Tips to Combat Trauma

BY BELLERUTH NAPARSTEK, REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION

Here at Support4Change Belleruth Naparstek is one of our favorite people. Her imagery tapes and other materials have proven invaluable to many who are struggling to cope in today's world. Check out her website, HealthJourneys, to learn more.

Please Note: Although this article was a result of the effects of the events of September 11, with the geopolitical uncertainties ahead, its information is still valid and timely.

I have noticed that I've been hanging out and laughing with my friends much more than usual. Over the past 15 years, for better or worse, l've been so busy that most of the time, I've reserved enjoying the company of my pals for later—kind of like dessert. Family and work come first, and those two items can be pretty consuming.

Of course, if a friend is in trouble and really needs me, that's different. But I'm definitely not the kind of buddy you call in the middle of the day to just schmooze, chew the fat and pass the time. I get impatient and irritated, thinking I'm dissipating energy on feckless blather that leaves insufficient time for improving the human condition! (I'm making fun of this but it's true.) I'm grateful that my friends put up with this egregious lack of flexibility on my part. They're actually pretty nice about it.

But these days, I've discovered that schmooze time and laughing with pals is feeling more like a necessity—something I actively seek out and arrange to have as part of my working day.... more like an essential protein, and less like dessert. I'm sure it has to do with all this terrorism business encroaching on my world. Suddenly I need the comfort of friends, laughter, closeness, mutual trust and fine, old-fashioned girlie bonding foolishness. I crave silliness and belly laughter to counter the isolation and fear that are lurking just below awareness.

I've also been noticing that people are becoming more stressed out now than they were before. Maybe the reality has set in. We know this stuff isn't going away. We need to learn how to live well while being scared. This is a skill we haven't had to master yet, here in North America.

So I started thinking about all the little adaptive things I've been finding myself doing—the small, ad hoc coping mechanisms that help..... And what definitely doesn't. I'm also seeing what my friends and neighbors have been up to. I'm listing some of these below. If you've got some good ones to add, please email them to me, or post them on the "Talk Amongst Yourselves" page. I think we need to focus on the proactive things we can do to make life savory and joyful, while putting up with all this garbage. So here goes.

I limit watching TV news. It has very little that's actually new, and the repetition of scary possibilities and time-filling conjecture actually promotes hopelessness and hysteria. I'm always astonished at how much better my mood is when I've been away from the tube for a decent chunk of time.

I give myself more than usual contact with people I love—family and friends—to see how they're doing, talk about things, and I use the connection as a touchstone to ground me back into what is both normal and precious.

I'm exercizing more frequently—5-6 times a week, up from the usual 3-4. It dissipates anxiety and lifts mood. Remember fight or flight? We need to simulate flight with a little aerobic activity—it dissipates adrenalin, just like it's supposed to, and invites those juicy seratonin cocktail mixes to infuse the bloodstream.

I very consciously cultivate and exercise my sense of humor, and do what I can to wring a smile out of those I converse with as well. This is tremendously healing, maybe the best of the list. In an inspired move one day last week, NPR decided to dispense with the news and instead played a half hour of the "Capitol Steps" doing their musical satire about the news. It was wonderful to laugh out loud in my car at these clever skits, and I was grateful for the jolt of sanity and well- being I got from our fabulous, zany, irreverent, totally demented, uniquely American sense of humor.

I avoid prolonged "Ain't it awful" conversations. Just as with certain kinds of support groups, where everyone ends up kvetching and groaning for too long, this is disempowering and only makes me feel worse, not better. This is not denial. I know perfectly well what's going on. I just don't want to focus on it to the point of desultory, feckless paralysis.

I like reading history and poetry for perspective on the big picture and the long view—we don't know everything that's coming, but we do know what we've survived and transcended. We will survive and transcend this too... and maybe even come out better, saner and more caring as a result.

I'm doing more small, nice things for strangers. It feels good.

—© Belleruth Naparstek, 2001, reprinted with permission

Psychotherapist Belleruth Naparstek, LISW, BCD, is a nationally recognized innovator in the field of guided imagery, healing and intuition. Creator of Time Warner's best-selling, 50 plus-title Health Journeys guided imagery audio series, which has sold over a million copies worldwide, she is a warm, dynamic and compelling speaker. Naparstek has lectured throughout the country and the world, training thousands of health professionals, corporate leaders, counselors, performing artists and health consumers in guided imagery techniques. Belleruth received both undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Chicago, receiving a master's degree in clinical social work in 1967. For years she taught graduate students at Case Western Reserve University.

DOGS NEED A BREAK FROM STRESS, TOO

BY BELLERUTH NAPARSTEK, REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION

These are very strange, disturbing and anxious days, are they not? It was good to read in a recent e-mail that a dog named Corey, who picks up the stressed-out vibes all around her in the greater Washington DC area, has been able to chill out to guided imagery. This e-mail from her human also illuminates what it's like to be living in our nation's capital these days. Here it is:

BR, I want to tell you about an unconventional use of your Healing Trauma CD.

I live in the metropolitan DC area. As you know, the terrorism alert status for the country has recently been raised to "Code Orange". While this has a minor effect on the practical life of the average person around here, the combination of the start of the war and being at Code Orange has also slightly elevated people's stress level—especially the stress levels of federal employees. We have a lot more traffic, we've been told to take special precautions at work and at home, and always, always, we hear the distant sound of Air Force jets patrolling our skies. The low roar of the jets is constant, like a low rumble of thunder. I can't hear them in the large building where I work, but at home when I lie in bed, I am suddenly much more aware of them. It is okay. It is Code Orange. It is the price of living and working in metropolitan DC.

Well, my dog (Corey) doesn't understand Code Orange. She is ten years old and has always been frightened of thunder, preferring to hide under the bed for the few hours a thunder storm might last. She is at home all day hearing the jets, and they are there for her, too, at night when she tries to sleep. Plus, she goes outside several times a day, and every time she comes in she is totally freaked out. She is probably also picking up on the slightly elevated stress levels of the humans she lives with. Since the elevation to Code Orange, she has been behaving nervously, especially when one or more of her people are away.

It occurred to me that perhaps I could turn on the TV or some music for Corey during the day when we are at work and that might drown out the sound of the jets for her. But she has never responded to music on the radio before, and there's always the risk with the TV that she might be stuck half the day listening to war news. What she needed, I thought, was a speaking human voice without startling sounds in the background. So this morning I put on your Healing Trauma CD, and she calmed right down! I may be projecting, but I'm sure she finds it as soothing as I do, even though she does not understand all of the words. I don't know that the Healing Trauma CD is the most appropriate thing for her and I have a suspicion that your headache tapes may work just as well. In the coming days I plan to alternate. I'll just set my CD player to repeat all day, and she'll spend the time I'm out of the house with you.

So there it is. We're getting more and more news of dogs getting on board with guided imagery. We are proud to have them! And as for you humans out there, take care of your stress levels too, with imagery or whatever ways you do that.

—© Belleruth Naparstek, 2003, reprinted with permission.