How to build somatic and nervous system capacity

Your video makes me so emotional. I feel like crying. You make me feel like I'm not a freak and like there is hope. You make me feel like I am not the problem 😭😭😭

When I went through a difficult labor, the nurse told me "no big deep breaths when you feel a contraction coming, just focus on keeping your breathing completely even." This was perfect advice for me and helps me during stress.

WOW. This is unbelievable. There are so many videos that come up when you search for trauma or cptsd but I feel like this should be at the top. It's the missing piece. And your explanations and analogies are so helpful and clear. Thank you. You may have just saved my life after years of traditional therapy which helped ❤️

Breathwork made my symptoms much worse. I was doing wim hoff breathing and I actually noticed great benefits but it's like a shotgun blast to the limbic system and I think with a damaged limbic system you have to be very careful with breathwork. I can no longer do any kind of Rapid breathing and holding of breath because it literally is like a shotgun blast to the center of my brain

She is what we call an “anointed teacher”. She not only knows what she’s talking about and she’s not banking only on book smarts but has a good sense of how things should be done and how they work. Thank you for your contribution to those who need help.

I noticed you left out fawn response in your fight-flight-freeze response mode. Fawn response (people pleasing) is just as prevalent in old trauma pattern reacting (CPTSD) as the other three and should be addressed equally as symptoms to looks out for when healing the somatic nervous system.

As someone with an ACE test score that's a bit too high, this is super helpful because I don't often have a connection to present unless I focus. Self hypnosis has been super helpful, and it can look like a couple minutes of silence but it's definitely a resource that slows my heart rate and calms down those spikes of adrenaline and or cortisol so I can process what's going on.

So pleased I found you as I am a recently diagnosed Autistic and ADHD (@ 38 and I'm now 40) and have been looking into introspection etc as I have masked for so long that I am in constant fight or flight and most of all freeze. I really struggle to be in the present. It has taken me years to calm my mind enough to manage meditations etc. I think I may have a degree of alexithymia which I discovered recently. I have addiction problems that I'm struggling to quit as I panic when going cold Turkey as my mindset is not functioning properly. I constantly use breathing exercises during the day. I have breathing issues so it can be hard work! I often dissociate/daydream to manage things. In terms of safety, I dont currently have a safe place due to constant floods and mold in my flat that I believe I'm allergic to as I've been so ill since covid lockdown. I am totally stressed out as I am unable to move so I just have to deal with it! I've been dealing with it since 2012 and Im fed up of living out of boxes! Sorry for the rant!! Im isolated so I often rant online instead. I am looking forward to hearing more from you.Thank you for sharing x

"Build a resource list of healthy, helpful options" - this is very important advice for me, especially the "helpful" part. I'll work on that.

Cleaning Core Shame was our key to feeling freedomed Telling your self it’s just an echo leaving your head world Calms things immediately

I get most of these reactions nearly immediately, and nearly all at once!!! It’s so very overwhelming and ppl do not understand because they don’t experience it.

Thank you. It's such a gift having this spelled out so clearly, and by someone who clearly lives the practice.

Thanks for this. I noticed an old feeling, came into conscious awareness of it and then took a couple minutes to write about it in my journal. I then went outside and walked the cats! This video helped me realize how much capacity I have created. I began listening to your work here in 2016 I think it was. Thanks Irene!

Also stored love, joy. Its all energy

Ones own perspective can be trusted more if one starts honoring the cues of the inner child or feelings such as this felt unfair, i want you to speak up for me, dont let this person keep putting me down, etc. This is something that i do have to credit the top down approach for, teaching me to set boundaries by honoring my internal feelings , and becoming more connected to my authentic self. I grew up in a home with lots of gaslighting and where anger was only permitted to the abusive person. I had to supress my instinct of self-protection, and that left me walking around the world without this instinct of healthy - self- protection . The instinct was still there and i would get angry or feel a shame hit and then angry later if I felt disrespected. I was the family scapegoat so I had to learn that abuse was ok. I did become a lot more able to connect to my self-protective instinct after working with a person who was very good on boundaries themselves, and i joined support groups for survivors of childhood trauma. I learnt to talk to myself in more self-compassionate ways, and specially helpful that i had a healthy right to protest unfair treatment and connected to the internal parts of me, inner child , that can act as an authentic compass emotionally / relationally to what feels fair and what doesnt, and the whole navigating of it through communication skills, boundaries or assertion that is taught throughout the multiple trauma informed resources out there .

Found you today from Anna at crappy childhood Fairy. So glad she mentioned you!😮

Thanks for presenting so clearly the process by which somatic therapies work. I’ve been at this for 3 years and one of my biggest frustrations is figuring out how these practices actually lead to recovery. Related to this- how can we tell that we are making progress? With your sports analogy, it’s easy to measure increased athletic capacity- we can walk or run further, lift more weight, etc. Capacity to be with emotions is so much harder to measure. Plus, since our intuition is off, and we always have setbacks, it’s hard to see improvement. This is the right therapy for me, but it moves so slowly that it’s hard to stay the course.

I just discovered this channel and I'm really impressed. I was recently diagnosed with CPTSD after a serious breakdown that happened in 2020. Ever since my diagnosis, I have been looking for that kind of information, but even NHS ( UK ) information on a subject has been not very helpful. Thank you very much. It was amazingly helpful.

Thank you for this video. I think it would really help with coming OFF antidepressants, also. That, in itself, can be a traumatic experience.

Thank you so much for your input!! ❤️