This talk is meant to act as a companion to Mindful Grounding Five Senses Part One.
It can be helpful to understand a little bit more about polyvagal theory.
Vagus nerve stimulation practices have become very popular as grounding techniques over the past several years.
Deepening your understanding of polyvagal theory will allow you to practice even more effective grounding.
So what is grounding?
Grounding is any set of exercises that a person uses to help shift back into a calmer state so that they can access their wise mind.
Grounding is a method for helping someone regulate overwhelming emotions.
Ultimately we cannot directly control our emotional responses to situations,
But we can learn to regulate our emotional responses with practice.
Grounding is especially useful when we feel completely overwhelmed or are experiencing overwhelming emotions.
What is mindful grounding?
Mindful grounding is using mindfulness techniques to refocus the mind on the present moment and away from stressors someone is experiencing.
There are many ways to practice mindfulness.
There are open awareness mindfulness practices and closed awareness mindfulness practices.
In closed awareness mindfulness practices a person focuses their attention on something like the breath or another external stimulus and they try to aim their attention and bring the mind back anytime it wanders.
During open awareness mindfulness practices a person rather notices their surroundings more intently or observes their own thinking without trying to direct it.
It's as if they're lying down and they're watching clouds just pass through the sky.
The previous grounding meditation was a closed awareness mindfulness practice.
When do you need to use grounding?
The time to use grounding is when a person notices they are close to leaving their window of tolerance or are out of their window of tolerance.
The window of tolerance is the amount of stress a person can handle while still being able to work through their problems and accomplish their goals.
It is important to familiarize yourself with your own window of tolerance and what it is like when you begin to leave the window or when you're getting close to leaving the window so you can take action.
To better understand your own window of tolerance it's important to understand polyvagal theory.
There are three nervous system states that relate to your window of tolerance and polyvagal theory and these are the ventral vagal.
You can think of this as the connection as safety system.
We have the sympathetic nervous system.
This is our protection or fight or flight nervous system and we have the dorsal vagal and this is the freeze or overwhelm system.
In normal day-to-day life a person mostly moves through their connection safety system and their protection fight-or-flight system.
It can be very difficult if a person is entering their freeze overwhelm system multiple times per week.
Normally this system is only active during the most extreme and dangerous situations but a person can be thrown into this part of their nervous system more than what is normal if they have a hard time knowing what it's like to be in their safe connection system.
So let's go into a little more detail about these three nervous system states and how they relate to grounding.
So again our first one our connection safety system and in neuroscience terms this is our ventral vagal.
It can also be known as the rest and digest part of our nervous system.
This part of our nervous system is very much needed to help us rest,
Find restoration,
And connection with others.
This is the part targeted by the vagus nerve exercises.
When we are in this state we experience joy,
Curiosity,
Openness,
Laughter,
Relaxation,
And fun.
We feel safe,
We're able to be in the present moment,
And we can enjoy being in the presence of those that we are close to.
We may also find ourselves in this state after a very satisfying meal.
It's very important that a person can access this state.
Internally in this state our immune response is robust and we are more resistant to infections.
Oxytocin is also freely circulating making us more open to bonding with others without fear.
The next nervous system state is the protection or fight-or-flight and again in neuroscience terms this is the sympathetic nervous system.
This nervous system state becomes activated when we perceive something that is threatening or stressful.
At the low end of this state we may feel slight worry or concern.
As we move up the ladder we can experience most emotions such as anger and anxiety and as we approach the very top we may experience panic and rage.
When we're in this state our muscles start to tense,
The heart beats faster,
Adrenaline is released,
Blood clotting increases,
And our pupils start to widen.
The immune response weakens and our ability to relate to others also decreases in this state.
For some people it can be hard to recognize the difference between their safety connection state and their fight-or-flight protection state.
People who are traumatized sometimes have difficulty getting into the connection safety state of their nervous system.
They may be so accustomed to being in protection mode that it becomes their normal.
They may not realize how they're never truly relaxed.
The last state,
The freeze overwhelm system and in neuroscience terms known as the dorsal vagal.
This state becomes active when a person is entirely overwhelmed and they have trouble processing the amount of stress or danger they perceive.
When a person is unable to avoid dangerous or horrific situations the mind does the best it can to still protect the person.
In the face of incredible trauma the consciousness just kind of goes offline.
People can experience numbness,
Dissociation,
Hopelessness,
Amnesia,
Or depression.
Within the body muscle control decreases,
Facial expressions and eye contact fade,
Heart rate decreases,
And an increase of endorphins occurs to increase the pain threshold.
This is when a person has left their window of tolerance.
It is ideal to identify the signs during the protection stage that indicate a person is approaching the top of the window.
Once they leave the window it is more difficult to practice grounding,
But it can be done.
Everyone's warning signs for leaving the window will be different.
It's important for each person to familiarize their self with their own warning signs,
But emotions such as rage,
Panic,
Intense fear,
And feeling overwhelmed are common warning signs someone is leaving their window of tolerance.
Once a person has identified their warning signs they now know when to use mindful grounding.
So I hope today's talk has given you just a little bit more information about how and when to use grounding and also the importance of recognizing your individual warning signs that you're about to leave the window so that you can practice grounding and get back into your wise mind into a calm and relaxed state.
Thanks for joining me and I'll see you next time.
