The Autonomic Nervous System and regulation using Somatic experiencing alongside the Poly vagal theory.

Hi today we will be talking about how we can become more aware of our bodies and our nervous system and how it relates to healthy and unhealthy stress states.

Traumatic situations and complex stress can often have the same impacts on the bodies response to threat and this energy can be stored energy in the body.

Has any one heard to the The Polyvagal Perspective which was created Stephen W Porges.

The Polyvagal Theory (meaning automatic way of moving into safety from threat)

So What is the vagus nerve, in relation to the poly vagal theory?

The vagus nerve is one of the cranial nerves that connect the brain stem to the body.

Its called the wanderer as it travels from your brain to your gut it is the largest nerve in your body connecting to all your organ from you spine.

The vagus nerve functions contribute to the autonomic nervous system, which consists of the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems parts.

The nerve is responsible for certain sensory activities and motor information for movement within the body.

Essentially, it is part of a circuit that links the neck, heart, lungs, and the abdomen to the brain.

So What does the vagus nerve affect?

The vagus nerve has a number of different functions. The four key functions of the vagus nerve are:

• Sensory: From the throat, heart, lungs, and abdomen.
• Special sensory: Provides taste sensation behind the tongue.
• Motor: Provides movement functions for the muscles in the neck responsible for swallowing and speech.
• Parasympathetic: Responsible for the digestive tract, respiration, and heart rate functioning.?Healthy rest and digest state.

The nervous system can be divided into these areas?especially the two areas: sympathetic and parasympathetic. ?The sympathetic side increases alertness, energy, blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing rate. Under threat this can create a state of hyper states including, fight flight and aggression.

The parasympathetic side, which the vagus nerve is heavily involved in, decreases alertness, blood pressure, and heart rate, and helps with calmness, relaxation, and digestion.?Under threat if creates a collapsed state, fatigue, unable to get out of bed and so on.

Healthy mixed states may include A person calmly engaged in a social activity in a group and also meditating in a rested digest state or engaged in a book while laying down.?Someone may be playing football in the park socially engaged while in a sympathetic charge carful not to trip up alert and heart beating faster but relaxed and safe. ??

Other vagus nerve effects include:

• Communication between the brain and the gut: The vagus nerve delivers information from the gut to the brain.
• Relaxation with deep breathing: The vagus nerve communicates with the diaphragm. With deep breaths, a person feels more relaxed.
• Decreasing inflammation: The vagus nerve sends an anti-inflammatory signal to other parts of the body.
• Lowering the heart rate and blood pressure: If the vagus nerve is overactive, it can lead to the heart being unable to pump enough blood around the body. In some cases, excessive vagus nerve activity can cause loss of consciousness and organ damage.
• Fear management: The vagus nerve sends information from the gut to the brain, which is linked to dealing with stress and anxiety, and fear – hence the saying, “gut feeling.” These signals help a person to recover from stressful and scary situations.

Dorsal VAGAL TONE?Sympathetic and Parasympathetic

Creating a calm vagal tone is in slowing down the heart to put the brakes on a fight/flight response from our sympathetic nervous system, this dampens the stress response system (e.g., hormone release of cortisol), and reduces inflammation by modulating immune reactions (e.g., cytokines). A Healthy stress response. Creating feelings of a safe secure social engagement and bodily states.

Sometimes there may be a mismatch that results in physiological state that supports your system to go into a Sympathetic fight, flight state and get stuck there, or move into a ?Parasympathetic freeze shut down behaviors, without being able to access a calm social engagement behaviors or calm rest digest behaviour. That we see in a healthy state described before. The amygdala is the part of the brain responsible for this reaction.?When a person feels stressed or afraid, the amygdala releases stress hormones that prepare the body to fight the threat or flee from the danger. Common emotions that trigger this response include fear, anger, anxiety, and aggression.

The amygdala can activate a person’s fight-or-flight response as a reaction to a real or perceived threat of danger.

The Amygdala hijack describes the perhaps unnecessary triggering of this response and the actions that follow it. Someone may have had a social anxiety provoking experience and get stuck there whenever they leave their home or mix in a group with others feel uneasy stressed anxious, even If the person is safe the Amygdala is signaling to the body they are under threat.?This is sometimes we can feel nervous and anxious not know why as it is an automatic response in the autonomic nervous system.

Becoming self-aware and learning to lean into your feelings and senses can assist you to retrain your amygdala and be able to meet the needs of your body depending on the situation with a healthy response.?This is called re wiring your brain.?You do this all the time, you are firing new neurons every time you experience something, you are doing so right now.

Neuroception is the story and meaning making of your experiences. The story This comes from our nervous system state.?Because as humans we are always attempting to make sense of everything creating beliefs that may not really be true.?Then trying to turn away from the state and not learn to understand it. It can then come at us even harder the more we try to resist it.?We need to listen in order to use our vagal brake.

The vagal brake supports bringing the bodies vagal tone back on by visceral state, (Visceral is relating to deep inward feelings rather than to the intellect) This enables you to rapidly engage and disengage with objects and other individuals to promote self-soothing behaviors and calm states. Bringing your system back to a healthy calm safe state.

So where do you think you may be on the ladder.?There is no right or wrong answer, it just great to start getting curious by noticing your sensations.?I have some exercises and handouts to help you practice this more closely.

Checking in from a bottom up Body approach?

Our body can sometimes be a source of pain and negative emotions, whether they are caused by injury or disease, or experiences of discrimination and prejudice.?

The body scan provides a rare opportunity for us to experience our body as it is,?including any difficult feelings that come up, without judging or trying to change it.?Creating self-awareness through observation and curiosity.

It may allow us to notice and release a source of tension we weren’t aware of before, such as a hunched sholders or clenched jaw muscles.?Or it may draw our attention to a source of pain and discomfort that we can focus on releasing?

Our feelings of resistance and anger toward pain or distress often only serve to increase that pain, and to increase the distress associated with it. According to research, by noticing the pain we’re experiencing, without trying to change it, we may actually feel some relief. Even if the pain doesn't go away, we can take steps to shift our relationship to pain and our relationship to our body in general.?

As humans it is common to try to avoid pain and not lean into discomforting feelings and or sensations.?We usually try to get risk of them by becoming hypervigilant or numb. There are safe ways to lean into discomfort starting with the smaller ones first.?Using focusing and Felt sense.

?You may create of find online words to assist you with felt sense vocabulary, remembering your felt sense is uniquely yours.?Because you are unique.

I would like to invite you to try a couple of experiential exercises.

It may give you a sense of experiencing leaning into your felt sense and help you?to learn to notice and regulate your own system.

To do that we will start with a mindful embodiment script.

So please just move and shift in your chair to find a comfortable position.

Breath in and out?for a few seconds to get connected to your breath.

Begin by bringing your attention to your environment the room you are in, ?slowly looking around and noticing that you are safe in this moment and in this space.?You may notice the space the sounds the objects and at the same time your breath.

Bringing your attention into your body.?

You can close your eyes if that’s comfortable for you or maintain a soft gaze, with your eyes partially closed but not focusing on?anything in particular.

You can notice your body seated wherever you’re seated, feeling the support of the chair or the floor beneath you, you may feel your toes in your shoes, socks the floor.

Take a few?deep, long breaths, within the range of what is comfortable for you.?Notice your ribs cage move and or your shoulders move ever so slightly.

And as you take a deep breath, bring in more oxygen, enlivening the body. And as you?exhale, you might experience a sense of relaxing more deeply. Dropping into your body more, allowing and per-missioning your heart to slow down by slowing your breathing even more.

I invite you to notice your feet on the floor, notice the sensations of your feet touching the?floor. The weight and pressure, vibration, heat or coolness.?

I invite you to notice your legs against the chair, pressure, pulsing, heaviness, lightness.?

Now Notice your back against the chair, supporting you. If you are not able to notice sensations in all areas of the body, that is OK. We are more connected to certain areas of the body than others, at different times of the day. See what you notice in just observing with curiosity.?There is not a right way or wrong way it is you being in relationship with you.

I invite you to Bring your attention into your stomach area. If your stomach is tense or tight, can you allow it to soften??By breathing softness and compassion in to this area.

Now Notice your hands. Are your hands tense or tight closed or open??See you can allow them to soften. notice the air touch your skin. Notice if it is cool or warm see if you can notice the energy in your hands. Send some compassion to your hands for all the work they do for you every day.

Notice your arms. Feel any sensation in your arms.?See if you can allow your shoulders to be soft and drop more, while also noticing your breath.

Notice your neck and throat. See if you notice any sensations Try to allow them be soft. See if you can invite a sense of relaxation in.?If you notice any sensation arising allow yourself to notice this and tell yourself it is ok, this is my body communicating to me stored energy that may wish to be released. If can re orientate myself around the room if I need to re ground myself and then come back to my breath and back to my body scan.

I now invite you to focus your attention to your Jaw, try to soften your jaw. Do your best to allow your face and facial muscles to be soft, you may feel you want to move your mouth and then let it relax.

Now notice your whole body present The whole body now the front of the body the back of the body the sides bottom top of the body the whole body breathing now.?. Take a deeper breath now if you can and let it out with a sigh if need be..

Be aware of your whole body as best you can. Notice any sensations and if you don’t that’s ok too. ?Take a breath. Slowly open up the eyes, without focusing on anything in particular. Allow the head and neck to gently rotate, taking in the space you are in. When you feel ready, you can return to your normal gaze.

The body scan you just did is about learning to create self-awareness to different sensations.?If anything, ever becomes too overwhelming come back to orientating on the room your feet on the ground using 4 square breathing while placing your hand on your heart to connect to yourself, distract and then come back to this when able.?Body scans are a door way at your own pace to allows us to work with?different types of negative feelings, discomfort or pain. This practice may also increase our general?attunement to our physical needs and sensations, which can in turn help us take better?care of our body and make healthier decisions about eating, sleep, and exercise. Creating a healthy sense of wellbeing in connecting to your own needs.

Now for our last exercise I want you to think about how at times when you are so just up in?your head not even aware you are detached from your body and environment.

Like when you are on your phone checking social media for hours on end.

Or at times when you are Studying and or on your computer, researching doing or distracted from being present, either in your head in the past or future..

Have you ever noticed at these times of sitting and studying too long, you may forget to get up and eat or get a glass of water or move, your body goes into a natural kind of shut down state, kind of a numb state? The Brain being part of the body sort of shuts down to and gets foggy, more difficult to focus.?Has anyone noticed that before?

We will now do an exercise to experience getting to know what different states feel like.?What healthy stress feels like?

?YOUR SYMPATHETIC AND PARA SYMPATHETIC AUTONOMIC SYSTEM

OK I would like you all to stand up now.

To know what your body needs is dependent on your own system this is why it is important to get to know your own system.

?I would like you all to start bending your knees bopping up and down.

You might want to imagine your favorite tune using your imagination and start to allow your body to move freely as it chooses not in a controlled forced way.?See how you go.

You may let your arms flow from side to side or what ever your body guides you to do.

?Ok now I would like to notice if your heart beat is beating faster is your breath a bit deeper, if not see if you can move a little faster to mobilize this sympathetic charge of energy.

Great good job.

Now if everyone can sit down.

Check in again and notice how your bodies nervous system regulates it self back in to balanced state, to a rested digested state and socially engaged in this exercise.?This is the job of our system to regulate and energize.?We just need to notice what it needs sometimes if it gets dysregulated and stuck.

?Research Other ways to balance your nervous system, changing your physiology.

The other examples of moving into a healthy stress response may also include movement as we did before to come out of a shutdown mode and or move into a rest digest state..

Like simple yoga stretching moves.

Think about everyday things you already do to assist you shift energy in your system, mindful moments, meditation, breathing, cool shower, dancing, yoga, singing, chanting, playing, socializing connecting with a safe person, swimming and so much more. Notice what you do to move up and down the poly vagal ladder.

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