We all have some kind of traumas inflicted upon us. Maybe it comes from our parents, teachers, colleagues, lovers and former lovers, etc. At first, you may grief and feel anger toward the people who hurt you and the occasion that happened. Then you may get into denial. Creating scenarios in your mind about how things could have gone differently. Blaming other parties for it. Then, you may fall into a depressive state until you decide that you want to start healing from this trauma. But how do you do it? How to heal emotional trauma?
We would like to give you a blend of emotional and practical ways to heal your emotional trauma. Of course, these advice should always be taken with a grain of salt as everyone’s experience with their trauma is different. However, we believe they still add value to your healing journey. Let’s find out what they are.
1. Acknowledge Your Trauma
The first step to healing emotional trauma is acknowledging your traumas. You can’t heal from things you do not admit exist. Write down the things that hurt you in a piece of paper.
Read it clearly and then take a deep breath. Acknowledge them and understand they are a piece of your past that you can never change. Breath out and then you can burn the paper and take another deep breath.
Do this every once in a while whenever you’re feeling triggered by the past.
2. Understand Healing Take Times
Next, you need to understand that healing takes time. You can’t expect to feel fine after a day or two. Sometimes it even takes years to fully accept and move on from what’s hurting you.
However, time will ease the pain. Maybe it won’t completely disappear and that’s okay. Maybe everything won’t be the same but us humans are stronger than we think. You will live.
3. Clean Up Your Space / Change Environment
Let’s get into the more practical part. Yes, you may be hurt right now, but gather the courage to move your body and clean up your space and change your environment. Clutters stress people out and you don’t need it.
Get rid of anything that you do not need or remind you of bad things. Sell some of them if you can or donate them. Then you want to clean your space or hiring a cleaning service.
In some cases, if it’s viable, you may even want to change your environment. It will be more difficult heal in places that hurt you. Changing environment is a great way to accelerate your healing process.
This can be done in several ways, from moving out of your current house or apartment to moving to an entirely different city or country. The new setting will allow you to have a fresh start and it has worked for a lot of people, so it may also work for you.
4. Practice Self Care
The next step is to practice self-care. No, self-care doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want like binge eating an entire box of ice cream. Instead, self-care means being more gentle on yourself and taking the practical steps to make you feel better. Starting from your appearance.
You may notice that when you are feeling low or hurt, you have the tendency to neglect your appearance. Get up, take shower, put on some nice clean clothes and take the time to do your makeup and hair. Take a long bath if you can, go to a spa and get a massage. Anything to make you look and feel alive.
You can also do mental self-care by journaling or meditating. Write down your thoughts and feelings on a journal. Put on some calming music and get in tune with your body.
Also, during the healing process, you especially want to pay more attention to what you’re eating. Food plays a huge role in your health, physically and mentally. The healthier the food you eat, the better you will feel.
5. Exercise / Take Walk in Nature
Exercising releases endorphins which is a happy hormone that will make you feel better. It’s a great way to get in shape while improving your mood. However, if you don’t feel like exercising, there is another option which is taking walk in nature. Something about being in nature is extremely calming.
If you have anxiety or depression, taking at least thirty-minute walk in nature daily will definitely improve your mental health and alleviate the symptoms. Naturally, it’s also a great way to accelerate your healing process or at least make you feel better in the time being.
6. Find Positive Coping Mechanism
Usually, when we are trying to heal from something, we will find another thing and use it as a coping mechanism. It does work. The key here is to find a positive coping mechanism instead of a negative one.
For example, you can turn to writing, painting, dancing, music, cooking or maybe even starting a new business and use it as your coping mechanism.
Never turn into drugs or alcohol when you’re trying to cope with the hurt and trauma. They will only make you feel worse. You need to have coping mechanism especially in the early stage of your healing journey, but make it a good one.
7. Seek Therapy
Last but not least, you want to seek help or therapy. Now, of course, therapy and help isn’t limited only to those with traumas to heal from but it’s especially helpful for those who do need the help.
The key here is to find a therapist who is professional and compatible with you. You don’t want to turn into people who are biased toward you because they may give you advice based on their own experience instead of objective ones.
Finding a professional helper is always the best way to do it. Whatever you are telling them will remain confidential so you can be more at ease.
Conclusion
While trauma can be a little bit difficult to overcome, there are still possible ways to recover from it. You should never give up on yourself of life because of what happened and find ways to feel better, because you deserve it.
