Latest / Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor / Mojo Monday - The Nervous System Ladder You Climb Everyday With Carly Taylor

Transcript

Mojo Monday - The Nervous System Ladder You Climb Everyday With Carly Taylor · Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, It's Carl Taylor here and welcome to this
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: week's Mojo Monday. So today I want to talk about
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: our nervous system, and I'm going to talk about it
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: through the work of Stephen Porges and deb Dana. So.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Porges developed what's called Polyvagel theory back in nineteen sixty nine,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: and deb Dana has done a beautiful job of making
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: it really practical and something that we can all use
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: in our daily lives. And I happened to see her
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: speak at a conference a couple of weeks ago, and
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: I got so much value from it, and I wanted
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: to share some of the things that I learned from
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: it with you. So most of us have heard of
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: the autonomic nervous system, and traditionally we talk about it
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: as having two branches, the sympathetic nervous system and the
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: parasympathetic nervous system. And through the lens of polyv theory
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: it gets a little bit more nuanced. Polyvagel theory shows
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: us that the parasympathetic actually has two distinct pathways, and
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: these are the ventral Vagel system, which supports calm connection
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: and social engagement. So when the ventral vaguel systems switched on.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: We're feeling good, we're feeling relaxed and joyful, and all
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: those beautiful happy hormones have kicked in. And then there's
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: the dorsal vagel system. And what that does is drives
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: shut down. It drives collapse and sort of immobilization. So
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: imagine if somebody is really really depressed and they're feeling
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: very disconnected from people and from the world, that's the
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: dorsal vagel system. And depth Dana gives us a beautiful
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: metaphor for this. So it's like a ladder. So I
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: orner nervous system is like a ladder. At the top
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: of the ladder is the ventral vagel, and so this
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: is where you feel calm and curious and connected and
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: really grounded. You can think clearly, you can have a laugh,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: you're connecting with others, and you feel really present. So
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: we all know what it feels like to be at
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: the top of the vent of the ladder, in that
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: ventral vagel area. And then in the middle of the
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: ladder it's a sympathetic nervous system. And so of course
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: we know this as the fight or flight and Porges
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: talks about this being mobilizing, so our heart rate increases,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: breath gets shallower, muscles are primed, We're full of energy,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: and you feel like you need to move or do something.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: So that's the sympathetic nervous system. And then at the bottom,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: as I said, it's the dorsal vagel so that shut
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: down collapse, that sort of numbness, disconnected state, which is
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: what you can go to when you write down the body.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: And this is when you just want to retreat and
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: hide in a cave or disappear. And of course.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Sometimes we do feel like doing that.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: We might not necessarily necessarily be depressed, but sometimes we've
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: got you know what, I just need time out.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: I don't want to talk to anybody. I just need
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: to be on my own.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: So that's around that dorsal area, and we move up
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: and down this ladder every single day. And the thing is,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: none of these states are bad. They're are body survival responses,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: are millions of years old, and they've kept us alive
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: as a species. So it's your body's way of keeping
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: you safe. Now, I just want to pause here and
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: be really clear about what I mean when I use
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: the word safe, because most of the time we are safe.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: We're not in danger of being attacked by sabertooth teiger,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: which is a reflective of.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Our nervous system.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Because our nervous system is so ancient, ancient, it doesn't think,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: think logically, irrationally. There's no consciousness in our nervous system.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: It just reacts as if we are going to be
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: attacked by a sober tooth tiger. You know, it's scanning
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: constantly for cues of safety or threat, and sometimes it misfires.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: So when I talk about safety in this context, I
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: don't mean being safe in your environment. I mean your
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: body's perception of safety. And the reason why I think
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: it matters to be clear on this is, and this
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: is just my opinion, I feel like we're throwing this
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: word safe and being and being in safety too casually,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: because what it can do is we keep talking about this,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: it can trick our minds into believing that actually we're
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: not safe. We start wiring our brains to think that
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: the world is a dangerous place when in reality, we
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: are safe most of us. Of course, there are situations
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: where people are not safe, but I'm just talking in general.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: And what's happening is that our nervous system is sending
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: survival signals based on the wiring of millions of years.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: So when I use the word safe today, it is
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: shorthand for your nervous system's response, not literally a reflection
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: of your external world. So let me give you a
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: few examples about how this shows up. So in the morning,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: I sometimes will have a cup of coffee. I will
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: be in that ventral, that top of the ladder and
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: be feeling really calm and good, and then I have
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: a coffee and I actually feel myself climbing down the
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: ladder a little from ventral into sympathetic. You know, suddenly
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: my heart's racing and I'm a little bit more on edge.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: So that's just a really simple example of ingesting something
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: and moving into a sympathetic nervous system state. Another example is, say,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: walking into a workshop on your own. So I did
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: this the other week when I went into the deb
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Dana workshop, and it was quite funny because she talked
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: about this example and it was almost like she was
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: just talking about my experience because I was on my own.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: I walked into the room, there were people everywhere, there
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: were empty seats, and all of a sudden, I'm going
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: into a bit of a sympathetic nervous system state. You know,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: where do I see it, who do I sit with?
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: How close to stage? She's just all that kind of
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: normal stuff that happened. So you can see I was
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: in ventral and then that situation, I'm just moving down
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: the ladder a bit because what's happening is my nervous
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: system is just checking and scanning for whether I am
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: safe here. And you think about this with kids who
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: have school refusal. You know they don't want to go
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: to school, or maybe they are arriving life and they
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: have to walk into a classroom that's already settled and started.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: That can feel really overwhelming and push them down into
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: that sympathetic nervous system state and also go head down
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: into dorsal, sometimes dipping down there if it's all too
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: much for them. So you can if you've got kids
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: who are having school refusal, you can almost notice where
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: they are on that ladder. They start off the morning
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: in ventral, and then as soon as it starts getting
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: ready to go to school, they start heading down that
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: ladder into sympathetic. And then of course there's the really
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: big stresses when life hits hard, so work deadlines, piling
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: up exams at UNI or school, the death of a love,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: on financial pressures. We can move quickly through that sympathetic
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: into dorsal and then that's the cave response, and all
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: we want to do is shut the door, just hide
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: under a do and just disappear. And I think it's
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: also worth talking about that our past experiences shape how
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: we move up and down that ladder. So if you've
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: lived through trauma or long periods of stress, your nervous
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: system might respond more quickly to queues of danger, and
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: it can be harder to climb back up to the
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: ventral once that you've dropped. And research shows that this
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: is often linked to what we call lower vagual tone
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: and reduced heart rate variability, and they are measures of
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: how flexibly our system can regulate itself. And in simple terms,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: past challenges can leave us with a more sensitive alarm
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: system and a slower reset button. But that doesn't mean
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: that change isn't possible. It just means awareness and practice
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: are even more important, So over time, those small regulating
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: practices can help the nervous system become more flexible again.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Polyvagal theory has been especially helpful for people healing from trauma.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: But it isn't just for trauma survivors. All of us
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: can benefit from noticing what state we're in because once
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: we know, then we have more choice in how we
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: respond to it. And I think a key point here
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: is that the mind can really talk the body out
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: of these states, Like we can't tell our body to
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: stop feeling a certain way. This is why beating ourselves
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: up for feeling what we feel is really unhelpful and
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: it doesn't work. So when the nervous system reacts, first
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: the mind tries to find meaning in how we're feeling.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: So if your body is anxious, your mind's going to
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: try and find reason. It's like, you know, I can't cope,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: I shouldn't be feeling like this, or I don't belong
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: or these people are talking about me, And then if
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: your body shuts down, the story might be well, what's
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: the point. So I've got some tips through a polyvagal
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: informed lens that may help when you are recognizing which
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: part of the ladder that you're in. And once you're
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: able to recognize that, then you can regulate your nervous
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: system through some exercises. So of course, no surprises breathing,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: so inhaling for four seconds, exhaling for eight seconds, so
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: that long out breath is the really important one because
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: that signals safety to your nervous system. Box breathing is
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: another one, and it just depends. I find with my
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: clients some people who are in a highly heightened sort
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: of anxious state don't want to hold their breath, So
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: just experiment with this one. If it doesn't work, that's fine.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: You can do the four seconds in eight seconds out.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: But what box breathing is, if you haven't heard of it,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: that it's you take a deep breath in for four seconds,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: you hold your breath for four seconds, breathe out for
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: four seconds, and then hold for four seconds. And if
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: you want to try this with your kids, you can
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: make it really tangible by tracing that. They can trace
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: their hand, so as their finger moves up their thumb,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: they breathe in, and then as it moves down they hold,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: and then up the next finger, breathe in, down that finger, hold,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: and then you just keep going until you've reached your
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: little finger. So that's a kind of a more playful
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: it's playful and regulating.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: At the same time.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: And the next one is one of my favorites, and
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: this is StEB Dana talked about this in the workshop,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: and that is finding glimmers.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: And I used to call these moments of joy.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: So they're the opposite of the triggers. They're tiny moments
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: of safety and joy, things like sunlight, a smile, favorite song,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: spending time with the people that you're close to. You know.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: One of mine is that there's a cook borough that
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: sits up on a.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: Wire practically every day.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: I don't know if it's the same crooker borrough, but
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to say that it is, and it
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: just brings me so much joy. It's like, every time
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: I drive past this cooker, barro is perched there.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: So it's these little things that you can notice.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: And what they do is they bring you those kind
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: of like little oh sort of you know, you kind
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: of go, oh wow, isn't that nice? And it can
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: bring you back up the ladder to ventral grounding through
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: your senses. So look around. Name three things you can see,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: three sounds you can hear, three things you can touch,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: and that brings you back into the present and can
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: move you up that ladder. And gentle movements, especially if
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: you're in. Also, if you're in that shutdown mode, something
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: as simple as just a gentle stretch, a walk outside,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: or even just swaying side to side, just pressing your
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: feet into the ground, it can reconnect you. So this week,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: try and notice where you are on the ladder and
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: try not to judge yourself for there, because it's it
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: is so normal and natural for us to move up
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: and down this ladder and because their survival states, all
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: of them. But the more we can recognize and work
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: with them, the more time that we can spend sort
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: of moving towards that top rung. We're never ever going
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: to stay there because that's just not life, but we
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: can regular we're aware of where we are, then we
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: can use these regulating exercises and then move ourselves up
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: and that's where we can stay connected and curious and present.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: So your nervous isysdom isn't something to resist or fight,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: it's something to listen to and understand. And then when
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: your body and your mind can work together instead of
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: opposing each other, that's when life can really open up.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: So that is your mojo Monday for this week. I
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: hope it's been helpful and I will see you next week,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: see ya