Cultivating a sense of agency to overcome trauma.
This mindfulness exercise is designed to help you overcome the harmful effects of trauma and to give you a stronger sense of self agency and control over how you relate to your trauma.
As you listen to this exercise and all mindfulness exercises,
Please remember you are in control of your experience and you can do as much of it or as little as you wish.
No matter what kind of trauma you may have gone through,
Large or small,
Physical,
Sexual,
Mental,
Emotional or spiritual,
Your trauma involves an incapacity to stop a terrible thing from happening to you.
Sometimes this truth can wear on the psyche,
So recovering from trauma may require that you at some point increase greater strengths and more capacities within to remember how powerful you are and how important your decisions are.
To some degree you may not feel like you can escape the awfulness of it all.
One thing that has helped thousands of others who live with incredible trauma is to be mindful of your own experiences of what we call agency.
Of simply being able to make things happen with your own free will and sense of empowerment.
Building upon your agency one building block at a time until there's nothing you feel you can't take on with your embodied strength and kindness that is always inside of you.
Another common feature of trauma is feeling fearful of communicating with confidence or assertiveness.
So reflecting on experiences where we've done this in the past can also be useful.
This can help us to remember our best self,
To know that we have the capacity to take on challenges with strength.
This provides the mind with the belief that you are greater than your past,
Bigger than anything that's happened to you and that you are not your trauma.
You are so much more.
You can shape your future to be as bright and healthy as you desire.
Agency is just a fancy term for a feeling of being able to make things happen.
If you feel a bit powerless,
Helpless,
Trapped,
Immobilized,
Defeated or despairing,
Then this practice of agency can help turn the tide.
To reawaken the feeling of what it's like to make things happen rather than be fearful of whatever might come next.
So with that in mind,
We will practice feeling a sense of agency in a guided mindfulness exercise together.
Please find a posture that feels relaxed and alert.
Take a deep breath in through your nose,
Out through your mouth and drop in.
I'd like you to reflect on a time in your life when you felt really good about having attained a goal.
What goal did you feel really proud of?
What choices and actions did you make?
And what were some of the little things that led up to it?
Consider how you've added value in situations or to other people and also reflect on some of the things that you get done in the course of a single day.
Recall ways you've influenced others or played a leadership role,
Perhaps in a family,
Friendship or in a business.
Bring mindfulness to some of the positive choices you've made,
All empowering experiences that lead to a greater feeling of accomplishment or agency.
See if you can open to this feeling and let it fill you.
Help it last and allow it to become more intense in your mind,
Your heart and your body.
You have made things happen.
You are competent,
You are effective and you will continue to be so.
Bring mindfulness to any other feelings that may arise like dignity,
Self-respect or a sense of possibility.
If you happen to feel any resistance to this sense of success or worth right now,
That is okay and completely normal.
See if you can gently bring your mind back to remembering some of the good feelings after you did something that you were really proud of doing.
Feel this sense of accomplishment or agency sink into you and remember that you can tap into this feeling anytime you remember it.
You can also sense what it will be like to accomplish more,
Even the little tasks of the day when you feel satisfied with meeting your goals that contribute to your wellbeing and the wellbeing of others.
Open to this reality that you can build on a foundation of what you have already done.
Let ease spread through your body and mind and release any pressure or drivenness.
If there's a sense of fragility somewhere in your consciousness,
It can be useful to imagine a nurturing person who is holding you as a child,
Reassuring you that you will reach your goals,
That you are special and powerful and that you can get things done and make a difference.
Thank you for your courage to remember who you really are,
To bring mindfulness to the sense of agency that you have and have always had inside of you,
Ready to unleash at any time.
You
