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
- Breathe (managed by autonomic nervous system)
- Recognize when you might be leaving this place (e.g., notice beginning cues)What can I do to bring myself back?
- This is the home we long to be in (the nervous system knows how to return here)
- Helps with speaking breathing, the lungsCentral to navigating the world (communication, co-regulating)When it is overwhelmed will go offline
- 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)
- Before the PVT, our understanding of the nervous system was of two parts:
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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