunk feel similar you're beingness hypervigilant which could make yous feel nervous.

This is just lightly opening your eyes if you happen to similar to keep your optics closed.

Another affair to detect is that if you tend to be hypervigilant and watch the environment in a stiff, fixed, searching mode for danger, you might want to soften your gaze and relax your optics while still keeping them open. The idea is to allow the exterior world menses to your eyes while staying alert and aware.

Annotation that the entire description of this is mostly my ain interpretation of what it'southward about.

Fine art Print

Here is the link to encounter the art print of the Help At present! Activities:

Click here to buy the fine art print

Please pass this article on to people who may find information technology benign.

Thank you! And I wish y'all the very best in your healing of yourself and others.

__________________

Heidi Hanson is an artist and writer in Asheville, Due north Carolina currently working on an illustrated volume chronicling her journeying healing from Postal service Traumatic Stress Disorder.

leequared.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.new-synapse.com/aps/wordpress/?p=1938