Open Your Eyes
by Katrin Lucas
The Trinity Method is a program I have developed with the aim of helping a person restore their inner balance and bring the body, nervous system, and mind into harmonious functioning with one another.
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The Trinity Method is a program I have developed with the aim of helping a person restore their inner balance and bring the body, nervous system, and mind into harmonious functioning with one another. Our thoughts influence our feelings, meaning our nervous system, while our nervous system in turn influences our body. The state of the body then influences the state of the nervous system, which in turn influences our mind, meaning our brain. They are all interconnected, and at the center of everything is the nervous system, through which the brain and body can communicate. The state or level of activation of our nervous system and brain determines our entire quality of life and how we perceive ourselves, other people, and the world around us.
In recent years, I have worked extensively with people who experienced many different forms of violence in childhood, and the tension that remained after those experiences has become a natural part of who they are. But living in this state of tension means that a person is operating at the level of survival every day, even when the danger they experienced as a child has long since passed. Through working with my clients, I also began to understand that the feeling, or level of nervous system activation, that we grow up with becomes our normal state later in life. Without becoming aware of the patterns of our past, we unconsciously continue to recreate the feeling that has become our “normal.” We create a life in which we can continue to feel the way we have felt throughout our entire lives. Fear, anxiety, heaviness, and constant tension become a person’s everyday normal. They no longer have any idea what lightness, joy, and freedom feel like. As soon as life begins to get even a little better, a way is found to restore the old state, because it is familiar and safe for the nervous system and the mind. In addition, both the mind and the nervous system begin to hold onto and protect this state because they have learned how to function within it. The person’s entire life-energy resource is then spent on keeping them alive, leaving no resources for making changes. This is why many people are unable to make changes in their lives or change their habits even though they deeply want to, because every change requires energy, but that energy is being used for survival.
A person living at the level of survival can develop many different problems that begin to strongly affect both their mental and physical health. Their sleep, recovery, digestion, hormonal balance, immune system function, and many other processes are often affected. Eventually, a person may not even realize how tense they truly are because this state has become their normal way of being.
The purpose of the Trinity Method is not to learn how to control the external world or other people, but to restore a person’s ability to tolerate stress when a situation requires it and then return again to a normal state of functioning in which they can sleep peacefully, relax, recover, digest, concentrate, and think clearly while remaining connected to both themselves and the world around them. In other words, the purpose of this method is to help a person move out of the constant survival state in which many people remain trapped because of childhood trauma, prolonged stress, or an unsafe childhood environment.
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At the heart of the Trinity Method is the daily Trinity Practice, through which we begin to practically train the flexibility of the body, nervous system, and mind. The Trinity Practice consists of three interconnected parts: calm and longer yoga-based stretching exercises for the body, a conscious breathing practice for the nervous system, and meditation with calming music for the mind.
Yoga, breathing, and meditation are not new techniques in themselves. What makes the Trinity Practice different is the way they are combined, their sequence, and their gradual progression. We begin with the body, move from there to breathing and the nervous system, and only then proceed to meditation and the mind. Instead of expecting a person who is operating at the level of survival to immediately enter a state of complete calm, we guide the system step by step from one state into another.
The three parts of the Trinity Practice work together as a whole. When we release tension from the body, the nervous system and mind can begin to calm down. Through breathing, we can influence the regulation of the autonomic nervous system, while a calmer nervous system creates better conditions for the brain to direct attention and inhibit automatic reactions. When a person is better able to notice their thoughts and reactions, they create fewer situations in their everyday life that send their body back into a state of intense stress. In this way, instead of working against one another, the body, nervous system, and mind increasingly begin to support one another, creating coherence and harmony between them.
Our body has had to carry all of our emotional and mental burdens. Every tension in your nervous system is stored somewhere in your body. Connective tissue, muscles, and organs all stop functioning properly when our system is filled with the accumulated heaviness that our entire body carries. When we begin to slowly and calmly stretch and open the body, we release the tensions stored in the body on a physical level.
Long, calm stretches give our system time to gradually adapt. During stretching, the load travels through the muscle and the connective tissue structures surrounding it, while at the same time affecting sensory receptors that send information to the brain about the body’s position, tension, and movement. However, this stretching needs to be done over a longer period of time and regularly. The more flexible our body becomes, the more flexible, for example, our mind also becomes. The more closed and rigid our body is, the more black-and-white a person’s worldview becomes. Stretching the body also helps release the nervous system, which runs throughout our entire body. Therefore, by releasing tension from the body, tension is also released from our nervous system and mind. Many of our emotions and tensions that have been stored in the connective tissue and muscles make them rigid, because the human body can continue carrying tension, protective, breathing, and movement patterns that developed years ago even after the original danger has long since passed. Now we begin teaching our body that it is time to let go of all these old burdens because we no longer actually need to carry them.
In the Trinity Practice, we do not force the body through intense pain, because a highly tense system does not need another experience of having its boundaries forcefully crossed. The stretches need to be sufficient for the body to feel a change, but at the same time, the person must be able to breathe calmly and remain present. The purpose of a long stretch is not to forcefully “break the body open,” but to give the tissues and nervous system enough time to adapt to a new position and range of motion.
When lightness and peace begin to emerge in the body, we can move on to the next stage, which is breathwork.
In the Trinity Practice, stretching the body is followed by breathing.
The purpose of breathing is to begin balancing our autonomic nervous system and also to bring more oxygen into the body, because when the cells do not have enough oxygen, the nervous system is also in a state of stress. The vagus nerve in our body is one of the important communication pathways between the brain and internal organs, and it also participates, among other things, in the regulation of the heart, lungs, and a large part of the digestive tract. Calm breathing helps balance the vagus nerve and its tone. This is one of the central aims of the Trinity Practice: not to make a person calm all the time, but to teach their nervous system the way back from constant activation into regulation. After traumatic experiences, a person’s nervous system can lose a significant part of its ability to self-regulate. Instead of flexibly becoming activated according to the situation and then calming down again once the danger has passed, the system can remain for longer periods in different survival responses – fight, flight, or freeze – or move into the opposite extreme, where a person experiences powerlessness, disconnection, and a sense that the entire system has shut down. The problem is not that the nervous system becomes activated – that is exactly what it is supposed to do in times of stress – but after the situation has passed, it has difficulty returning to a state of balance and recovery. One of the central aims of the Trinity Practice is therefore to gradually restore this flexibility: to teach the system again both activation and relaxation, and the ability to move between these states according to the situation.
When our system no longer needs to remain in a state as though danger were about to arrive at any moment, more space becomes available within us for other processes connected with recovery, digestion, sleep, and supporting the organism. The autonomic nervous system communicates continuously with the digestive tract, and stress can affect intestinal motility, sensitivity, and the functioning of the gut-brain axis. Better regulation of the nervous system also creates better conditions for the normal functioning of our digestive system, which in turn affects our body weight and physical health.
The same applies to the hormonal system. The hypothalamus, pituitary gland, adrenal glands, thyroid gland, regulation of sex hormones, metabolism, and circadian rhythms form an interconnected system. During prolonged stress, the normal regulation of the HPA axis can become disrupted, which in turn can affect our energy use, sleep, appetite, metabolism, immune regulation, and other hormonally controlled processes. The purpose of the Trinity Practice is to reduce the body’s constant need to function in emergency mode and create more space for normal regulation and recovery.
Sleep is a very important part of this whole system. Stress and sleep influence each other in both directions. A person may be physically completely exhausted while their nervous system and brain remain activated. They go to bed, but their thoughts do not stop, their body does not relax, or they wake up repeatedly during the night. Poor sleep, in turn, makes the brain more sensitive to stress the following day, reduces the ability to regulate attention and oneself, and can make a person more emotionally reactive. This easily creates a vicious cycle: stress disrupts sleep, poor sleep increases sensitivity to stress, and increased sensitivity to stress makes it harder to calm down the following night. When the body learns to come out of activation more effectively, it also creates better physiological conditions for sleep.
Sleep, in turn, affects everything else. A better-rested brain is better able to direct attention, regulate emotions, and make decisions the following day. A person has more energy to move and take care of themselves, and may have less need to constantly compensate for tiredness with caffeine, sugar, their phone, or other forms of quick stimulation. This is why sleep is not simply a separate health topic within the Trinity Method, but an important part of the entire cycle of regulation and recovery.
The immune system also communicates continuously with the nervous and hormonal systems. Chronic stress can affect immune regulation and the balance of inflammatory processes. The connection is not as simple as stress merely “switching off the immune system,” but it is important to understand that the nervous system, hormonal system, and immune system are not three separate worlds; they communicate with one another continuously. Therefore, nervous system regulation can influence a much broader whole than merely a person’s emotional well-being.
Only after stretching the body and breathing do we arrive at meditation in the Trinity Practice. This sequence has been intentionally designed this way because when the body is highly tense and the autonomic nervous system is highly activated, it can be very difficult to simply close your eyes and tell your mind, “Be quiet now.” Therefore, we first help the body reduce tension, then use breathing to influence the state of the nervous system, and only then move on to the mind.
During intense stress, the brain shifts more toward fast, automatic, and threat-oriented processes, which are described as “reptilian brain mode.” We can view our brain separately as the reptilian brain and the higher brain, or conscious mind, and during intense stress, the functions of the prefrontal cortex – the front part of the frontal lobe – which are part of the conscious mind, can weaken, and a person reacts more through automatic subconscious and protective patterns.
The prefrontal cortex is important for directing attention, inhibiting impulses, planning, using working memory, considering alternatives, taking perspective, and making conscious decisions. It helps us pause at the first reaction and ask: “What is actually happening here? Is my first interpretation the only possible one? What am I feeling right now? How do I want to respond to this?” During high stress, these abilities are more difficult to access. This is why, when calm, we may know exactly how we would like to behave in a particular situation, yet during an intense emotion or conflict, we may do something completely different.
The more a person is operating from reptilian brain activation, the more they experience separation, anxiety, and fear, and the more it can feel as though the whole world is against them. When the system calms down, a person does not simply become less stressed. They gain better access to the brain functions that allow them to see the bigger picture, inhibit the first impulse, tolerate uncomfortable feelings, and take another person’s perspective into account. This begins to directly affect relationships. A highly activated nervous system may interpret a partner’s silence as abandonment, disagreement as an attack, or a delayed message as evidence that something is wrong. The person then reacts not only to what is actually happening, but to the meaning their threat system assigns to the situation.
When a person learns to notice and regulate their reactions earlier, more space emerges between the feeling and the reaction. “I feel like I am being attacked” no longer has to automatically turn into a counterattack. “I am afraid I will be abandoned” does not have to turn into controlling behavior. “I am angry” does not have to mean saying something to another person that I will later regret. In this way, regulation of the nervous system and brain begins to change communication, boundaries, decisions, and ultimately the kinds of relationships a person creates and maintains in their life.
Meditation is the conscious training of this ability. The modern brain has to process an enormous amount of rapidly changing stimulation. Phones, social media, messages, news, work, and videos train our attention to constantly move toward the next stimulus. When a person moves directly from this into complete silence, silence can initially feel extremely uncomfortable. This is why we use calming music as a bridge in the Trinity Practice. Music gives the mind a steady point of focus and helps it move gradually from constant stimulation toward inner silence.
In meditation, we practice something that appears very simple but is extremely important for our entire life: I can notice something without having to react to it immediately. A thought can arise without me having to continue thinking it. A feeling can arise without me having to immediately get rid of it. An impulse can arise without me having to act on it. In this way, we gradually create more space between an automatic reaction and a conscious choice.
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The effect of the Trinity Practice is not only about what stretching does to the muscles, breathing to the nervous system, or meditation to the brain. What matters is how all three begin to influence one another. When the body is less tense, the brain and nervous system can also calm down. When nervous system activation decreases, the brain can make better use of functions related to attention, impulse control, and conscious decision-making. When a person is able to think more clearly and notice their reactions at the right time, they in turn make different choices that can reduce the stress arising in their everyday life.
With chronic stress, a self-reinforcing cycle can develop: a sense of threat activates the nervous system, the body becomes tense, breathing changes, the stress system activates, sleep and recovery deteriorate, and the tired brain becomes even more reactive the following day. As a result, a person may become involved in more conflicts, seek more quick stimulation, and make choices that in turn create even more stress.
With the Trinity Practice, we gradually begin to create the opposite cycle: better body awareness helps us notice stress earlier, calm breathing supports nervous system regulation, better regulation creates more opportunities for recovery and sleep, a better-rested brain is better able to direct attention and emotions, and a more conscious person creates fewer situations through their own behavior that push their system back into extreme tension. In this way, one change begins to support the next.
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We begin with only 15 minutes a day: five minutes for the body, five minutes for the nervous system, and five minutes for the mind. At first glance, five minutes may seem too little to create any meaningful change. However, the goal is not to do as much as possible in a single day, but to give the body, nervous system, and brain a repeated daily experience of a different state and to create a practice that a person can genuinely integrate into their life.
If a person has lived under intense stress for decades, they may not have the resources to immediately begin practicing for one or two hours, because relaxation itself is also a skill. For some people, silence can initially even feel unsafe because their system has learned that being constantly alert means being safe. If a person grew up in an environment where they constantly had to monitor other people’s moods, be prepared for conflict, or adapt to unpredictability, high activation can become a familiar state. As an adult, they may no longer even know how to be at peace. The moment nothing is happening, they begin looking for an activity, a problem, their phone, work, or some other form of stimulation.
At this point, we cannot tell a person, “From now on, you have to be calm for an hour.” Instead, we first give them five minutes. During those five minutes, we teach our system that it is safe to relax, that nothing will happen during those five minutes, and that the whole world will not fall apart if it allows itself to relax for five minutes.
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In the Trinity Practice, we work in three-week cycles. For the first three weeks, we practice for 15 minutes every day. Then we move to 30 minutes: ten minutes for the body, ten minutes for the nervous system, and ten minutes for the mind. From there, we continue increasing the duration of the practice according to the same principle.
Three weeks is not a magical period after which the brain has been completely “reprogrammed” in 21 days. The speed at which people learn and form habits varies. In the Trinity Practice, three weeks is a practical adaptation cycle – long enough for a new activity to begin feeling more familiar, yet short enough for the goal to feel achievable.
Behind this process is neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to change according to what we repeatedly experience and use. If a person has spent years practicing worrying, hypervigilance, rapid reactions, and constant stimulation, their brain has become very efficient at these processes. This does not mean that they consciously chose such a life. The brain has simply learned what has been demanded of it most often. The same neuroplasticity, however, means that we can begin practicing something different.
In this practice, through consistent repetition, we create a new and increasingly stronger way of being.
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The Trinity Practice has three levels. At Level I, the practice gradually increases to one hour; at Level II, to two hours; and at Level III, to three hours. A longer practice is not an end in itself, and practicing for three hours does not make someone a better practitioner. The levels provide an opportunity to go deeper when a person’s system and life are ready for it.
We do not build change through forcing ourselves, but through capacity. When five minutes becomes integrated into our system, it becomes ten. When ten minutes begins to feel natural, the time can be extended again. In this way, a person’s capacity to remain in a more regulated state gradually increases without the practice itself becoming another source of stress.
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The Trinity Practice is the daily backbone of the Trinity Method, but the Trinity Method encompasses a much bigger picture. If a person teaches their system balance every day during the practice but spends the rest of the day repeatedly pushing it back into extreme stimulation and stress, these two processes work against each other. One hour of meditation does not cancel out ten hours of constant stimulation from smart devices. A breathing exercise cannot fully compensate for chronic sleep deprivation. Yoga cannot eliminate situations in which a person repeatedly pushes beyond their own boundaries every day.
Therefore, in the Trinity Method, in addition to the practice, we look at the person’s entire life: sleep, movement, nutrition, stimulation, use of smart devices, addictive behaviors, workload, relationships, boundaries, thought and behavioral patterns, sources of stress, and recovery. We begin to notice which parts of a person’s life support their new balance and which parts take them back into their old state day after day.
Here too, we do not change everything at once, because otherwise we would simply turn healing into another stressful project. The principle of the Trinity Method remains the same: the change must be small enough for the system to be able to receive it and consistent enough for it to become a new way of functioning over time.