Mapping Your Nervous System: A Somatic Journey

This practice helps you understand and recognise the four states of your autonomic nervous system: safety, activation, freeze, and shutdown.

Through gentle guidance, you'll learn to identify how each state feels in your unique body — creating the foundation for self-regulation and compassionate awareness.

You'll move from understanding to embodiment. This isn't information — it's experience.

Best in a comfortable position where you won't be disturbed.

What you'll experience: Educational introduction to nervous system states. Body scan to arrive in the present moment. Gentle exploration of each state in your body. Integration and grounding

Transcript

So welcome everyone and thank you for listening.

So today we're going to do something which I think is one of the most useful things that you can learn for your well-being.

We are going to map your nervous system states.

Now before you click away thinking this is another anatomy lesson,

Just stay with me because this is not about memorizing diagrams or maybe impressing people with your knowledge of the vagus nerve,

Although you could.

But seriously understanding your nervous system states is like being handed a map when you've been wandering around lost for years and suddenly things start to make sense.

Why you snapped at your partner last Tuesday?

Why you felt completely frozen when your boss asked for your opinion in that meeting?

Why some days you feel like you could conquer the world and other days getting out of bed feels like climbing the Everest?

Now it's not because you're broken,

It's not because there's something wrong with you.

It's because your nervous system,

This incredibly intelligent ancient system inside you,

Is doing exactly what it's designed to do.

It is just trying to keep you safe.

But the problem is sometimes it gets overprotective.

Like a friend who's brilliant in a crisis but maybe doesn't need to treat every minor inconvenience like an emergency.

So let me introduce you to what I call your internal weather system.

Now your nervous system essentially moves through four main states and think of them like weather patterns.

Some are sunny,

Some are stormy and some are that weird grey foggy stuff where you can't quite see where you're going.

So the first state,

The ventral vagal or your sunshine state if you want to call it.

So this is your home base,

Your happy place.

When you're in ventral vagal you feel safe,

Connected and present.

You can think clearly,

You can engage with people and you might even find yourself laughing at terrible jokes.

Now in this state your heart rate is steady,

Your breathing is relaxed and you feel like yourself.

The version of yourself that can handle things,

That can have difficult conversations without wanting to run away or throw something.

Now here's the thing,

We are not designed to live in this state 24-7 because life happens,

Stressors come and that's normal.

But ideally we want this to be our home base that no matter what is going on in our life we somehow return to this place.

Now the second state is the sympathetic activation and let's call this the storm.

Now this is your fight or flight system kicking in.

This state gets a bad reputation but it's actually incredibly useful.

If you're about to be hit by a bus you want this system to activate immediately.

You don't want to stand there thinking should I move and let me consider my options.

You want to jump out of the way and you want to do it fast.

Now the problem comes when this state activates for things that are not life-threatening like emails or traffic or maybe for some of you your mother-in- comments about your cooking.

So when you're in sympathetic activation your heart races,

Your breathing gets shallow,

You might feel restless,

Agitated like you need to do something,

You need to do something now.

Some people get snappy,

Some people can't sit still,

Some people suddenly feel very strongly about reorganizing their entire kitchen at 11 p.

M.

The energy is up and out and your body is mobilized for action with or without there being any need for that activation or energy in that moment.

So this third state is called the freeze or the weather system says it's the blizzard.

Now this one is interesting and it often gets overlooked.

Freeze is what happens when your system says the threat is here but I can't fight it and I can't run from it so I'm just going to stop.

You might have experienced this as that moment when someone says something hurtful and you go blank.

You can't think of what to say,

You're frozen or that feeling when you're so overwhelmed by your to-do list that you just sit there staring at everything but doing nothing.

Freeze is actually a combination of high sympathetic activation and dorsal vagal shutdown happening at the same time.

Now in non-clinical terms it's like pressing the accelerator and the brake at the same time.

There's a lot of energy but it's trapped.

So people in freeze often feel stuck,

Rigid and unable to move forward.

They might hold their breath without realizing it and there's this sense of being suspended that they feel.

The fourth state is the dorsal vagal shutdown or the fog.

Now this is the oldest part of your autonomic nervous system.

We share it with reptiles actually.

This is our last-ditch survival response when fight and flight are not options.

When you drop into dorsal vagal shutdown everything slows down.

You might feel disconnected,

Numb,

Hopeless or exhausted.

Some people describe it as a feeling like they're watching their life through a window.

This state served our ancestors well when they were literally being eaten by predators.

Playing dead is a survival strategy also.

But in modern life we are not being chased by lions.

We are dealing with chronic stress,

Overwhelming responsibilities and the constant ping of notifications and our ancient system doesn't know the difference.

People in dorsal vagal often struggle to get things done.

They feel disconnected from others and they may appear flat or withdrawn.

So it's not laziness,

It's a survival state.

Now here is where it gets exciting and this is the bit I really want you to take away from today.

That when you recognize which state you are in,

You've already taken the first step towards regulation.

You've moved now all of a sudden from being lost in the weather to being the person that can regulate.

So instead of I am anxious what's wrong with me,

You can now say oh I'm just in a sympathetic activation.

My system is trying to protect me from something it perceives as a threat.

Instead of saying I am lazy,

I am useless,

Why can't I get things done?

I can now recognize I think I have dropped into dorsal vagal.

My system has gone into conservation mode and this shift from judgment to curiosity,

From self-criticism to self-understanding is enormous and this is the foundation of everything we do in somatic healing,

Somatic work.

Now here's the truth,

You can't shame your nervous system into regulation.

You can't criticize yourself into feeling safe but you can learn to work with your system,

Gently guiding it back home.

Now in my practice as a holistic therapist,

I have seen time and again that we can't think our way out of dysregulation.

So if you've ever tried to just calm down when you're actually anxious,

You probably know what I mean,

It doesn't work and that's because these states live in the body,

They're physiological.

So we need to speak the body in its own language,

Through breath,

Through movement and through sensation.

In a moment I'm going to guide you through a journey where we'll actually travel through these states together.

We learn to recognize the felt sense of each one in your body because it's different for everybody.

Some people feel anxiety in their chest,

Some feel it in their stomach,

Some feel it as heat,

Some today we are going to start learning it.

Now before we start the journey,

The meditation,

I want to say something important that there's no right or wrong way to experience this.

Whatever comes up for you is valid,

You might feel a lot,

You might feel nothing,

You might fall asleep,

All of that is okay.

Your system knows what it needs,

If at any point it feels too intense,

I want you to know that you're in control,

You can open your eyes,

Wiggle your toes and look around the room,

You can come back to the here and now whenever you need to,

This is a safe space and you're in charge.

So now just finding yourself a comfortable position,

Sitting up,

Lying down,

Whatever allows you to feel supported and be receptive works.

You can do this eyes open,

Eyes closed,

Just receive the words and see how you feel with them.

Now if you prefer starting this moment,

You can either close your eyes,

Soften your gaze or keep them open.

Safety,

Whatever is safety for you,

Just take a moment now to notice how your body is being held right now.

Notice the points of contact,

Where do you meet the chair,

Where do you meet the floor,

Where do you meet the bed.

Whatever is supporting you right now and just for now,

There's nothing to fix,

Nothing to change,

Nothing to figure out.

You're simply here,

Be here,

Present and breathing.

Take three deep breaths with me now,

In through the nose and out through the mouth with a gentle sigh and do this again,

Breathing in and releasing and we'll do this one more time,

Filling in the lungs,

Pause and now you can let go.

Now let your breathing return to its natural rhythm,

You don't need to control it,

Just watch and let it be.

We are now going to do a gentle scan through your body,

Not to change anything but simply to notice and to map what's here right now.

Begin with your feet now,

Can you sense them?

Can you sense your feet right now?

Notice if there's warmth or coolness,

Heaviness or lightness,

Tingling or numbness,

Just notice.

Moving up now to your legs,

To your thighs and to your hips,

Is there tension held there,

Softness there?

What does this area want you to know right now?

And now your belly,

This is often where we hold our emotions,

Notice if there's a tightness,

A churning,

A sense of openness or maybe you can't feel much at all and that's okay too.

Let's go now to the chest,

The area around your heart,

Is there expansion there,

Constriction there and what's the quality of your breath in this space?

Your shoulders,

Your neck and your jaw,

These areas often carry the weight of your stress,

Not judging it,

Just noticing it.

If there is a sensation,

You don't have to release it right now,

Just acknowledge it,

I see you.

And finally now your face,

Your forehead,

The tiny muscles around your eyes,

Let them soften if they want to and if they don't want to,

That's okay too.

Now I would like you to bring to mind a moment when you felt truly safe,

Truly at ease.

It might be a memory,

A place,

A person,

An animal or simply a moment of peace.

Don't work too hard to find it,

Let it come to you and if nothing specific comes,

You can simply imagine what safety might feel like and as you hold this in your awareness,

Just notice what happens in your body,

Where do you feel the sense of safety and what sensations are present.

Maybe there's a settling in your belly,

Maybe there's a softening in your shoulders,

Maybe there's a warmth in your chest,

Perhaps your breath has deepened,

Your jaw has unclenched.

This safe,

Warm,

Dropped in state,

This is your ventral vagal state.

This is what home feels like in your body and take a moment to really absorb this,

Really memorize this so you can recognize it again.

We'll just stay here for a few seconds with my ventral vagal state,

With my home state,

With my safe state.

Now gently,

Slowly,

Knowing that you are safe,

I'd like you to bring to mind a time when you felt stressed or anxious.

Nothing too overwhelming,

Maybe a 3 or a 4 out of 10.

Maybe a deadline,

Maybe a difficult conversation,

Maybe a moment of rushing,

Maybe a small argument you had.

Just touch the edge of this memory for me and notice what happens in your body.

Where do you feel this activation?

Is your heart beating a little bit faster?

Has your breath become more shallow?

Is there heat,

Tension or restlessness?

Notice if there's a noise to do something,

To move,

To fix,

To escape.

And this feeling in my body is my sympathetic nervous system.

This is mobilization happening in real time.

There's nothing wrong with it,

This is just information.

Tight stomach,

Shallow breath,

Anxiety.

Now let that memory go.

Take a breath and slowly bring back that feeling of safety we visited before.

Slowly bring back the sunshine state once again,

Just by breathing.

Let your system return to rest,

Allow that to happen.

Now for this one,

Remember we are only doing this exercise so we can understand our own nervous system states.

If it feels okay for you right now,

I'd like you to recall a time when you felt overwhelmed to the point of shutting down.

Disconnection,

Numbness,

Going through the motions feeling.

Nothing too intense,

Just to give you a gentle taste of this state.

What do you notice?

Now with this or my words may bring up that state.

Is there a heaviness?

Is there a desire to curl up?

Does the world seem far away?

Is it much harder to feel your body now?

Do you feel like a rock sitting there,

Can't move?

Now this is your dorsal vagal state.

This is your system's way of conserving energy when things feel like too much.

It's not failure,

It's protection.

Now because we were only going to touch the edge of this state,

We are gently going to let this activation go.

Take a deep breath once again,

Move your fingers,

Move your toes.

Feel the support beneath you now.

Return to the sense of safety and return to the sense of home.

As long as you need feet on the floor,

Hips on the chair,

Feeling safe,

Feeling calm,

Back to my sunshine state.

You've just done something powerful today.

You've mapped,

Experienced your nervous system.

You've learned how your body speaks to you and how it shows you when you are safe or when you're activated or when you're shut down.

Now remember,

This awareness is the first step towards choice.

The words being able to say,

Oh I recognize this,

I'm in sympathetic activation.

What does my system need now to feel safe?

Maybe it just needs movement,

Maybe it just needs breath,

Maybe it needs connection with another person or time in nature or simply for you to say,

I see you,

I'm here and we are okay.

Now as we prepare to close,

I want you to place one hand on your heart and one hand on your belly.

Which hand goes where doesn't matter.

This simple gesture activates the social engagement system.

It tells your nervous system,

Without you doing anything,

You are held,

You are safe and you belong.

Just feel the power of these words now with your hands on your chest and your heart.

You're held,

You are safe and you belong.

And take three more breaths for me here,

Filling yourself with this sense of being home.

And when you're ready,

You can bring your awareness back to the room.

If your eyes were closed,

You can open them.

Notice the sounds around you,

The temperature of the air,

The feeling of your body where it meets the surface beneath you.

Gently move your fingers and your toes,

Maybe roll your shoulders and stretch if that feels good.

And in your own time,

Start to take in the space around you now.

So thank you for joining me on this journey today.

I hope this practice has given you some useful tools,

Possibly a new way of understanding yourself and your reactions.

Every time you pause to notice what state you're in,

You're building your capacity for self-regulation.

You're laying down new neural pathways and you're quite literally changing yourself on a cellular level,

One breath at a time.

Be patient with yourself,

Be curious with yourself.

And most importantly,

Be kind.

Your nervous system is doing its best to keep you safe.

Now you're just teaching it that it doesn't have to work quite so hard to do that.

So until next time,

Take good care of yourself.

And remember,

You're not broken,

You're just learning a new language.

Thank you very much for joining me today and namaste.