Healing Trauma with Resonance (Neuroscience made Simple!) with Sarah Peyton

Trauma can profoundly impact our brains, affecting our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Understanding this connection is crucial for healing. This blog post delves into the easy to understand science behind trauma and its effects on the brain, highlighting how experiences can shape our neural pathways and influence our mental health.

Learn how trauma affects brain development and emotional regulation, with neuroscience educator Sarah Peyton

By exploring concepts like resonance and self-compassion, we can learn to navigate our traumas and foster resilience. The post offers insights into how practicing self-compassion and connecting with others can facilitate healing, ultimately leading to personal growth and emotional well-being. Join us on this journey to uncover the ways we can transform trauma into a source of strength and renewal.

Healing Trauma with Resonance

I was honored to sit with my friend Sarah Peyton, a renowned educator in neuroscience, a certified trainer of Nonviolent Communication, and a skilled constellation facilitator. Sarah’s work is deeply rooted in the concept of resonance, using the science of the brain and language to heal trauma and cultivate self-compassion. Her teachings offer hope and healing, connecting individuals to the deeper workings of the brain, unlocking the potential for profound change.

The interview video below was for our Mantras for Peace: A Wisdom Gathering project.*

Sarah’s integration of resonance in her work makes her a perfect fit for our Mantras for Peace project. Through her books like Your Resonant Self, she provides guided meditations and exercises to help individuals harness their brain's capacity for healing. In today's session, Sarah graciously shares how resonance, a concept often associated with music, can transform our understanding of trauma and healing.

"I love to use the idea of warmth and precision. If we bring understanding of the traumatized self (or the disappointed or heartbroken self) in the worst moment, warmth and precision can allow the right vibratory quality to happen. The amygdala begins to relax. And as it relaxes, the hippocampus starts to be able to claim what was trauma and just turn it into life experience." - Sarah Peyton

Resonance in Music and the Mind

Imagine the way a cello resonates with surrounding music, vibrating softly when it feels the music’s presence. Our brains, too, have the ability to resonate with the world around us, with the experiences and emotions of others.

Sarah’s work teaches us that trauma, much like an unresolved musical note, stays locked in the brain without a sense of time. The brain may continue to perceive danger based on past experiences, as if those moments are ever-present, leading us to form inaccurate conclusions about ourselves or the world.

Trauma is Memory (it's not truth)

One of the most powerful takeaways from Sarah’s work is that our trauma is not the truth—it’s simply a memory, and healing begins when we realize this. The brain, when supported by warmth and precision, has the potential to untangle from trauma and transform it into life experience. When we offer ourselves resonant support, either through the presence of others or self-guided exercises, our brains begin to heal. And as Sarah beautifully explains, this healing brings forth incredible transformations, both big and small, allowing individuals to live more freely and embrace new possibilities.

Approach Trauma with Curiosity

Sarah emphasizes that trauma can be approached with warmth and curiosity, unlocking the doors to healing. Through precise, resonant questioning, we can offer our bodies and minds the space they need to relax and release the hold of past trauma. The energy that was once caught in trauma can flow freely again, enabling us to reclaim our full vitality and presence in the world.

As we reflect on her teachings, we are reminded that the path from trauma to emergence lies in our ability to witness ourselves and others with gentle compassion. Healing is a dynamic process, and through resonance, we can create the conditions for transformation and growth.

Learn more about Sarah's awesome work at: sarahpeyton.com

Evolving trauma responses in nature (plants get triggered too!)

A short video & note from Anandra:

Can you relate? This plant has a defense mechanism that triggers it to close in on itself when touched.

To me this is a reflection of the wisdom of Nature, and a sense of kindred resonance.
I, too, can feel protective of my vulnerability and that’s OK, good, necessary.

However, when trauma and PTSD get tricky is when we respond like that to situations that are not actually threats. How can we use sound yoga therapy to cultivate discernment?

Trauma sucks, but almost everyone has some.
No shame if you have a nervous system injury that flares up now and then. I certainly get triggered, and had an episode recently that surprised me with how swiftly it hit me. Flip a switch, and there I am. Shut down, numb, despondent.

What IS amazing and inspiring is:
how much awareness I have of my nervous system (thanks yogāsana for sound-based practices!),
my mind (thanks mantra meditation!),
my feelings & needs (thanks empathetic listening!),
and an ability to express myself and my requests for support to those who love me (thanks vocal training, alignment with heart-mind-word-deed, and compassionate communication!)

What once may have cycled me through years of unhealthy reactive behavior now takes a day or so to bounce back from, fully bright and alive and loving again.
Sound therapy is a powerful ally for those with trauma.
And let us know if you’re keen to dive deep into our sound yoga therapy training program… whether it’s for your own growth & healing, and/or to help others.

Sending 🤗🤗🤗 to all those who suffer.
I see you, I get you. No judgment.
Triggers happen, and they blindside you! (Like mine did recently.)

I pray you can navigate them skillfully and don’t suffer long.
May you come back fully alive, feeling, and more compassionate than ever.
I do, every time.

🩹 Mantra Therapy: First Aid Kit FREE mini-masterclass

Sound is empowering medicine!

A little skills training, philosophical and scientific understanding, and sensitivity to cultural appropriation are necessary if we hope to develop its potential in our lives. That's why Anandra created the Heart of Sound courses! Many are totally free.

• Discover FREE sound & mantra training 
• Dive deep with the world's first and only online sound and mantra 200HR & 500HR Teacher Training
• Chant with us LIVE during our next FREE Online Yoga of Sound event
• More free sound baths and chant experiences of all different types are available at HeartofSound on YouTube / Sound Bath Playlist 

Many of the world’s indigenous wisdom cultures acknowledge that the unseen sound of prayers keep the delicate fabric of life in harmony.

Learn about ancient and innovative subtle activism practices from thought leaders, teachers, and artists from 6 continents in Mantras for Peace: A Wisdom Gathering Online