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Podcast Notes:
I am so excited to bring you more information about something that has changed my understanding of somatic work completely- and that is understanding the nervous system.
The nervous system is our body’s threat detector, and will put us into survival states which physically effect all systems of the body.
These survival states are helpful if we are being chased by a tiger. But living in fight/flight/freeze or fawn will take it’s toll on our body.
We can learn to identify these states by noticing our body’s reactions.
Increased heart rate, breathing, tension in the jaw and arms? You are probably in “fight”.
Scattered thinking, anxiety, can’t sit still, trying to fix, always doing? You are probably in “flight”.
Lethargic, confused, dissociated, space, overwhelmed? You are probably in “freeze”.
People pleasing, no boundaries, over apologizing, worried about what others think? You are probably in “fawn”.
Getting into a survival state is normal, it is part of growth. But we just want to be able to return to the PARASYMPATHETIC/CALM state as much as possible to give our bodies a chance to rest and repair.
This “VENTRAL” state is also called our window of tolerance. It’s where we are calm, collected, connected and creative.
Each time we are triggered into a survival state and return to the window of tolerance, we resolve a little piece of trauma from our past.
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