In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness

by Peter A. Levine

The great American bard Ralph Waldo Emerson sums this all up: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

Sensation Patterns The next task is to begin to recognize and work with patterned responses of sensation. In particular, you will begin to notice what various sensations (i.e., tensions, contractions, aches, pains, etc.) tend to emerge in sequences or in groups. For example, you may notice that a “knot” in the belly or tightening of the anus is associated with a suppression or holding of breath. At first this additional task may increase frustration and even stir up fear. It may seem excessively difficult to follow so many sensations (a task initially difficult for single focus), and as they connect with each other, there will be the possibility of becoming overwhelmed or “stuck with them forever.”

However, as you begin to gain mastery through practice, rather extraordinary things may begin to happen. You will be moving toward some of the root causes of these tension patterns. These stale constellations of habitual discomfort form the underlying maladaptive organization of all conflicts and unresolved traumatic residue. Through the following experiential exercises you have the opportunity to “see” for yourself, rather than believe on my word alone, the hypothesis that is spelled out in this text.

In this exercise we now begin to explore the fusion of internal with external experience. This processing of the organism/environmental field is what steers our forward course.

Exercise 4: Mindful Chewing The jaw is one of the places that most people carry considerable tension. There are reasons for this. The following exercise may serve to illuminate both reasons for this typical “holding pattern” and what may lie on the other side of it, as it dissolves: At your next meal, or with a crisp apple in hand, take a good “aggressive” bite into a food that you desire. Really, take a good bite out of it and then begin chewing deliberately. Continue chewing, slowly, mindfully, until the food turns to liquid. As you do this, become aware of other sensations and reactions in your body. If you feel the urge to swallow, try to restrain it—to “play the edge” of feeling the urge to swallow, when it arises, and continue to focus on gently chewing.

Exercise 5: Goldfish Jaw Attend to the tension in your jaw and mouth. Notice whether your lips and teeth are touching. Slowly begin to part your lips and slightly drop your chin and lower jaw. Notice any impulses or urges. Next, infinitesimally slowly, begin opening and closing your mouth as though you were a goldfish. Gradually, almost imperceptibly, increase the range of your opening and closing. When you come to a point of resistance, gently back off and then slowly move back into the resistance.

Note times when you have an urge to shake or tremble or if it brings up emotional feelings or images. Note also if you seem to be fighting or bracing against it or to surrender into it. Again record your experience and compare it as you repeat this exercise over time.

Take some time to explore the sense of tension in your shoulders. Note which shoulder is more tense. Now, keep your awareness on that tension. Then imagine that this tension is increasing. As it increases, note how that tension would “want to move” the shoulder. Allow the shoulder to move … very slowly so that it feels like it is moving on its own. It may take ten minutes to do this. Does it seem like it’s moving upward toward your ear? Do the ear and shoulder want to move toward each other? Do you have the sense that your shoulder is somehow protecting you? If so, what might it be protecting you from? Do you notice your head, neck and eyes wanting to turn (and orient) in a particular direction? How does this feel? When you open your eyes, let them look outside the window at a tree or around the room and focus on different objects. Enjoy! *

Pi (in the book The Life of Pi) tells us about this Achilles heal: It is life’s only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unerring ease … Reason comes to do battle for you. You are reassured. Reason is fully equipped with the latest weapons of technology. But, to your amazement, despite superior tactics and a number of undeniable victories, reason is laid low. You feel yourself weakening, wavering. Your anxiety becomes dread. Fear turns fully to your body, which is already aware that something terribly wrong is going on. Already your lungs have flown away like a bird and your guts have slithered away like a snake. Now your tongue drops dead like an opossum, while your jaw begins to gallop on the spot. Your ears go deaf. Your muscles begin to shiver as if they had malaria and your knees to shake as though they were dancing. Your heart strains too hard, while your sphincter relaxes too much. And so with the rest of your body. Every part of you, in the manner most suited to it, falls apart. Only your eyes work well. They always pay proper attention to fear. [They are constantly on the prowl for more objects of fear.] Recall

you bring forth that which is within you, Then that which is within you Will be your salvation. If you do not bring forth that which is within you, Then that which is within you Will destroy you. —The Gnostic Gospels

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In Buddhism an important distinction is made between suffering and unnecessary suffering. According to the Buddha, “When touched with a feeling of pain, the ordinary person laments … becomes distraught … contracts … so he feels two pains … just as if they were to shoot a man with an arrow and, right afterward, were to shoot him with another … so that he would feel the pains of two arrows …” Trauma sufferers are so frightened of their bodily sensations that they recoil from feeling them. It is as though they believe that by feeling them they will be destroyed or, at the very least, make things worse. Hence they remain stuck. In this way, they shoot themselves with the second arrow—FDR’s “fear of fear itself.”