the feeling more uncomfortable being a sign that you're on the right path is so true... at first while healing i was like, why am i becoming *more* visibly anxious, tangibly upset more often, etc.? then i realized it's because i'm now allowing myself to feel all that, instead of repressing it and hiding from it. sure it's frustrating sometimes, but a million times better and more freeing than being so detached from everything around and inside me!
I would have kept suppressing it all if my neck and shoulders hadn't become so intensely painful and tight that I couldn't even sleep anymore. I flipped from complete emotional numbness beyond basic little fluctuations, to feeling grief for the first time at 35, all the feelings I couldnt experience as a child came in. Right now, Im just about slow stretches and controlled breathing. Sometimes I remind myself "This is my body and it belongs to me. This is me and it is mine."
I highly recommend this along with IFS internal family systems. It changed my life! It helps to become aware of our inner self and heal the parts of us that our disassociation is trying to protect.
@@perfectpeace352 funny you're saying that because i lowkey accidentally reinvented ifs and did it on myself without knowing it was actually an existing therapy method haha- with my dissociation comes maladaptive daydreaming and one day i got the idea of, hey, what if i started daydreaming about my mind's different parts, inside out (the pixar movie) or sanders sides (a youtube series) style? came up with a bunch of different "people" who'd be metaphors for different emotions and coping mechanisms i have, then imagined them work out their issues and conflicts with each other, had hella fun while doing it cuz i'm a writer and a daydreamer and love creating stories, and it also made me get better mentally and helped me understand myself better. then one day i came across ifs on the internet out of the blue and was like - wait, is that what i've been doing all this time??? so yeah, highly recommend, i'm not familiar with the original technique and what exactly it entails but i've been doing something similar and it's worked wonderfully :D
I have been doing this for a little over a month since I saw this video. It’s been great for me to check in with myself. When my alarm goes off, I take 3 breaths and then ask myself what I need. Usually it’s water, a good stretch, or some lip balm. It’s been a game changer for me.
I've been dissociated for pretty much most of my life. Neglectful parents, trauma at school, I tried for so long to get present but all stuff like meditation did was disconnect me even more. I've found that deliberate breathwork and tapping into the felt sense as shown in Peter Levine's books have helped me. It can take a very long time for people with complex trauma to break out of dissociation though and I still do it a lot.
Waking the Tiger is definitely a good book recommendation 🙏 On my list for my partner and I to read and discuss together as we’ve both been through so much in life. I’m glad you found help in Peter Levine’s work
Peter Levine Gabe Matè, Van der Kolk have been my friends for the past 4 years. Am loving Holistic psychologist, it's like watching me speak out loud 😂❤
I notice it most when I'm tired, I have too much to do, when dating, when physically exhausted, when too many triggers happening at once, when a situation feels too big too deal with
I have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and have had joint dislocations since I was born. A few years ago when I began to access the present moment, I also accepted how much pain my body was in. Dissociation had been something that naturally occurred since I was a baby to cope with pain.
The first time I learned of mindfulness it was a game changer for me. I would literally get sucked back to the past. It's hard to explain. It's just a dark place. I would notice and immediately started looking around naming things that were yellow, blue and green. I would listen to sounds. It has brought me back each and every time. Dissociation can be scary because sometimes you don't understand what's happening. The best I can describe it is like all your memories and feelings being exploded in your mind and everything is floating around and you can't make sense of it. I have respect for this channel
How does anyone not be dissociated in this insane world we are forced to live in? Nothing is designed to make us feel safe for those of us who arent deeply programmed by the systems.
Agree...especially difficult for us with CPTSD. It seems like everything is a hamster wheel. This is why i hope trauma informed care gets rooted more in our systems. And im grateful for Dr. Nicole education.
For those of us who are not “programmed by the systems,”-We must win no matter what. My favorite pseudo Latin quote is “Illegitimi non carborundum,” “dont let the bastards grind you down.” Meditation, self-hypnosis, finding like-minded people as encouragement, and pushing through the darkness.
@gispaAPRN yea I tried all that nonsense 🤣 Then I simply admitted it didn't work and just prayed to God if he is real then show me. He did. Jesus is alive and coming to judge . Your so programmed you still you can do all that child's play and be OK. Being dissociated from this world is a superpower.
@@truthbetold2354 so, that’s the game you came to play? 😂. Sure. God didn’t work for me years ago and I was raised in it all my life. I don’t need people like you who are the real ones “programmed.” If you thought you were going to “change my mind,” your delivery has sadly failed. In fact, getting away from religious nonsense like yours is what released me from the constant sadness and shame I had all my life, hence the reason I come here to heal those parts that need to be worked on from all the religious wounds and shame from family all those years. What a joke.
12 years ago I was in a accident. Also I had just filled for divorce. And a few other life altering events were going on. I became completely disassociated. I have been in therapy since then, but no one seems to understand what I am talking about when I try to explain my mentality. Finally I feel like I have a little familiarity in my life mostly from prayer. Glad to have found you.
I went through the same thing car accident and a divorce in the last year. I completely understand you, nobody understands me either at all we should talk
I can’t stop crying after watching your video. I had dissociation from my childhood and didn’t heal from it and it happened in my marriage again. Now I understand why I was like this last 2-3 years. I was blaming myself for being lazy, a lot of procrastinations not wanting to do anything. I was watching. Cleaning organizing tutorial videos to get motivated. Thank you so much I will try your recommendation to improve my life. I’m so tired of living like this😢😢😢.
That's what I've been doing the last couple of weeks and I have much more energy and confidence! I "called back" myself by focusing on the word "willpower" and being concentrated on the thought that I have the right to be separate person with unique thoughts and feelings. The narcissistic abuse I've experienced conditioned me that "it's not okay to be me" and I was subconsciously living next to my body to please others. When I had this realization, it's like I was back home with myself!!!! I felt euphoric even though there was nothing outside causing it, just me allowing myself to be me, feel me.
I dissociate the most during or after stressful situations. Especially when I am involved in a personal conflict or have to deal with a lot of stress at work, my mind moves away and I go on autopilot. I forget where I put things and sometimes even forget what I have been talking about with my colleagues. This has caused a lot of issues and I am planning to tackle this head on. I have dealt with dissociation in the past and it's had a huge impact on my life.
I even dissociated during this video.. 😔 Just the thought of coming back to the present moment terrifies me and it makes me wanna cry and hide. I don't know what happened in my childhood because I don't remember. I like that this method is simple and not overwhelming, and only now throughout this video I realized how the fact that I'm tired all the time doesn't help so I'm resistant to going back to the present. But I know it's time to get back in my body. 😢 Thank you for doing what you do 🤍💜
I do this multiple times a day. Lately its been so bad I've been thinking i shouldn't be driving. I thought i was autism spectrum. I haven't had trauma in a sense that would sound traumatic. But i did grow up believing the world is unsafe.
Nicole, I cannot tell you how much this video means to me. I have been dissociating from my body since I was born! Both childhood and medical trauma. This is something that my family just doesn’t understand, but YOU DO!! Please do more videos on this topic. ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Nicole/Dr. LePera, Your shorts have helped me recognize issues within myself that need personal examination. This has always been a silent, unidentified elephant in the room that I could not vocalize or even recognize until I found you. therapy has not helped it because it’s a long-standing persistent pattern that needs to be broken/healed and I recognize it needs more than one approach. Thanks to you, I will be trying this to see if I can break it. I see the long-term consequences of this as 1.) losing time and presently existing and allowing this learned behavioral pattern to prevail. 2.) preventing conscious awareness and therefore self-control. Thank you for your help. You’re a ninja at this psychology stuff. 😂
I use a app that ask me at the same time every day, twice a day I get asked how are you feeling what’s the emotion and some questions from there. I ignore it most days but the pop up helps a little
This exercise just brought me tears of joy. I did it after my one year old daughter fell asleep in my lap after drinking her milk. My three year old sleeping next to me on the couch. Seeing their beautiful faces even more present just overwhelmed me. Thank you for this tip! I will always be grateful! Greetings from Europe! 🤗
I sometimes feel my dissociating behaviour is like a slippery eel, especially at bedtime. I have an alarm set to remind me it's time to get ready for bed... but maybe I've just become used to it. Anyway, I'll go and fold the bed down, and I'll be in my pj's, brushing my teeth, then I'm distracted by tv or my phone, and I'm gone... and then I look up, and yes it's 1.30 am, again 😵!! I'm keeping at it though - nothing to lose, everything to gain 👍.
I have a new fast moving degenerative neck issue right now that is very painful and is causing me to dissociate a lot, and is bringing back a lot of my old CPTSD symptoms. My doctor said that when we're in pain our defenses get lowered and it takes less for us to feel those old symptoms again. My husband also has long standing chronic pain and we have been discussing our new common thing and he said he'd spends most of his day dissociated. Which made me really sad for him. And it made me really want to learn how to get myself present again. Thank you so much for this really clear and simple exercise.
This is SO, SO great!!🙌🏻 I’ve been doing this for over a year now and it’s been incredible and continues to get better and better with each shift! 💜💪🏻💫🥂
4:14 mindful lighting's generally *so* helpful ime, mimic the sun's changing *hues & position* to support your circadian rhythm, especially during darker winters *"tunable" lights* offer more orangish "warm" relaxing *&* blueish "cool" energizing options (most "smart" bulbs do but there are also ones you can flip the light source's power quickly to switch) (there are also apps that can sync smart lights, phones & computers with the sun so all become less "blue" & more "orangey" as the sun sets) *light closer to the floor* in the am & eve eases sleep/wake & wake/sleep transitions - especially gradually brighten/dim (most "smart" bulbs can be set for schedules & there are lots of "progressive light" alarms) *we only use overhead lights when the sun is overhead* - even using upright lamps instead is such a different experience & just the routine can provide a placebo effect 🤓
This is great. Thanks for sharing your time and expertise. I have been struggling with this since I was a child, I'm almost 60. My family life was chaotic. My mom worked as a night nurse. My dad was an angry man. I thought he was going to kill me or one of my siblings. I have very few chidhood and teenage memories. ❤
Yes! It never fails to reground me when I drop into reality via all the senses. I ask myself questions like what's the lighting in this room like? What colors are there, textures. How's the temperature in here, are there smells, & what can I feel against my skin right now? Is there a breeze, how's my sweater feel, am I cold, etc. And breathing & stretching. 😃
I recently started with healing from dissociation by myself. The reaction of my body and mind is to notice how very tired I am. I kept going even after Hashimoto thyroiditis,Coronavirus, flare up of Epsom Barr virus. a normal reaction I guess. I have a full time job as SAP specialist and too many solutions are leaning on me.
I dissociate a lot with stressful situations and when I’m negatively inside of my own head. This evening I’m finally getting better with my realization. I been dissociated for about 5 years. It was really worse before it got better. I’m still improving on my realization and keeping in touch with my genuine emotions. Reminding myself that I’m dissociated and my breathing helps a lot. For anyone going through a hard time please don’t give up on yourself. Trust the process and take it one day at a time and be honest with yourself because, you matter.
I spent most of my teens dissociating from my body because of my gender dysphoria. Being present in my body was hell for almost a decade until I started getting medical treatment. I now associate being conscious of my body as this terrible thing, as whenever I was in the past, I sunk into a deep depression. This is still sometimes the case for me, but I take little steps to help overcome my out of body experiences by letting my senses experience something good like a soft blanket or the scent of citrus. This allows me to acknowledge that my flesh isn't the worst thing ever, and being present in my body is starting to hurt less
I appreciate this video. It's consistent with what my therapist tells me. I dissociate a lot during work meetings, especially on webcam. The tips about sunlight and sleep are helpful too. I have sleep apnea and it really messed me up until I got treated for it.
I almost do 3h of meditation a day, which help a lot. I think I'll just add the conscious check to my morning meditation. I already do something similar, if people are interested, that helps a lot: before getting up in the morning I visualize (sorry for folks with aphantasia) the prana (univers' energy) in the atmosphere as tons of little lights, they enter my body through my left hand and gradually full my entire body. during the process I notice how I feel and where it hurts. especially in the beginning this meditation takes a lot of time. but if you are patient, it totally worth it. I also noticed that when I don't wake up right away in the morning, I calm down and spend better days. so 2 benefits.
@@tristanbellamy382 not yet. but I definitely feel better every day. there is a saying in french "être dans son assiette", which can be translated by "being comfortably seated". the meaning is you feel as a whole in your own body. I had this feeling BACK a few months ago. I didn't even remember I was supposed to feel like that. and I know it comes from my daily meditations. be patient with yourself, it will come back little by little.
This is called mindfullness, or a mindfulness practice. It is very helpful and coming to the brain and body. For example, it is not just the tea that is the medicine but the “making of the tea” is also the medicine. Add a healing prayer and it’s alchemy 💫✨
Thank you ~ While I know what to do to make myself more present I don't always remember to do it while I'm in that state, so I like this self-reminder idea!
00:00 - Healing from dissociation 00:15 - Dissocation = Unconscious 01:10 - Step 1: Set a reminder 01:23 - Step 2: Stop for 1-2 mins 02:38 - Step 3: 30 Days 03:05 - Step 4: Witness the shift 03:30 - Step 1: 3 priorities for the body
I never knew what I had just aimlessly wandering through life not motivated extreme anxiety and when faced with trauma I freeze and go into a catatonic state almost. Has happened twice in my life. Panic attacks and psychotic breaks and too many diagnosis but not seeming to be accurate to how I actually feel. This disassociation ticks more boxes than anything else.
I got dissociated at the age if 9 because of the teacher. She was scolding me for something not significant and made me feel a lot of shame by putting me into the corner in front of the class. I was very hurt and didn't want to go to school the next day also because she saw me crying to my aunt for what the teacher did. I had a feeling the teacher would mention this. And before coming to the class, I literally had complex thoughts of splitting myself into two. I was convincing myself that the visible outer me is not the real me, but just a shell. And the real me is deep inside the body. This way I could feel a little bit protected... My feeling was right and the teacher started shaming me for my tears in front of the class. This was terrible. And she with such idiotic methods was considered a good teacher.
Yup that's me alright...!!! I do do do... Go go go every single day, and whenever have a little spare time - i distract myself with things or other thoughts.. 🙃
I don't know when I dissociate because I do it so often and without realizing that its happening. Sometimes I've dropped things and broken them because I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing and was in my head. On auto pilot; well said. I've also hurt myself or almost walked into traffic because I've been stuck in my head so it really can be a bad thing for any one to have. I'm especially prone when I also am experiencing social anxiety. I will be hypervigilant and focused on what they are doing instead of what I am doing and thinking of things about them like they don't really like me or the way the tone in their voice sounded mean or disingenuous. I try to avoid all human contact but I have to work so I am engaging in that currently and it is very draining and I keep finding myself getting stuck on the way they act or say things and start to think its an attack on me. So I dissociate. And then after work I come home and I dissociate some more while I get chores done and if I'm not in this state then I'm usually engaged in some media from youtube or a video game (which is also a form of dissociating I'm told)
It's so hard to know what is normal and what's not. I know I dissociate a lot and i hate it, i can't bear the thought of not being present. I do a lot of meditation and it does help. I wish I could spend a day in someone else's head to see what it's like. Do most people go through life completely in the moment and enjoying everything to the fullest?
I've dissociated my whole life I remembered my place I would go was TV land! If I wasn't made to do all the chores, babysit my 4 younger siblings, wash my clothes by hand, hope they dried by ten or I was going to school wrinkled and than try to do my homework. Even when I could go out I would stay in and watch TV.
Hi Dear Nicole. One suggestion for you and your team. Can you please upload the daily posts on TH-cam too as I am off from social media Facebook Instagram for sometime. Like me many others only use TH-cam and they would be immensely helped.
I think a lot of people do online shopping now. I also think it's a good idea to have a list and be aware of prices before you go Black Friday shopping and/or get something you normally get BECAUSE it's on sale. For example I got some serum I use cause it was $15 off
I see Double Pictures, while watching TV for example. Tinnitus. Some of the symptoms. And feel numb, even when I try to touch the outsides of my arms, I see myself doing it, I feel the touch to a certain Level, but it is as if I don't recognize and realise that it's ME. I feel completely disconnected. A very scary experience, though I know now that it won't harm me, I still feel frightened by it sometimes.
??My son has DID after a head injury, now I can see this explains a lot in his childhood that didn't add up. I give him several mini shoulder rubs a day as his neck is usually sore from being tense, and require him to be present. He never dissociates when it's not safe, that I've seen. Any thoughts?
How is our behavior different when we're in dissociation or in freeze? Would sppreciate an elaborated response. Much gratitude for all you put out there for us.!!!
Id like t know more about getting tired. And it beeing a sign of less dissociation. Im changing nto a job of teaching so i must speak in fron of people. And that wasnt possible at all in my life for dacades due to emotiinal neglect due to autstic parents. But now im changing nto so eone who is able to do that for a small class. And it is far harder than i thought. after a lesson i am extremely xhausted i have to go to sleep right after. Get home compketely curled up with white nouse to cancel mthoughts. I work very parttime only a few hours a week. Ihope i can do more later. But for now this is all i can.
I Dissociate in loud, noisy or chaotic environments, and large groups of people. Sends me into a depression spiral and sometimes takes days to recover...
I love this idea and I’m going to try it. Question though in regards to sunlight. In Seattle we’re going into what some call “The Big Dark” where a lot of us experience SAD from around November through April due to the short days and really gray/ rainy climate. A lot of people take vitamin D as a supplement - do you recommend that and/or have other recommendations for those of us with little access to real sunlight for months on end?
TLDR; "Don't let your present become a mental cage. It's just a place. Nothing more. It's us who shape and define it, which means it's also us who will decide what it becomes." The way to help our anxiety is also to ground ourselves in the moment (I'm recovering from severe anxiety and ptsd, so I get it, but the present won't ever feel safe if all we do is run from it). Anxiety pushes us to live in an imagined future. "This might happen," "they're going to freak out," "I'm going to fail," etc. We imagine all these possibilities, but the truth is that we'll never know what will happen until it does. The future will always be unknown, and no amount of "educated guessing" will make it any more predictable or safe than it will ever be. But, we Can teach ourselves how to build safety and security in our present, so that those future unknowns hurt us a lot less. Exercises like this, where we consciously stop and focus on the safe or predictable things in front of us, help us to do that by teaching us that the present can be many truths at once and not just our fears or pain. They help us see and feel the good around us, so that we can slowly start to release the bad too. Yes, our mental health challenges all grew from different places, but our path to healing them will always be in how we respond to our present. We don't need to run from ourselves anymore. We're our own safety now 🫂
I feel like over the the past couple years ive found my self disassociating but not super often, just increasing with time. Whenever i notice it i end up slowly entering a panic attack. Its pretty scary especially whem im driving. And im an excellent driver i just enter panic mode more because im afraid of the disassociation so it sets me in deeper. Not sure if this is the same thing you described in the last video of what disassociation is but its freaky.
the feeling more uncomfortable being a sign that you're on the right path is so true... at first while healing i was like, why am i becoming *more* visibly anxious, tangibly upset more often, etc.? then i realized it's because i'm now allowing myself to feel all that, instead of repressing it and hiding from it. sure it's frustrating sometimes, but a million times better and more freeing than being so detached from everything around and inside me!
nice perspective, thank you
I got like this when I started therapy...I cry and get weepy more often (when I'm alone). Progress is slow but steady.
I would have kept suppressing it all if my neck and shoulders hadn't become so intensely painful and tight that I couldn't even sleep anymore. I flipped from complete emotional numbness beyond basic little fluctuations, to feeling grief for the first time at 35, all the feelings I couldnt experience as a child came in.
Right now, Im just about slow stretches and controlled breathing. Sometimes I remind myself "This is my body and it belongs to me. This is me and it is mine."
I highly recommend this along with IFS internal family systems. It changed my life! It helps to become aware of our inner self and heal the parts of us that our disassociation is trying to protect.
@@perfectpeace352 funny you're saying that because i lowkey accidentally reinvented ifs and did it on myself without knowing it was actually an existing therapy method haha- with my dissociation comes maladaptive daydreaming and one day i got the idea of, hey, what if i started daydreaming about my mind's different parts, inside out (the pixar movie) or sanders sides (a youtube series) style? came up with a bunch of different "people" who'd be metaphors for different emotions and coping mechanisms i have, then imagined them work out their issues and conflicts with each other, had hella fun while doing it cuz i'm a writer and a daydreamer and love creating stories, and it also made me get better mentally and helped me understand myself better. then one day i came across ifs on the internet out of the blue and was like - wait, is that what i've been doing all this time??? so yeah, highly recommend, i'm not familiar with the original technique and what exactly it entails but i've been doing something similar and it's worked wonderfully :D
I have been doing this for a little over a month since I saw this video. It’s been great for me to check in with myself. When my alarm goes off, I take 3 breaths and then ask myself what I need. Usually it’s water, a good stretch, or some lip balm. It’s been a game changer for me.
I've been dissociated for pretty much most of my life. Neglectful parents, trauma at school, I tried for so long to get present but all stuff like meditation did was disconnect me even more. I've found that deliberate breathwork and tapping into the felt sense as shown in Peter Levine's books have helped me. It can take a very long time for people with complex trauma to break out of dissociation though and I still do it a lot.
100% relate.
Also 100% relate. I went inside my head twice during this video too. Had to rewind.
Feels like a bubble where you're safe from everything. Hard place to leave.
Waking the Tiger is definitely a good book recommendation 🙏 On my list for my partner and I to read and discuss together as we’ve both been through so much in life. I’m glad you found help in Peter Levine’s work
Peter Levine Gabe Matè, Van der Kolk have been my friends for the past 4 years. Am loving Holistic psychologist, it's like watching me speak out loud 😂❤
I notice it most when I'm tired, I have too much to do, when dating, when physically exhausted, when too many triggers happening at once, when a situation feels too big too deal with
I have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and have had joint dislocations since I was born. A few years ago when I began to access the present moment, I also accepted how much pain my body was in. Dissociation had been something that naturally occurred since I was a baby to cope with pain.
I am so sorry you have to deal with Physical pain ❤
Thank you for sharing. I notice that I dissociate the most when I am so sad I can't see a possible happy future outcome for my life.
The first time I learned of mindfulness it was a game changer for me. I would literally get sucked back to the past. It's hard to explain. It's just a dark place. I would notice and immediately started looking around naming things that were yellow, blue and green. I would listen to sounds. It has brought me back each and every time. Dissociation can be scary because sometimes you don't understand what's happening. The best I can describe it is like all your memories and feelings being exploded in your mind and everything is floating around and you can't make sense of it. I have respect for this channel
Well said.
How does anyone not be dissociated in this insane world we are forced to live in? Nothing is designed to make us feel safe for those of us who arent deeply programmed by the systems.
Agree...especially difficult for us with CPTSD. It seems like everything is a hamster wheel. This is why i hope trauma informed care gets rooted more in our systems. And im grateful for Dr. Nicole education.
For those of us who are not “programmed by the systems,”-We must win no matter what. My favorite pseudo Latin quote is “Illegitimi non carborundum,” “dont let the bastards grind you down.”
Meditation, self-hypnosis, finding like-minded people as encouragement, and pushing through the darkness.
@gispaAPRN yea I tried all that nonsense 🤣
Then I simply admitted it didn't work and just prayed to God if he is real then show me. He did. Jesus is alive and coming to judge .
Your so programmed you still you can do all that child's play and be OK.
Being dissociated from this world is a superpower.
@@truthbetold2354 so, that’s the game you came to play? 😂. Sure. God didn’t work for me years ago and I was raised in it all my life. I don’t need people like you who are the real ones “programmed.” If you thought you were going to “change my mind,” your delivery has sadly failed. In fact, getting away from religious nonsense like yours is what released me from the constant sadness and shame I had all my life, hence the reason I come here to heal those parts that need to be worked on from all the religious wounds and shame from family all those years. What a joke.
12 years ago I was in a accident. Also I had just filled for divorce. And a few other life altering events were going on. I became completely disassociated. I have been in therapy since then, but no one seems to understand what I am talking about when I try to explain my mentality. Finally I feel like I have a little familiarity in my life mostly from prayer. Glad to have found you.
I went through the same thing car accident and a divorce in the last year. I completely understand you, nobody understands me either at all we should talk
I can’t stop crying after watching your video. I had dissociation from my childhood and didn’t heal from it and it happened in my marriage again. Now I understand why I was like this last 2-3 years. I was blaming myself for being lazy, a lot of procrastinations not wanting to do anything. I was watching. Cleaning organizing tutorial videos to get motivated. Thank you so much I will try your recommendation to improve my life. I’m so tired of living like this😢😢😢.
Thank you Nicole. Really helpful for video.❤
That's what I've been doing the last couple of weeks and I have much more energy and confidence! I "called back" myself by focusing on the word "willpower" and being concentrated on the thought that I have the right to be separate person with unique thoughts and feelings. The narcissistic abuse I've experienced conditioned me that "it's not okay to be me" and I was subconsciously living next to my body to please others.
When I had this realization, it's like I was back home with myself!!!!
I felt euphoric even though there was nothing outside causing it, just me allowing myself to be me, feel me.
I dissociate the most during or after stressful situations. Especially when I am involved in a personal conflict or have to deal with a lot of stress at work, my mind moves away and I go on autopilot. I forget where I put things and sometimes even forget what I have been talking about with my colleagues. This has caused a lot of issues and I am planning to tackle this head on. I have dealt with dissociation in the past and it's had a huge impact on my life.
blessings to all that are hurting
Stressful situations for sure. I also find that when my sleep schedule is messed up, I’m beside myself. Consciousness check in set!
I dissociate too much 😢. Besides the freaking traumas, I 'm a HSP. Thank you so much, Doc ❤
HSP here..is there something that works for you to be less sensitive? It's a thorn in my side sometimes.
@@heidiainsworth4348 more self care
I even dissociated during this video.. 😔 Just the thought of coming back to the present moment terrifies me and it makes me wanna cry and hide. I don't know what happened in my childhood because I don't remember. I like that this method is simple and not overwhelming, and only now throughout this video I realized how the fact that I'm tired all the time doesn't help so I'm resistant to going back to the present. But I know it's time to get back in my body. 😢 Thank you for doing what you do 🤍💜
You are my favorite trauma coach
I do this multiple times a day. Lately its been so bad I've been thinking i shouldn't be driving. I thought i was autism spectrum. I haven't had trauma in a sense that would sound traumatic. But i did grow up believing the world is unsafe.
Nicole, I cannot tell you how much this video means to me. I have been dissociating from my body since I was born! Both childhood and medical trauma. This is something that my family just doesn’t understand, but YOU DO!! Please do more videos on this topic. ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Same here! 💪🏻🙏🏻💫
Omg I must've been exhausted and didn't even know it ~ I took 1 muscle relaxer this morning, then woke up again @4:30 pm. I slept ALL day.
Nicole/Dr. LePera,
Your shorts have helped me recognize issues within myself that need personal examination. This has always been a silent, unidentified elephant in the room that I could not vocalize or even recognize until I found you. therapy has not helped it because it’s a long-standing persistent pattern that needs to be broken/healed and I recognize it needs more than one approach. Thanks to you, I will be trying this to see if I can break it. I see the long-term consequences of this as 1.) losing time and presently existing and allowing this learned behavioral pattern to prevail. 2.) preventing conscious awareness and therefore self-control.
Thank you for your help. You’re a ninja at this psychology stuff. 😂
I use a app that ask me at the same time every day, twice a day I get asked how are you feeling what’s the emotion and some questions from there. I ignore it most days but the pop up helps a little
I can't wait to start doing this!
I catch my self disassociating several times a day.
I catch myself being present occasionally 😅
This exercise just brought me tears of joy. I did it after my one year old daughter fell asleep in my lap after drinking her milk. My three year old sleeping next to me on the couch. Seeing their beautiful faces even more present just overwhelmed me. Thank you for this tip! I will always be grateful! Greetings from Europe! 🤗
Along with this do a heartfelt prayer morning, noon, evening never miss a session ever and you will heal.
I sometimes feel my dissociating behaviour is like a slippery eel, especially at bedtime. I have an alarm set to remind me it's time to get ready for bed... but maybe I've just become used to it. Anyway, I'll go and fold the bed down, and I'll be in my pj's, brushing my teeth, then I'm distracted by tv or my phone, and I'm gone... and then I look up, and yes it's 1.30 am, again 😵!!
I'm keeping at it though - nothing to lose, everything to gain 👍.
Omg same😮 i dissociate the most around bed time. It's 1.18 am now. Do u have any tips on this ❤
I have a new fast moving degenerative neck issue right now that is very painful and is causing me to dissociate a lot, and is bringing back a lot of my old CPTSD symptoms. My doctor said that when we're in pain our defenses get lowered and it takes less for us to feel those old symptoms again. My husband also has long standing chronic pain and we have been discussing our new common thing and he said he'd spends most of his day dissociated. Which made me really sad for him. And it made me really want to learn how to get myself present again. Thank you so much for this really clear and simple exercise.
I dissociated through the first half of this video and had to re-watch it.
This is SO, SO great!!🙌🏻
I’ve been doing this for over a year now and it’s been incredible and continues to get better and better with each shift! 💜💪🏻💫🥂
4:14 mindful lighting's generally *so* helpful ime, mimic the sun's changing *hues & position* to support your circadian rhythm, especially during darker winters
*"tunable" lights* offer more orangish "warm" relaxing *&* blueish "cool" energizing options (most "smart" bulbs do but there are also ones you can flip the light source's power quickly to switch)
(there are also apps that can sync smart lights, phones & computers with the sun so all become less "blue" & more "orangey" as the sun sets)
*light closer to the floor* in the am & eve eases sleep/wake & wake/sleep transitions - especially gradually brighten/dim (most "smart" bulbs can be set for schedules & there are lots of "progressive light" alarms)
*we only use overhead lights when the sun is overhead* - even using upright lamps instead is such a different experience & just the routine can provide a placebo effect 🤓
This is great. Thanks for sharing your time and expertise. I have been struggling with this since I was a child, I'm almost 60. My family life was chaotic. My mom worked as a night nurse. My dad was an angry man. I thought he was going to kill me or one of my siblings. I have very few chidhood and teenage memories. ❤
Yes! It never fails to reground me when I drop into reality via all the senses. I ask myself questions like what's the lighting in this room like? What colors are there, textures. How's the temperature in here, are there smells, & what can I feel against my skin right now? Is there a breeze, how's my sweater feel, am I cold, etc. And breathing & stretching. 😃
I recently started with healing from dissociation by myself. The reaction of my body and mind is to notice how very tired I am. I kept going even after Hashimoto thyroiditis,Coronavirus, flare up of Epsom Barr virus. a normal reaction I guess. I have a full time job as SAP specialist and too many solutions are leaning on me.
Committed to exercising this practice so I can get off my spaceship 🚀 and be more present 🥂 to the next 30 days
I dissociate a lot with stressful situations and when I’m negatively inside of my own head. This evening I’m finally getting better with my realization. I been dissociated for about 5 years. It was really worse before it got better. I’m still improving on my realization and keeping in touch with my genuine emotions. Reminding myself that I’m dissociated and my breathing helps a lot. For anyone going through a hard time please don’t give up on yourself. Trust the process and take it one day at a time and be honest with yourself because, you matter.
i learned this on Dr.Nicole's private circle I know when I am disassociating this check in thing really works
I spent most of my teens dissociating from my body because of my gender dysphoria. Being present in my body was hell for almost a decade until I started getting medical treatment. I now associate being conscious of my body as this terrible thing, as whenever I was in the past, I sunk into a deep depression. This is still sometimes the case for me, but I take little steps to help overcome my out of body experiences by letting my senses experience something good like a soft blanket or the scent of citrus. This allows me to acknowledge that my flesh isn't the worst thing ever, and being present in my body is starting to hurt less
Thank you Dr Nicole. I love your short helpful videos. They are doable ❤
Wow, I didn’t realize how much I disassociate until I watched this. Thank you so much!!! This is so helpful to even just be aware of.
When I am stressed and overwhelmed with life yes it has changed my life you get credit for teaching this to the world.
Beautifully Simplistic but soooo amazingly powerful & Helpful!!! THANK YOU!!!!!
It’s so great to see the white board + brick wall back!
I appreciate this video. It's consistent with what my therapist tells me. I dissociate a lot during work meetings, especially on webcam.
The tips about sunlight and sleep are helpful too. I have sleep apnea and it really messed me up until I got treated for it.
I almost do 3h of meditation a day, which help a lot. I think I'll just add the conscious check to my morning meditation. I already do something similar, if people are interested, that helps a lot: before getting up in the morning I visualize (sorry for folks with aphantasia) the prana (univers' energy) in the atmosphere as tons of little lights, they enter my body through my left hand and gradually full my entire body. during the process I notice how I feel and where it hurts.
especially in the beginning this meditation takes a lot of time. but if you are patient, it totally worth it.
I also noticed that when I don't wake up right away in the morning, I calm down and spend better days. so 2 benefits.
Did yours go away?
@@tristanbellamy382 not yet. but I definitely feel better every day. there is a saying in french "être dans son assiette", which can be translated by "being comfortably seated". the meaning is you feel as a whole in your own body.
I had this feeling BACK a few months ago. I didn't even remember I was supposed to feel like that.
and I know it comes from my daily meditations. be patient with yourself, it will come back little by little.
Me being recommended this while I’ve been dissociated for 5 months after losing my therapist of 4 years. No friends, no family, no money.. lmfaooooooo
This is called mindfullness, or a mindfulness practice.
It is very helpful and coming to the brain and body.
For example, it is not just the tea that is the medicine but the “making of the tea” is also the medicine. Add a healing prayer and it’s alchemy 💫✨
I notice myself dissociating the most when I am doing nothing and not engaged in a particular task… basically when I am still and at rest.
Me too
I dissociate most before bed because I'm unsafe in my current roommate dynamic. But I'm moving soon! Thanks Dr. LePera!
Always valuable information! Thank you❤
BRILLIANT info, delivery.
Thank you ❤
Thank you ~ While I know what to do to make myself more present I don't always remember to do it while I'm in that state, so I like this self-reminder idea!
00:00 - Healing from dissociation
00:15 - Dissocation = Unconscious
01:10 - Step 1: Set a reminder
01:23 - Step 2: Stop for 1-2 mins
02:38 - Step 3: 30 Days
03:05 - Step 4: Witness the shift
03:30 - Step 1: 3 priorities for the body
I appreciate your videos and how you break everything down so it is not so overwhelming.
Beautiful suggestions & so integral to our collective + individual journey of healing, learning & simply loving life! ❤ Thank you for sharing!
Hopefully this is the video i need. Ive been healing from people for 2yrs & now its getting difficult to reassocate with society
This video has been so helpful to me, thank you so much for posting!
Thank you so much for your help ❤
Thanks Nicole. Great practical advice.
I have learnt alot from your Channel, great insights.
Alot to process and put into words.
I never knew what I had just aimlessly wandering through life not motivated extreme anxiety and when faced with trauma I freeze and go into a catatonic state almost. Has happened twice in my life. Panic attacks and psychotic breaks and too many diagnosis but not seeming to be accurate to how I actually feel. This disassociation ticks more boxes than anything else.
Was waiting for this ❤
This is very helpful. Thank You ❤
I got dissociated at the age if 9 because of the teacher. She was scolding me for something not significant and made me feel a lot of shame by putting me into the corner in front of the class. I was very hurt and didn't want to go to school the next day also because she saw me crying to my aunt for what the teacher did. I had a feeling the teacher would mention this. And before coming to the class, I literally had complex thoughts of splitting myself into two. I was convincing myself that the visible outer me is not the real me, but just a shell. And the real me is deep inside the body. This way I could feel a little bit protected...
My feeling was right and the teacher started shaming me for my tears in front of the class. This was terrible.
And she with such idiotic methods was considered a good teacher.
thanks for giving us practical things we can do to get better. I appreciate that.
Beautiful Work . Thank you for sharing..
Yup that's me alright...!!! I do do do... Go go go every single day, and whenever have a little spare time - i distract myself with things or other thoughts.. 🙃
I don't know when I dissociate because I do it so often and without realizing that its happening. Sometimes I've dropped things and broken them because I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing and was in my head. On auto pilot; well said. I've also hurt myself or almost walked into traffic because I've been stuck in my head so it really can be a bad thing for any one to have. I'm especially prone when I also am experiencing social anxiety. I will be hypervigilant and focused on what they are doing instead of what I am doing and thinking of things about them like they don't really like me or the way the tone in their voice sounded mean or disingenuous. I try to avoid all human contact but I have to work so I am engaging in that currently and it is very draining and I keep finding myself getting stuck on the way they act or say things and start to think its an attack on me. So I dissociate. And then after work I come home and I dissociate some more while I get chores done and if I'm not in this state then I'm usually engaged in some media from youtube or a video game (which is also a form of dissociating I'm told)
It's so hard to know what is normal and what's not. I know I dissociate a lot and i hate it, i can't bear the thought of not being present. I do a lot of meditation and it does help. I wish I could spend a day in someone else's head to see what it's like. Do most people go through life completely in the moment and enjoying everything to the fullest?
Your videos and books are life changing thank you
That's called grounding bringing yourself in the present
I've dissociated my whole life I remembered my place I would go was TV land! If I wasn't made to do all the chores, babysit my 4 younger siblings, wash my clothes by hand, hope they dried by ten or I was going to school wrinkled and than try to do my homework. Even when I could go out I would stay in and watch TV.
Thank you so much for clearly teaching about this! 🙏
Thank you so much ma'am ❤
finally, something tangible that I can do!
Hi Dear Nicole. One suggestion for you and your team. Can you please upload the daily posts on TH-cam too as I am off from social media Facebook Instagram for sometime. Like me many others only use TH-cam and they would be immensely helped.
I think a lot of people do online shopping now. I also think it's a good idea to have a list and be aware of prices before you go Black Friday shopping and/or get something you normally get BECAUSE it's on sale. For example I got some serum I use cause it was $15 off
Thank you 🙏🏽 ❤
Thanknyou for being vulnerable
Thank you for these tips!
they called it daydreaming when I was little
I've disassociated since I was a child.
Thank you!
Would you also recommend to do the Conscious Check-in 3 times a day? Or could that be harmful?
I see Double Pictures, while watching TV for example. Tinnitus. Some of the symptoms. And feel numb, even when I try to touch the outsides of my arms, I see myself doing it, I feel the touch to a certain Level, but it is as if I don't recognize and realise that it's ME.
I feel completely disconnected.
A very scary experience, though I know now that it won't harm me, I still feel frightened by it sometimes.
Love it😊❤
Thank you Nicole
Thank you 🙏
??My son has DID after a head injury, now I can see this explains a lot in his childhood that didn't add up.
I give him several mini shoulder rubs a day as his neck is usually sore from being tense, and require him to be present. He never dissociates when it's not safe, that I've seen.
Any thoughts?
thank you.
How is our behavior different when we're in dissociation or in freeze? Would sppreciate an elaborated response. Much gratitude for all you put out there for us.!!!
Id like t know more about getting tired. And it beeing a sign of less dissociation. Im changing nto a job of teaching so i must speak in fron of people. And that wasnt possible at all in my life for dacades due to emotiinal neglect due to autstic parents. But now im changing nto so eone who is able to do that for a small class. And it is far harder than i thought. after a lesson i am extremely xhausted i have to go to sleep right after. Get home compketely curled up with white nouse to cancel mthoughts. I work very parttime only a few hours a week. Ihope i can do more later. But for now this is all i can.
Thank you for this.
Thank you
What about streaks of emotional flash backing? This seems to fuel my dissociation.Or being deeply depressed .
I Dissociate in loud, noisy or chaotic environments, and large groups of people. Sends me into a depression spiral and sometimes takes days to recover...
Is dissociation more like ruminating or daydreaming, or both?
How about a video on hyperpresence? I’m fully aware of my sensorial inputs. It can be overwhelming.
I love this idea and I’m going to try it. Question though in regards to sunlight. In Seattle we’re going into what some call “The Big Dark” where a lot of us experience SAD from around November through April due to the short days and really gray/ rainy climate. A lot of people take vitamin D as a supplement - do you recommend that and/or have other recommendations for those of us with little access to real sunlight for months on end?
I live in Scotland same problem
But I have severe anxiety so I dissociate to give myself a break.
Me too...
I so feel this.
TLDR; "Don't let your present become a mental cage. It's just a place. Nothing more. It's us who shape and define it, which means it's also us who will decide what it becomes."
The way to help our anxiety is also to ground ourselves in the moment (I'm recovering from severe anxiety and ptsd, so I get it, but the present won't ever feel safe if all we do is run from it).
Anxiety pushes us to live in an imagined future. "This might happen," "they're going to freak out," "I'm going to fail," etc.
We imagine all these possibilities, but the truth is that we'll never know what will happen until it does. The future will always be unknown, and no amount of "educated guessing" will make it any more predictable or safe than it will ever be. But, we Can teach ourselves how to build safety and security in our present, so that those future unknowns hurt us a lot less.
Exercises like this, where we consciously stop and focus on the safe or predictable things in front of us, help us to do that by teaching us that the present can be many truths at once and not just our fears or pain. They help us see and feel the good around us, so that we can slowly start to release the bad too.
Yes, our mental health challenges all grew from different places, but our path to healing them will always be in how we respond to our present. We don't need to run from ourselves anymore. We're our own safety now 🫂
Is daydreaming dissociating? I was abused as a child and I’m sure did this but how do I know this is something I continue struggle with?
Yes. You escaped abuse by daydreaming. Reality was to painful to stay present in your childhood.
I feel like over the the past couple years ive found my self disassociating but not super often, just increasing with time. Whenever i notice it i end up slowly entering a panic attack. Its pretty scary especially whem im driving. And im an excellent driver i just enter panic mode more because im afraid of the disassociation so it sets me in deeper. Not sure if this is the same thing you described in the last video of what disassociation is but its freaky.