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Day 2. Life is turned upside down
SAID ALOUD
Day 2. Life is turned upside down
Aims. To make sure you are grounded when the story continues. To familiarise you with grounding exercises.
PART II: THE TRAINING
Trainer. The next part of the story describes what happened to the Butterfly Woman. It contains her experience of violence and rape. Before we start, we will do an exercise that may help during the session. It reminds us that we are here, now, and that we are together and safe.
Grounding Exercise 1. Grounding the body.( 10-15 minutes.)
This exercise helps us to remain calm and balanced. It can help survivors to‘ come down’ from hyperarousal and also to focus when in‘ freeze-mode’.
GROUNDING EXERCISE
Grounding exercise 1 is described in the previous session( Day 1) and in Appendix 2. or Grounding Exercise 7. Feeling the weight of your body.( 5 minutes.)
This exercise helps survivors who are‘ frozen’ or numb to focus on the present. It activates muscles in the torso and legs, which gives a feeling of physical structure. When we are overwhelmed, our muscles often change from extreme tension to collapse; they shift from a state of active defence( fight and flight) to submission, and become more than ordinarily relaxed( hypotonic). When we are in touch with our structure, it is easier to bear feelings. We can contain our experience and manage feelings of fragmentation( of being overwhelmed) better.
• Feel your feet on the ground. Pause for five seconds.
• Feel the weight of your legs. Hold for five seconds.
• Try stamping your feet carefully and slowly from left to right, left, right, left, right. Feel your buttocks and thighs touching the seat of the chair. Hold for five seconds.
• Feel your back against the back of the chair.
• Stay like that and notice if you feel any difference.
Trainer. If we are connected with our senses, to what we see and smell and touch, it helps us to stay in the present moment. We are anchored in the present. Using your senses in this way can calm you when you might otherwise be overwhelmed by feelings; and re-energise you when you feel fatigue. The underlying principle is to redirect our attention to our senses and to our safeness in the present moment. This calms our nervous system when it is over-stimulated and wakes it when it is under-active. Through our senses, our body and mind refocus, here, now; and, when we are truly in the present, our memories remain in the past.