Yoga for Emotional Trauma: Meditations and Practices for Healing Pain and Suffering

by Mary NurrieStearns LCSW, RYT, Rick NurrieStearns

Overview

Many of us have experienced a traumatic event in our lives, whether in childhood or adulthood. This trauma may be emotional, or it may cause intense physical pain. In some cases, it can cause both. Studies have shown that compassion and mindfulness based interventions can help people suffering from trauma to experience less physical and emotional pain in their daily lives. What’s more, many long-time yoga and meditation teachers have a history of teaching these practices to their clients with successful outcomes.

In Yoga for Emotional Trauma, a psychotherapist and a meditation teacher present a yogic approach to emotional trauma by instructing you to apply mindful awareness, breathing, yoga postures, and mantras to their emotional and physical pain. In the book, you’ll learn why yoga is so effective for dealing with emotional trauma.

Yoga and mindfulness can transform trauma into joy. It has done so for countless millions. The practices outlined in this book will teach you how to use and adapt the ancient practices and meditations of yoga for your own healing. Drawing upon practices and philosophy from eastern wisdom traditions, and texts such as the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the Bagavad Gita, and the Buddhist Sutras, this book will take you on a journey into wholeness, one that embraces body, mind and spirit. Inside, you will discover the lasting effect that trauma has on physiology and how yoga resets the nervous system.

Combining yogic principles, gentle yoga postures, and mindfulness practices, this book filled with sustenance and practical support that will move you along your own healing path.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608826421
Publisher:	New Harbinger Publications
Publication date:	07/01/2013
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Mary NurrieStearns, LCSW, RYT, is a psychotherapist and yoga teacher with a counseling practice in Tulsa, OK. She is author of numerous articles on psycho-spiritual growth, coeditor of the book Soulful Living, coauthor of the book Yoga for Anxiety, and has produced DVDs on yoga for anxiety and emotional trauma. She leads transformational meditation and yoga retreats and teaches seminars across the United States.

Visit Mary online at www.personaltransformation.com.


Rick NurrieStearns, is a meditation teacher, coauthor of the book Yoga for Anxiety, and coeditor of Soulful Living. For ten years he was the publisher of Personal Transformation, a magazine focusing on psycho-spiritual growth. He has been immersed in consciousness studies and yoga practices for nearly four decades. In 2009 he survived a near-fatal airplane crash that resulted in chronic pain. He credits the practice of meditation with helping him navigate through extreme pain and the journey of recovery.

Visit Rick online at www.personaltransformation.com.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments v

Introduction 1

1 Healing Involves Compassion 5

An Inquiry into Memories of Compassion 16

Select a Compassionate Phrase 20

Practicing Metta Prayer 22

Write a Compassionate Letter to Yourself 25

2 Trauma, Thoughts, and Healing 29

Self-Inquiry Practice: Who Am I? 36

Practicing Concentration Meditation 43

3 Emotional Trauma, Physiology, and Healing 53

Singing, Chanting, or Humming Practice 73

Measured Breathing Practice 75

Gentle Breath-Retention Practice 76

4 Healing Trauma With a Physical Practice of Yoga 79

A Practice of Yoga Poses 93

5 Paying Attention to Life in the Present Moment 119

Instructions for Doing a Body Scan 132

Instructions for Floor Gazing 133

Instructions for Sacred Symbol Gazing 135

Instructions for Paying Attention to Breathing 136

Instructions for Paying Attention to Eating 138

Instructions for Paying Attention to Walking 140

6 Dealing with Physical and Emotional Pain 143

Mantras for Sleep 157

Instructions for Focused Attention Meditation 160

Dirgha Pranayama or Three-Part Breath Practice 162

Focus on Ideas and Images That Fill You with Life-Enhancing Emotions 166

7 Trauma, Difficult Life Transitions, and the Spiritual Journey 169

Your Personal Yoga/Meditation Practice 182

Write About Your Internal Support System 184

Devotional Salutation 190

Conclusion 193

Bibliography 197

Interviews

Mary and Rick NurrieStearns live in Tulsa, OK.

Editorial Reviews

“Yoga for Emotional Trauma fills a gap in the trauma and recovery literature.
Anyone who is working to heal from past trauma will benefit from reading this book. Then, following the easy instructions for yoga poses will move their recovery in a new way. Well written and easily understood.”
—Charles Whitfield, MD, author of Not Crazy: You May Not be Mentally Ill and Wisdom to Know the Difference, and Barbara Harris Whitfield, RT, CMT, author of The Natural Soul, Victim to Survivor, and Thriver


“To be alive in the twenty-first century is to be traumatized, but we need not stay traumatized. Our age is witnessing an efflorescence of methods to eliminate suffering and move to a place of joy, fulfillment, and serenity. The NurrieStearns are leading the way.”
—Larry Dossey, MD, author of Healing Words and One Mind


“You don't have to have a history of trauma to benefit from this manual of practices from the yoga tradition, but if you do, Yoga for Emotional Trauma is essential reading. The NurrieStearns write with compassion and understanding about the journey home to your true nature, the place that has never been sullied by your trauma. The NurrieStearns write clearly, humbly describing their own recovery from trauma along with the recovery stories of the many clients with whom they have worked. Thank you NurrieStearns for giving us in clear and readable prose, the brain science that explains the effects of trauma and how yoga can help us recover.”
—Amy Weintraub, founder of the LifeForce Yoga Healing Institute, and author of Yoga for Depression and Yoga Skills for Therapists


“This is simply a fantastic book. It captures the full spectrum of practical knowledge of yoga and makes it accessible for all of us so we can use this ancient knowledge and proven practice for healing our body, mind, and spirit. Without overwhelming the reader, the book encourages us to try out a number of thoughtful compassionate and gentle exercises to soothe and harmonize all three aspects of ourselves: body, mind, and spirit.”
—Georg Eifert, PhD, Chapman University Professor Emeritus of Psychology and coauthor of the Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Anxiety


“Margaret Mitchell once wrote: ‘Every problem has two handles. You can grab it by the handle of fear, or the handle of hope.’  This book has a firm grasp on the handle of hope. This book offers a gentle, time-tested, nurturing approach to guide the reader through their recovery from trauma. It is a much-needed balm for a wounded world.”
—Henry Emmons, MD, integrative psychiatrist and author of The Chemistry of Joy, The Chemistry of Calm and The Chemistry of Joy Workbook


“Yoga teachers, students, and even folks new to the idea of yoga will benefit from the stories and information in this thoughtful book. The healing power of yoga is vast and endless both physically and emotionally. The authors have done a wonderful job of explaining how it works with easy-to-understand true stories and references to science. I appreciate this work and plan to share it with all of my students and teacher trainees. We can help so many people, and we can begin with ourselves.”
—Desiree Rumbaugh, certified yoga instructor

From the Publisher