Orienting for Trauma Recovery

How Trauma Disrupts Orienting and Presence

Our minds and bodies are extraordinarily adapted to responding to threats. When working properly, our nervous system responds effectively to danger. However, trauma occurs when our nervous system is overwhelmed and has not been able to effectively respond to that danger.

Think about it like a smoke alarm - its job is to alert you to the presence of smoke. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, as the saying goes. But often that smoke alarm goes off easily or frequently, without any fire present. Maybe you’re making toast while sipping coffee, and suddenly a horrible screech-beeping disrupts your otherwise quiet morning. You frantically fan the smoke alarm, or rip it from the ceiling to pull the battery out. Meanwhile, the toast is fine, there is no fire, no actual danger. This is a false alarm, but it has done its job.           

Our nervous systems are geared to overreact, because that is more likely to keep us safe. A smoke alarm that rarely responds to smoke is not going to alert us to an actual fire in time to do something about it.

But when we have experienced real danger (accidents, abuse, assault, abandonment, betrayal, etc.) and not been able to respond effectively, the alarm system can malfunction. This can happen in two ways: 1) it overfunctions, becoming more sensitive, more easily triggered or, 2) undersensitive, shut down, not very responsive. (I’ll explain these two types of responses in another post).                 

Imagine the smoke alarm has become hypersensitive. It can now see every time you’re going to make toast. It chirps as you approach the bread, starts beeping the moment you place a slice in the toaster. You give up, because it’s just too alarming to even make toast anymore.               

Or imagine that you’ve pulled the batteries out of the alarm. Now it definitely can’t go off when you’re making toast, or ever. But when there is actual danger, it can’t function at all.

In both of these scenarios, the alarm is not accurately tuned into the environment. It’s not reading the signal properly, either because it’s overinterpreting and sounding the alarm too soon, or not noticing or ignoring the signs.

The effects of trauma result in a disconnect from your surroundings, an inability to accurately read and respond to what’s happening around you.

Orienting Practice for Trauma Recovery

To begin healing this, we start with orienting. This is a practice that uses your five senses to take in your actual surroundings and determine if you’re safe. We use the five senses because these are the basic ways in which we interact with the world around us. Our brains and nervous systems respond far quicker to sensory input than to thoughts.

Here’s how to begin: find a quiet place that you’re relatively comfortable in. Make sure you won’t be interrupted for at least a few minutes.

Start with your sense of sight. Look around, letting your eyes wander. Notice if there is anything that grabs your visual attention, or that your eyes kind of land on. Take it in. Let yourself see the details and look more closely. Now, notice if there is any kind of positive, negative, or neutral tone to this. This may be subtle, or it may be obvious. Just notice this.

Do the same with your other senses. Listen to your surroundings, touch something around you, notice what you smell, what you taste. Again, let yourself focus on whatever it is that grabs your attention. And again, notice if there is any positive, negative, or neutral tone to it.

If this sounds like a mindfulness practice, it is. It’s a way of being present with your actual surroundings, not your imagination, and not your history.

As you practice this, you will be increasingly able to notice what you’re drawn to, what you want to move away from, and what you may feel indifferent toward. In trauma recovery, we’re looking for either that neutral or positive experience. Why? Because it is likely your nervous system is overtuned to the negative, the dangerous, the threatening. We’re not trying to dampen this effect, but to increase your ability to connect to a feeling of safety.

The goal is feeling safe - actually getting to experience safety - rather than feeling on edge all the time.

This is different from telling yourself you’re safe. With this method, you don’t have to believe anything. You get to experience it. If you don’t notice a sense of positive or neutral, don’t force it. Don’t try to convince yourself that the houseplant across the room feels nice to look at, or that the pile of laundry evokes a sense of neutrality. You might actually hate it. So let that go and then look for (or listen, feel, etc.) something that lets you experience a slight sense of okayness.

This is the beginning. This is a practice to take with you, that you can do anywhere, anytime, for any length of time. With practice, this will build your capacity to make use of your surroundings to feel a sense of safety, instead of feeling on edge or totally numb everywhere you go.

If you want more help with this, or it doesn’t seem to be making a difference, please reach out.