Powerful Ways to Recover and Release Trauma: Build Resilience

The story of how I recovered and released my trauma through building resilience is powerful and will help anyone who has trauma.
Scroll down to find ways to recover and release trauma in ways that work for you!

“The paradox of trauma is that it has both the power to destroy and the power to transform and resurrect.”¹

Levine, P. A. (2010).

Quick summary of the article: 

1. Recovering and releasing trauma begins with identifying that you have trauma.
2. Identifying trauma shows you how you can handle difficult situations.
3. Identify what stage of self-help you’re on.
   1. Are you in the 1st stage where the realization that you have trauma has just hit you? Maybe it’s stage 4 where you’re enjoying life with less mental stress. 
4. Begin enjoying life, handling challenges, and living in a less-stressed mental state. 

To heal from trauma, you must identify you have trauma. 

This concept took me an incredibly large amount of time to realize. I didn’t want to say I had trauma. Why would I? I didn’t want to admit that horrible events happened to me. I didn’t want to admit that I was in a terrible relationship or had lived in abusive circumstances. The list goes on and on: 

1. Trama triggered my body to develop Major Depressive Disorder, Anxiety, and a slew of body issues.
   1. I didn’t want to admit I had body issues, was depressed, or that everything I did caused a fuzzy cluster of panicked thoughts rummaging around my head. 

Yet, the moment I identified that I had trauma impacting my life, my health, and my relationships, it was a relief. It was as though all the weight had fallen off my shoulders. 

Identifying trauma shows you how you can handle difficult situations.

How does identifying you have trauma recover and release it? 

• Identifying the trauma affecting your body is the same as flipping a switch.
  • When someone goes through a traumatic event, the brain changes how it operates. Multiple studies have observed that people with trauma have less signaling between the hippocampus (the part of the brain associated with memory and emotion) and the brain’s mechanism used for learning and survival.²
  • When someone identifies trauma, they begin reworking the connections between these portions of the brain’s network. 
• So, where’s the switch?
  • Due to the brain structure changing, new connections being formed, and new communication within the brain, the switch happens.³

How do I know if I made the switch? 

• The switch gets flipped from the moment you identify your trauma and its effects on your life. 

In my story, as the example, once I identified that I had trauma, I began doing everything I could to make sure it never affected me again. I started identifying enjoyable activities and things I could do to achieve this mission. 

Next, identify what stage you’re on.

I identified I have trauma that affects me… now what? 

• First off, congrats! It’s an amazing feat to identify that you’re affected by trauma. 
• You’re in stage 2 of the self-help journey. The next goal is to move to stage 3. 

Stage 3 of the self-help journey is learning that trauma builds resilience. 

• Let’s define resilience. The Oxford Language Dictionary defines resilience as the ability to withstand or recover quickly from difficulties.
  • Oxford Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 1928.
• Trauma IS a difficulty you’re actively withstanding to release and recover from. 

You can recover from trauma, or you wouldn’t be reading this right now.

• You form resilience through challenges in life you must face as you age. But, there is nothing in your life that will be more challenging than the trauma experienced.
  • Since you’re already past it, your resilience is forming. 

Other ways to build resilience:

1. Do Mental Clarity activities:
   1. Use mental tools (check out our article on those!)
      1. Mental tools are mental exercises that help the new connections formed and communication within the brain thrive. 
   2. Reframing thoughts
   3. Positive affirmations
2. Formulate a new outlook:
   1. Consistently affirm you are resilient and the past trauma no longer affects you or your actions. 
3. Do new activities:
   1. Trauma halts us from doing what our true self wants to do because of the mental connections formed during the traumatic event.
      1. However, you control what you do and can handle difficult emotions and situations because you’re resilient. 
4. Self-care habits that fuel you from the inside:
   1. Skincare 
   2. Change in diet
   3. Meditation
   4. Breathing Exercises
      1. Here are just a few examples. (More coming soon in a new article!)

The further you explore self-help practices you enjoy, the closer you get to stage 4. 

How do I know when I’m in stage 4?

• You begin:
  • Enjoying life
  • Challenges seem to become easier to handle
  • Self-help is appealing and a daily practice
  • Less mental stress to handle difficult situations 

Begin enjoying life, handling challenges, and living in a less-stressed mental state.

What are the results of building resilience? 

• You re-write neuro networks in the brain, begin to feel better due to change, and inevitably recover and release your trauma. 

I hope you recover and release your trauma, as I have taken information from this article. To conclude my story, as an example, I’m now beyond stage 5 from following the self-help path and finding what fuels me. 

I’m blessed, grateful, and appreciative to write resources I feel inspired to write and share for free with you. 

-Rosabeth Mooon  

1. Levine, P. A. (2010). In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness. North Atlantic Books. ↩︎
2. “Researchers Reveal How Trauma Changes the Brain.” University of Rochester Medical Center, 7 Dec. 2022, www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/publications/neuroscience/researchers-reveal-how-trauma-changes-the-brain. ↩︎
3. “Science Behind Therapy.” Mental Health America, mhanational.org/science-behind-therapy#:~:text=Psychotherapy%20produces%20long%2Dterm%20behavior,communication%20between%20neurons%5B4%5D. ↩︎