Learning to Feel Again: Reconnecting With Your Emotions After Trauma

For many women who have experienced trauma, incarceration, addiction, or betrayal, emotions can feel unsafe or overwhelming. At some point, feeling became a luxury you couldn’t afford—or a threat you needed to avoid.

But healing requires feeling. It asks you to slowly, safely return to your emotional self—not to drown in emotion, but to remember you were never meant to go numb to survive.

At Awaken Your Lioness, we help women reconnect with their emotional world, one breath, one moment, one brave step at a time.

Why Trauma Disconnects Us From Emotion

Trauma teaches the body to shut down.

To survive, you may have learned to:

Numb out with substances or busyness

Suppress tears and silence anger

Detach from joy, fear, or sadness altogether

This emotional disconnect may have helped you survive. But now it’s time to learn a new way to live—one that includes feeling without fear.

5 Ways to Gently Reconnect With Your Emotions

1. Start With Curiosity, Not Judgment

Instead of asking, “What’s wrong with me?” try asking, “What am I feeling, and what is this feeling trying to teach me?” Curiosity opens the door to healing.

2. Create Safe Space for Feeling

Make time each day—even 5 minutes—to check in. Close your eyes. Breathe deeply. Ask: “What emotions are here with me right now?”

3. Let Yourself Cry (Or Laugh, Or Scream)

Emotions stuck in the body need movement. Crying is not weakness—it’s release. Laughter is not avoidance—it’s medicine. Let yourself feel without shame.

4. Express Through Art, Movement, or Journaling

Sometimes words aren’t enough. Draw, paint, dance, write—use expression to give your emotions space to be seen and processed.

5. Get Support from a Safe Person or Group

Emotional healing doesn’t have to happen alone. Whether through coaching, support groups, or trusted friendships, safe connection helps you feel without fear.

Closing

You are not broken for feeling too much—or too little.

You are learning to come home to yourself, to welcome the parts of you that were silenced by pain.

Healing isn’t about controlling your emotions.

It’s about trusting that you can feel, and still be safe.

Your emotions are valid.

Your story is sacred.

And your healing is possible.

You are learning to feel again—and that’s where your power lives.

🦁 www.awakenyourlioness.com