Ilene Smith

Jeffrey shows us that even when pain is present, what matters most is how our nervous system manages that pain. When a person cannot find a sense of safety amidst pain, their nervous system further activates, resulting in greater intensity. The calmer the nervous system is, the greater the capacity to manage the intensity of pain. This goes back to the idea of interoception: the more heightened the experience of pain is, the less accurately we can assess it.

ground. Notice how laying directly on the floor provides a sensation of being grounded to the earth. Place one hand on your heart and the other on your stomach. Inhale deeply through your nose as you silently count to three. Exhale all of the air out through your mouth as you silently count to six. Repeat this six times, and then see if you can add on time, inhaling as you count to four, and exhaling as you count to eight. Do this for another six rounds of breath, then see if you can work up to a five-count inhale, followed by a ten-count exhale.

Begin this exercise by taking note of how you feel, both physically and emotionally.
Now, look around the room. Turn your head in all directions and notice where the entry to the room is. Now notice what it feels like to be supported by the chair or floor. Spend about one minute scanning the room for objects, colors, and shapes.

Now, start to connect with your other senses. What smells do you notice? What do you hear? Is there a taste in your mouth—including the taste of nothing?
Check in with yourself again, noticing how you feel both physically and emotionally. What, if anything, has changed since you began this exercise?

Have your partner brace themselves against a wall as you push against their hands for between ten and sixty seconds, then stop. Release your partner, close your eyes, and tune into your body. How is it reacting? What physical sensations do you feel? How about emotional? Repeat this pushing and checking in two or three times. Notice if the sensations remain the same or change.
Now trade places so that the other person is pushing you. Again, check in after each interval. Notice your sensations and feelings. How do you feel being pushed as compared to when you were pushing? Note if your reaction changes in any way from

In this exercise, we are going to build a resource list. This is a list of internal and external resources you have at your disposal. A resource can be any person, place, or thing that makes you feel safe. An external resource might be as wide-ranging as a dog, a close friend, or even a pillow. It might be your job or a specific location. Maybe it’s your favorite hiking trail.
An internal resource is something inside of you, something you know about yourself. For example, my best internal resource is my ability to connect with people. Another is my ability to maintain a good attitude when shit hits the fan.

To figure out your own resources, start paying attention to the moments when you feel the strongest and most in charge.

What makes you feel accomplished and confident? Think back to a time in your life when you encountered a difficult experience and dissect some of the things that helped you through that. You can also ask a safe person who knows you well for their input.

is important to understand what the resources in your life are so that, in moments when you require them, you can go directly to them. Aside from that, just thinking about our resources can produce more feel-good hormones and less stress hormones. Using our resources is how we build resilience, and resilience is how we build a sense of mastery to know that we can handle the stress in our life.
Make a practice of writing down five internal and five external resources. Keep this list on your phone or in a journal and continue adding to it. Read this list every morning when you get up and every evening before you go to sleep as a reminder to yourself that you have resources at your disposal when you need them.
Sensing Exercise

Start here if you scored very high or high on the sensory or interoception assessments.
This exercise is designed to help you build your own sensory toolbox. A sensory toolbox is a collection of sensory strategies that will help build and support a healthy sensory system. When trauma strikes, we often lose our ability to accurately sense how we feel inside our bodies and in the world. The goal of this exercise is to discover tools that will help you connect more deeply to your interoceptive and proprioceptive systems. Ultimately, it will help you connect to your emotional states in a more present and objective manner. To do

this, you will safely explore your senses and get curious about which sensations feel comfortable to you. This is an important step in helping your central nervous system process sensory information from your body and respond to it accurately.
To begin, use your instincts to decide which sense you want to explore first. If you are uncertain how to do this, simply get curious about what feels good to you.