As you begin to understand PTSD and seek to alleviate symptoms and journey toward healing, you will encounter a whole spectrum of coping strategies. Many possibilities await. Some require medical expertise such as counselling and pharmaceudical options. Some you can pursue on your own such as exercise, nutrition and journalling. Some may require direction from experts in the field to guide you through yoga, meditation, qigong or tai chi. Spirituality may even be your starting point as you discover and explore your beliefs about yourself and your life.

Listed below is an overview of coping strategies you can explore. Each one is unique and may be suitable for you to pursue now or at some point in the future.

Qigong and Tai Chi Chuan

By George Mera

Qi is the force, breath or power of life which is present in every living organism, Qi could be strong or weak, fluent or stuck, Qi could also be acquired, control, manipulate, and storage, the quantity and quality of Qi determines your physical strength and emotional-mental contentment in life.

After your Qi is cultivated it manifests in a way that you acquire incredible good health, longevity, physical force, or inexplicable mind abilities.

When Qi is exhausted, any physical activity seems tedious, the emotional strength emaciated and the clarity of thinking diminished. We are at this time at the point of dismay and physical sickness.

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Trauma and The Spiritual Path

Jonathan H Ellerby PhD

When I first became interested in the connection between spirituality and trauma recovery, I found that many people in mainstream health and healing programs felt that spirituality was a bit too much for someone “just trying to get by.” In other cases, there was an assumption that spirituality and religion are the same, and that religion was really not a necessary element of treatment. These were encounters of a healing model that placed spirituality at the end of the line, and certainly not at the beginning.

The philosophy behind the resistance to spirituality was: look after the “basics” first, then progress toward more complex issues. While this is the natural tendency for many people in daily life, it is rarely the best approach to any kind of growth. As a trained counselor, chaplain, and practitioner of a number of complimentary therapies, it has been my consistent experience that spirituality is best placed as a starting point for most people dealing with trauma. Spirituality can be the foundation of healing, and more and more programs today accept and embrace this reality.

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Healing Life's Traumas

New studies show that people suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder can find real relief with yoga.

By Denise Kersten Wills

When Sara talks about the benefits of practicing yoga, the 56-year-old from Boston uses the same terms as other yogis: being grounded and present, gaining an awareness of her body and its strength, feeling calm and in control of her thoughts. But as a victim of physical and sexual abuse who suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Sara experiences these things a little differently.

For Sara—who asked that her real name not be used—being grounded literally means feeling her feet on the floor; being present means knowing where she is and what's going on around her. These are things she can't feel when she's suddenly jerked into the past, reliving episodes of her ex-husband's violence, like the night he chased her through the house and pushed through every door she hid behind.

read this article on YogaJournal.com >>

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Why Do Yoga?

By: Valerie Hobson, Co-owner of Lotus Centre

Recent studies show that approximately 20 million North Americans practice yoga.  Why?  If you’re amongst this group, you will know that put simply, yoga makes you feel better.  This ancient practice that has migrated from India seems to be exactly the remedy for our times.  If practiced regularly, yoga increases our physical health, emotional well-being, mental clarity and spiritual connection.

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