Many people with trauma have a deep capacity for restriction and pain. Constriction is what the body does during stress and trauma. When you grow up or develop in these environments and with this programming, your body begins to associate constriction and stress with familiarity, security, and comfort. This means we will tend to seek people, habits, and lifestyles that create constriction because it’s what we know and what we’re used to because we have the capacity for it.
Guess what most of us don’t have the capacity for? Freedom. Joy. Bliss. Spaciousness. Abundance. Connection. Intimacy. Vulnerability.
And even though it feels good, many of us sadly aren’t used to feeling this way so it’s more unfamiliar and we shut it down or question these feelings/states. It feels too exposed, vulnerable and open to attack for a body that has found comfort in confinement and constriction.
