We believe in functional mental wellness, a holistic approach to mental health. We know that there's hope for those of us who have experienced trauma, even profound trauma and that's why we created the universe is your therapist podcast, we believe whether you call it God, the universe, source, unity or love that there is something much greater than us that conspires for our good, we envision a world of healing and connection. And we teach you simple, but powerful practices that integrate your mind, body and spirit so that you can come home to your highest self and your truest identity. You are not broken, you are loved, and you can heal. My name is Amy Hoyt, and together with my sister, Lena, we will take you on a journey of healing and self discovery. Okay, so let's talk about the first tool. And this might seem really benign, but it's awareness. And Lena is going to talk to us about awareness.
Yes. And we like to use the term benevolent curiosity because what we are meaning with that term is that we are kindly and lovingly curious about what's happening for us are about the things that we think or do. And when we are able to be open to being curious and interested in what we're doing, or how we're, we're behaving, that increases awareness exponentially. When we use awareness to beat ourselves up, or to tell ourselves that we should or shouldn't have done something, the part of the brain that ignites in fight or flight response gets very activated. And we can't actually be as aware. Sometimes people talk about anger and how it can limit their perception, that sort of thing. Well, the same thing can happen with fear or frustration, or hyper criticism of ourselves. So when we do, when we do benevolent curiosity, what we want to do is we want to be able to just start noticing it, this is something I've worked on for several years, I'm still working on it. And so sometimes what will happen is I'll have an emotional reaction, but I don't know what it I actually can't even consciously be aware of what it's related to. And so I've been practicing saying to myself, Okay, I'm having feelings of frustration and disappointment. And then from there, because I'm not beating myself up. And I'm not saying to myself, I shouldn't feel this way, which I've spent most of my life saying to myself, because I am benevolently curious, then I can explore where those emotions are coming from, and use those emotions as information about what I'm experiencing. And that has become really valuable in my own journey of healing, we can ask ourselves, I wonder where this behavior or this belief came from. I know that my brain is attempting to keep me from harm by engaging in these beliefs and behaviors. And, again, bring gratitude to that part of our brain that allowed us to survive, and then also grace to that part of our brain, that we want to start shaping a little differently so that we can have a more fulfilling, connected life.
Thank you. Lina, we have a question. And I think this is an excellent question. Okay. How does this differ from a mindfulness practice?
Oh, that's great. It includes a mindfulness practice. So mindfulness in the western world is about being present. And what we have learned with our gathered experience as a team, is that when you've had trauma, it's exceptionally difficult to remain present consistently, because of that hyper vigilance and the worry about something difficult or awful happening. And that can include being criticized. So the mindfulness is a key component. And it's difficult to be mindful, if you haven't started working on resolving some of these tendencies, because the mind then becomes preoccupied with outcome instead of what's happening in the moment. I hope that's helpful. If there's a follow up question. Go ahead and
get this I just wanted to clarify with the way I think about it, Laura, is that the Neverland curiosity is specifically looking at how, what messages I'm getting from my emotions. I'm specifically tuning in. Why am I why is my chest so tight? Why is my stomach tight? What's going on here? I'm being very loving. You know, I noticed this what's going on? When I think of mindfulness my mindfulness practice is about staying in the present moment. It's not necessarily attached to a reaction I'm having although it could be so I think they do go hand in hand but benevolent curiosity is really focused on the messages were receiving from our emotions in our body. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you want to go deeper on this subject or any other subjects we've covered in the podcast, we are so excited to be launching our signature membership program at mending trauma.com This is a trauma informed mental health membership, where we combine clinically effective practices, courses and mentoring while putting you in the driver's seat. We teach you how to heal your trauma with the latest research combining mind body and spirit we want to walk you through a healing journey while also empowering you. If you have felt this episode is helpful. We would absolutely love if you would go to Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to your pods and give us a review. We'd also love it if you would share it with someone you think it might help tag us on social media at mending trauma.com Or at Amy Hoyt PhD, we would love to reshare and also if there's anything we can do to help we would love to hear from you email info at mending trauma.com Give us your suggestions or topics you want to hear about. We would absolutely love to be of more service to you. We're so excited because we have so many good episodes coming up in season two, and we can't wait to go on this journey with you
