How to Feel Safe in Your Body Again After Trauma

For trauma survivors, the body can feel like a battlefield. It holds memories we’d rather forget, sensations we struggle to name, and an overwhelming sense of disconnection. Feeling numb, anxious, or chronically tense doesn’t mean something is wrong with you—it means your body is trying to keep you safe.

Understanding how trauma reshapes the nervous system is the first step in coming back home to yourself. This blog explores the ways trauma interrupts body safety, introduces foundational somatic healing tools, and guides you through grounding practices that can help restore your sense of presence and peace.

Why Trauma Disrupts Body Safety

When something traumatic happens, our brain and body move into survival mode. This typically means activating one of three responses: fight, flight, or freeze. These are not conscious decisions—they are reflexes driven by the nervous system’s attempt to protect us.

However, when trauma is prolonged or unresolved, the body may get "stuck" in one of these responses long after the danger has passed. The freeze response, in particular, can make us feel disconnected, numb, and unable to fully engage with the present moment. This is not weakness. This is biology.

Let’s look at some of the common ways this shows up:

• Dissociation: A mental escape hatch. When sensations feel too big, the mind detaches. You may feel like you're watching life through a foggy window or like you’re outside your body.

• Chronic Tension: Constant muscle bracing as if preparing for an impact that never comes. Shoulders tight. Jaw clenched. Belly in knots.

• Numbness or Absence: It’s not just emotional—numbness can be physical too. Losing touch with bodily sensations or feeling like parts of your body don’t belong to you is often a sign of trauma-related disconnection.

  
  

Our nervous system doesn’t just need therapy—it needs re-education. We need to show our bodies, over and over, that they are safe places to be.

3 Body-Based Grounding Practices to Reclaim Safety

1. 5-4-3-2-1 Sensory Check-In

This classic grounding technique anchors you in the now by activating your senses. It's especially helpful during anxiety spikes, flashbacks, or when you're feeling dissociated.

Try this:

• 5 things you can see: Notice details—the way light hits a surface, colors, shapes.

• 4 things you can feel: Your feet on the ground, fabric on your skin, a cool breeze.

• 3 things you can hear: Let sounds come to you—distant traffic, your own breathing, birds.

• 2 things you can smell: If nothing stands out, find a scented object like a candle or essential oil.

• 1 thing you can taste: Sip water, chew gum, or notice the lingering taste in your mouth.

This brings your awareness back into your body, helping to calm the nervous system.

2. Gentle Body Scan

Many trauma survivors avoid their body’s sensations out of fear, shame, or overwhelm. The body scan helps build tolerance and awareness by inviting you to notice without judgment.

Try this:

• Find a quiet place to lie down or sit comfortably.

• Close your eyes and slowly bring attention to each part of your body—from the top of your head to your toes.

• When you notice tension, pause there. Breathe into that area.

• Imagine it softening with each breath, like untangling a tight knot.

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Do this daily, even for five minutes. Over time, it strengthens your connection with your body and increases your ability to stay present.

3. Safe Place Visualization

Your brain doesn’t always distinguish between real and vividly imagined experiences. That’s why visualizing a safe place can help reset your nervous system.

Try this:

• Close your eyes and imagine a place where you feel completely safe. It might be real (a childhood home) or imagined (a peaceful beach).

• Engage all your senses. What does it smell like? What do you hear? What textures surround you?

• Breathe slowly and let yourself stay in that scene as long as you need.

  
  

You can return to this safe space anytime. The more you practice, the easier it becomes to anchor into that inner refuge when anxiety strikes.

Create a Safety Signal Check-In Routine

Feeling safe is not a one-and-done event. It's a skill we relearn through repeated experience. Creating a daily or weekly check-in routine helps you tune into your body’s current state and notice patterns of regulation or dysregulation.

Here’s how to build your routine:

1. Rate your safety: On a scale of 1 to 10, how safe do you feel in your body right now?

2. Notice what helps: What small action increased that number? A deep breath? Holding a warm mug? Movement?

3. Practice regularly: Repeat the grounding technique that worked best. This consistency helps build new neural pathways of calm and safety.

   
   

You are teaching your body a new language—one where safety, presence, and pleasure are allowed.

Gentle Reminders as You Reconnect with Your Body

• There is no timeline. Healing is not linear. Some days you’ll feel at home in your skin. Other days you won’t. Both are okay.

• Start small. If a body scan feels too much, begin with just noticing your hands or feet.

• Let curiosity lead. Swap judgment for observation. You’re not “doing it wrong”—you’re learning a language your body never got to speak.

• You deserve peace. Not because you’ve suffered enough, but because safety is your birthright.

  
  

Coming Home to Yourself

Trauma taught you that your body wasn’t safe. That disconnection was the only way to survive. But you survived. And now, you have the power to come back.

Somatic healing is a reclamation. It’s saying: I deserve to feel safe in my own skin. I deserve to come home to myself.

These grounding practices aren’t about perfection—they’re about presence. Each time you pause to breathe, notice, and stay, you’re rewriting the story that your body is dangerous. You’re making space for a new one: My body is my ally. My body is my home.

And home, sweet one, is where your healing begins.

You are not alone. And you are not broken. Healing is not a straight line, but every moment you choose to come back to your body is a powerful step forward. If today’s blog resonated with you, I invite you to continue the journey with us. 👉 Catch the latest episode now on YouTube and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a moment of truth and transformation: Life’s Deceit Podcast. 🎧 Prefer to listen on the go? The audio version drops this Friday on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms. 💬 And if you’re craving community as you unpack these truths, join our private Facebook sanctuary: The Mirror Circle, where healing meets connection and conversation begins.