Bring Light to the Hidden and Heal It

How does lasting change occur? Where does change start ­-- in your head, heart, gut, brain, mind? What do I focus on first to ignite change and get on the road to improved health and well-being?

One founding ideology is that based on Dr. Steven Porges’ notion of Polyvagal Theory. Tapping into the vagal nerve will help your brain, body and mind align to help make change, in a multitude of areas of your life, more accessible.

Polyvagal theory is an evolutionary, neuroscientific and psychological construct focusing on the role of the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is a cranial nerve that starts in the brain stem and reaches out to every major system in the body. Input from the senses, through the vagal pathways, will either prompt circuits of safety or will prompt circuits of defense via two different vagal pathways.

1.  One circuit of defense is the fight/flight response, which is a mobilizing circuit, and the other is a shut-down, death-feigning response that allows the individual to become “inanimate” so to speak.

2.  The secondary circuit, the death-feigning response, is ignited by what Porges calls “neuroception,” the detection of risk/reward in the environment. This is different than “perception” which is a cognition and accessible to conscious awareness. Through neuroception, the body senses risk and makes a determination to shut down as a defense, it is an implicit response, outside of conscious awareness, and can be one of the contributors to major inflammatory and other types of heart-related and gut-related diseases.

So how do you deal with ‘implicit” senses/feelings? How do you bring to light what is hidden to help heal it?