Lotus Rising Trauma Therapy
5991 Spring Garden Road B3H 1Y6 Halifax, NS, Canada

Coworkers were slacking yesterday. Positive reframe: they took some self-care time...

Advice from María Sabina, Mexican healer and poet - Heal yourself with the light of the sun and the rays of the moon. With the sound of the river and the water...fall. With the swaying of the sea and the fluttering of birds. Heal yourself with mint, neem, and eucalyptus. Sweeten with lavender, rosemary, and chamomile. Hug yourself with the cocoa bean and a hint of cinnamon. Put love in tea instead of sugar and drink it looking at the stars. Heal yourself with the kisses that the wind gives you and the hugs of the rain. Stand strong with your bare feet on the ground and with everything that comes from it. Be smarter every day by listening to your intuition, looking at the world with your forehead. Jump, dance, sing, so that you live happier. Heal yourself, with beautiful love, and always remember ... you are the medicine. " See more

More scripted responses for assertive boundary keeping Mellow Doodles * I will end this phone call if you continue to shout at me.... * I need time to think about it. I’ll come back to you. * I can stay for half an hour. * I don’t respond to work emails at the weekend. * Thankyou for your offer. Unfortunately I can’t make it. * I’m not comfortable with that. If you do it again I will have to leave. * I’m not comfortable discussing that. Please do not discuss it with me. * I respect your opinion but this is my life and my decision. See more

Yes - all of this!

The past few months have been hard on Nova Scotians. Weve had to deal with unimaginable loss, heartache and a global pandemic. Its okay to feel sad, anxious o...r lonely, but its not okay to bear those feelings alone. September 10 is World Suicide Prevention Day. Today, I encourage you to check in with a loved one, friend or neighbour. And if you need more support, thats okay, too. A list of supports are available through the Nova Scotia Health Authority https://mha.nshealth.ca//resources-and-/conditions/suicide

Radical boundaries

Everything is a balance. What is the least stimulating way to get information?

It can also include meditating peacefully.

I have noticed that individuals with mental health issues/trauma histories struggle with wearing face masks, and here is how I came to this realization: I saw a...n OSHA video going around a few weeks ago. A man was holding an oxygen-sensor next to his ***mouth*** and measuring oxygen levels, mask-off and then mask-on, to prove that wearing a mask was hazardous for your health. The yoga teacher in me was like, Hmmm, who the heck breathes through their mouth? Mouth-breathing jacks up the nervous system." That was when the somatic trauma therapist in me joined the dots about anti-mask wearing, mouth-breathing, mental health and trauma responses. When we perceive danger, we mouth-breathe in, in order to rapidly oxygenate the body and to mobilize the active defenses of fight and flight (sympathetic arousal). Putting on a face mask can elicit the beginnings of sympathetic arousal in many individuals. Furthermore, mouth-breathing can be detrimental when wearing a face mask, as the body isnt able to get enough oxygen, which can cause the body-brain to spin further into panic/rage/terror. Hence the OSHA video. Mouth-breathing is common amongst individuals who experience anxiety, depression, have trauma histories, experience other forms of mental illness or developmental disabilities. Nose-breathing restores the body back into the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system (rest and digest, safety and connection), and keeps the prefrontal cortex online therefore able to discern the difference between uncomfortable and unsafe. Individuals whose nervous systems are conditioned to correlate mouth-breathing (sympathetic arousal) with danger responses will ab-react to mask-wearing. And yes, mouth-breathing can be associated with sympathetic arousal in a good way - surprise, excitement, joy, awe and wonder. The ventral vagal branch of the parasympathetic nervous system mitigates this arousal (when developmentally co-regulated) creating a robust nervous system capable of tolerating the full range of positive emotions. However, for now, this is outside of the mask/no-mask conversation. We get advised to wear masks, but no one has taken the time to explain to us how to breathe when wearing a mask. I have been using the face mask as an intentional activation cue to breath in-and-out through my nose and my nose only. I do box breathing exercises when I'm feeling a little anxious. (Inhale for a count of four. Hold the breath for a count of four. Breath out for a count of four. Repeat four times.) Mostly, I just focus on the long exhale, which also activates the parasympathetic nervous system. And I make sure that Im breathing into the area below my navel, a result of my diaphragm be relaxed and fluid. (The diaphragm tightens up during sympathetic fight-flight activation.) If I catch myself sharply mouth-breathing-in, I close my mouth and breath in the rest of the way into my low belly, and then sigh or hum as I focus on a long exhale. Making audible sounds is not what an animal in danger does. It is what an animal in safety does. And so, this restores me back into the ventral vagal branch of the parasympathetic nervous system. I teach these techniques (and more) to my clients, who are reporting increased capacity to navigate through this brave new world. Some individuals cannot nose-breath or cannot tolerate wearing a face mask, for various reasons ranging from suffocation trauma to autism spectrum disorder to medical issues that inhibit nose-breathing. Some individuals have very tight diaphragms, which can make deep belly-breathing challenging. Some of these conditions can be treated more quickly than others; some folks have access to treatment, some do not. Either way, intentional breathing is a gift, for it anchors each of us back into the grace of this moment where kindness is possible.

Also, having something like a mint or throat lozenge may be helpful for some people.

The key to understanding your adult self, is to go back to your child self. Birth to age 6 is the most impactful time in our lives. Our brain waves are in a the...ta state, similar to hypnosis. We are soaking everything in. Language, how to exist in the world, how to bond with our parent figures. Everything thats spoken to us we internalize without question including messages about who we are. And who other people are. During this period, we are also in an ego-centric period of development. This means we believe everything happens to us, because of us. Everything is personal when we are children. We lack the ego maturity to understand that there are many reasons for peoples behavior. And many of these reasons have nothing to do with us. We might still lack this awareness in adulthood. Many of us heard direct messages like youre too sensitive, you need to go to school + become a doctor, or you need to marry young + have a large family. We also also got indirect messages maybe a parent detached from us when we didnt accomplish. Or denied a something that happened to us because that reality was too painful for them to acknowledge. The message is: your reality does not matter. The result is conditioning. Our conditioning is behaviors + core beliefs we adapted to survive. Survival is dependent on being loved by caregivers. So we will betrayal, deny, or repress parts of ourselves. This inner child trauma is part of our adult life until we feel + process it. This is why so many of us have deep, deep shame. We believe that if a parent couldnt see, love, + validate us something is wrong with us. The truth is that parent(s) had their own unresolved traumas, their own wounding that they projected onto us. Here are some questions to journal or meditate on. Inner child work is painful but leads to so much healing. You can also check out my inner child meditation (on my YouTube channel + SoundCloud). Have tissues ready. I love you #selfhealers

From the mouths of babes!

A great checklist.

First thing that comes to mind: If you were talking to an anxious friend right now, what would be the one most important thing youd say/youd want them to know?First thing that comes to mind: If you were talking to an anxious friend right now, what would be the one most important thing youd say/youd want them to know?

Healing moments

Liberal Jane Illustration - beautiful illustration

Tell your stories

Beene Brown and Blame

Happy New Year. Be You.

Childhood trauma can manifest as...

For you, whomever you are...