There are going to be trauma recovery tools that can actually move the needle for you, but which get absurdly oversimplified in pop culture.
Breathing is one.
Grounding is another.
Meditation is one.
Journaling is a big one.
Each of those can be game changers in your trauma recovery— but they get watered down and trivialized in the public discourse, so much so that each one, at first mention, sounds like weak sauce.
Don’t get me wrong, there are absolutely superficial ways to “try” any of the above.
If you really think breathing is as straightforward as “in and out,” you’re probably not impressed by all the reminders to “breathe.”
If you think grounding is just “five things you can see, four things you can hear, three things you can touch,” blah blah blah, you’re probably not convinced it can be useful tool to manage dissociation or flashbacks.
If you think meditation is just sitting on the floor going “ommmm,” you’re probably unmotivated to try to establish a mediation practice as part of your recovery.
And if you think journaling is just “write about your feelings,” then not only do you probably not buy that it is a tool (I would call it a fundamental tool) in trauma recovery, but you probably think it’s a questionable idea that could make you vulnerable to flooding.
All fair.
The reality is, I can’t give you a full on seminar on each of those tools here. There isn’t space for that here— but more to the point, teaching and learning each of those four tools in ways that are applicable to your recovery could fill not just four books, but four times four books.
That is to say, there’s more to each of those tools than many people realize, because they get flattened out and caricatured in public discussions.
Truth is, breathing is the most accessible lever to toggling your vagus nerve and intentionally shifting between sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system dominance. Entire books have been written about the centrality of breathing to mental and physical health.
Truth is, without grounding skills— that go beyond the well-known 5,4,3,2,1 technique— are not just helpful at managing dissociation, flashbacks, and even nightmares, they’re foundational. Other skills don’t work well, or at all, if we don’t take connecting to the here and now seriously.
Truth is, meditation and self-hypnosis are the type of intentionally, naturally altered states of consciousness that make the neural rewiring trauma recovery requires possible at all.
And the truth is, guided journaling is the single most effective lever I’ve ever developed in processing my own trauma. It’s not even close. More so than therapy, even.
My point is: if a tool sounds like weak sauce, look closer.
Pop culture drastically oversimplifies most tools of emotional regulation and behavior change.
What you see in movies and on TV when people make significant changes in their lives is rarely how it works.
Don’t toss out a potential tool just because it sounds stupid or superficial.
Breathing, grounding, meditation, and journaling, among other tools, have been around for a long time and continue to be part of the trauma recovery conversation for one main reason: they work.
(And but also, not for nothing, they’re free, at least once you learn to use them well.)
Look closer.
Dive deeper.
There are recovery levers you haven’t known to pull because of how they’ve been presented to you— but which can seriously change how you feel and function.
