Treating PTSD with mindfulness, if we really stop and think about it, is an ideal place to begin dealing with your symptoms. For years you've been on high alert, on edge, suspicious, and in discomfort.
How lovely would it be to simply feel your body or your breath without worry? Or to let memories come and go without feeling compelled to suppress them? Or to stop judging yourself so harshly simply because negative thoughts occurred?
After all, how long has it been since your mind was quiet? Observant without action, or commentary, or fear?Mindfulness is the practice of what is. Being with what is. Being accepting of what is. Conscious and open minded. Spacious and in the immediate moment. PTSD has, no doubt, stolen much peace from you.
Maybe now is the time to pursue a way to live life less overwhelmed. More at peace with your symptoms and less at war with your current world and the people in it. Treating PTSD with mindfulness has a lot to offer you if you commit to it. Science has proven it and other PTSD sufferers swear by it. Why?
Let’s look at the following four reasons why treating PTSD with mindfulness is a successful treatment
1.Increases stress tolerance.
On a basic level, mindfulness works as a treatment because people stick with it. Clamping down on thoughts, avoiding them, or redirecting them abruptly are not mindful techniques. Mindfulness allows thoughts and feelings to rise to the surface naturally. As that occurs, sufferers are encouraged to deal with sensations, emotions, and responses kindly and compassionately. This increased awareness and permission strengthens physical and mental tolerance. More tolerance increases your chances of working through the trauma and moving on with your life.
2. Heightens a nonjudgmental relationship to symptoms.
Treating PTSD with mindfulness brings with it all the usual slang. Words like observance, acknowledgement, allowance, and awareness. What those words imply is a different, more productive relationship with your PTSD symptoms. Fortunately, mindfulness helps you look at your present state and gives you tools to manage it.
The PTSD tells you that everything and everyone is, in one way or another, unsafe. Mindfulness quietly... shows you how to observe but not judge yourself. It helps you clarify your thinking and soothe yourself kindly. And it does this without starting a cycle of rumination and avoidance.
3. Boosts acceptance of what is.
Mindfully accepting discomfort leads to more self control. At the heart of it, isn’t that what you long for? To regain control of your life? Ironically, mindful acceptance accomplishes this through a process of releasing control. You can allow your history, emotions, and memories to just be. Unburied and unavoidable. Accepted for what they are.
Reaching this level of calm and peace, the support of your therapist and loved ones is entirely possible. In a study of war vets, completed by the University of Michigan Health System and the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, mindfulness was found to surpass other treatment forms. Why? Because, mindfulness lessens that avoidance coping mechanism that keeps pain suppressed and contained in the body and mind.By practicing acceptance, mindfulness shrinks your fear and worry with the knowledge that you are capable of enduring your own thoughts and concerns without becoming debilitated or overwhelmed.
4. Strengthens treatment sustainability.
Research also reveals its lasting impact. Regular mindfulness practice appears to reduce distressing mental responses, emotional states, or traumatic triggers that affect treatment effectiveness.Once sufferers learn how to observe and accept their thoughts, sensations, and emotions, their stress decreases.
In fact, mindful focus on the present moment appears to foster significant gains in emotional regulation. This results in fewer post traumatic stress symptoms, according to recent studies.Treating PTSD with mindfulness is such a successful treatment because it gently begins an intentional process of reorienting your mind.
It is more than just a successful treatment, but also an effective life skill. A skill that you may call on again and again, between therapy sessions and long after, until your PTSD symptoms are well in hand.Are you ready? Reach out to a therapist that incorporates mindfulness practices? If you would like some extra support with your PTSD symptoms and learn mindfulness techniques, please contact me for a free 30-minute consultation to learn about how I can be of service.
To find out more about my services click here: PTSD Treatment and Bipolar Disorder.
