Njabba's Podcast Final

The podcast episode discusses healing from childhood trauma and the impact trauma can have on the brain. It emphasizes the importance of taking action to heal and mentions three avenues of recovery: talking to others, taking medications, and the mind-body connection. The focus is on mind-body connections, specifically yoga, journaling, and rhythm. These activities can help calm the brain, reorganize damaged areas, and restore brain functioning. The episode concludes by encouraging listeners to incorporate these activities into their daily routines for improved brain health and overall wellbeing. Hello! Welcome to another episode of The Wheel of Wellbeing. I'm your host, Nava, and for those of you who are new, this podcast discusses topics related to the eight parts of wellbeing. The topics we will be going over today will relate to emotional and physical wellbeing. Today, we will be talking about how to heal from childhood trauma. I know this may be a catchy topic, but don't worry, we won't be diving too deep into childhood trauma. Instead, this episode will focus on actions you can take to heal from it. But first, what is trauma? According to the Impact of Trauma on Neurodevelopment and Learning, trauma is any upsetting experience that can be emotionally, mentally, or physically overwhelming for a person. Traumatic experiences can be a one-time event or long-term, repeated exposure to a person. Trauma can happen at any age, at any time, from when you're a child to when you're an adult in your 40s. When trauma is left untreated, it can negatively alter your brain, especially during your childhood, a time when your brain is most vulnerable to changes. Some of the negatives include hormonal, epigenetic, neurological, and immune system changes to your brain during your brain developmental stages, writer Amanda Merrick explains. These changes affect your teen and adult brain later in life. Your brain is your lifeline. It helps you communicate, problem-solve, make decisions, and think. Without a healthy brain, you can't communicate as well, you can't problem-solve as well, and you can't make good decisions, which can lead to a depressing and unfulfilling life. But, if you take actions today, you can significantly heal your brain and live a life that you want. So, what are ways we can heal from trauma, you may ask? Well, according to Dr. Vander Kolk in the New York Times article called, How to Rewire Your Brain from Trauma, there are three avenues of recovery, including talk to others, such as therapy or talking to a friend, taking medications, and the mind-body connection. Today, I'll focus on mind-body connections, particularly yoga, journaling, and rhythm. Starting with yoga, yoga is one of the most popular forms of mind-body practice. Yoga incorporates physical movement with breathing exercises that calm the brain. The Cleveland Clinic discusses how trauma sends your brain into overdrive, but yoga can help slow your brain down, help you focus on the present moment, and recognize what's going on in your body. Another activity you can do is journaling. Journaling is another popular form of mind-body connection. You can journal in your notebook or in your notestop on your phone. The FHE Health notes that journaling gives us a release, a space in which we can relieve our bodies and brains of carrying the weight of these heavy emotions and thoughts. With journaling, you can translate your emotional experience into words, which helps reorganize damages that have occurred in your brain. Lastly, a less known type of mind-body connection is rhythm or rhythm therapy. According to thefrontiers.org, a number of popular theorists' ideas have suggested that rhythm-based activities are beneficial for people who have had traumatic experiences. These rhythm-based activities include listening to music while moving to it, for example, listening to a song with a consistent beat while tapping to the beat, or listening to a song with uplifting words and dancing and singing along with it. Rhythm-based activities can come in many forms, but as long as you're moving to the beat while listening to a song, you engage your brain. Dr. Van de Kolk in the Frontiers article says that, Rhythmic activities reawaken the feelings of pleasure and engagement dulled by prolonged trauma exposure and is necessary for the restoration of brain functioning. Some may think that they don't have enough time to incorporate these activities because of their busy schedule, but hear me out. I too am a very busy college student, but the activities don't have to pick up the entire day. For instance, you can find a quick 5-10 minute guided yoga video on YouTube that you can do after waking up or before going to bed. Or you can get about 30 minutes of your day to journal out your thoughts and feelings. You can even do this before you go to bed. Or on your daily walk to class, you can listen to music while tapping your hand to the beat in your pocket. These actions, though small, can be very mighty. I've started to see the benefits of journaling daily, so so can you. Taking care of your brain now will help you regulate your brain, body, and emotions, thus setting you for a happy and healthy life and a life that you can enjoy. So start taking actions today to heal your brain. That's all I have for you guys today. I hope you guys enjoyed it. And stay tuned for next week's episode. Buh-bye!