I recently wandered down a neuroscience rabbit hole, and what I learned about post-traumatic growth was too compelling not to share.
Below, I’ll break things down simply—no heavy jargon—and highlight the research itself for anyone who likes to understand the science behind healing.
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While psychologists have studied the outcomes of post-traumatic growth for decades, research on the brain processes that may underlie it is very new. We only have two well-designed studies so far, one with a fairly small group of participants, so this is emerging territory.
But even early findings are promising—and surprisingly practical.
They suggest that certain forms of inner attention and body-focused practices may support the very pathways associated with growth after trauma.
Let’s take a closer look.
What Post-Traumatic Growth Really Means
Here’s a helpful way to think about it:
Post-traumatic growth refers to the meaningful psychological changes that can unfold after navigating something deeply painful or overwhelming.
This does not mean trauma is good, purposeful, or necessary.
It simply means that through the process of healing, someone may access capacities, strengths, insight, or meaning that weren’t available before.
And importantly:
We cannot use the idea of post-traumatic growth to bypass pain.
Phrases like “everything happens for a reason” can feel invalidating and create pressure to recover faster.
Healing requires room for grief, anger, numbness, confusion, and all the natural responses that come with trauma. Growth is possible—but no one should be pushed toward it before they’re ready.
Part of trauma recovery is reclaiming agency: choosing your pace, your tools, and the direction of your healing.
And now, neuroscience is beginning to illuminate ways the brain may reorganize during that process—and how certain practices can support it.
What Brain Waves Reveal About Post-Traumatic Growth
A 2024 study found that people who report higher levels of post-traumatic growth also demonstrate increases in alpha brainwave activity (1)(2).
Alpha waves are associated with:
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calm but alert presence
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quiet focus
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reflective inner attention
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the ability to shift out of hypervigilance
Interestingly, these increases appear in parts of the brain tied to movement and interoception—your awareness of internal sensations like breath, heartbeat, tension, or warmth.
This suggests that reconnecting with the internal landscape of your body may play a direct role in supporting post-traumatic growth.
The idea that paying attention to your inner world can help your brain re-organize after trauma?
Pretty astonishing—and incredibly hopeful.
Why This Matters
Trauma often pulls your attention outward.
Hypervigilance can make you an expert at reading tone, dynamics, and the emotional weather in a room. That skill is adaptive—but it can also distance you from the quieter signals of your own body.
Healing isn’t only about “calming down.”
It’s about learning to turn your attention inward again, so you can notice:
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needs
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limits
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desires
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intuition
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early signals of overwhelm
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early signals of safety
This is where interoception enters the picture.
Interoception: How Reinhabiting the Body Leads to Post-Traumatic Growth
Interoceptive awareness is your capacity to sense internal cues—hunger, fullness, breath, muscle tension, heart rate, temperature, sensations of settling, or activation.
Higher interoceptive awareness has been linked to:
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improved emotional regulation
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greater resilience
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a deeper sense of self
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more adaptive stress responses
And early neuroscience suggests it may also connect directly to the brain changes involved in post-traumatic growth.
Which means:
Re-inhabiting your body isn’t just grounding—it may be neurologically supportive of the healing process itself.
Below are a few practices you can try to help strengthen this inner awareness.
Three Practices That Build Internal Awareness
1. Reconnecting With Hunger
One of the most accessible ways to reconnect with your body is to gently reattune to hunger cues.
Hunger is a biological signal of aliveness and need—a steady internal message that often gets overlooked due to stress, conditioning, dieting history, trauma, or shame.
When hunger is ignored over and over, the body can adopt a trauma-like stance:
“My needs don’t matter; no one is listening.”
Re-engaging with these early cues can support interoception and rebuild trust within your system.
Try this: A gentle hunger check-in
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Before a meal, pause and notice: What sensations tell me I’m hungry?
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Identify where you might be on the hunger–fullness scale (below). Starting around a 3 often feels best, but this isn’t about perfection.
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See if you can experience hunger as a friendly signal rather than an urgent one.
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Repeat regularly with curiosity.
The Hunger–Fullness Scale
(adapted from Intuitive Eating)
0 – painfully hungry
1 – ravenous
2 – very hungry
3 – pleasantly hungry
4 – slight hunger
5 – neutral
6 – beginning to feel full
7 – comfortably full
8 – slightly too full
9 – very full
10 – painfully full
2. Tension Scan: Letting Your Body Be Supported
This practice helps regulate the nervous system by reconnecting you with the sense of being supported physically.
Try this:
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Sit or lie down and bring awareness to whatever is holding you—the chair, the bed, the ground.
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Allow your weight to settle into that support, even slightly.
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Slowly scan your body from top to bottom.
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When you notice tension, see if you can soften by just 5%. No forcing—just awareness and permission.
Often, places like the jaw, shoulders, abdomen, or psoas hold more tension than we realize.
Noticing—without judgment—is itself a form of interoceptive practice.
3. Pulse Practice
This exercise strengthens your ability to sense your heartbeat internally.
Try this:
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Sit quietly. Set a one-minute timer.
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Find your pulse on your wrist or neck and count the beats for a minute.
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Reset the timer. This time, don’t touch your pulse—sense it from the inside and count.
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Compare the numbers.
Many people find the internal count is lower at first. That’s normal and expected.
Over time, this practice can improve interoceptive accuracy—and research shows it can support emotional awareness as well (3).
What This Means for Your Post-Traumatic Growth
The idea that the body contributes to trauma recovery is not new.
What’s emerging is a clearer picture of how the brain itself may shift during the process of post-traumatic growth.
Early research suggests:
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Increased alpha-wave activity may reflect growth-related brain changes
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These increases occur in regions linked to internal awareness
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Practices that help you tune inward may support these neural shifts
You don’t need rigid rules or a perfect routine.
What matters is staying connected to your body’s cues and choosing practices that help you feel present, grounded, and safe enough.
Your brain is adaptive.
Your body is wise.
And your healing is something you can participate in consciously and compassionately.
💌 Stay Connected
If this kind of grounded, science-backed approach to healing speaks to you, I’d love to have you join me over in Reclaim & Remember—my biweekly newsletter where I share somatic tools, mindset shifts, and new research to support your healing journey.
It’s warm, insightful, and always built with your nervous system in mind.
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If you enjoyed this blog, you might also enjoy:
- Belly Tension and the Nervous System: Why Sucking In Your Stomach Isn’t Helping You Heal
- [Reconnecting With Your Body: 3 Lessons From Ecstatic Dance] — How I stopped performing and started listening to my body.
- [What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat] — A book review and valuable lessons learned.
Resources
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Maples-Keller, J. L., Call, C. D., & DeGutis, J. (2024). Toward neuroscientific understanding in posttraumatic growth… Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 159.
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Tedeschi, R. G., & Calhoun, L. G. (1996). The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory… Journal of Traumatic Stress, 9(3), 455–471.
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Schillings, C., et al. (2022). Effects of heartbeat perception training… Frontiers in Neuroscience, 16.