Your Body Is the Way Home: How Healing Happens Through Sensation -- Part 12 Narcissistic Abuse Blog Series
- Randi Camirand
- Jan 17
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 24
When the Spell Breaks: Healing After Narcissistic Abuse
Healing doesn’t happen in the story.
It happens in sensation.
After surviving narcissistic or emotionally abusive relationships, it’s natural to replay the story in your mind—analyzing, questioning, and seeking understanding. While reflection has its place, lasting healing doesn’t occur through thought alone. True recovery happens through the body, where trauma and wisdom are stored.
Returning to Yourself Through Embodiment
Your body holds the memory of both harm and protection. The nervous system remembers what the mind may have forgotten. Reconnection with your body allows you to access safety, presence, and clarity that no amount of intellectual processing can provide.
Key pathways to bodily healing include:
Breath: Deep, mindful breathing signals safety to the nervous system and helps release tension.
Presence: Paying attention to physical sensations anchors you in the present, rather than the past.
Movement and Embodiment: Gentle stretches, yoga, walking, or other somatic practices help discharge trapped energy and restore flow.
Through these practices, you slowly and safely return home to yourself.
Why the Body Knows the Way
When you’ve been in emotionally manipulative or narcissistic relationships, your mind may distrust itself—questioning feelings, thoughts, and perceptions. Your body, however, carries direct wisdom. Subtle sensations—tightness, warmth, heaviness, relaxation—can guide you toward safety, clarity, and alignment.
Listening to your body allows you to:
Recognize when you feel safe or unsafe
Identify what restores energy and what depletes it
Rebuild trust in your instincts and inner guidance
In this way, embodiment becomes both map and compass on the journey of recovery.
A Gentle Embodiment Practice
Here’s a simple exercise to reconnect with your body and begin anchoring in presence:
Sit or lie comfortably and close your eyes if it feels safe.
Take three deep breaths, noticing how your body expands and contracts.
Scan your body slowly, from head to toe, noticing areas of tension, warmth, or ease.
Name a sensation: For example, my shoulders feel heavy or my feet feel grounded.
Allow the body to respond: gently shift, stretch, or breathe into areas of tension, without judgment.
Affirm presence: silently say, I am here. I am returning to myself.
Even a few minutes of this practice daily begins to restore connection, regulation, and self-trust.
Moving Forward With Safety and Compassion
Healing is not a race, and it is not found in intellectual understanding alone. It is a gradual return to your own body—the place where safety, resilience, and clarity reside. Each moment you attend to your sensations, each breath you take with awareness, each gentle movement is a step toward reclaiming your true self.
Your body is the way home.Slowly, safely, and gently, it guides you back to yourself.
You are not alone. I am available for individual sessions, when you are ready.
In the meantime, here are some Resources For Your Healing Journey:
Read blog posts from my series When the Spell Breaks: Healing from Narcissistic Abuse. https://www.randicamirand.com/blog/categories/healing-from-narcissistic-abuse
Follow my Women’s Wintering Well Series on Instagram for almost daily self-care reminders. https://www.instagram.com/randicamirand/
10 Grounding Practices for Women
Visit my Homepage www.randicamirand.com
Learn more About Me and My Approach https://www.randicamirand.com/about
Learn about my Women’s Online Meditation Classes and email sign up to receive notifications. https://www.randicamirand.com/womens-meditation-classes
Check out The Blog for therapy insights and self-help tips.
