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Healing From Trauma
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This is card 27 of 52 of the Surviving Narcissism Card Deck
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In the journey of healing from narcissistic abuse, one of the most profound ways to recover is by reconnecting with your body. This post is inspired by Card 27: Reconnect with Your Body from the Surviving Narcissism Card Deck. It’s a critical step in the broader recovery process, as it helps ground you, rebuild trust in yourself, and foster resilience against the emotional disconnection caused by narcissistic manipulation.
In this post, we’ll explore how trauma disconnects us from our physical selves and offer practical ways to begin this reconnection.
Many survivors of narcissistic abuse report feeling detached or dissociated from their bodies. Narcissistic abuse, as discussed in Card 1: Gaslighting and Card 4: Silent Treatment, is designed to destabilise your sense of reality, leaving you questioning your thoughts and even your physical sensations. This abuse can create a rift between the mind and the body, leading to dissociation—a survival mechanism where you feel disconnected from physical sensations as a way of coping with emotional overload.
This disconnection serves the narcissist, as it leaves you vulnerable to further manipulation. Reconnecting with your body allows you to break free from this cycle.
Let’s dive into why reconnecting with your body is so vital and explore practical ways to do it.
If you haven’t yet, you can get the full Surviving Narcissism Card Deck here – each card dives deep into the various manipulations and healing strategies to guide your recovery.
Understanding the Mind-Body Disconnect in Trauma
Narcissistic abuse often involves prolonged periods of manipulation, control, and emotional volatility, which trigger your body’s stress response. In response to the relentless stress, your body may activate survival mechanisms such as the fight, flight, or freeze response. Over time, this can lead to chronic tension, emotional numbness, and even dissociation—a psychological defence mechanism where you feel disconnected from your physical body.
This dissociation is discussed in Card 21: Acknowledge the Pain. It’s essential to understand that your body holds onto the trauma long after the narcissistic abuse ends. Reconnecting with your body allows you to access the stored pain, release it, and ultimately heal.
7 Simple Ways to Reconnect with Your Body
Reconnecting with your body doesn’t require any grand gestures.
It’s about cultivating daily practices that help you re-establish a relationship with your physical self. Below are some effective strategies for rebuilding this connection.
1. Practice Mindful Breathing
One of the simplest and most powerful ways to reconnect with your body is through mindful breathing. Focusing on your breath brings your attention back to your body in the present moment, creating a sense of grounding and calm. The Blissful Breathing Card Deck is an excellent resource for deepening your understanding of pranayama, or yogic breathing techniques.
Begin by sitting or lying down in a comfortable position. Close your eyes and take a deep breath in through your nose, feeling your chest expand. Exhale slowly through your mouth, releasing any tension. Focus on how the breath moves through your body, and notice the sensations that arise. This simple practice can help bridge the gap between your mind and body.
2. Engage in Gentle Movement
Moving your body in gentle, mindful ways can help you become more aware of how it feels. Chair yoga is an excellent practice for this purpose, as it involves moving with intention and focusing on the sensations in your body.
Consider using the Chair Yoga Card Deck if you’re looking for a gentle, accessible way to incorporate yoga into your daily routine. Even if you’re not ready for more physically demanding practices, chair yoga allows you to reconnect with your body without overwhelming it.
By engaging in gentle movement, you begin to notice where tension is held in your body and start releasing it. It’s a mindful practice that brings your attention back to your physical self in a compassionate and healing way.
3. Body Scanning Meditation
A body scan is a meditation technique that involves focusing on different parts of your body, bringing awareness to any tension or discomfort. It’s a fantastic way to reconnect with your physical sensations, especially if you’ve been feeling numb or dissociated.
Begin by lying down in a comfortable position. Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Start by bringing your attention to your toes, noticing any sensations or feelings. Slowly work your way up your body, from your feet to your legs, torso, arms, neck, and head. As you scan each body part, acknowledge any tension or discomfort, and gently release it with your breath.
Body scanning is particularly helpful for survivors of narcissistic abuse, as it helps you recognise where trauma is stored in your body. With practice, you’ll become more attuned to your body’s needs and responses.
4. Practice Grounding Techniques
Here’s a grounding technique that focuses on physical movement to reconnect with your body and the present moment: “The Swaying Tree” technique. This method is rooted in mindful body movement and is inspired by the natural flow of trees in the wind, combining physical movement with mental presence to restore a sense of calm.
The Swaying Tree
Stand Tall: Stand with your feet hip-width apart, knees slightly bent, and arms relaxed by your sides. Imagine yourself as a sturdy tree, with your feet as roots grounding you into the earth.
Feel Your Foundation: Bring awareness to the sensation of your feet touching the ground. Feel the stability of your legs supporting you. Picture your body growing roots into the earth for a solid foundation.
Gently Sway: Begin to sway gently from side to side. Allow the movement to come from your hips, feeling the balance shift across your feet as if you’re swaying in the breeze like a tree. Keep your movements slow and deliberate.
Deep Breathing: As you sway, take deep, slow breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth (Blissful Breathing Card Deck). Focus on how the breath moves through your body with the swaying motion, creating a connection between your breath, body, and the earth.
Visualise Strength and Flexibility: Imagine your body as a tree with strong roots and flexible branches. You are grounded and stable, yet able to move fluidly with life’s challenges, just as a tree sways in the wind without breaking.
Gradual Stillness: After a few minutes of swaying, bring your movement to a slow stop. Stand still and notice how your body feels, rooted in place but energised by the flow of movement.
This technique engages the body’s physical sensations and helps ground you through the rhythmic movement, making it a calming and centring practice to reconnect with your body.
Grounding techniques are essential tools for anyone recovering from narcissistic abuse, as they help you break the cycle of dissociation and overwhelm.
5. Rebuild Trust Through Movement
Movement is a powerful way to rebuild trust in your body. Whether it’s yoga, Pilates, or even walking, engaging in regular physical activity strengthens the bond between your mind and body.
The Joseph Pilates Card Deck offers a great way to start integrating mindful movement into your healing routine. Pilates helps you develop body awareness, strength, and flexibility—all of which contribute to rebuilding trust in your body’s capabilities. By moving with intention, you remind yourself that your body is a source of power, not a place of pain.
For another no-equipment option, try the Pilates Matwork Card Deck, which offers a series of Pilates exercises designed to strengthen your core, improve flexibility, and promote body awareness.
6. Set Boundaries with Your Body
Just as you’ve learned to set emotional and psychological boundaries with others (Card 12: Set Clear Boundaries), it’s crucial to set physical boundaries with your body. This means listening to your body’s needs and respecting its limits. If you’re tired, rest. If you feel discomfort during exercise, pause. Learning to honour your body’s signals is a form of self-respect and an essential part of the healing process.
7. Use Journaling as a Body Reconnection Tool
Journaling can also play a vital role in reconnecting with your body. Use journaling prompts to explore your relationship with your physical self. For example, write about moments when you’ve felt strong or moments when you’ve felt disconnected from your body.
Refer to Card 22: Journal Your Journey for more insights on how journaling supports recovery from narcissistic abuse. Writing about your body’s experiences helps bridge the mind-body gap and facilitates emotional and physical healing.
For a more interactive approach, consider the 101 Mini Yoga Cards, which can inspire your journaling by guiding you through various asanas (yoga postures) and encouraging reflection on your body’s movement and sensations during each practice.
5 Steps to Start Feeling Your Emotions
If you’re not used to allowing yourself to feel deeply, it can be challenging to know where to begin.
Here are some practical steps to help you reconnect with your emotions:
1. Create a Safe Space
Healing emotionally requires safety. Whether it’s setting aside time alone or being with a trusted friend or therapist, ensure you’re in an environment where you can be vulnerable without fear of judgement. You might remember from Set Clear Boundaries (Card 12) that protecting yourself from external negative influences is crucial during this phase.
2. Identify and Name Your Emotions
One of the most effective ways to reconnect with your emotional world is to start identifying and naming your emotions. Are you feeling anger, sadness, or fear? Once you name your emotion, it becomes more manageable. As you explored in Journal Your Journey (Card 22), writing down what you feel can help make it clearer.
3. Practice Mindfulness
As highlighted in Practice Mindfulness (Card 15), mindfulness is an excellent tool for staying grounded in the present moment. When you notice an emotion rising, take a few deep breaths (Blissful Breathing Card Deck), stay present, and observe your feelings without judgement. Mindfulness helps you acknowledge your emotions without letting them take over.
4. Allow Yourself to Feel
It’s natural to want to avoid painful emotions. However, true healing happens when you allow yourself to feel fully. When sadness arises, instead of distracting yourself or pushing it away, sit with it. This process, while uncomfortable, is the gateway to emotional freedom.
5. Release Through Expression
Once you’ve felt your emotions, the next step is to release them. This can happen through talking to a friend, journaling (card 22), or even physical activities like yoga (Chair Yoga Card Deck) or Pilates (Joseph Pilates Card Deck). Emotions are energy in motion—when you express them, you allow that energy to move through and out of your body.
Top 21 Benefits of Reconnecting with Your Body
Reconnecting with your body after trauma, particularly narcissistic abuse, can be a profound step in your healing journey. Trauma often disconnects us from our physical selves, but by rebuilding this relationship, you can experience many transformative benefits.
Here are the top 21 benefits of reconnecting with your body:
Increased Self-Awareness: By tuning into your body, you become more aware of your thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations, helping you understand your needs better.
Reduced Anxiety: Physical grounding techniques, such as mindful breathing (Blissful Breathing Card Deck) and movement, can lower stress levels and calm the nervous system.
Emotional Regulation: Understanding your body’s signals can help you process and manage overwhelming emotions, leading to healthier emotional responses.
Improved Sleep: Reconnecting with your body helps reduce tension, promoting deeper relaxation, which can improve the quality of your sleep.
Enhanced Focus: Physical awareness brings your mind to the present, reducing distractions and improving your concentration and focus.
Stronger Body-Mind Connection: When you tune into your body, you enhance the communication between your body and mind, creating a sense of wholeness.
Boosted Immune System: Practices like yoga and breathwork (Blissful Breathing Card Deck) that reconnect you with your body can help reduce chronic stress, which in turn boosts immune function.
Release of Stored Trauma: Trauma is often stored in the body. Reconnecting with your body allows for the release of tension and trauma held within your muscles and tissues.
Improved Posture: Mindful movement practices, such as yoga (101 Mini Yoga Cards) and Pilates (Joseph Pilates Card Deck), increase body awareness and help you maintain better posture, reducing aches and pains.
Increased Confidence: As you become more attuned to your body, you develop a deeper sense of self-trust and confidence in your physical presence.
Physical Healing: When you’re connected with your body, you’re more likely to notice physical issues early, allowing for better self-care and quicker healing.
Increased Energy: Reconnecting with your body helps you become more attuned to your energy levels, enabling you to manage your energy more effectively.
Reduction in Chronic Pain: Body-based therapies like yoga, somatic exercises, and mindful movement can help alleviate chronic pain by releasing muscle tension.
Greater Emotional Resilience: When you feel connected to your body, you develop the strength to handle emotional challenges more effectively, building resilience.
Better Decision-Making: Grounding yourself in your body gives you clearer access to your intuition, helping you make decisions from a calm and centred place.
Improved Digestion: Reconnecting with your body reduces stress and promotes relaxation, which supports better digestion and overall gut health.
Better Boundaries: Being in tune with your physical and emotional sensations helps you recognise when boundaries are being crossed and gives you the strength to assert them.
Release of Guilt and Shame: As you reconnect with your body, you may release deep-seated guilt and shame that no longer serve you, leading to greater self-compassion.
More Joy in Movement: You begin to enjoy moving your body more, appreciating its abilities, which can lead to more playful and joyful physical experiences.
Enhanced Creativity: Being grounded and connected to your body (card 26) can open up creative channels, allowing ideas to flow more freely.
Sense of Empowerment: Ultimately, reconnecting with your body empowers you to reclaim control over your life, helping you to stand tall and move forward with strength and purpose.
These benefits can significantly enhance your recovery process, supporting both emotional and physical healing. By making conscious efforts to reconnect with your body, you take an important step in healing from narcissistic trauma.
9 Delightful Ways that Downward Facing Dog Helps You Reconnect with Your Body
Okay. I admit it. As a yoga teacher, I’m a bit partial to this pose!
Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) is one of the most well-known yoga poses, and for good reason—it’s a powerful way to reconnect with your body, particularly after experiencing trauma or emotional stress.
Here’s how this pose can help you tune into your physical self and foster healing:
1. Grounding Through Physical Stability
Downward Facing Dog is a grounding pose. With both your hands and feet firmly pressing into the mat, you establish a stable foundation. This grounding sensation helps you reconnect with the earth, bringing your awareness back to the physical realm and creating a sense of safety and stability in your body.
2. Releasing Tension
Trauma and stress often manifest as tension in the body, particularly in the shoulders, neck, and back. Downward Facing Dog is excellent for releasing this stored tension. As you stretch and lengthen your spine, you open up areas that often hold tightness, allowing for a deep release and a greater sense of relaxation.
3. Connecting with Your Breath
In Downward Facing Dog, the inverted nature of the pose encourages deep breathing. As you hold the position, you become more aware of your breath, promoting a strong connection between your body and mind. This conscious breathing helps to calm the nervous system, reducing stress and anxiety, and grounding you in the present moment.
You can deepen this connection by incorporating breathwork techniques, such as those found in the Blissful Breathing Card Deck. This integration enhances your awareness of how breath influences your body and mind.
4. Building Strength and Confidence
As a weight-bearing pose, Downward Facing Dog builds strength in your arms, legs, and core. Strengthening your body physically helps to restore a sense of empowerment and control, which can be deeply healing for those who have experienced narcissistic abuse. Reclaiming this physical power can boost your confidence and help you feel more embodied.
5. Encouraging Mindful Movement
Downward Facing Dog invites you to pay close attention to how your body moves and feels in the pose. You become aware of the positioning of your limbs, the stretch in your hamstrings, and the lengthening of your spine. This mindful engagement with your body encourages you to notice areas that need more attention or care, fostering a compassionate relationship with yourself.
The Chair Yoga Card Deck offers modifications of poses like Downward Facing Dog for those who need a gentler approach, ensuring that the practice remains accessible while still promoting body awareness.
6. Improving Circulation
In this inverted position, your head is lower than your heart, which improves circulation and oxygen flow throughout your body. Increased blood flow to the brain can boost mental clarity and reduce feelings of overwhelm, helping you reconnect not just with your body, but with a calm and centred state of mind.
7. Stimulating the Nervous System
Downward Facing Dog activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for the body’s rest-and-digest response. This helps to reduce stress hormones like cortisol and brings you into a state of relaxation and healing. The pose naturally encourages your body to shift from a state of hyper-vigilance or anxiety (often experienced after trauma) into one of calm awareness and connection.
8. Promoting Flexibility
This pose provides a full-body stretch, especially in the hamstrings, calves, shoulders, and back. Flexibility in the body often reflects flexibility in the mind. As you open up and release physical stiffness, you may find that you’re able to release emotional rigidity as well, making space for new growth and healing.
The 101 Mini Yoga Cards offer guidance on refining poses like Downward Facing Dog, helping you connect more deeply with your physical practice.
9. Balancing Mind and Body
Holding Downward Facing Dog requires both strength and flexibility, as well as mental focus. This balance of effort and ease mirrors the balance needed in emotional healing—acknowledging pain while working towards recovery. The physical alignment of the pose, along with focused breathing, helps to integrate mind and body, fostering a deeper connection with yourself.
By regularly practicing Downward Facing Dog, you create a physical and emotional practice that encourages you to inhabit your body with awareness, strength, and grace. This is an essential part of reconnecting with your body after trauma, and it lays the foundation for deeper healing and recovery.
9 Super Ways that Savasana (Corpse Pose) Helps You Reconnect with Your Body
Downward Facing Dog is my favourite grounding pose, but Savasana (Corpse Pose), is a close second.
It is often considered the most restorative and introspective of all yoga poses. While it may seem simple—lying still on your back—this pose offers profound benefits for those seeking to reconnect with their bodies after trauma or emotional stress. In the context of healing from narcissistic abuse, Savasana (Corpse Pose) can be a powerful tool for cultivating body awareness, promoting relaxation, and restoring a sense of safety within yourself.
1. Creating a Safe Space to Let Go
Savasana invites you to fully surrender and let go of tension—physically, emotionally, and mentally. Trauma survivors often carry a heightened sense of vigilance, making it difficult to relax or feel safe in their bodies. In Savasana, you are encouraged to find a position of comfort and stillness, allowing your body to release any guardedness. This pose can help you practice feeling safe and grounded in your own skin, which is essential for rebuilding trust in yourself (as emphasised in Card 17: Rebuild Trust in Yourself).
2. Facilitating Deep Relaxation
Savasana stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which promotes rest, digestion, and recovery. When your body enters this relaxed state, it allows the nervous system to recalibrate, helping to ease the chronic stress or hyper-vigilance that may result from narcissistic abuse. The ability to deeply relax is often compromised in those who have experienced trauma, so Savasana offers a direct pathway to experiencing that calm, restorative energy.
Pairing Savasana with pranayama (breathwork) exercises, such as those found in the Blissful Breathing Card Deck, can enhance the relaxation response, helping you deepen the connection between your breath and body.
3. Enhancing Body Awareness
In Savasana, your body is supported by the ground, which allows you to scan your entire body for tension or areas that need attention. As you lie still, you become more attuned to sensations in different parts of your body, noticing tightness, pain, or relaxation. This heightened awareness helps you reconnect with your physical self in a non-judgmental and compassionate way.
This mindful approach to body awareness is an extension of the practice of Mindfulness (Card 15), a key tool for healing from narcissistic trauma. Savasana allows you to observe your body without reacting to discomfort or pain, fostering a gentle reconnection with your physical experience.
4. Processing Emotions in the Body
Trauma often results in the disconnection of emotions from the body. In Savasana, the stillness and quiet offer space for emotions to surface in a safe and controlled environment. By staying present with whatever arises—whether it’s grief, relief, anger, or peace—you honour the full spectrum of emotions as part of your healing journey. This is in line with the practice of Feeling to Heal (Card 26), where allowing yourself to experience emotions without suppression is crucial for recovery.
As you lie in Savasana, you might use affirmations like “I honour all my emotions” to foster a more intimate connection with both your body and mind.
5. Releasing Tension and Trauma Stored in the Body
It is widely understood that trauma and stress are often stored in the body. Savasana provides a chance to release this stored tension. The stillness of the pose helps you to notice areas of chronic tightness or holding, allowing you to consciously relax those areas. Over time, this practice can lead to the gradual release of deeper layers of stress and trauma, promoting a sense of lightness and ease in the body.
For those seeking a more targeted approach, exploring the Chair Yoga Card Deck or Face Yoga Card Deck can provide additional ways to relieve tension from specific areas, such as the face and neck, that may hold stress after emotional turmoil.
6. Fostering a Mind-Body Connection
Savasana encourages the union of the body and mind, a crucial aspect of healing from any form of trauma. By lying still, you bring your awareness inward, cultivating mindfulness of both your physical sensations and your thoughts. This helps bridge the gap between your mental and physical experiences, reminding you that your body is not just a vessel, but an integral part of who you are.
Adding the 101 Mini Yoga Cards into your yoga practice can deepen your understanding of poses like Savasana, offering you more ways to embody the mind-body connection through different asanas.
7. Reducing Anxiety and Restoring Calm
Savasana is well-known for its ability to reduce anxiety and calm the mind. The pose encourages deep, slow breathing, which signals to your body that it’s safe to relax. For those who have endured the relentless anxiety that often accompanies narcissistic abuse, Savasana is a sanctuary—a place to come back to yourself and find inner peace.
This restoration of calm also ties into Guarding Your Energy (Card 19). Savasana allows you to restore and protect your energy reserves by focusing on inner stillness, which is essential for avoiding emotional burnout and reclaiming your power.
8. Cultivating Self-Compassion
When lying in Savasana, you are asked to be with yourself just as you are, without judgment. This is an invitation to practice self-compassion—a key element in healing from narcissistic abuse, where you may have internalised feelings of unworthiness or self-criticism. Savasana gently reminds you that rest, recovery, and simply being are valid and necessary, promoting a deep sense of self-acceptance.
This aligns with the message from Card 18: Self-Compassion, encouraging survivors to treat themselves with kindness and understanding throughout their healing process.
9. Honouring Rest as a Form of Healing
In a world that often glorifies busyness, Savasana reminds us that rest is not just permissible but essential for healing. The simple act of resting in this pose is a powerful affirmation that you deserve care, time, and space to heal. It acknowledges that healing is not always about doing, but sometimes about simply being and allowing your body to recover in its own time.
Conclusion: Embrace Your Physical Self for Healing
Reconnecting with your body after narcissistic abuse is a deeply healing process. It involves tuning into your physical sensations, honouring your body’s needs, and rebuilding the trust that narcissistic manipulation may have eroded. By integrating mindful practices such as breathing, yoga, grounding, and journaling, you can begin to restore your connection with your physical self.
Healing from trauma requires patience and compassion, both towards your mind and your body. The journey of reconnection is a vital step in reclaiming your autonomy, power, and sense of self. To further explore these ideas, consider adding resources such as the Blissful Breathing Card Deck or the Joseph Pilates Card Deck into your healing routine.
Remember, reconnecting with your body is not just about physical recovery—it’s about emotional and psychological freedom.
If you want to explore these and other strategies in-depth, I encourage you to check out the Surviving Narcissism Card Deck for guidance on your journey.
Here’s a look at the full deck:
Narcissist Mind Games (10 Cards)
- Gaslighting
- Triangulation
- Love-Bombing
- Silent Treatment
- Projection
- Blame Shifting
- Future Faking
- Flying Monkeys
- Smear Campaigns
- Hoovering
Self-Care & Boundaries (10 Cards)
- Reclaim Your Time
- Set Clear Boundaries
- No Is a Complete Sentence
- Limit Contact
- Practice Mindfulness
- Healthy Detachment
- Rebuild Trust in Yourself
- Self-Compassion
- Guard Your Energy
- Disconnect Digitally
Healing from Trauma (10 Cards)
- Acknowledge the Pain
- Journal Your Journey
- Practice Gratitude
- Release the Guilt
- Therapy Is Strength
- Feel to Heal
- Reconnect with Your Body
- Affirm Your Worth
- Focus on the Present
- Time Heals
Recognising Red Flags (8 Cards)
- Lack of Empathy
- Extreme Charm
- Need for Control
- Quick Intimacy
- No Accountability
- Inconsistent Behaviour
- Lack of Boundaries
- Isolating You
Empowerment & Rebuilding (8 Cards)
- Reclaim Your Power
- Find Your Voice
- Celebrate Small Wins
- Visualise Your Future
- Rebuild Your Identity
- Surround Yourself with Positivity
- Redefine Your Worth
- Embrace Freedom
Support Systems & Moving Forward (6 Cards)
- Find Your Tribe
- Share Your Story
- Healthy Relationships Exist
- No Contact Is Power
- Stay Educated
- Forgive Yourself First
Click here to explore the Surviving Narcissism Card Deck in full and take the first step in your healing journey.
By George Watts
