I know the experience of feeling overwhelmed by life.
Not only the everyday overwhelms that most humans will experience, at some point in their life, but the kind of overwhelm that happens when my body and mind feel completely flooded by intense feelings that seem to come out of nowhere.
Through the decades of healing my own childhood complex trauma I now understand that those “out of nowhere” feelings are rooted deeply in my body, mind, and nervous system and are historical. Meaning, they are both a response to the present day experience but also a response to the past.
In other words, the current experience has “flipped a switch” in my body and brain that causes my nervous system to react as though I was back in the earlier trauma experience.
When the overwhelm is debilitating, I can now see that it is an opportunity for deeper healing. It’s like the Universe saying “you can stop, take care of yourself, do the healing work, and I can take care of the rest.”
One of the ways I meet these moments is by pivoting inward and getting curious about the inner landscape, without trying to ground myself or change anything about my body-mind experience. Instead, offering radical acceptance toward myself and becoming interested in what is happening. Because truly, nothing is wrong, we are not broken, we are actually in a beautiful moment where there is opportunity for transformation and deeper self-compassion.
Connecting to your inner parts can assist in self-regulation.
You see, we all have different parts inside of us, a kind of inner family. Those parts want to be heard, seen, and understood. When we are overwhelmed, it is typically a part of us that is feeling overwhelmed, a younger version of us, inside. One way to start to connect with these parts is through inner-dialogue.
To give myself the structure around this process, and to support clients as they explore this inner terrain, I created RADIANT: A Seven Step Process for Nurturing your Inner Child, a step-by step guide to support you in learning more about these inner parts / children. This guide is something you can use as a stand alone or as an adjunct to professional support.
Sometimes doing this kind of work solo is too much.
If going inside alone feels like a lot, I invite you to reach out. I would be honored to support you (and your inner parts) in-person or virtually for a one-on-one somatic occupational therapy session, click here to schedule.
Lastly, if you would like ways to nurture yourself while in loving community, check out my upcoming virtual and in-person offerings on my events page here.
Wishing you all profound levels of self-compassion and care. Because you were born worthy of this love!