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Deborah Dana: Befriending Your Nervous System

collage of portraits of cheerful woman

Presented by Sounds True: Insight at the Edge with Tami Simon (source: Full Episode)

Tags: nervous system, polyvagal theory, self-regulation

The Nervous System

  • The foundation for all of your lived experience
  • Where everything begins
  • Has evolved over many years
  • Three pathways:
    • Ventral – connection, communication, safety
    • Sympathetic – mobilize, fight/flight
    • Dorsal – shutdown, disconnect/disappear

Contribution of the Polyvagal Theory to Understanding the Nervous System

  • Ventral Pathway: located from the brainstem to neck; goes to heart
    • Helps with speaking breathing, the lungsCentral to navigating the world (communication, co-regulating)When it is overwhelmed will go offline
      • Recognize when you might be leaving this place (e.g., notice beginning cues)What can I do to bring myself back?
        • Breathe (managed by autonomic nervous system)
          • Longer exhales helps to bring the ventral energy back online
          Sighing intentionallyMovement (used in the right way)
    • This is the home we long to be in (the nervous system knows how to return here)
  • Dorsal Pathway: located below the lungs and diaphragm; goes into gut
    • Helps with digestion

Stephen Porges

  • Developed the Polyvagal Theory (PVT), a new understand of how we’re wired and move through the world
    • Before the PVT, our understanding of the nervous system was of two parts:
      • Sympathetic Nervous System
      • Parasympathetic Nervous System
    • Offers stories of survival when someone didn’t fight back or take action
    • Helps people understand this other pathway we go to (dorsal)

Befriending Your Nervous Systems During the Pandemic

  • Our nervous system moves us through life
  • When bombarded by cues of danger, it’s hard to feel anchored in the ventral state
  • Cues of safety we can recognize in our daily lives through small moments:
    •  Putting on a mask: can be a cue of safety (or danger for some)
    • Looking at eyes: see the smiles behind the mask
    • Staying safely connected
      • Listening to your own nervous system, asking what feels nourishing/right in this moment?
      • Facetime may feel overwhelming, but sending a text message might feel right
    • Go out in nature or look for images that speaks to you (activates energy of ventral)
    • Music (brings us to a place of healing, safety and regulation)

Communicating Safety for Others

  • Not with words but with actions
  • Be anchored in your own state of ventral vagal safety connection
  • Energy is sent through neuroceptive pathways into the world
    • People around us (and their nervous system) sense that
  • Offer regulating energy and kindness to others in the world
  • Benevolence: the act of ongoing use of ventral vagal energy and healing
  • Using energy to serve others, ourselves and to heal the world

More from Sounds True: Insight at the Edge with Tami Simon
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WEBSITE DISCLAIMER

This website is provided only for informational purposes and not intended to be used to replace professional advice, treatment or professional care. Always speak to your physician, healthcare provider or pediatrician if you have concerns about your own health or the health of a child.

Thank you for sharing!

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