Discover the Power of Your Breath According to Bessel Van Der Kolk #besselvanderkolk #trauma

Bessel van der Kolk, MD, is a clinical psychiatrist whose work attempts to integrate mind, brain, body, and social connections to understand and treat trauma. He is the author of The Body Keeps the Score, which examines how trauma affects the brain and body, and looks at a variety of treatments, including yoga. He answered our questions about how yoga can be a powerful element in healing trauma.

How does yoga practice impact people who have experienced trauma?

When people think about trauma, they generally think of it as a historical event that happened some time ago. Trauma is actually the residue from the past as it settles into your body. It’s located inside your own skin. When people are traumatized, they become afraid of their physical sensations; their breathing becomes shallow, and they become uptight and frightened about what they’re feeling inside. When you slow down your breathing with yoga, you can increase your heart rate variability, and that decreases stress. Yoga opens you up to feeling every aspect of your body’s sensations. It’s a gentle, safe way for people to befriend their bodies, where the trauma of the past is stored.

How important is talk therapy in treating trauma?

If you’ve been traumatized, you’re likely to have a very distorted relationship to your body. My particular angle, or contribution, is that trauma is really a somatic issue. It’s in your body and, because of that, yoga has great relevance, because it goes directly to sensing and befriending the body. While talking and knowing what happened and being able to articulate it is an important part of treatment, the most important part is starting to regain ownership of your body and be comfortable in your own skin.

What does the evidence show as far as yoga’s efficacy?

Our studies show that yoga is equally as beneficial—or more beneficial—than the best possible medicatons in alleviating traumatic stress symptoms. In the studies we did involving neuroimaging of the brain before and after regular yoga practice, we were able to show that the areas of the brain involving self-awareness get activated by doing yoga, and those are the areas that get locked out by trauma and that are needed in order to heal it.

Why ‘inside serene’? The idea of ‘inside’ is to navigate and dig deeper into what can human change to accumulate serendipity of thoughts that will help us mentally sync to a healthier, better and more in control of our thoughts.

Being mentally fit means having the skills to handle stress, think clearly and make good decisions, communicate effectively, and regulate one's emotions in appropriate ways.

Let us join together on how to become responsible and highly engaged in building a community of good people. There are many ways to improve and maintain mental fitness, such as getting regular exercise, practising mindfulness, and seeking support from others. Inside Serene's goal is to build a community of mental support regardless of your colour or religion. We are ONE!

Practising self-care and self-love enables us to give back and love others. I need your support to clean our social environment of toxic people and become a more responsible content creator.


The power of words to control our emotions can be therapeutic to our mental health;
✅ “I'm here for you.”
✅ “You are not alone.”
✅ “You are worthy and deserving.”
✅ “You don't have to apologize.”
✅ “There is treatment available to you…”
✅ “You are strong!.”

" We must be willing to encounter darkness and despair when they come up and face them, over and over again if need be, without running away or numbing ourselves in the thousands of ways we conjure up to avoid the unavoidable". - By Jon Kabat-Zinn

✅ Be empowered ✅ Be intentional ✅ Be in control

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