What Is PTSD?

You are experiencing PTSD if something distressing has happened in your life and you’re having trouble sleeping; finding yourself overly emotional or numb to your emotions; feeling on guard all the time; experiencing painful memories that don’t fade; living with a constant sense of fear; or avoiding places, people, or things that remind you of a distressing event. These PTSD symptoms are your body’s way of coping with trauma.

What Is a Traumatic Event?

Any event that’s life threatening, causes intense fear, or compromises your physical or emotional safety can cause PTSD. Such events can include the following:

• Suffering a physical injury

• Receiving a serious medical diagnosis

• Being the victim of rape, assault, mugging, or robbery

• Enduring physical, sexual, emotional, or other forms of abuse

• Witnessing or experiencing an automobile, train, or plane crash

• Experiencing or witnessing a natural disaster, war combat, or terrorist attack

• Being the victim of, or being involved in, a kidnapping or torture

• Being involved in a civil conflict

• Experiencing a stressful life event, such as divorce, unemployment, illness, or death of a loved one

What Are the Symptoms of PTSD?

People with PTSD experience key symptoms that can be classified into one of four sets.

1. Arousal, involves reliving the traumatic event in some way, such as thinking about the event when you’re trying to do something else.

2. Numbing, involves feeling a lack of interest in the things you do or the people you’re with.

3. Avoidance, includes isolating yourself or staying away from places or people that remind you of the traumatic event.

4. Vigilance, involves feeling on guard or startling easily. Underlying these four basic sets of symptoms are associated issues.

People with PTSD may become depressed, experience sleep disturbances, or develop an anxiety disorder. They may develop dependence on alcohol or drugs. Reckless behaviors, such as excessive gambling and driving at extreme speeds, may also be symptoms of PTSD. Gastrointestinal complaints, immune system problems, and other physical illnesses can also have links to PTSD. Your Nervous System and Trauma Your nervous system is designed to detect danger and put into action defense mechanisms to ensure your survival as a human being (Porges 2001). Nature has programmed these defense mechanisms in your body to help protect you from overwhelming experiences. These are natural responses to your internal and external life events and stressors.

When these mechanisms switch on, they cause you to experience such things as a knot in your belly, tension in your chest, constriction in your throat, pain in your head, and the desire to freeze, fight, or flee. You may also experience a mixture of emotions including rage, fear, or helplessness regarding your present, past, or future circumstances. If these stress reactions do not go away on their own, or if they get worse over time, they can overpower your sense of stability and result in your developing PTSD (Porges 2001). Trauma over-activates your nervous system’s mental and emotional circuitry. It leaves you feeling that you’re being held hostage by your thoughts and emotions. These thoughts and emotions, in turn, can influence other functions of your nervous system. They can decrease your ability to understand the results of your actions. They can also impair your memory, attention, and concentration. They can get in the way of your healing until long after a trauma-triggering event has occurred (Hebb 1949).

The “Me” of Trauma

When healing doesn’t adequately take place, the same defense mechanisms that are meant to help you survive can instead leave you feeling that something’s gone terribly wrong around and to you. You can feel that something’s now personally and terribly wrong with you. In this moment, your ego takes over. The ego is the hardwired mechanism within your brain that provides you with a sense of self. It picks up on the feeling that “Something’s wrong,” then it goes further and affirms, “Something’s wrong with me” and “There’s something about me that’s broken” and “I’ll never be the way I was.” This happens because your ego identifies with the non-personal feeling that “something’s wrong.” This identification by the ego makes a fact that’s not personal—“Something’s wrong”—into a very personal self-judgment: “Something’s wrong with me.” And all this makes difficult what is otherwise a natural process of healing trauma. Your Resilient Brain Research shows that when you experience long-term PTSD, your brain undergoes changes that cause you to experience an increase in negative emotions and thoughts, diminish your concentration and memory, and decrease your ability to understand the results of your actions (Weniger, Lange, and Irle 2009; Bremner 2006; Morey et al. 2012).

Fortunately, researchers have also discovered that your brain can change as a result of your life experiences and can reestablish new and healthy connections between your existing brain cells, as well as grow new and healthy brain cells. As you heal your symptoms of PTSD, your brain grows new and healthy cells. As a result, you gain increased control over your thoughts and emotions. Your concentration and memory increase. Your ability to understand the results of your actions also increases, as does your ability to take productive and positive actions in your life (Lutz et al. 2008; Hutcherson, Seppala, and Gross 2008; Williams et al. 2006; Lemonick 2005; Shin, Rauch, and Pitman 2006).

Treatments for Healing PTSD All treatments that support the healing of PTSD work by changing your relationship with your traumatic experiences and symptoms of PTSD (Roemer and Orsillo 2003; Tick 2005). iRest Yoga Nidra is an ancient meditation-based form of treatment and healing. Like other forms of treatment and healing, iRest works directly by changing the sensory, cognitive, and emotional symptoms that keep your PTSD in place. Meditation programs, like iRest, are shown to bring about deep relaxation while also producing healthy changes in the structure of your brain, stimulating healing and tissue repair, and providing you self-care skills for changing negative emotions and thoughts into positive ones (Miller 2006).

In practical terms, iRest is a meditative practice that enables you to heal the memories, emotions, and beliefs that are signs of your PTSD. iRest provides you with the self-care tools you need to navigate your daily life and restore your inner sense of ease and well-being. Welcome to the healing practices of iRest Yoga Nidra. What Is Yoga Nidra? Yoga nidra is an ancient meditation practice that supports psychological, physical, and spiritual healing. The term yoga nidra is composed of two words from the Indian Sanskrit language: Yoga: the view, path, and means by which you experience your interconnection with yourself and all of life. Nidra: changing states of consciousness, such as waking, sleeping, and dreaming, which include sensations, emotions, thoughts, and images. Yoga nidra is made up of a sequence of meditation practices that help you feel connected to yourself, with others, and to the world around you. These meditation practices teach you how to respond, rather than react, to your emotions, thoughts, and actions—no matter your state of mind or body. When you react, you feel that something remains incomplete in the way you handled a particular situation. Something still feels “off” or “not right.” When you respond, you feel in harmony with your actions and with the world around you.

What Is Integrative Restoration?

iRest stands for Integrative Restoration, which is a modern-day variation of the ancient practice of yoga nidra meditation. iRest Yoga Nidra is a meditation program that teaches self-care skills for healing and resolving symptoms of PTSD. It’s an educational practice that focuses on health and healing at all levels of your life: physical, psychological, and spiritual. It’s a healing program that respects your age, culture, religion, and philosophical orientation. iRest teaches you self-care tools that lead you to experience self-mastery, resilience, and well-being. iRest Yoga Nidra helps you get back on track, stay on track, heal your PTSD, and get on with living your life with meaning and purpose.

iRest is integrative, as it addresses both psychological and physical issues, such as stress, trauma, insomnia, and pain in your body and mind. It helps you feel yourself as a fully functioning, integrated, and healthy human being. And iRest is restorativebecause it helps you recover your inner resources of joy, peace, and well-being, which enable you to feel connected to yourself and all of life. The practice of iRest integrates and restores, so that you can experience well-being wherever you are, whom- ever you’re with, whatever you’re doing, and whatever you’re experiencing. Research on iRest Research reveals the iRest program as a complementary intervention that supports other methods you use to heal your PTSD (Moore et al. 2011). iRest draws upon ancient meditative practices for enhancing well- being and interconnection with yourself and the world around you. And it also incorporates research-proven Western interventions, such as deep relaxation, emotional and psychological healing, and resiliency enhancement.

iRest research participants report a broad range of improvements, including decreases in depression, anxiety, stress, PTSD, chronic and acute pain, and insomnia. They experience greater well-being and serenity, joy, vitality, purpose, and meaning in life. They also report improvements in their interpersonal, marital, and peer relationships, and greater comfort and ability to handle situations they can’t control. They experience greater control over their lives and increased ability to handle issues such as PTSD, pain, and stress (Fritts et al. 2014). For a current listing of research using iRest please visit http://www.irest.us/research.(link is external)

Recommended by the Military A 2006 research study on iRest, sponsored by the Department of Defense, led the Deployment Health Clinical Center at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to begin providing iRest classes to wounded service members returning from war to help them heal their wartime trauma and PTSD (Engel et al. 2006). Also based on iRest research, the US Army Surgeon General’s Pain Management Task Force listed yoga nidra as a primary approach for pain management in military health care. In addition, the Defense Centers of Excellence (DCoE) have recommended iRest for ongoing research as a treatment for PTSD (Schoomaker 2010; DCoE 2010). As a result of this and subsequent iRest research and program implementation at numerous military and private facilities, a program is now in place that’s bringing group and individual iRest classes to men and women in VA centers, active-duty military facilities, and medical facilities around North America and beyond. The Ten Steps of iRest The ten steps that form the iRest Program for Healing PTSD can be incorporated into every part of your daily life to foster health, healing, and wellness at all levels of your body, mind, and spirit. To produce true healing of PTSD, treatment must reach and heal the deepest nooks and crannies within your body and mind. To be effective at that level, the treatment program must be tried and true.

The iRest Program for Healing PTSD is such a program.

1.Affirming Your Heartfelt Mission Your heartfelt mission is your inner compass of core values that provides purpose and meaning to your life. Discovering and affirming your heartfelt mission helps you get out of bed each morning and keeps you moving forward through your day so that you can attain your life’s purpose, no matter what.

2.Affirming Your Intention Intentions are statements of fact and actions that are guiding forces in your life. Like the banks of a river, intentions keep your life flowing and on course. Intentions are designed to help you heal your PTSD and complete your heartfelt mission.

3.Affirming Your Inner Resource Your inner resource is a somatic inner felt-sense of unchanging stability, safety, and well-being. Your inner resource enables you to weather all difficulties you encounter as you heal your PTSD and move through your life. The ultimate inner resource is your simple felt-sense of being and/or awareness, which is always present, can be interwoven into ever emotion and thought you encounter. When fully operational, your inner resource provides you with the the feeling of equanimity, please and well-being, no matter your circumstance.

4.Practicing Bodysensing Bodysensing helps you experience deep relaxation. It enables you to access information within your body and mind so that you feel grounded and able to respond to every circumstance, no matter how challenging.

5.Practicing Breathsensing Breathsensing further enhances deep relaxation and well-being through easy-to-learn and easy-to-practice breathing patterns. Breathsensing allows you to connect to the natural healing forces within your body and mind. This connection helps you stay on course and heal your symptoms of PTSD.

6.Welcoming Opposites of Feeling and Emotion Learning to welcome opposites of feeling and emotion teaches you how to respond to negative and positive emotions with actions that empower you and give you a sense of control in your life.

7.Welcoming Opposites of Thought Learning to welcome opposites of thought teaches you how to respond to negative and positive thoughts, images, and memories so that you feel empowered and in control of your life.

8.Welcoming Joy and Well-Being Joy and well-being are your birthright. iRest teaches you how to access the power of joy, well-being, and inner peace in every moment of your life, no matter your circumstance.

9.Experiencing Being Awareness iRest teaches you how to take a step back and observe your thoughts, emotions, and circumstances from a broader viewpoint so that you can recognize empowering actions that keep you in connection and on course with yourself, others, and your life. Experiencing being awareness enables you to understand and experience your wholeness with all of life.

10.Experiencing Your Wholeness Experiencing your wholeness helps you recognize how every situation arrives paired with its perfect response. Recognizing and responding with your perfectly paired response allows you to experience true healing, health, harmony, and well-being in yourself, your relationships, and with all of life. Core Principles of iRest The power of the ten steps of iRest rests upon a number of core principles. These core principles are the ground upon which all of the iRest foundational stones sit.

The core principles are what make iRest such a powerful program for healing PTSD.

• Learn to be welcoming.

• Stop judging yourself.

• Know that everything is a messenger.

• Accept what is.

• Know that you’re always doing your best.

• Understand the law of awareness.

• Discover your non-separate wholeness.

• Practice little and often

• Learn to Be Welcoming Learning to be welcoming is the core principle that makes iRest such an effective tool for healing PTSD.

Welcoming enables you to be responsive rather than reactive. When you’re reactive you’re caught in negative patterns that leave you feeling incomplete, out of control, and out of harmony with yourself, others, and life. When you’re responsive your actions are authentic, creative, and fresh, leaving you feeling in harmony with yourself. Learning to be welcoming and responsive, rather than refusing and reactive, allows you to gain insight into and control over what’s causing your PTSD. By welcoming each sensation, emotion, thought, person, and situation—just as it is—you grow confident in your ability to respond in ways that “hit the mark.” The more you welcome and respond to every- thing just as it is, in ways that feel right to you, the more confident and empowered you’ll feel. The more confident and empowered you feel, the more you’ll be able to welcome and respond to all of life’s challenges and release long-standing negative patterns of emotions and thoughts.

• Stop Judging Yourself Negative reactions don’t feel good.

They also produce further negative reactions. The harmful cycles of guilt, shame, and blame that negative reactions produce prevent you from healing your PTSD. When you’re blaming, reacting, and trying to control yourself, others, or life in general, you’re trying to get away from experiencing uncomfortable feelings, emotions, or thoughts. But trying to escape or deny these things doesn’t work. Fight with reality and you’ll always lose. Fighting with yourself doesn’t heal; fighting with yourself only increases and keeps PTSD in place. Releasing negative judgments against yourself, and instead welcoming yourself just as you are, is your way through PTSD. The iRest Program for Healing PTSD teaches you how to stop judging yourself, how to stop reacting in a negative way, and how to take actions that leave you feeling in harmony with yourself and your life in each and every moment.

• Know That Everything Is a Messenger The downside of judging and trying to control yourself or others is that you end up feeling disconnected from yourself, others, and the world around you. The upside of having these feelings is that you can recognize them as messengers, or messages, that your body’s sending to you. These messengers, which can be felt as gut feelings, are asking you to stop, take a breath, feel your body, and get some perspective. From there, you will know what actions you need to take so that you end up thinking, My actions are hitting the mark, and I feel right inside myself and in harmony with how I’m responding, and I feel connected to myself, others, and the world around me. iRest helps you realize that everything you experience—every sensation, feeling, emotion, and thought—is a messenger that’s here to help you stay on track. When you welcome and don’t judge yourself, you invite every emotion and thought to come in. You understand that every emotion and thought has a message for you. You know that the sensation, emotion, or thought won’t leave until you’ve fully heard and responded to its message. Your gut feelings, emotions, and thoughts should be considered friends who are here to help heal your PTSD. Accept What Is When you judge or try to fix, change, or control your gut feelings, emotions, thoughts, or actions, you’re refusing the “what is” of the situation. Welcoming and not judging means you need to first accept the “what is” of a situation. You may not want “what is.” You may strongly prefer that things be other than they are. But the “what is” of what you’re experiencing is what reality is bringing to you in the moment. Remember: when you fight with reality, you always lose. Every feeling, emotion, or thought that you refuse gets pushed into your unconscious mind. Whatever lives in your unconscious ultimately finds its way back into your conscious mind and into your interactions with the outside world. For instance, when you refuse your anger, you’ll find yourself in situations that provoke your anger. When you feel guilty, ashamed, or helpless, you’ll find yourself in situations that make your guilt, shame, and helplessness rise up. When you judge yourself, you’ll feel that others are judging you. Whatever you refuse to deal with comes back around until you learn to welcome it. As you welcome “what is,” you begin responding rather than reacting to it. Learning to welcome and respond is part of the process of acceptance. The iRest program teaches you how to accept rather than refuse so that you can feel in harmony and at peace with yourself and the world around you. Know That You’re Always Doing Your Best The actions you take are neither “right” nor “wrong”; and your actions are not “personal” because they stem from your unconscious cultural, personal, and biological conditioning.

Understanding this helps you stop blaming, shaming, and judging yourself. Practicing iRest helps you realize that you’re always doing the best you know how. You can set blame, shame, guilt, and self-judgment aside forever when you realize that the way you respond in any given moment is the result of your conditioning up to that moment. Realizing that you’re always doing the best you know how doesn’t mean you let go of being responsible for your actions. Rather, realizing that you’re always doing your best enables you to take the time to sense your body’s internal messengers. Only then can you see the results of your actions. When you see the results of your actions, you gain new information and new conditioning. Your new information and conditioning help you more easily “hit the mark” in the next moment. Understand the Law of Awareness Transformation happens easily when you’re willing to be aware of and be with “what is.” This is what I call the law of awareness. Whatever you’re willing to place in your awareness, you go beyond. This is because awareness is larger than whatever is within awareness. By feeling yourself as awareness, you’re able to gain perspective and see actions you otherwise can’t. Awareness is similar to the space around you; it’s vast and contains everything. Awareness doesn’t refuse anything and isn’t attached to anything. It allows everything to be just as it is. iRest teaches you how to see and rest in awareness. From there, you learn how to be awareness. Then, you have the capacity to be with everything, no matter how challenging it is. Being aware of your emotions and thoughts allows you to see the larger picture in each and every moment. Experiencing yourself as awareness allows you to feel deeply connected to yourself, others, and life.

• Discover Your Non-Separate Wholeness.

Your five senses and mind work together to perceive the world around you. According to your mind and five senses, the world is made up of separate objects, yourself included. But this isn’t the whole story. Actually, as science shows us, everything is a field of energy. If you were to wear special glasses that allow you to see only magnetic fields of energy, you would see how everything blends together as one field of energy. In reality, all objects, including yourself, are non-separate. Everything is energy, which your body experiences as sensation.

*Please Note: The information in this article is intended for your educational use only and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of YogaMate or it's Panel of Advisors. This information it nota substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

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