How Yoga Saved My Life

This is a post I have been intending to write since I began this blog last month.  It’s a tough subject, but a very important one.

It’s about how yoga can help you heal from a trauma.  For me, the trauma was intense, deep and at least for a while, will be lasting.  I am a former victim of domestic violence.  Without getting too trapped in the frightening details, I suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a result of the abuse.  It went on for quite a while until I managed to break free.

Since I’ve been writing here I have talked about a healthier lifestyle, yoga poses, different yoga practices.  But what yoga has really done for me cannot be put into words–at least not very readily.

The PTSD is one of the key reasons (I also suffered from some chronic pain when I began my practice) I became involved in yoga, hoping it would support the healing process I am trying to accelerate in my life. My therapist recommended it to me as a tool for promoting healing and reducing the severe anxiety that often accompanies physical abuse.

The PTSD frequently takes me places at unexpected moments.  Flash backs are a big part of it, and you never can know when they will be triggered.  My yoga practice, and the development of mindfulness for me has been an extraordinarily healthy component of my daily life. I am now much more capable of blocking these frightening and intrusive thoughts that seem to come from nowhere, but have their origins in the violence I experienced.

Yoga has tamped down the level of anxiety that I often feel as a result of the abuse.  It calms me down and soothes me.  The practice of meditation alone has eased the emotional pain a thousand-fold.  It has helped me reduce some of the physiological symptoms I experience as well, like, for example, when my heart begins racing at the thought of the abuse and the many episodes that occurred during that time.

Yoga has also given me the gift of feeling present in my own body at times when I normally would be jerked back into the past, my mind taken over by fear and pain.  It has made it possible for me to ground myself during very stressful moments that I hope no one reading this post ever has to go through. 

As a result of my practice, I now have a very deep channel to my inner strength, a strength that at times I thought I would never be able to recover.

It’s a very personal story for me.  And a very important one for many who still experience this kind of pain. 

Blessings to anyone who has or still is going through a trauma.  I hope you’ll share your stories with me here, or offline.  And I do hope you will continue to practice yoga, because it really will help heal your pain and regain your footing in life.

Peace.