The Tone of an Individual’s Nervous System

When you think of the people in your life, can you think of a tone that accompanies their presence?  When you are in public—at a grocery store, a ball game, a bank, etc., and have encounters with people, can you think of interactions in which you could feel the tone in which someone resonates?  You probably have been aware of these tones many times throughout your life, or if you stop to think about them, you can most likely identify a feeling that someone leaves you with.  This has much to do with someone’s phasic resonance.  When we are measuring the parameters of your nervous system (the tension in the bones and ligaments, the neural tension, the active tension in the muscles, as well as where your respiration moves in your body and where it doesn’t), we are measuring for the phase or tone of the nervous system.  Measurements lead us to contact your spine in very specific areas to access the neurological patterning, dissipate tension, increase mind-body awareness, and facilitate the healing process.  Where your nervous system is storing that tension and the degree of flexibility within that pattern determines how strongly someone resonates within that tone or phase. 

The more stress we have accumulated within our nervous system and the degree of “stuckness” within specific areas determines our level of adaptability.  Maybe due to life experiences and coping strategies, someone consistently stored tension in their upper back.  If that tension was never released and continued to build as the individual experienced stressors, the degree of adaptability continues to decrease.  This creates a very strong tone in someone’s nervous system, and because the spine affects our emotional patterns on a biochemical level, the range of emotion becomes decreased and the perspective experienced becomes narrowed.  Each of the major phases, stores tension in very specific areas of the spine and affects perspective and emotional range in different ways.  
Again, when there is high tension and lack of adaptability, these are how the 5 major phases (there are many variations of these) affect perspective.

Phase 1: When the sacrum/pelvis is the primary area of spinal cord tension, and there is a corresponding tension in the mid-spine, this individual usually resonates with a strong tone of viewing current life events and situations through the lens of the past.  Past trauma(s) has decreased safety in the nervous system and caused an over-reliance of this past perspective to create safety in current situations.

Phase 2:  Phase 2 can be expressed as increased tension at C1 and/or C5.  When C1 is the primary area of increased tension, there is an underlying fear that there will never be enough time, enough energy, enough space… usually a sense of overwhelm of how future events will unfold dominates someone’s existence.  When C5 is the primary areas of tension, there is also an underlying fear that overwhelms the individual’s physiology, but instead of being expressed as overwhelm, it is most often expressed as rage.

Phase 3: Phase 3 is the dominant phase when the primary area of tension exists in the pelvis.  Phase 3 carries a perspective of not knowing what someone really wants or who they really are because of all of the “shoulds” within their life (in reference to the specific roles of their lives –career, relationships, home, etc.).  Phase 3 can also be temporarily present when someone is going through major life transitions within their roles in life.

Phase 4: Phase 4 is when the majority of the tension is stored in the mid-cervical spine (C2-C4).  Tension is often experienced in the mid-back. Phase 4 has much to do with disconnecting the brain-body, letting thoughts disconnect the awareness of emotions, and has to do with the individual trying to gain a sense of control.  The go-to emotion experienced in this phase is often anger.  

Phase 5: Phase 5 tension patterns can involve both the top and bottom of the spine (where the dura of the spine attaches to the bony-part of the spine): C2/sacrum or C5/coccyx.  The C2/sacrum pattern presents as a laterally bending tension to the spine or scoliosis.  The predominant perspective of C2/sacrum has to do with a lack of empowerment and giving someone’s personal power over to a different authority.  There is often a thought process of, “things will always be this way,” or “this is just the way it is.”  C5/coccyx patterns are more often a flexion-based pattern, pulling the spine and head carriage forward while the pelvis and coccyx pull under (think of a dog with its tail between its legs).  C5/coccyx perspectives have to do with feeling a victim to life and/or circumstances.  There have often been major emotional betrayals; often what the individual thought should happen was very different than what was experienced.

Realize that the descriptions of these phases are when there are high levels of tension and defense/stress physiology in someone’s system.  As we go through the process of unwinding the tension and defense physiology through NSA adjustments, increasing the breath through the spine, shifting neurological patterns, and creating movement and energy towards the experience of the somatopsychic wave, there is a level of coherence and adaptability that develops.  With this, there is flexibility in thinking and perspective.  While the description of these phases may seem negative, realize that it is the lack of adaptability within the nervous system that creates this.

By gaining increased strategies through NSA and Somato-Respiratory Integration (SRI), the adaptability that develops creates both physical and emotional freedom.  The experience of a phase or tone will look completely different and express its gifts……stay tuned!  Next month we will discuss the unwinding of a phase with increased neurological strategies/Levels of NSA care!

Remember, Create Health by Choice, Not by Chance.