We have all experienced moments in which we “zone out.” Perhaps you have been driving a car somewhere you travel daily and can’t remember how you got from point A to point B. Maybe you were sitting in a classroom or work meeting and missed something that was said by your teacher or boss.
Dissociation is a “disruption, interruption, and/or discontinuity of the normal, subjective integration of behavior, memory, identity, consciousness, emotion, perception, body representation, and motor control.” (DSM 5, 2013)
On average, humans dissociate every 7-11 minutes!
That means that likely some of you will dissociate while reading this post…
Everyone dissociates, and most of the time it is not a problem. We lose focused awareness on functions that are automatic as a means of conserving time and energy. In experiences of extreme stress dissociation can serve the purpose of protecting us from remembering the pain of trauma and conserve resources so that we can go on with normal life when safety resumes.
When it becomes a problem is when dissociation becomes our default setting.
So how do we address dissociation when it becomes problematic?
1. Make sure the environment is safe externally. Traumatic healing cannot happen if a person is still experiencing ongoing trauma exposure.
2. Addressing internal safety starts with orienting to the present safe environment. This means focusing on our five senses in the present moment.
From a Trauma Informed Yoga perspective, we call this grounding. Here are some tools for grounding.
1. Come to a standing posture. Start by feeling your feet connected to the ground. You may choose to rock back and forth from your toes to your heals to find a place where you feel stable. Focus on engaging your core and lengthening your spine from the base up.
2. Bring your hands to your checks and focus on the temperature of your hands on your face. Breath out through pursed lips.
3. Engage socially in a safe way (e.g. laugh with someone at a funny video clip, talk about what you observe in the here and now, touch if it feels safe through hugging or hand holding).
