How To Develop Healthy Habits That Support Trauma Healing

What is trauma?

Trauma is an emotional reaction to an event, or series of events or interactions with others that has occurred and often has a long-lasting impact in your life.

It can keep you in flight or fight mode when you experience a similar situation even when the circumstance is safe.

Ignoring trauma and trauma responses can make things worse for you and be debilitating to your daily life.

How do you know if you have experienced trauma?

Trust yourself. If something feels as though it may have caused you trauma, it did. You are the writer of your story and the experiencer of your events and relationships.

If you are unsure, some patterns can be a sign that you are acting out due to trauma. If you know that certain patterns, put you in danger, it may be time to heal from them.

This may include low self-esteem, alcohol or drug use, eating disorders, or risky sexual behaviors. To help you heal from the trauma, you may need to replace the habits with healthy changes.

Other patterns that may feel less dangerous might be avoiding people or situations out of fear, creating rigid patterns and structures for your life, over working, over exercising, and perfectionistic tendencies among others.

What are healthy habits that support trauma healing?

Healthy habits that support trauma healing can include developing your self-care practice, getting comfortable with guided meditation, and identifying your triggers.

Read More: “How To Improve Your Mental Health Even When You Have Experienced Trauma”

A healthy habit doesn’t have to be a life shift to be valuable. You won’t be able to control everything that happens within your environment, and you can control your reaction to what does happen.

When you know yourself better, you can respond differently.

Practicing self-care doesn’t have to mean massages and manicures; it can also mean how you approach love toward yourself.

Slow down when you are applying lotion. Flip your negative self-talk by saying something more loving toward yourself.

Guided meditation and mindfulness can be tools that can help with anxiety and depression due to trauma.

Staying in the present moment can help you to heal from trauma.

Think about how you can get to a safe place in your mind when your body doesn’t feel safe so that you don’t continuously recreate trauma in your life.

Identifying your triggers doesn’t mean avoiding your trauma. It means that you create loving spaces and identify safe words so that you can help yourself through uncomfortable situations.

You don’t have to expose yourself to unsafe people, places, or things in order to overcome trauma. In fact, this can be hurtful to you, especially if you recreate a traumatic experience. Unnecessary stress can be a distraction to your recovery.

Trauma can be complicated and developing healthy habits can help you through the difficulty. When you feel stuck or alone, a trauma-informed therapist can help.

Often, trauma comes with anxiety and depression, which can be difficult to navigate, and you don’t have to overcome trauma by yourself.

Mental health professionals want to help you successfully ease the trauma in your life. Some therapists specialize in trauma therapy, are trauma-informed in their approach and can be helpful after a traumatic event. You don’t need a reason to start therapy. Your journey starts when you do.

How can you develop healthy habits when you experience trauma?

Time and treatment are helpful tools when it comes to trauma. Time doesn’t always heal wounds, and many types of therapy modalities can help. Therapy like EMDR therapy, somatic therapy, Internal Family Systems, and ACT (Acceptance & Commitment Therapy) can be useful when it comes to healing from trauma.

Read More: “Considering Therapy? Here’s What You Should Look For When Choosing A Therapist For You.”

Often, whether the trauma is big or small, therapy is necessary to help you move forward. Learning to work with your trauma responses with a trauma-informed therapist can be a very rewarding experience, that can take time.

A therapist can help you navigate obstacles your learned trauma reactions and become more flexible in your approach to building healthy habits.

Developing healthy habits is a step-by-step process that is possible alone, and it can be more effective with the support of a therapist or other spiritual guides who understand trauma.

Building trust with your therapist can be the key to easing trauma in your life. Be patient because this takes time, especially if you’ve experienced childhood trauma.

Think about how you approach relationships in your life, and give yourself grace when you are building a relationship with a trusted mental health professional. The right fit will feel good relationally.

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Written by: Randi Thackeray, MA
Clinically Reviewed and Edited by: Julie Reichenberger, MA, LPC, ACS, ACC