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Top-Down Thoughts to Change Your State / ep18 Show Notes

Updated: Mar 27, 2020

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To learn more about ways to change your state and get unstuck from trauma, I highly recommend Healing Trauma and Waking the Tiger by Peter Levine.



TOP DOWN THOUGHTS TO CLIMB THE POLYVAGAL LADDER

Top down means from the brain to the body

  • 80% of fibers are from body to the brain

Be curious, not judgmental

  • The judgments are serving to keep you in your state

  • “I’m worthless” is a reflection of your state and also keeps you there

Observe, don’t evaluate

  • Notice these thoughts that come in and out of your mind

Meditation apps can help

  • Headspace

  • Calm

  • Aura

  • Meditation Studio

  • Meditations on youtube

Accept where you are at

  • Not the state that you want to be in, but what state you are actually in

  • You will get to where you need to be

  • Of course you want the pain to go away, but it’s not something that can be rushed

  • Actively fighting against it will actually make it worse

Accept that you are normal

  • This is all physiological stuff in response to whatever you have been through

  • Stories get piled on, plus judgments and beliefs and other thoughts

  • Anyone in your situation would have responded the same way

Accept that everyone is different

  • This isn’t an issue of weakness

  • It’s an issue of being in states of defense

  • We all react differently in terms of intensity or length of being in different states

  • Comparing yourself to other people will only serve to perpetuate your stories and keep you stuck longer

Accept that you did the best that you could

  • In that moment

  • With the skill set that you had available at that time

Accept that you are doing the best that you can

  • In this moment

  • With the skill set that you have available to you now

  • You are continuously building your skill set, even now

New Stories to take on:

  • You’re stuck, not broken

  • There was a real threat, or there is

The state is there for a reason

  • You got stuck, just like any of us could have or are

“How do I heal?” “How do I fix it?”

  • Your vagus nerve is probably fine, that’s not the issue

  • Just the conduit

  • The feedback loop is the problem

  • Your wiring is probably fine

  • Once you neurocept safety, you will get access to your safe/social state and the behaviors associated with it

You survived, you weren’t defeated

  • You. Survived.

  • If a gazelle is tackled by a cheetah, shuts down and then escapes… did they survive or were they defeated?




Music & Sounds by Benjo Beats - https://soundcloud.com/benjobeats

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