The art of pendulation for healing trauma.
Today, I have been inspired to share with you some insights into pendulation. This was ‘coined’ by Peter Levine and is considered foundational in somatic therapy. I would state though, that this is far older than modern day trauma therapy or theory. Pendulation for me is the dance of being alive and it began the moment the universe came into being.
It’s our ability to be able to move in and out of different states, to be able to meet discomfort and then find softness again. It’s where we stop assigning ‘good’ and ‘bad’ to the many ways we experience life. Pendulation is the rise and fall of the wave of aliveness…
Expansion & contraction.
Inhale & exhale.
Activity & rest.
Inspiration & expiration.
Life & death.
The cycles of seasons.
The pulse of the universe.
When our bodies become overwhelmed by something traumatic we can get stuck. There is a collapse or dissociation and we forget how to move with these rhythms. We might feel stuck in anxiety, intensity, hypervigilence or perhaps numb and disconnected. We might swing between all of these states while our body tries to protect us from the harm our bodies believe is still happening and we can no longer cope with.
Our bodies are actually built for stress, to be able handle difficult and traumatic events and to be able to meet intensity. And just like the tide, our bodies know how to settle again, to soften and rest. When trauma overwhelms the system, re-membering how to pendulate is how we get unstuck and rebuild our capacity for life.
Pendulation is the natural movement between different states in our body.
Within my therapeutic practice this is the foundation of the work. Firstly, I look to teach my clients various resources while we start to build a space together for more difficult material to be explored. Both the resource and the relationship start to show my clients that they can access relaxation and grounding. Once those are established they then become the banks of the river for when we start to meet more and more discomfort from the trauma that has gotten stuck.
We can start to show the body that we can meet something difficult and then come back to safety rather than becoming overwhelmed and having to shut down.
Then gently and overtime our capacity starts to widen.
We become capable of welcoming grief, rage and old pain that got stuck.
We start to trust the rhythm of letting things move.
Our bodies learn that we can feel all the experiences that life has to offer us.
We remember how to hold complexity and difference.
Pendulation teaches us over and over again that no state is permanent and that is the truth of life.
Pendulation is the key to meeting this great dance.
A body based practice for pendulation.
We are going to keep this very simple because this does not need to be complicated. This is also not a ‘quick fix’ this is a skill that we re-member over and over again. Our bodies are also not on capitalist or linear time. If you have experienced complex trauma for example and spent years in a collapse or freeze then bringing our feeling body alive again will take time, curiosity and compassion.
First of all you want to connect with a resource. This might be just feeling your feet on the ground, connecting with breath, listening to a favourite song, coming into contact with nature.
Then see if you can locate a sensation that you would try to avoid. Something that feels uncomfortable or difficult, maybe even a little scary. The invitation is to see if you can stay with it for a few moments, no fixing, just allowing. Maybe it’s fear in your solar plexus, rage in your belly or grief in your heart.
Then come back to your resource, ideally before any overwhelm sets in.
And that’s it, over and over again. The skill comes when we are able to pendulate in real time. In the moments we become activated for example, can we let ourselves feel what we are experiencing, just for a moment before we seek something to resource ourselves?
Some journal prompts…
What feels like ‘too much’ right now?
What helps you soften or feel safer… even if it’s just by 5%?
What can you put in place to help you remember your resources when you feel activated?
A final note: Your body already knows how to do this.
Pendulation is not something we force, but something we remember.
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