I am a big fan of simplicity in healing. The brain is wildly complex and we do not understand even a tiny fraction of its true capabilities yet, but we know enough now in modern neuroscience, psychoneuroimmunology (how mind and body impact health), interpersonal neurobiology (how the brain develops in response to our social environment), and psychology, to know that simple practices have an absolutely profound effect on our brain, entire central nervous system and thus our health.
These skills should be passed down in our villages and tribes from elders to children. Instead we have lost a lot of our practices that align us with our health and with nature herself. We have TV, the news, Netflix, stimulation, constant soothing with food and other substances, sex, porn, and constant unrelenting stress from a traumatised and traumatising society.
The return to our natural homeostasis of health can and does happen, no matter how stuck our nervous system is in a chronic stress response. Often it takes a catalyst, like illness or tremendous difficulty for us to start paying attention to our physical, emotional and spiritual health and to nourish it.
Modern medicine is in the business of treating symptoms and sickness, more than it is about building health. So mind-body skills help us compliment the conventional medical system with a more self empowered approach to building our own well-being.
I am very grateful to be able to teach people the skills they need to self regulate, self care, to get to know themselves, to process their pain, and to feel connected to themselves and the world. These do not guarantee an easy life. They instead provide a stress buffer and give resilience for the natural truth of life; which is that we will all suffer in different ways and need to be able to come to peace with that and meet it with resource and efficacy when it happens. Suffering, just like joy, will come and go. Our work is to feel resourced enough to meet the moment, whatever it brings.
So here in a simple but lovely nutshell - is what we work to change in this practice. The emergency response, the cell danger response, the stress response; whatever you want to call it is what we are working with. This state of survival (that for so many is over activated in childhood as an intelligent adaption but that got stuck) needs to be taught kindly and consistently with time, support and space; that it is over protecting us and that we have other ways to work with the moment other than the imprinted and limited responses of fight, flight, freeze or fawn.
This is done through both top down skill teaching meaning using the mind to influence our health(top down approaches) because what we think, believe and our personality traits have a tremendous impact on how our cells function, our immune system and our entire body. We also work through the body (bottom up) approaches because trauma, shock and stress patterns are held in our body through the nervous system.
This work seeks to understand what is blocking the natural healing response switching back on (our parasympethic response of rest and repair) and gently remove that block. Chronic just means incomplete healing - it is not an indication of outcome. So what is it that stops each unique body from going into a healing state? Your body knows how to heal but it must come out of a stressed state to do so.
Each nervous system and person is unique so this practice really is primarily one of self inquiry, which makes it deeply empowering.
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