Something I realized was worth keeping in mind lately: your body doesn’t just keep the score on trauma, you know.
Like we’re starting to give some lipservice to the idea that trauma, that stress and harm and damage, live in our “bodies” even if we don’t consciously/cognitively acknowledge them, but there’s two small problems with this idea.
One is the idea that there is a brain-body split, because there isn’t. Your brain, the place where your cognition occurs, is just another part of your body. Your conscious memory is also part of your body keeping the score. I could go on about this for a while, but I’ll refrain for now.
Because almost more important to this issue is that your body also keeps all the other scores.
The smell that calms you down. The fact that you feel better after a big hug. The way your favourite kind of tea helps ground you. The sudden joy at a particular song.
All of these things also live in your body. Your comfort food being comfort food is a score your body is keeping. How to read. The comfort of a warm bed. All of that knowledge lives in your body, in its memory too.
Yes this!! My haptotherapist (a kind of body-focused therapy) often helps ground me by reminding me of positive body memories. Remember how it feels to run and laugh with joy? Remember how it feels to jump on a trampoline? How it feels to float in cool water on a hot summer day? Remember how good it is to feel how strong your body is? Remember, remember, remember?
(Obviously what is/feels positive differs for everyone, these are just some thingd that help me remember that, all misery/trauma aside, there is joy too, in having a body)
