To move beyond survival we have to build new pathways - by responding to fear in new ways to create new habits and belief systems. First we need the tools to calm our nervous system by landing in the moment and becoming embodied and then we need the tools that support our nervous system for new possibilities.
BE CURIOUS AND STUDY YOURSELF
Learn your physiological tells for an active nervous system. What happens when you start flooding? (Examples: heart racing, shortness of breath, itchy skin)
Learn your emotional tells for an active nervous system. What happens when you start flooding? (Examples: irritable, defensive, critical, withdrawn, disconnected)
Learn your thoughts pattern tells for an active nervous system. What happens when you are flooding? (Examples: self-defeating: saying I can’t or don’t know how or overly self-boosting: acting like you know or can do anything, when you don’t yet have the capacity)
FIND CALM - GET EMBODIED
Get into your body and the moment. Use breath. Physical Activity. Nature. Connect with a trusted loved one. Feel your feelings. Use visualization or meditation.
MOVE BEYOND SURVIVAL, move beyond the cycle of calm and activation. (This initially, requires support to see your blindspots.)
Get support to find a new perspective and widen the the tunnel vision to move past autopilot. Get support to create more options or possibilities so you can step outside familiar cycles.
Develop new strategies to stretch outside your comfort zone, learning to move through your fears or habits consciously. Get support to expose the blindspots that keep you in familiar cycles, so you have the opportunity to change the ways you adapted to things as a child when they no longer serve you as an adult.
Receive. Celebrate each inch you achieve. Surround yourself with a community of support.
CHANGE YOUR BASELINE
Disrupt your established habits and patterns consistently to create new pathways and adapt old belief systems, so you can respond in NEW ways. And, live in NEW ways with nervous system agility.