Crisis Series 5/5: How to Support Your Body and Rebalance after the crisis
Experiencing a crisis or trauma is more than just surviving the immediate event. Once the dust settles, you may notice something else happening - your body begins to respond to what you've been through with physical symptoms you didn’t expect. These symptoms can show up in many forms, whether they're noticeable like excessive energy, fatigue, lethargy, tearfulness, headaches, digestive issues, muscle tension, eye twitches, or brain fog. Sometimes the signs are subtler, like changes in blood work that don't follow your usual patterns, or even the onset of autoimmune conditions. It can feel confusing, frustrating, and overwhelming. After coming through such an intense experience, you're now faced with a new form of intensity - different, yet still mind-occupying.
However, here’s an important truth: your body may be throwing up these physical symptoms as a way to help you rebalance.
When we face a prolonged period of stress, our bodies shift into survival mode, prioritizing getting through the situation. But once the immediate threat passes, your system needs time to recalibrate. These physical symptoms are your body’s way of signaling that it's ready to process the trauma, stress, or shock you’ve just endured. Rather than seeing them as setbacks, it's crucial to understand that they are an integral part of your body’s healing process.
Your body isn’t betraying you - it’s signaling that it’s ready to heal. In fact, much like the Japanese art of Kintsugi, your body is piecing itself back together in a way that reflects its strength, resilience, and the new gifts you’ve been given. Kintsugi is the practice of repairing broken pottery by filling the cracks with gold, highlighting the damage rather than hiding it, and transforming the piece into something even more beautiful and valuable than before.
Similarly, a trauma or crisis may forever change you, and it’s not simply a matter of time healing all wounds. Rather, you learn to adjust, to heal with the marks of that experience still visible or felt by you. These marks - whether physical, emotional, or psychological - can become the gold that pieces us back together. After feeling broken, even shattered into a million pieces, it may seem like life will never be the same. And, in truth, it won’t. But there is an unexpected healing that occurs. You heal in a new way, and this process brings forth a strength, wisdom, and resilience you never had before.
The cracks, the breaks - they become part of your story, but they don’t define you as broken. They define you as whole in a new, beautiful way, just as Kintsugi turns brokenness into art. The gold that now exists in your life is a reflection of the healing journey you've been on, adding layers of depth, meaning, and value you didn’t anticipate but now carry forward as part of your unique resilience.
10 Steps on the Healing Path
Everyone’s journey and experience is unique. How you navigate your healing journey after an intense crisis will be uniquely yours. Some may find their bodies bounce back quickly, while others experience a slower, more layered recovery. The key is to explore and uncover different approaches that support you. It takes time, curiosity, willingness, and vulnerability to embark on this path of healing. It’s not easy, and there will be moments of discomfort or uncertainty. But through it all, it’s essential to give yourself the compassion and gentleness you deserve. Take small steps that feel manageable, and trust that each step is leading you toward healing.
Here are 10 steps to help you explore your healing path:
1. Acknowledge Your Body’s Signals
After enduring prolonged stress, your body doesn’t just bounce back. It takes time to adjust, and in the process, physical symptoms may emerge as part of that healing journey. Whatever your experience, from noticeable symptoms like insomnia, low energy, excessive energy, digestive discomfort, or asymptomatic blood work which could show up with hormonal imbalances, autoimmune conditions, or other such results. These symptoms are your body’s way of asking for attention, care, and time to balance and recover.
Recognize these signals for what they are - a call to nurture yourself. It’s not a sign that something’s wrong, but rather that your body is in the process of recalibrating itself after living in crisis mode for a long time.
2. Understand the Impact of Prolonged Stress
When your body is in crisis mode, it adapts by flooding your system with stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. This adaptation is one of the body’s most remarkable capabilities. As humans, we can endure immense strain and cope through extraordinary circumstances. However, once the crisis has passed, your body needs to rebalance. If you’ve made it through the storm, the next step is signaling to your body that it’s safe again, allowing it to return to a balanced state for optimal functioning.
Our stress hormones are incredible for short-term survival, helping us navigate the immediate danger. But over time, living with elevated cortisol and adrenaline levels can wreak havoc on your system. Once the crisis ends, your body naturally enters a recovery phase. This is when stored stress hormones and other byproducts begin to clear out of your system, sometimes revealing themselves as physical symptoms. It's not unusual to experience unexpected physical reactions as your body decompresses.
Living in a constant state of "fight or flight" can cause your nervous system to become overworked. This can result in muscle tension, adrenal fatigue, brain fog, and even chronic pain. Your body needs time to come down from that high-alert state, and these symptoms are often part of that necessary process. This decompression allows your system to reset, and while it can feel overwhelming, it is part of your healing journey.
3. Kintsugi: Finding Beauty in the Breakage
In Kintsugi, broken pottery is repaired with a gold compound, making the cracks and imperfections a visible part of the piece’s history, rather than something to hide. The result is something even more beautiful than before - its story is told in the golden seams.
Similarly, after a crisis, your body and mind may feel “cracked” or fragmented, showing signs of stress and trauma. But these cracks are not weaknesses; they are part of your healing. Your body is mending itself, just like the golden threads of Kintsugi, creating something stronger and with more wisdom than before. These physical symptoms may feel uncomfortable, but they are part of the process of becoming whole again - more beautiful for the journey you’ve been through.
Like the pottery, the healing process leaves behind marks that signify your experience. The journey of recovery doesn't erase the crisis or trauma but weaves it into your life’s story, much like Kintsugi highlights the cracks with precious gold, transforming the broken pieces into a symbol of beauty and strength.
4. Gently accept the Role of Physical Symptoms in Rebalancing
It’s important to shift your perspective on physical symptoms. Instead of seeing them as setbacks, recognize that they are part of your body’s natural healing process. Just as a fever helps fight infection, these symptoms are working to restore balance in your system. For example:
Fatigue might be your body’s way of slowing you down so it can focus energy on healing.
Digestive issues or brain fog can arise as your gut recalibrates after periods of stress, disrupting normal digestion. Since many neurotransmitters are produced in the gut, this imbalance can directly affect cognition, leading to mental fog or reduced clarity.
Muscle tension and soreness may arise as stress leaves your body, signaling a need for gentler movement or stretching. For example, you might have once been a HIIT exerciser, but find you now find your body just won’t support you in that for the moment.
These symptoms are reminders that your body is actively working to recover, and they can guide you in determining the kind of care and rest you need.
5. Nourish Your Body for Healing
Once you’ve acknowledged both the symptoms and asymptomatic signs of stress and their role in your recovery, it's time to focus on nourishing your body back to balance. The right combination of nutrient-dense foods, supplements, and proper hydration is essential for supporting your body as it heals and recalibrates. These elements work together to restore energy, improve digestion, and promote overall well-being.
Focus on:
Whole, anti-inflammatory foods like leafy greens, berries, turmeric, and salmon. These help reduce the inflammation that prolonged stress can cause. Aim for 30 fruit and vegetables a week to support the diversity of the gut.
Adrenal-supporting foods such as avocados, nuts, seeds, and sweet potatoes to rebuild your body’s energy reserves and support hormone balance.
Hydration: Drink plenty of water to help flush out toxins that accumulated during high-stress periods, and keep your cells functioning optimally.
Body stressors: Adjust your intake of common allergen stressors: wheat, corn, dairy, soy, eggs, processed sugar, alcohol, caffeine. Especially if you live in the U.S. since food supply of these are often highly processed with additional chemicals.
Choose organic or regenerative, non GMO or bio engineered foods: where you can opt for these to reduce your pro-inflammatory exposure to chemicals, antibiotics, and hormones used in high quantities in conventional foods.
Additionally, if it aligns for you, consider incorporating probiotics or fermented foods like yogurt, sauerkraut, or kefir to help repair gut health, which is often disrupted by stress. You might also consider working with a functional medicine doctor or nutritionist who can personalize a nutrient-led plan and run blood tests if necessary. This tailored approach will help rebalance your body and support long-term health, potentially preventing stress-related health conditions from developing.
6. Allow Time for Rest and Sleep
Your body does its best healing during rest, especially deep sleep. Yet, after a crisis, many people struggle to sleep properly due to residual stress or anxiety. If you find yourself in this position, focus on creating a calming nighttime routine to help signal to your body that it’s time to rest.
Tips for better sleep:
Establish a wind-down routine that includes disconnecting from screens, dimming the lights, and engaging in relaxing activities like meditation or reading.
Sleep in a cool, dark environment to help your body regulate its circadian rhythms.
If you’re struggling with insomnia, consider journaling or practicing breathing exercises to quiet your mind before bed.
Also, consider working with a sleep expert who can help you establish a personalized plan.
Rest isn’t just about sleep either. Taking breaks during the day, sitting quietly, or simply pausing to breathe can all contribute to your body’s ability to heal.
7. Move Your Body Gently
While you may feel tempted to "get back to normal" by diving into your usual workout routine, it’s essential to give your body time to adjust. Gentle movement like pilates, stretching, walking, or swimming is ideal at this stage. Consider buying a rebounder to gentle bounce for a couple of minutes at a time throughout the day, your heels don’t even need to come off the rebounder to make a positive difference. These low-impact activities help relieve tension and stress stored in your muscles without overloading your system.
Movement helps:
Release stress hormones that have built up during the crisis.
Improve circulation, which delivers more oxygen and nutrients to your body, aiding recovery.
Boost endorphins, helping to naturally lift your mood as you heal.
Listen to your body. If you're feeling particularly tired or sore, honor that by slowing down or resting altogether.
8. Emotional Processing is Physical Healing
You have been through a huge experience, from the immediacy of what unfolded, to the long term stress and intensity, possibly marked with pain, trauma, sadness, and unexpected relationship fractures, cracks, and pressure. This is an enormous impact, do not try to normalize, push away, or ignore. Acknowledge the intensity of what you have been through.
Based on this it is no surprise that your body steps in to help you rebalance. Often, physical symptoms after a crisis can be tied to the emotional trauma you experienced. You may find that as you process your feelings, certain symptoms begin to lessen. Addressing your emotional health is just as important as nourishing your body.
It’s quite possible that your life has changed as a result of what you have been through, you may be different, your relationships may be different, your entire world - may be different. Give yourself the space and gentleness as you adjust. Consider free unstructured scribble writing, or journaling, talk with a trusted friend who can hold the space for you, explore a new activity, seek a form of therapy that can support you, and help you work through the emotional impact of the crisis. Emotional releases often bring tremendous relief and even healing to physical symptoms.
9. Patience and Self-Compassion
Healing from a crisis is not an overnight process. It requires patience, compassion, and a willingness to let your body lead the way. Understand that some days will feel better than others, and that's okay. Progress is often slow but steady.
Be gentle with yourself - mentally, emotionally, and physically. Embrace small steps forward and trust that, over time, your body will find its balance again.
10. Learn to Breathe, Again
As you navigate your healing path, don’t underestimate the power of breathing. After a crisis, many people unknowingly have adopt a new habit of rapid, shallow breathing patterns that can exacerbate feelings of anxiety and tension. To counteract this, incorporate full and deep breathing exercises into your daily routine.
Focus on extending your exhales to activate your vagus nerve, signaling to your body that you are safe and promoting a state of calm. Start by taking a few moments each day to find a quiet space, close your eyes, and take a deep breath in through your nose, allowing your abdomen to expand fully. Then, exhale slowly through your mouth, letting go of tension and stress with each breath. Aim for a 4-5 second inhale, followed by a 6-8 second exhale.
Practicing this technique can help ground you in the present moment, enhancing your overall sense of well-being as you heal. Remember, breath is a powerful tool; it connects your mind and body and can facilitate profound relaxation and healing as you embark on this journey.
Conclusion: Trust Your Healing Journey
Recovering after a crisis is like Kintsugi - your body is piecing itself back together, stronger and more beautiful than before. Just as the golden seams in the repaired pottery tell the story of resilience, your healing process is a reflection of your experience, strength and received wisdom. The physical symptoms you experience are part of the rebalancing process, not roadblocks. They are your body’s way of mending and becoming whole.
By listening to your body’s signals, nourishing it with care, and allowing time for rest and healing, you are honoring your recovery journey. Every step, no matter how small, brings you closer to balance and well-being. Trust in the process and know that with time, patience, and self-compassion, you will emerge stronger - your own cracks filled with gold, symbolizing growth, resilience, and beauty.
As a reminder, you don’t have to explain your journey to anyone; you don’t need to justify it or give it airtime with others. It is your unique experience of rebalancing and healing. Finally, as in all cases, it's important to consult with your medical doctor to create a plan tailored to your individual needs. We are all unique, with different bodies, experiences, and health challenges, so the support required will vary from person to person. Working with your doctor ensures that you’re addressing your specific health concerns in a way that’s safe and effective for you.
Disclaimer: The information and services provided by Birch Cove are for educational and informational purposes only and are not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Birch Cove and its affiliates do not treat, cure, or prescribe any health or medical conditions. This content is provided for awareness and general guidance. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or health needs. Birch Cove does not any hold liability for actions you or others take based on the information or services provided.
