The Body as a Sacred Sanctuary: Reclaiming Safety After Trauma

Our spirit came to Earth for a human experience, and the body is its vehicle in this journey. When the spirit doesn’t feel safe in the body, it will depart from it, which can result in feeling significant anxiety, ruminating thoughts, challenging emotions, and disconnection with our bodily cues (hunger, pain, etc). It can feel like our inner world is chaotic and uncomfortable, yet we can be totally unaware of the cause. Honoring our emotions and bodily cues, as well as ensuring strong energetic grounding, is crucial for making the body a safe vessel for the spirit. 

For most of my life, prior to my energy medicine training, I walked around ungrounded, anxious, and out of touch with my physical body. I lived out of my mind, and was constantly reacting to the tumultuousness around me. I ignored my emotions, hunger, and need to urinate, until it was dire. Due to years of abuse in my childhood, my spirit learned to leave my body when things got scary (this is also known as disassociation). So, with sparse grounding much of the time, when I experienced any sort of threat to my nervous system, my spirit would fly out of my body, leaving me feeling frozen, panicked, and numb to physical sensations. I had some panic attacks as well, one time even going to the emergency room because my heart and mind wouldn't stop racing. Being in crowded concerts or busy grocery stores was enough to cause nervous system overload and my spirit to leave my body. This is not an uncommon experience, especially for those who’ve experienced significant trauma and are highly sensitive/empathic. 

With trauma healing, comes greater grounding and embodiment.

It took time for me to heal from the trauma of my early life, and to repair my energy system, distorted from years of disembodiment. However, I discovered a beautiful thing - the more I worked on my energetic grounding and healed the trauma, the more my nervous system relaxed. I became less anxious, my mind was more calm, and I began to access my intuition - my spirit’s voice shining through, at last. I realized the importance of truly feeling my emotions, acknowledging them fully, and releasing them from the mind and body in a healthy way. 

It’s been years since I started this journey, and I am now happy to report that grounding comes naturally to me, most of the time. Additionally, practicing embodiment regularly, in the form of exercise, yoga, Qigong, and being in nature, is crucial for my spirit to continue to feel safe in this body. I am continuously practicing listening to my emotions and my body’s calls for water, food, touch, rest, and the like. 

What I’ve learned in this embodiment journey is multifold. First, nourishment of the physical body is just as important as nourishment of the soul  - we require this balance in order to experience true inner peace and wellbeing. Secondly, we cannot ignore our emotions or bodily cues without impact to both the physical body and spirit. Lastly, for me, and for others who resonate with this story, the remedy to chronic disembodiment involves: 1) healing past trauma on a spiritual and energetic level; 2) practicing energetic grounding daily; 3) caring for your body the way you’d care for your infant - become your own parent, and practice attentiveness to the needs of your emotions and your sacred physical vessel. 

Our bodies are truly our temples in this life, our source of sanctuary from the outside world. Our emotions are our inner GPS, showing us what we need to acknowledge and release. Inner calm comes from honoring the calls of our physical body, emotions, mind, and spirit. I support clients in this work - healing from trauma and re-connecting with the body in order to reclaim their sovereignty, peace, and unique voice. If this work speaks to you, you are welcome to schedule a complimentary consultation.