Do you struggle with consistency? You just might, if you are a woman over 40+ with a trauma or adversity history.

Complex Trauma Symptoms in adults

Consistency is impacted by trauma - no doubt about it. Complex trauma symptoms crowd out the ability and capacity to live in more regular and regulated or even-keeled ways. Restoring this is a very important part of your move beyond trauma into a more stabilised and life-creating attitude.

But how to do it?

That can be an issue because consistency is a key factor in managing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

I know consistency was an issue for me in a number of areas in the past, as I travelled the healing journey and beyond. My early life revealed more chaos than consistency, and my emotional realm was also lacking consistency as I bounced from flight-flight, to shutdown, to fawn, to freeze, to safe and social fleetingly...and back again. I felt like I was thrown from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other, without much evenness in between! Can you relate?

Fortunately for me, those days are now gone, and I hope they are for you too. I hope you area on the way to feeling less chaotic and inconsistent and more stable. 

Consistency and PTSD

If you do want to develop more life and emotional consistency, it's important you focus on the following

• Your habits
• Your daily program
• Your accountability
• Your elite or group coaching relationship

When you focus on these as a foundation, you will then be able to establish other key patterns that will further consolidate and speed up your growth.

These additional ways to ensure consistency throughout the healing journey, will reduce your symptoms of PTSD and increase your joy and sense of safety. 

First and foremost,  you will want to maintain consistent connection with your trauma informed coach. This strategy moves you beyond self-analysis into practical strategies that foster transformation and change. This weaves in with habit formation.

Heal your nervous system

Another way to ensure consistency in managing PTSD is through engaging in relaxation techniques. These will help you to regulate. Breath techniques work well. And meditation and yoga can help calm the body and reduce psychological triggers associated with PTSD. Mindfulness is also an excellent tool for fear-based responses, which are often triggered by the memory of the traumatic event. 

It is important however, that these strategies are not used to promote "spiritual bypassing" but are used as a stabiliser that then supports you to increase your window of tolerance and your resilience.

Adhering to a consistent sleep schedule is another important factor in managing PTSD.

Sleep deprivation can trigger episodes of hyperarousal and make it difficult to concentrate during the day. To help ensure adequate rest, patients should go to bed and wake up at the same time every night and avoid eating large meals or drinking caffeine close to bedtime. This consitency around sleep is so important, particularly if you are experiencing inconsistency in other areas of your life. 

Sleep habit regulation will

1. calm the mind
2. create a platform to build on re consistency in other areas 
3. reduce stress
4. reduce anxiety
5. support your physical health.

Consistent Fun as part of your new toolkit

Finally, consistently engaging in enjoyable activities can be beneficial for managing PTSD. Doing things that bring joy, such as taking walks and connecting with nature and regeneration, playing sports, listening to music, dancing and moving or spending time with friends and family, can help reduce stress levels and lessen intrusive thoughts and the spiral into negative thinking. 

However, it is important to carefully manage activities that can trigger traumatic memories or feelings of guilt or shame. It not the goal to avoid these. This can in fact exacerbate symptoms in the long run. 

So, consistency is essential for managing PTSD.

Consistently meeting with a perceptive and trauma informed coach, practicing relaxation techniques, adhering to a consistent sleep schedule, and engaging in enjoyable activities can all help reduce symptoms and increase your quality of life, particularly through the rough patches. 

While you don’t want to avoid difficult activities or triggering experiences entirely - as this can lead to a reduced and rigid life - you do want to introduce very consistent and caring and well guided graded exposure to new experiences or difficult experiences so that you increase your window of tolerance and your resilience. 

With the right approach and consistency, those suffering from PTSD can take steps to gain control of their lives again.

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Love, Camilla x