By Orit Krug  |  June 16th, 2020

Our bodies are amazingly accurate at telling us if we’re holding trauma within.

Do you often feel that you have a lot of tension and stress in your body – usually in your shoulders or neck?

Or perhaps you feel stiff all over with a tightness that just doesn’t seem to go away?

This tension or strain is often an early indicator that you might be holding trauma in the body. When you avoid feeling the emotions that are stored in your body, the signals get “louder” and manifest into aches and pains.

There are three other common ways to tell you’re holding trauma in the body:

1. You have unexplained physical pain without a medical diagnosis

If you’ve seen a lot of doctors for certain physical pain and you haven’t experienced any relief from treatments, then this could be a sign that your physical discomfort is stemming from trauma.

This is because your mind is wonderful at telling you that you’re fine, you’re safe, you’re good; there’s nothing to worry about (maybe because your trauma happened a long time ago).

But in fact, your body is holding the trauma and continues to register danger threats in your environment. This releases cortisol which increases your stress levels and weakens your immune system; inevitably making you sick.

2. Your anxiety levels don’t seem to reduce no matter what you try

Another way to tell if you’re holding trauma in the body is if you have anxiety that doesn’t seem to be alleviated no matter how many meditations or affirmations you do, or how much journaling you undertake.

You’re working hard to reduce your anxiety, but you’re still struggling with levels that don’t seem to have reduced at all.

The anxious feelings you’re experiencing are your nervous system trying to signal that something is not right. That there is unresolved trauma being held in your body that needs to be released and healed.

3. You tend to disconnect from your body

If you find that you tend to escape from or disconnect from your body, then this is a strong sign that you are holding trauma and you’re trying to feel safe by numbing yourself.

Because your body stores memories and emotions from traumatic experiences, a common coping response is to dissociate from your body when your nervous system gets triggered.

This is because when the original trauma occurred, your nervous system caused your body to numb or escape the situation in order to prevent you from the most possible pain. This is your body’s way of coping, and your nervous system continues to respond to similar situations today, in the same way. You don’t feel safe to remain present, so you disconnect from your body.

Get on the right path to healing trauma from your body and nervous system.

Many people spend decades and thousands of dollars in traditional therapies trying to heal their trauma. Unfortunately, even the most popular therapies are scientifically shown to be limited in accessing trauma stored in the non-verbal brain and body.

Even alternative approaches, such as EMDR and Brain Mapping, are often not enough to fully heal from the physical body or the nervous system.

This makes trauma healing a very frustrating journey for so many people. They often blame themselves for being “un-healable” and decide that they’re broken.

This is NOT true!

Every human being is 100% neurophysiologically capable of healing in a way that truly lasts, because we all have wiring and neural pathways that can be rewired from fear and overprotection, to love and openness.

My unique, scientific-backed process via Dance Therapy has helped hundreds of clients finally heal from past trauma and transform their relationship (even after decades of trying in other therapies).

You can heal too, but you need the right methodology.

Sign up for my online course (ranges from free to $20 USD) to begin a unique, body-based learning experience that will teach you:

• Science-backed education about how trauma is stored in your body and nervous system. You’ll gain an understanding why it has NOT been your fault you haven’t healed yet from past trauma.
• Gentle, guided body-based movement that is necessary for integrated healing. This is crucial if you want your mind’s intentions to match your body’s behaviors in relationships.
• An embodied approach to healing that has helped hundreds of clients break unhealthy relationship patterns and let in healthy, lasting love.

Click here to sign up now!

Do you feel like a control freak in relationships? Here’s WHY and what to do about it.

By Orit Krug  |  April 16th, 2019

Let’s talk about why you REALLY feel like a control freak in relationships.

Being a control freak in relationships can look like a lot of different things to different people…

Maybe you remind your partner to do the dishes 3 times in 24 hours because you don’t trust them to do what you asked.

Or you tell them to come home RIGHT after picking up dinner because you’re worried they’ll flirt with that cute waitress.

We feel short-term relief when we gain control because, well … we think we have it under control. But it harms us so much more in the long run.

Control is like an addiction.

It creates a false illusion that everything’s okay because you took control. You’ve reminded your partner to take out the trash 7 times and he finally did it, so you believe you NEEDED to control the situation in order to see your desired results.

You start to believe, “he did the dishes only because I nagged him. I HAD to remind him 3 times in ONE day!”

That sets us up and the control freak in relationships starts to need more control for even more detrimental things, like who they talk to at work or how they eyed their attractive friend.

But the thing is, you don’t HAVE to remind them to take out the trash in the first place if your partner truly cares about your feelings. If they don’t do what you ask, they know you’ll get upset. They want do it for you, if not for themselves.

They want to meet your needs, but they just might not do it as fast as you want. Give your partner the occasional reminder and see if you can let go a little bit.

Here’s the deeper issue though…

Your inner control freak thinks it’s protecting you from heartbreak.

When you’ve been heartbroken, manipulated or abused in past relationships, then you hold onto that deep traumatic experience of losing control and getting really hurt.

Your body remembers these experiences on a nonverbal subconscious level, especially if this happened over 20 years ago or when you were a child. Your whole being now believes that you’re not safe when you don’t have power or control.

Your nervous system takes over and reacts with really high-stress responses when your partner does ANYTHING that even remotely triggers a SENSE of past hurt. And because your will to survive always wins, you cannot convince yourself that “everything’s fine” even when you rationally know that your current partner is nothing like the last ones.

Being a control freak in relationships feels really f**king good on a deep primal level.

So there might be a part of you that HATES feeling like a control freak, but let’s also lovingly acknowledge that part of you that loves having some power.

When all your power was stripped away from you in the past, it feels especially good to get it back.

Maybe you’ve been in situations where if you even TRIED to regain control, you’d suffer some serious consequences.

Even though my brothers were twice my size, I used to hit them back, and they hit me back 3x harder than the original strike. I had no way of gaining control without getting even more hurt.

So when I started dating my prince of a husband, I knew I had the opportunity to have some power against a man, for the first time ever!

I took my anger and trauma from the past and put it all on him, even though he treats me like a queen.

I really hurt him and at one point he asked to break up. I just hated myself for not being able to snap out of it. ALL of the evidence said he was an amazing guy, but I had a greater need for control and I couldn’t talk myself into letting go of my newly acquired power.

So while it feels great to have a safe relationship where you can finally exert control, you need to learn how to feel that from an EMPOWERED place vs. a “screw men, I’m in charge now!” place.

Your body can help you to start letting go of that negative control.

Let’s use the example of asking your partner to do the dishes. Imagine that you’ve already asked them twice.

What would it be like to hold yourself back and not give that third reminder?

What comes up for you in your body? What sensations come up for you?

When you understand the feelings that come from your body, you gain the key to unravel your need for control because we all react to our body sensations FIRST.

We react to alleviate our anxiety when our hearts race or chest tightens. When we have unresolved trauma in relationships, we associate that anxiety with our current partner even if they did nothing wrong.

So observe your sensations right now as you imagine letting go of control. See how they come up and how you want to move TO them, instead of them moving YOU and controlling how your body behaves.

When you give yourself the imagined experience of letting go of control and move with it, you allow your nonverbal subconscious to understand that you’re in charge and it’s safe.

Get on the right path to healing trauma from your body and nervous system.

Many people spend decades and thousands of dollars in traditional therapies trying to heal their trauma. Unfortunately, even the most popular therapies are scientifically shown to be limited in accessing trauma stored in the non-verbal brain and body.

Even alternative approaches, such as EMDR and Brain Mapping, are often not enough to fully heal from the physical body or the nervous system.

This makes trauma healing a very frustrating journey for so many people. They often blame themselves for being “un-healable” and decide that they’re broken.

This is NOT true!

Every human being is 100% neurophysiologically capable of healing from the past, because we all have wiring and neural pathways that can be rewired from fear and overprotection, to love and openness.

My unique, scientific-backed process via Dance Therapy has helped hundreds of clients finally heal from past trauma and transform their relationship (even after decades of trying in other therapies).

You can heal too, but you need the right methodology.

Sign up for my online course (ranges from free to $20 USD) to begin a unique, body-based learning experience that will teach you:

• Science-backed education about how trauma is stored in your body and nervous system. You’ll gain an understanding why it has NOT been your fault you haven’t healed yet from past trauma.
• Gentle, guided body-based movement that is necessary for integrated healing. This is crucial if you want your mind’s intentions to match your body’s behaviors in relationships.
• An embodied approach to healing that has helped hundreds of clients break unhealthy relationship patterns and let in healthy, lasting love.

Click here now to sign up!

By Orit Krug  |  November 22nd, 2018

Let’s slow down anxious thoughts. When your thoughts are going at the speed of light and they’re just BOOM, boom, boom non-stop…

Here’s a quick movement hack to help you slow them down so you can feel more calm.

Step 1: Think about the speed of your thoughts

Think about the speed of your thoughts right now, especially if they’re going super fast right at this moment.

Even if your thoughts are more calm right now, this is still a great time to mimic how fast your thoughts are when you’re feeling super anxious.

Because when you’re calm, your nervous system is regulated, and your brain can actually process this new information and internalize this strategy in your body.

Step 2: Move the speed of your thoughts (shown in video)

Move at the speed of the thoughts when they are running and racing.

Start by walking the speed of your thoughts when they’re racing.

If you’re feeling extra adventurous, mimic the direction your thoughts are going. Maybe they’re going around in circles. Maybe they’re going back and forth like a ping-pong ball.

Step 3: Slow down your movement for slower thoughts

Whatever speed you’re walking or moving at – slow it down very gradually.

How slow can you go?!

If you played with the pattern, you can also change the pattern into a more focused and direct path to get your mind focused as well.

(If any of this confusing, it’s MUCH clearer if you watch it in the video above)

Optional Step 4: Bonus Focus

I just want to give a little disclaimer that for about half of my clients, slowing down movements helps them slow down anxious thoughts and feel more focused.

BUT, it’s common that slowing down movement actually ramps up anxious thoughts. Because the less busy we are, the more we can leave room for thinking. So if this sounds like you, I have a little trick to help with that.

When you’re walking, focus your thoughts on the actual walking and be really literal about be simple about it.

So, “I’m walking slowly. My foot is going in front of the other.” Be really specific about it: “My left foot is walking in front of my right foot now…” and “my heel touches the ground before the ball my foot does.”

It doesn’t matter the exact words you say, just describe your actions in detail so that you’re still bringing your attention to your movements and to your body. When you’re narrate the details, your thoughts will slow down and become laser-focused.

Get on the right path to healing trauma from your body and nervous system.

Many people spend decades and thousands of dollars in traditional therapies trying to heal their trauma. Unfortunately, even the most popular therapies are scientifically shown to be limited in accessing trauma stored in the non-verbal brain and body.

Even alternative approaches, such as EMDR and Brain Mapping, are often not enough to fully heal from the physical body or the nervous system.

This makes trauma healing a very frustrating journey for so many people. They often blame themselves for being “un-healable” and decide that they’re broken.

This is NOT true!

Every human being is 100% neurophysiologically capable of healing from the past, because we all have wiring and neural pathways that can be rewired from fear and overprotection, to love and openness.

My unique, scientific-backed process via Dance Therapy has helped hundreds of clients finally heal from past trauma and transform their relationship (even after decades of trying in other therapies).

You can heal too, but you need the right methodology.

Sign up for my online course (ranges from free to $20 USD) to begin a unique, body-based learning experience that will teach you:

• Science-backed education about how trauma is stored in your body and nervous system. You’ll gain an understanding why it has NOT been your fault you haven’t healed yet from past trauma.
• Gentle, guided body-based movement that is necessary for integrated healing. This is crucial if you want your mind’s intentions to match your body’s behaviors in relationships.
• An embodied approach to healing that has helped hundreds of clients break unhealthy relationship patterns and let in healthy, lasting love.

Click here now to sign up!