Do you struggle with trauma and find it difficult to motivate yourself to be physically active? Do you often find yourself sitting ruminating or dwelling on past abuse or neglect and wonder why you can’t break the cycle? The answer may lie in finding physical activities that can help you engage your body to help heal your mind.

The Problem with Trauma and Lack of Physical Activity

We are at a point in our world where trauma is something that is almost a given in our lives. We have lived through many generations where trauma has been an underlying problem across cultures around the globe. One of the main problems with this kind of devastation is that people who are affected by it tend to live their lives from the “neck up“ as the famous psychiatrist and author Bessel van der Kolk has said and don’t get much physical activity.

Physical Activity as a Gateway to Healing Trauma

If the problem with being affected by trauma is that you live your life from the neck up, then part of the way to heal their trauma is to engage your body in forms of movement that will be therapeutic and help to heal or reverse it. Several forms of therapy that help people to recover from trauma are based on principles that rely on the body or motion. One of these is EMDR, which relies on a mechanism called bilateral stimulation. Bilateral stimulation is basically movement that involves both sides of your body in some way. Another is Somatic Experiencing Therapy, which focuses on the body and how it gives us information about where trauma is stored in the body. So it only makes sense to get physically active in ways that will help to facilitate the healing of your body from trauma. This helps your mind to be able to heal as well. So below I have several forms of physical activity that will help facilitate this.

Here are 5 of the Activities to Help Heal Trauma:

1. Walking. This is one form of exercise that has been shown in numerous studies to be very beneficial for your long-term health and mood. One of its characteristics is that it involves you moving your left and right legs, which tends to mimic the bilateral stimulation of EMDR. This was how EMDR was discovered by its founder, Francine Shapiro.

2. Yoga. One of the key forms of movement that Bessel van der Kolk recommends to help people with EMDR is yoga. It started as a spiritual practice in ancient India, but has since become a very important form of healthcare in more recent time (along with the form of spiritual practice). It helps bring greater awareness of the body, and more attention and ability to be attuned to what the body has to share with the mind.

3. Horseback riding. While it is more of a physical activity for the horse, a rider has to be very conditioned to the movements of the horse and what those communicate to the rider. It also demands a high degree of physical strength from the rider to be able to manage this magnificent creature. There is a form of therapy, known as equine therapy, which can be very helpful for veterans and children with developmental disabilities to be able to recover and develop. It then can be very helpful for others who suffer from trauma as well.

4. Gardening. The main reason that I highlighted gardening is because it’s a way of working with the earth that can help us to be very grounded. The emphasis here is not on being an expert in this activity, but to bring you more into your body. It also helps you to feel more connected with the earth, which she is very healing in and of itself.

5. Dance. While I don’t have any particular research base to draw on to recommend this form of physical activity to you, it does bring to mind the importance of finding some physical activity that you can enjoy, or used to enjoy. None of these physical activities listed will necessarily do you any good unless you can find some enjoyment in them. Even if you only used to enjoy something, it still is important to try and engage in it. Many people who suffer from trauma also have a problem with lack of enjoyment, or anhedonia. So the idea is to find something you do enjoy that involves some physical activity and do it trusting that the enjoyment will come back to you eventually.

What If I’m Physically Active but Still Struggle with Trauma?

I’ve been helping clients to recover from trauma for my entire social work career. If it were simply a matter of engaging in the right physical activity to heal from trauma, then everybody would be doing it. Many forms of trauma are such that physical activity alone won't help you to heal from it. Having a therapist who is trained in working with trauma can be critical in healing from it. I use several forms of therapy that have been effective in helping my clients to overcome and heal from trauma. One of them is EMDR, and another is Image Transformation Therapy (ImTT). I encourage you to call the number at the top of the page or fill out a form below if you live in Maryland or Texas, and I can get back to you to schedule a free 20 minute phone consult to give you a better idea about whether I can help you. There are many ways to help heal from trauma, but the key is that you take steps to do what you can to heal from whatever trauma that you suffer from. I wish you success on your journey whatever form it takes.

About the author:  Scott Kampschaefer, LCSW is a private practice therapist in Frederick, Maryland.  He has an extensive background in working with depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder at a clinic for older adults with these disorders in Austin, Texas.  He now works with adults and adolescents 14 and up in private practice. His most recent book is titled The 5 Pillars of Addiction Recovery and is available for purchase on Amazon and in paperback on this website.