Ahead, we have 10 different ways for you to heal from trauma. We’ll first look at exactly what trauma is so you can be clear that it’s what you’re experiencing, then we’ll share various steps you can take and tips you can try. Follow Now: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Google Podcasts
What Is Trauma?
Trauma is the result of a negative event. It occurs when you feel emotionally or mentally hurt by something that has happened, and it may lead to post-traumatic stress disorder, which is commonly referred to as PTSD. Examples of traumatic events include the death of someone you love, experiencing abuse, a plane or automobile crash, an extremely difficult relationship or breakup, or a natural disaster like an earthquake or hurricane. If you feel shocked, saddened, anxious, or otherwise overwhelmed by an occurrence like one of the above, you’re probably experiencing trauma. The trauma isn’t the event or experience itself but rather your body and mind’s response to it. Traumatic stress affects the brain, which makes it crucial to take the steps toward recovery and mitigate its negative effects and impacts as much as possible.
Accept Support
First and foremost, getting past trauma is to want to heal and be willing to accept the help and support. It might turn out that much of your healing journey occurs alone, or it might involve a lot of community support or individual therapy. Whichever route it’s going to take naturally, you’ll have the best chance of recovering well if you are in the space of accepting support. For more mental health resources, see our National Helpline Database. You might receive support from loved ones, a support group, a therapist, or from friends or colleagues. The important part here is to get into a mindset where you understand that others may likely be able to help you, and you are willing to take that help.
Find the Right Help
Next, you’ll want to find the right type of help for your situation. If therapy seems like the right step for you, you can look specifically for a trauma-informed therapist to ensure the therapist is able to work with trauma and provide you with the best possible service. Or, it might feel better to attend a support group so that you can be around others who have experienced a similar situation and find understanding and community.
Connect With Others
Whether or not you attend a support group around healing, it will help you connect with other people. You don’t need to center your trauma with the group, and you don’t even necessarily need to talk to other people about your trauma if it doesn’t feel like the right move for you. Connection with others is key to happiness as humans, and isolating yourself while dealing with trauma can lead to negative outcomes like depression. Spend time with friends when you feel up for it, and share what you’ve experienced when it feels right.
Physical Movement
Exercise has been shown to improve symptoms of PTSD. In addition to directly helping you heal, exercise and physical movement also provide your body with much-needed feel-good chemicals like endorphins. If you don’t love working out, that’s OK! Take walks, do something fun like bike riding or roller skating, move along to a yoga video, or have a solo dance party. Anything that involves moving your body will help you heal.
Work With Your Feelings
Journaling is a common way to manage stress and move through complex events. Give it a try if it feels like it might be beneficial for you. If it doesn’t, it will still be helpful to spend time sitting with your feelings. Do your best to get in touch with what you’re feeling, allow yourself to experience it entirely for a few moments, then notice how it passes. Feeling your feelings, and accepting them, is key to healing from trauma. You may have some difficult feelings along the way, like anger, and that’s OK. It’s natural to have a wide variety of emotions, and there’s nothing wrong if some of them are new for you.
Practice Self-Care
Self-care reduces stress. Equally important, it feels good. Practice self-care through your healing journey by regularly taking action to do things that feel good and loving for yourself. Self-care acts can be simple and free and might be as mundane as taking a bath. What matters is that you set time aside to care for yourself, and you do things that make you feel loved.
Avoid Recreational Substances
While healing from trauma, it might be incredibly tempting to drink or do drugs. Because recreational substances are addictive and help your brain stop thinking and feeling, this is not the right time for them. You won’t be able to work through your feelings if you’re actively avoiding them by taking substances. Know that this is temporary, and you can go back to activities like social drinking once you have taken the time to heal from your trauma.
Take Breaks
When moving through healing, you might find that you’re more tired than usual. Or, you might feel like you have physical energy, but your mind doesn’t work as well. Healing from trauma takes a lot of energy. The best way to deal with reduced energy during this time, whether physical or mental, is to be gentle with yourself. Taking breaks, even from doing fun things, to pause and give yourself a moment will help keep your energy up and ensure you don’t exhaust yourself.
Practice Mindfulness or Meditation
One act that’s well proven to support healing is mindfulness. It’s a method of experiencing life where you make a point of paying attention to each moment. You stay present for everything from your thoughts and feelings to how things are for you physically. This can help you relieve stress. Additionally, meditation and breathwork, which are natural offshoots of mindfulness, can improve stress levels and help you to feel more relaxed and settled in your life. These are all helpful for healing.
Engage in Creativity
Lastly, having fun is a great healing tool. Getting creative, for you, might mean making music or just listening to it. It might mean writing poetry, journaling, or even just reading a fiction book. Engaging your brain in creative and artistic endeavors has been proven to improve physiological and psychological outcomes in people. You can try art therapy or be completely casual about your creativity and do it alone. What matters is that you engage with anything creative that feels positive for you.
