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Join certified trauma professional Dr. Amy Hoyt and licensed therapist Leina Hoyt, MFT at https://www.mendingtrauma.com as they teach you how to recover from trauma and cPTSD. Trauma shows up in our everyday reactions and sensations and recovering requires a multi-prong approach that considers the mind, body and spirit. Dr. Amy and Leina will teach you the most emerging research and skills to empower you to overcome your past traumas. They address nervous system health, somatic therapy, trauma, cPTSD, EMDR, Neurofeedback, IFS (Internal Family Systems therapy), and many other modes of recovering from trauma. As mental health experts, sisters and trauma survivors, they teach you the tools that actually helped them recover, are backed by research and have helped thousands of their clients. Each episode is packed with clinically effective methods as well as scientific findings to guide you through your own trauma healing journey. Whether discussing cPTSD, PTSD, medical trauma, somatic therapy, nervous system regulation, EMDR or neurofeedback, Amy and Leina will help you recover from trauma so that you can reconnect to yourself and others.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (02:11)
Welcome back everyone. Thanks for joining us today. Today's episode, we're actually going to be looking at something we feel very passionate about, and that is how to use micro steps when recovering from trauma. So let's start out by looking at what a micro step is and why we strongly suggest using micro steps. Leina!
Leina (02:37)
Microsteps are so much easier for the brain. I can remember being introduced to this. I think it was probably in the mid 2000s, but I really didn't kind of latch onto it until later. The idea behind microsteps is that the brain resists big change. Well, the brain resists change anyway. But when it's big change, we tend to either go into collapse or we go into fight or flight.
And so micro steps or mini habits become this magic formula for making small changes that eventually add up and give you more peace, more nervous system regulation and more healing ultimately.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (03:27)
Yeah, that's a great explanation. I think one of the pitfalls for me personally is when I hear microstep or mini habit, there's this part of me that automatically discounts that it will work or be effective because it's not hard enough.
Leina (03:45)
Right. I think that's super human. Yeah. And we've talked about this before, like just in like conversation about how the things, there's a part of our brain that knows that certain things will help us, but there's this other part of the brain that's like, no, that it's too simple. That can't possibly be true.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (03:48)
Yes.
Yes. Yep. Absolutely. And for those of us who have had trauma, there's a portion of us who, you know, because of that separation from the body that happens during trauma as a result of trauma, we tend to push ourselves very hard and tend to use achievements as a way of measuring our worth. And when that's the case, we like
hard things. It makes us feel like we're accomplishing something, we're doing something, it's worthwhile that we are controlling. Yeah, we're valuable and we're able to kind of control whatever we want. And it's an illusion of control, essentially.
Leina (04:37)
Right.
Right. Yes. Yeah.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (05:01)
So I think just to give a shout out to all the high achievers who have a brain like mine where they're like, that's not going to work. It's not hard enough. But micro steps really are magic. One of the micro steps, and we're going to get into this in a little bit more in detail, but I was just showing Leina a photo of myself from two years ago.
Leina (05:13)
Right.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (05:30)
I was significantly heavier in the photo. And I remember deciding on, you know, the beginning of, I think it was 2023 that I was going to do a micro step to get healthier. And my micro step was going to be that I was going to have a vegan protein shake every day for breakfast, no matter what. That was my micro step.
Leina (05:45)
Yeah, it was.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (06:00)
And that's literally all I did.
Leina (06:02)
And didn't you lose like 27 pounds in four months or something from that?
Dr. Amy Hoyt (06:07)
It wasn't that quick. But yeah, I think I think I've lost 35 pounds over the last 18 months, which again, my old self would be like, that is not fast enough. I'm not doing that. Instead, I'm going to do x, y, and z. But I wanted to do an experiment about all this micro stepping that we talk about. And I had a belief that it worked for trauma, I wanted to know if it would work for my health.
Leina (06:22)
Right.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (06:35)
and my physical health. And sure enough, you know, so now that's just part, you know, it's been a year and a half. It's part of my daily routine. And it produced huge results, but not instant, but that's, that's actually better because then the brain can concretize it. So that's just my kind of
Leina (06:50)
Right.
It is better.
Yep.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (07:02)
shout out to microsteps in general, when we're talking about trauma and trauma recovery, the microsteps are equally subtle, I think.
Leina (07:14)
Absolutely. I'm thinking about one of the reasons why micro steps are so important after trauma is because trauma leaves us with an all or nothing neuro pathway that's very, very ingrained. And when we have an all or nothing neuro pathway, then learning how to apply many steps or micro steps, micro habits, that is
re -establishing a new neuropathway or enforcing a new neuropathway. And so the very act of engaging, thinking about and engaging in micro steps is healthy for our brain and healthy for healing.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (08:04)
I love that. That's a great, great point. Okay, let's get into what are some of these micro steps that we use for trauma?
Leina (08:12)
Well, as we were talking right before we got on, a microstep is anything small or tiny that leads you towards something better. And so it can apply to anything in your own personal world. And one of the things that we've emphasized in our program, the whole health lab, is that part of what will help us recover from trauma is an attention to really basic
help things like getting enough water, getting enough sleep, eating as nutritiously as possible. And I can remember when we were establishing this, it was in the summer of 21. And you and I were talking a lot about how we wanted to have our setup for this program, and that we wanted people to be able to start healing through the idea
that it doesn't have to be once and done, all or nothing, perfect or not at all. And MicroSteps really support that habit of something is better than none thing.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (09:27)
Yes. So specifically, you talked about proper nutrition. We've done podcast episodes with Dr. Gina Hoyt, our sister -in -law, who has walked us through the science behind when we have trauma and then it becomes unresolved and we're stuck in that nervous system hypervigilance, our body is actually depleted of certain nutrients.
Leina (09:57)
Right.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (09:58)
And so there's actual need for proper nutrition beyond a regular normal need. And so definitely getting proper nutrition, your vitamins, your minerals, hydration is huge. We know that trauma affects our cells and we absolutely need maximum hydration.
Leina (10:06)
Right.
Right.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (10:26)
One thing I do every single night is a gosh, I can't think of what is it called? Thank you, an electrolyte, an electrolyte drink. Before I go to bed, I happen to have problems staying hydrated and that leads to leg cramps at night. And so by using electrolytes with a vitamin B drink, I'm able to
stay hydrated beyond just using water. Sleep is probably the most critical thing you can do immediately to begin to shift your trauma recovery process.
Leina (11:10)
And it's one of the hardest things we deal with after trauma, especially developmental childhood trauma.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (11:15)
That's right.
That's right. For some of us who have neglect in our childhood, staying up extremely late and not having a bedtime routine is very typical. There's also, you know, when you're operating with a high level of stress in your daily life, staying up late can be our way of kind of taking back control of our time.
Leina (11:29)
Mm.
Absolutely.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (11:44)
And so a micro step in that case would be to put yourself to bed 30 minutes before normal. So if you're normally staying up till one in the morning, see if you can go to bed at 12:30. So that's a micro step instead of like, I have to be in bed by 10 o 'clock. Okay, that's not realistic.
Leina (11:59)
Mm -hmm.
Right. Right. And you, you've seen my own battles with this and you pegged like some of the contributors to my difficulty in going to sleep, at a, you know, at a time that would be most beneficial to me. And I love the identification that these micro steps again, we're staying away from all or nothing.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (12:29)
Mm hmm. So in terms of sleep, one of the best tips we have for you in order to kind of wind down and get to sleep a little bit earlier than you normally do is to get off screens two hours before you want to fall asleep. If that isn't possible, a micro step would be to get blue light filtered glasses so that you can if you are going to be on screens that you're filtering out the blue light and you can actually
Leina (12:51)
Right, yes.
Right.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (12:59)
you know, it's not affecting your circadian rhythms and you can go to sleep.
Leina (13:02)
And another way to address this through a microstop might be that you get off screens 15 minutes before you usually do, and then extend that to a half hour and then an hour and 15 minutes, whatever works for you.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (13:16)
Exactly. Yeah. So the point that we're making is that there's plenty of research out there telling us what we need to do to be healthier on our trauma recovery journey. And what we want to do is put that into bite -sized steps so that our brain doesn't reject it.
Leina (13:34)
You know, one of the other things we were talking about right before we started recording was the awareness that's necessary when we're learning how to recover from trauma. And one of the things that can happen is, is we can be aware and the awareness can flood us with like shame or guilt or inadequacy, that kind of thing. And so the
Dr. Amy Hoyt (13:55)
Mmm.
Mmm hmm.
Leina (14:01)
idea of noticing without judgment, which is very, hard for the brain to do because it's not naturally, it doesn't naturally tend toward that. But it's really hard to have awareness if you don't have some ability to be curious or loving or interested in what you're noticing. And that is one of the, to me, that's one of the biggest butt kickers personally for trauma is having this awareness
Dr. Amy Hoyt (14:22)
Mmm.
Leina (14:31)
and then being really dysregulated by the awareness.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (14:36)
Yeah, yeah, that's an excellent point. So what's a good micro step for being curious, Leina?
Leina (14:44)
I think it's something that I've been working on for a while and I've gotten a lot better at it, but it's something that I've had to do over and over again for several years. And that is, huh, I wonder what's happening here. Or, hmm, I'm noticing that I am aware of XYZ. I'm gonna try to be curious and interested about that. Because as soon as we go into judgment, we stop gaining information.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (14:59)
Hmm.
Okay, so just saying I would like to be curious about this almost like naming the intention to be curious is the micro step towards becoming curious. I love that. All right, another micro step that we always talk about, so I know we sound like a broken record, but it's because it works so well and it's so simple is breathwork. Oh breathwork
Leina (15:20)
Yes.
It has a lot of power.
Absolutely.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (15:43)
I love you so much.
Leina (15:46)
That's awesome.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (15:47)
I do. I love that I can take a deep breath in and take a long exhale and it calms me after one cycle of that. And then if I do it a couple more times, it's like I can take a teeny step back from the situation and then get curious, why am I so anxious right now?
What's going on? Because I can feel it in my body that I'm starting to get anxiety. You know, I can feel my chest tighten up. I can feel my stomach start to feel tense. For me, a headache is often a clue. And so once I become aware of that physical sensation, I can start doing a couple breath cycles and then get curious. And gosh, it's
Leina (16:18)
Right.
Sure.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (16:44)
it's been life changing. I've seen how it affects my children as well, as you know, they do some breath work and it's not like they stop and they're in a yoga pose and they're, you know, it's, it's not super Zen. It's more like I can just see them like trying so hard not to lose it. And then I see like this deep inhale and deep exhale. And then they say what they need to say or, you know, do what they need to do. Yeah.
Leina (16:48)
Right? Mm -hmm.
I can imagine.
That's so awesome, yeah.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (17:12)
And there's still tears and there's still tantrums in life and nothing's perfect. Let's just make sure we know that now. Yes, but there's not abuse and there's not a lot of yelling and it's made a huge difference in our lives. And so that's my favorite micro step for trauma recovery.
Leina (17:22)
Yeah, in case you had any doubts.
Alright.
I love it. And the breath is free. It's easy. It's just hard to remember. And so don't be discouraged when you're in the middle of something and you don't remember your tools. That's exactly what happens when we're either frozen, paralyzed, or activated with fight or flight. So we just need to know that that is part of what happens. We don't access our tools and we just use the tools as soon as we realize that we forgot.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (17:52)
Yes.
That's right. That's right. So those are some of our micro steps for trauma recovery. That's why we use micro steps so the brain doesn't reject it and it actually becomes solidified in a stronger way when we do small things over and over instead of a big, huge change that we abandon a couple days later. And we want to encourage you to try one of these micro steps we've talked about and reach out to us and let us know how it went.
Leina (18:29)
Right.
Dr. Amy Hoyt (18:38)
Thank you so much for being with us today and we look forward to being with you next week.
Leina (18:42)
Have a great week, everyone.