As The Phase Gains Strategies and Adaptability: The Tone of an Individual’s Nervous System

Last month we discussed the phases or patterns that the nervous system can shift into during stressful times.  The more these patterns are used, the more they become the primary tone, tension, and shape of someone’s nervous system.  They determine where tension is stored and the longer that tension exists, the more “stuck” the body becomes in this position.  As an individual moves through NSA care, we unwind this tension, increase respiration throughout the body, enhance brain-body connection, and engage the frontal cortex of the brain to create an awareness of the tension, how it stored, and what may be contributing to it (life decisions, postures, choices, old injuries, stressors, etc.).  This is the transition between Level 1 and Level 2 of care.  When the nervous system has decreased significant levels of tension and becomes sensitized at the site of the dural attachments (sacrum/pelvis and cervical spine) of the spinal cord to the bony spine, a brain-body wave, called the Somatopsychic Wave will develop in order to dissipate tension and reorganize how the nervous system is functioning.

As this process is happening, a deep brain-body awareness is developing as well as a neurological flexibility that creates an adaptability and increased range of motion in the phase or patterning.  The increased breath, balance, and movement, as well as decreased tension in the spine create ease, physical, and emotional flexibility.  What was the stuck, inflexible, or go-to emotional state of the phase, becomes an aspect of the phase rather than the resounding tone of the phase.  Let me give you some examples:

1. Phase 1: What once felt like a deep stuck-ness in past experiences in which almost every current life experience was viewed through the perspective of past trauma/stressors, becomes an ability and an awareness to notice when one is not present, to become present, and to stay present.
2. Phase 2: What felt like an overwhelming fear in the nervous system, either in regard to time and uncertainty about how future events will unfold (C1), or fear expressed as rage (C5), becomes the ability to find peace in the body, peace in emotions, and to make decisions out of growth versus fear.
3. Phase 3: What felt like “shoulds” and resignation reigning over consciousness and affecting decisions, sense of self, and roles in life, instead becomes peace, confidence, and a deep sense of wellbeing and certainty about sense of identity and how an individual’s roles/identities in life should be expressed and fulfilled.  This can lead to feeling a feeling of wholeness.
4. Phase 4: What felt like living in a place of an overactive mind and overactive thinking, can become an individual with a deep ability to connect to and trust feelings, find an increased range of emotion, and a deep sense of the present moment.
5. Phase 5: What once felt like giving all authority to a cause, mission, or organization (C2/sacrum pattern) often creating an overwhelming sense of “this is just the way it is” instead develops a sense of creative possibility as well as the ability to expand thinking and consciousness.  Instead of feeling like a victim to circumstances (C5/coccyx), one can sense and find their gifts, and provide incredible resources to the world.

Developing more peace and strategies within the nervous system does not mean that you will become a new person with a new personality, but it does mean that you have an increased awareness about why you are making certain choices in your life, if those choices are contributing to growth and creating the life you want, and the awareness of how those choices are affecting your body.  Increased awareness with increased capacity, created by neurological strategies and frontal cortex engagement, provides space to make different choices in what used to be automatic behaviors.  This creates ease in the process of changing habits.  In the research (electrical engineering applications used to measure neurobiology), this looks like more coherence, increased complexity of nerve signaling patterns, and a reorganization of the neurology (check out the NSA research of the month on “The Network Spinal Analysis Wave as a Central Pattern Generator”).  Your brain is literally able to make new connections, creating an increased adaptability and resiliency to life (look for more information about our upcoming class on Reorganizational Healing later this fall).  This leads to increased sense of wellbeing, greater ability to handle stress, fewer physical symptoms, increased emotional health, and improved self-esteem.  (If you are interested in reading this research, ask our team for a copy of, “Assessment of Network Spinal Analysis in retrospective and prospective research design formats using a survey of Self-Reported Health and Wellness.”

Remember, to assist the process when you are on the table: breathe, listen to your body, stretch or move if you feel the urge to, and AGAIN: LISTEN TO YOUR BODY—it’s that important.  As doctors practicing NSA, we are your facilitators, but you have a key role in the process of healing.

Remember, Create Health by Choice, not by Chance.