It’s a heavy week to be engaging our nervous systems with current events, on and off the screens. When we read, see or hear about information that is difficult to feel, our neuroception (embodied sense of safety) shifts our brain into left hemispheric processing. This is very adaptive, as the more analytical and solution focused systems of the left hemisphere take over to help us find solutions & rationalize the world into a safer place. However being in this state diminishes the right hemispheric functionality of being in connection with others (social engagement system) and processing our emotions. Ideally our neuro-processing would move easily between hemispheres as situations & interactions call for. However, we live in a culture that tends to prefer and uphold left brain dominant states. It’s interesting to note that even an increase in sensory information - such as scrolling social media or the sights and sounds of a climate change protest - shifts our brains out of social engagement and into orienting and self preserving states. Please remember this: the antidote to isolation and sadness can often be found in connection. Relational (with others) and embodied (connection to a sense of our bodies) practices can help shift our neuroception back into social engagement, where it feels safe to attune to others and ones own body. Acupuncture and body work are ways that help me come back into embodiment when feeling disconnected. Relational breathing or movement work are also gentle ways to practice joining nervous systems with others safely. Here is a simple embodied exercise you can practice right now:
Self-touch Sequence to Regulate the Vagus Nerve
The vagus nerve is what helps our nervous system regulate between our fight/flight “activated” state and our rest/digest “relaxed” state.
This exercise supports the vagus nerve and helps our system return to rest/digest after it has become activated.
Exhale like you’re blowing out through a straw
Stimulate your ears by massaging your ear lobes and touching the ridges in your ear
Place your fingers over your eyebrows about a half an inch out from the center of your
face on both sides, massage lightly.
Touch/lightly massage on either side of nostrils, straight down from eyebrows
Touch/lightly massage on either side of chin, straight down from either side of your
nostrils
Massage on either side of neck, from behind ears on either side down
Place your hands on your forehead and the other over your heart. Focus on the
sensation between your hands. Hold there until you sense a shift into relaxation.
Place one hand on your heart and the other on your abdomen (below your belly
button). Focus on the sensation between your hands. Hold there until you sense a shift
into relaxation.
Place one hand on your solar plexus (just below the sternum( and the other at the back
of your neck, at the base of your skull. Hold there until you sense a shift into relaxation.
Repeat when necessary.
Take good care out there, friends.