The Fire Within – By Sergio Ocampo LMFT, SEP
What is it when we feel anxious or depressed? What is happening when we can’t take a breath? What is going on when our senses tell us we are dropping into a hole and everything around us seems to disappear?
When we feel on edge, afraid, nervous, out of control and vulnerable, this is our experience. It is the experience of losing control, of not being able to “get a hold of ourselves”.
What is happening inside us? Is it all in our heads? Is it our old patterns and fears which cause these reactions?
Our nervous system, which comprises not only our brains, but also the entire nervous system, is intimately involved. It’s amazingly intricate web of connections is able to “remember” past experiences, especially those that felt overwhelming. When life events are not resolved or completed, the bodily memory remains. When something similar again happens, the our system may automatically react in a highly defensive or confrontational manner. It may activate the body and mind to either run away or fight back. It may also become so overwhelmed that it may collapse – “freeze”.
Such reactions are common and a cornerstone the behavior of all mammals on the planet.
We are all equipped with a survival hard-wiring. Our body remembers experiences that were or seemed overwhelming to our safety and survival. When similar events happen again, the reaction is automatic and feels like anxiety or, when someone has felt unable to gain power over the experiences, depression.
The feelings of anxiety and depression not only live in our brains but mostly in our bodies. We can talk, reason, meditate and process much of what is happening in our minds. We can create many creative coping mechanisms, positive stories, anchors and varied ways to cope.
However, as much as we try to use our minds, the sensations and feelings of anxiety and depression may still be there. Perhaps they may not express themselves in the old ways they once did, but they are still present.
This state of being can (and often does) affect our daily lives; perhaps we become exercises junkies, workaholics, or use food and substances for feel better. Whatever the strategy, this emotional activation will find a way to express itself, because it needs to.
The emotional charge always wants to complete itself. It wants to find resolution. It may be a scary thing we saw as children and could not run or find comfort afterwards. It could have been a difficult parent who was overwhelming or not present in our lives. Whatever the source, our systems are trying to have a “re-do”, almost like saying: “this time, when that ugly thing happens to me again, I will master it, escape and feel again peace and, perhaps, even love”.
This charge can feel like a fire in our belly and chest. It is a sensation that makes itself known.
This sense of upset streams up to our brains. Our mind tries to make sense of it and creates stories and reasoning. We can try to dialogue with ourselves towards feeling better. But it’s not there where healing comes. It is in addressing the fire within. It is in the body where feelings of anxiety and depression lie.
Somatic therapy approaches directly address the nervous system’s charge. In this therapy, deeply held survival responses in the body can be deactivated. What follows is a mind that no longer must live with overly charged feelings and sensations stemming from our body. As the body rewires, the mind shifts to a state of greater flow. Depression and anxiety unwind and fade away. Our emotions finally to come to ease. We arrive at a place where a fuller experience of being alive is possible.
Sergio Ocampo specializes in the use of Somatic Experiencing and EMDR to help his clients resolve past difficult and overwhelming experiences. His practice is located in Los Angeles, California.
Copyright Sergio Ocampo – 2019