Disengaging the Nervous System’s Auto Response Message

Just as many of us have an out of office for a vacation or a meeting that automatically sends out a message via email or text, so too does the nervous system. Like the phone or computer system, we can forget to turn it off. In the case of the nervous system, we often do not understand the process for turning off its automatic response message.

Yet, there it sits waiting for a similar situation that matches the elements or characteristics of the original one that engages the flight (escape), fight (act) or freeze (stay stuck) process that is at the root of the body’s response.

To move forward, we must first understand what role the nervous system is playing from to turn off or change our response.

·        Are you answering from a wounded / engaged nervous system?

Often this is the quick, almost urgent response that relates to the wounded nervous system in which some level of false or true danger is perceived.

In some cases, breathing increases, anxiousness, or agitation surfaces, and

Being in one state or another changes the way you respond to an inquiry and can shift you or your nervous system from a reactive energy to a calm state:

·        Are you answering from a calm and at peace oriented nervous system?

The laid back and at peace nervous system takes a moment to breathe or may in essence step back to allow the self to enter a state of awareness and be able to see, receive, and hear messages from your body or intuition.

Entering the awareness state allows movement from the wounded nervous system’s danger alert system energy to bring you into a calm and neutral energy to address whatever stimuli you are facing.

o   Getting to this space of awareness takes getting beyond the brain’s 90-second automatic response system process that stimulates the flight, fight, or freeze response in the body. After this 90-second process, you have the choice to observe, feel, and allow the uncomfortable emotions or thoughts to pass through you like clouds on a blue-sky day or stay in the same energy or emotional loop that has been playing since whatever experience, event, or situation the body first encountered that created the response.

It is learning to disengage the automatic wounded response system that always wants to keep us safe. It can be a frenetic energy or even a fear-based one.

Stay tuned for part two of this blog next week!