they are some- times called an amygdala hijacking.
Fight – “I didn’t even think, I just hit everything around me.
” Flight – “I don’t know what happened, when I came back to my
senses I was running in the woods.
” Freeze – “I don’t know why, but I didn’t protest, didn’t move, didn’t
say a thing, I felt like it was happening to another person.
” Faint – “I just passed out.”
Relax Mode When we feel safe we find ourselves in the realm
dominated by the PSNS, which is organized for taking long-term
care of us, rest and digest. This is where eating and digestion
starts working properly including resting, socializing, sex, sleep
and recreation.
Breathing – the foundation of relaxation
Of all symptoms involved, there is one that you consciously can
control, and by doing so, you will affect all the rest: your breathing.
Your breathing is the con- nection between what your body does
without you thinking about it, and what you can control by thinking
about it. Breathing is the link between your two nervous systems, a
gateway to relaxation. A focus on breathing is what meditation,
mindfulness, yoga, qigong and all holistic approaches have in
common.
Re-Traumatization
There are methods for treating traumatic memories that require
revisiting the feelings associated with these memories. For the
nervous system of a person this can be the equivalent of
experiencing the traumatic event again, actually reinforcing it. This is
called re-traumatization and in our opinion, it should be avoided at all
times. During all these years, we have never experienced the need to
induce an abreaction to resolve a traumatic memory. This is one of
the ad- vantages of techniques like TTT: You do not need to talk
about the event. You don’t need to relive it – just connect ever so
lightly to the unwanted emotion, while performing the technique.