My favourite Polyvagal suggestions, links, podcasts, videos and reading recommendations

Written By Natasha Wilson
 

As requested… Here are my favourite ways of helping reengage the ventral vagal nerve. I’ll add to them now and then.

Please click here to see the video and/or the notes I made about combining IFS and polyvagal theory for the Stroud IFS drop in in 2023. https://www.stroudtherapy.com/news/polyvagalandifs

Below is a longer version put together over the years and posted in 2022

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First a bit about Polyvagal and then suggestions I’ve collected together follow - look for the leaves 🍃 🌿..

This is ‘bottom up’ support for you, to help you regulate your autonomic nervous system, to help you out of flight fight freeze flop. These help you find more safety, resilience and possibilities for connection within yourselves ... by utilising the nervous system, using Polyvagal theory. If you’d like to know more about Polyvagal, Seth Porges Nerd night presentation is good. https://youtu.be/br8-qebjIgs

The autonomic nervous system not only controls our vital body functions but also is at the heart of our daily experience. It influences how we live, love, and work; it guides the way we move through the world. With the development of Polyvagal Theory, Stephen Porges reconceptualized how the vagus nerve works. He identified a ventral vagal branch that supports regulation and a dorsal vagal branch that triggers immobilization and disconnection. This updated understanding of the autonomic nervous system outlines three response pathways: sympathetic “fight and flight," dorsal "shut down and collapse," and ventral regulation. When we are anchored in regulation, we move. through our days with a sense of safety and successfully meet the ordinary challenges of life.

Ventral “Green”, at the top of the autonomic hierarchy, is the system of connection. The ventral state is essential for health and well-being. In this state we feel grounded, organized, and ready to meet the day. Life feels manageable-we see options, have hope, and hear new stories. We connect to ourselves, to others, to the world around us, and to spirit. We are regulated and ready to engage.

Sympathetic, “amber” down one step on the hierarchy, is a system of mobilization. In its everyday function, it helps regulate heart and breath rhythms and brings us energy to move through the day. In its survival role, it activates pathways of fight and flight and pulls us into anger and anxiety.

Dorsal is at the bottom of the hierarchy. In its everyday role itregulates digestion and brings nutrients to nourish us. When active in a survival role, it becomes a system of shutdown. We feel drained, without enough energy to engage with the world. We collapse, disconnect, and disappear.

(Above directly quoted from Deb Dana’s Polyvagal Card deck)

These words are an amalgamation between Deb Dana’s work and IFS…

Polyvagal is a platform that sits underneath all models of therapy, a way of understanding the biology that work in ourselves  Polyvagal Theory gives us a roadmap to be able to tune into those conversations and have explicit communication, nervous system to nervous system, bringing flexibility back to the nervous system:  when I get pulled out of Self, thriving, I have pathways to find my way home – to find connection to Self. Know when you've been pulled into a part or hijacked by a part and be able to find enough connection to Self to come back to that place of regulation so that you can be with a part, not hijacked by it. 3 important things about polyvagal:

1          it's a hierarchy.   Both biologically and historically. The dorsal vagal system, the oldest, is part of the parasympathetic system.  It immobilises the body in response to life threatening situations by shutting down, it equates to area around the digestive system.  The sympathetic, which is comparatively newer mobiles the body to threat by activating the fight flight, down the spine  Ventral (social regulation) relates to ears, cheeks, brain stem, heart and lungs.  When we experience a threat, we change how we breathe… We can get a clearer picture by thinking of an animal… Breathing fast, shallow.. or hold… animals will even faint so the scavenger loses interest.  Once safe the animal will release stress through shaking and breathing.  We humans have forgotten to do this.. and we stay caught for extended periods, especially in trauma.. we often don’t process so leads to physical tension and restricted breathing.

Have a listen to Seth Porges Nerd Night talk.   Sympathetic's job is to help us come back to ventral, so to help us get back into some self but also to keep us out of dorsal. That's the sympathetic system's job, keep us out of dorsal because dorsal (except Dorsal Rest) can be a dangerous place, biologically, for us, everything slows down, so your managers that live in sympathetic, their job, is to make sure the hopelessness – or exile story doesn't come up and be heard in the system.

2          Neuroception describes the way the nervous system perceives safety and danger.. micromoments … through three ways of listening. It listens inside to your bodily experience, it listens outside in the environment, and it listens between nervous systems of others.  We bring perception to neuroception, and we bring the implicit into explicit awareness. If it just stays implicit, it just keeps running the show in the background.

3          co-regulation is a biological imperative, which means you don't survive without enough experiences of co-regulation. We are born in relationship we get hurt in relationship and we heal in relationship (Harville Hendrix).  And I think for many of us, safe co-regulation is a missing experience. We need others with us at the beginning of healing. It's nervous system-to nervous system connection that is often the first step towards reshaping a system. Our vagus nerve needs the safe/calm influence of human and/or animal nervous systems to change tone. Many experts are so focused on offering solutions that can be easily done alone that they neglect the bio-social aspects of vagus nerve tone.  We need these common, everyday experiences of being in connection with another human being in a safe and regulated way. Just being in that over and over and over, begins to reshape their system because they're getting an experience, not simply an exile, but their entire system is getting that experience that it missed, and so that happens.  Rebuilding vagal tone, remyelinating … can be a couple of years. When I'm moving through the world, I am influencing other nervous systems simply by moving through the world. So, when I can recognize that, when I can be aware of that, I can then send out the cues of safety that welcome others to feel safe, too.  We need to be in the presence of another warm mammal, present, mirroring etc.  Collective Self Energy, co regulation in ventral vagal, safety.. whatever… important, crucial, missing in our legacy burdened society.  We can change that…

4          The vagal brake, is a biological circuit that runs from your brain stem to your heart and regulates your heartbeat. How fast or slow your heart rate is, you can influence it.  Your vagal brake can relax and allow you to feel some of that energy that we need, but stays on so that you're still within the regulating energy or ventral. It's when the vagal brake totally goes away that you drop into sympathetic.  And there the energy is not energy that fills you, or fuels you, or nourishes you in any way. It's simply survival energy. People become dangerous, the world is unsafe and you feel endangered.

So..SELF…  when I am anchored in ventral, I'm anchored in that biological state that allows me to feel safe in the world or safe enough in the world and connect. And connection through biology I can connect to myself, to all my parts. So internal connections and the world around me and connecting to spirit.  

It's probably not such a one-to-one correlation Self and Vental Vagal. Certainly, Self is an emergent quality of ventral though.

in sympathetic, certainly the active firefighters, the firefighters that use energy to move are in sympathetic, but the firefighters that take us into numbing or dissociation or disappearing are dorsal firefighters. Your exiles, most likely, live in dorsal because shame has been mapped to dorsal and exiles usually carry shame. The managers that work so hard to prevent us from connecting to those exiles are probably sympathetically mobilized. I think we also have managers that work in service of Self that live in ventral, Self like parts.   

So … Whats this got to do with me? Understanding your nervous system can change the way you think of these states in yourself, there can be less self judgement and more compassion.  By recognising the state you’re in a given moment and understanding how you can shift between states, you can change your state so you can feel connected and safer more of the time.  You can feel less hopeless when you’re in dorsal as you know ways to help you move out of it.  You can also more easily enlist the help of others, as you’ll know we need connection with others to feel safe. Accessing the vagal nerve (Self is fairly psychophysiology speaking, connected with the vagal nerve, both the ventral vagal and the dorsal vagal, parasympathetic system), putting on the vagal break and connecting with heart energy, and increasing vagal tone is vital for trauma recovery, and for (my activisty part keeps saying) collective healing and thriving in our world.  We need each other.  We’re biologically wired for connection, we were born in relationship, wounded in relationship and we can heal in relationship (Harville Hendrix).  These things are all connected and work in a beautiful way together.

We can use this PVT platform to help us find our way back to Ventral, to help us find Self, to help your body thrive…  Lets use our vagal brakes. Lets increase our vagal tone (which allows us to come back to ventral easier). Some of this can be done with an internal secure attachment using IFS and some of it can be consciously finding our way on our own

First of all… Doing this work – either IFS, checking in with our nervous system and trying to activate the ventral vagal nerve

2   Feeling into and Moving between states… Noticing where you are on the polyvagal ladder,  can you feel into it.  Here’s a quick exercise.  Please only just gently feel into it.  First .. remember a time when you felt a sense of activation.. just enough into mind and body to get a flavour, please not too much.  For ventral, you can bring the full experience..  So sympathetic first… train station…The world is...  I am…  dorsal… feeling very low… the world is… I am…   Ventral  the world is…. I am… always end in ventral. 

So … to the present or later… If you’re noticing you’re activated or noticing youre disconnected.  Of course, number one is saying hi to those parts of you.  Check in, hello everyone, turning towards your parts, have a meeting. See what they’re trying to say… ALSO:

If we’re sympathetically activated, you can check – is this feeling nourishing and bringing good energy, excitement, enthusiasm.. this is where my creativity goes wild and I get amazing amounts done.  Its not an issue…. (so there’s sympathetic with ventral here… which brings in play).  Or is there excess, is it bringing with it symptoms… anxiety, insomnia, can’t sit still.    Talk to your parts, call a meeting… and when it feels right…you might consider some organised movement - such a good thing.  Bike rides, swimming, walking, especially in nature… dancing, clean that oven.. On your own… or even better with someone else. Co regulation.  Then slowly put on the vagal brake and find some rest in parasympathetic.

If your energy is down regulated, seeking safety in disconnect, again check – is this feeling like rest, nourishing.. then this might not be an issue, enjoy that rest. So there’s Ventral and Dorsal here, which brings in restoration, rejuvenation, and healing.  We need times to reset, comfort food, time and space alone, listening to music, audiobooks, watching Netflix, reading, colouring, meditation, visualizations, breathwork, yin or restorative yoga, some of us need sensory defenses - shades drawn, headphones on etc  doing “nothing” - day dreaming, spacing out, cuddling with a pet.  Slow walks in nature, baths, reading, I love puzzles.  Give yourself permission to rest, be quiet, slow down.

If however, it feels heavy and hard, there’s no ventral, then again, a good time to speak with your parts, ask them to give you some space… let them know you’re there with them.  Sit with your feelings.  Even better if someone with you.  then very gentle moving fingers and toes.  Listen to audio books, comedy, visualise walking along a beach.  Take comfort in lovely anchors round your room, candles, fish tank greens and blues.. cuddle your pet.

Deb Dana  - once you’ve been in those states for a while – maybe spoken to the protectors and maybe exiles – you can choose to leave those states… Up in an elevator or up the polvagal ladder, climb up a tree.  Climb up a rock face on your own or you with your parts.  We can practice moving between states once we know what each feels like.

Vagal Tone

Its important to increase vagal tone over time, in connection with other mammals. I want to really encourage you to do this healing in community, co regulating with others ..buddying up, being with a therapist, and doing things in spaces together.  I’m aware for some its excruciatingly hard. Its so brave for some to be here, in this room now.   So, I say to you, welcome.  Particularly if you’re neurodivergent, please find others with your neurotype and hang out, it can be hugely validating to find people who share your experiences… For all of us, when its ok, organise a cup of tea with a friend, if you can, even a short one.  Go for quiet companionable walks in the presence of another, small connections with people in the community, if that’s too much hang out with a friendly mammal.. like dog or a horse.  Singing in community, partner dance, free form dance, yoga classes, come and be with us here..  Schedule in several of these a week and vagal tone can be increased in a couple of years.

Breathing..

A   Breathing affects Heart rate variability (HRV).  You can directly affect your nervous system by deeper slower breathing.  Adding your heart consciously into that.. something called ‘coherence’… affects your heart, emotions and breathing. heart rate varies with each breath, and with various other processes in your body. 

1)This variability is good and is a sign of health. Deb Dana suggests making a Breath map…  Find your breath, feel your breath, follow your breath, before we would do anything. Because simply saying, "Let's take some deep breaths together," can be incredibly activating to another nervous system. Again, it's this lovely experience of being curious, what’s right for you?  It’s possible to find your “resonance frequency” – the speed of breathing at which your HRV is the highest, your ideal breathing rate. Too fast and too slow can make you more agitated, light headed and let out too much CO2, your whole system relaxes. We can be really curious about this…  If you’re an average sized person, you’re most likely good at between 5- 6-bpm, I’m best at 5.5bpm slow paced breathing, a breath every 11 seconds. So a breath every 10, 11, 12, 13 seconds.  What’s right for you?  This breathing frequency is different for each person.  So I’m going to suggest you find your favourite breathing resonance… somewhere between 4 and 7 breaths a minute … You can use a fitbit or whatever, or buy Inner Balance by Heartmath or you can download the Global Coherence app and use the camera on your phone, and practice over time.  I use it several times a day and if I’m suffering from insomnia!   Whats really lovely with this app is that its free and its also in community.  There’s a theme here!  You can breathe in coherence with people round the world, see it on a map, you can send out Self energy, or care and compassion to your parts, to your community to the world.

2) adding your heart in consciously, coherence… A lovely quick breathing technique is the Heartmath Heart Focused Breathing… which is my sure fire way of helping me anchor in Ventral Vagal.. It reduces intensity or turns down the volume of my parts, establishes a calm but alert state, shifts and sustains balance.  It also increases resiliency capacity.  Can we try it? Focus your attention in the area of your heart…  Imagine your breath is flowing in and out of your heart or chest area, breathing a little slower and deeper than usual.   Activate a positive or renewing feeling….  Such as calm, love, compassion..   You can then radiate that to your parts, to yourself, to the people in this room, this town, the humans and non humans, our world…

So to conclude.. I hope you’ll enjoy doing IFS, forming secure inner attachment and creating an inner community, Self to Parts.  I also encourage you to add in some nervous system supports too.. Both on your own and in your outer community, lets connect with our collective Self Energy and help each other. We need each other.  It’s a radical thing and its hard for us who have trauma but biologically we are wired for it.

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 I invite you to look up Trauma Geek - Janae Elizabeth : the following is mainly from her with some words from me… My sense is that the theory still hangs well in spite of PVT criticisms by Grossman.  I do have issue with the concept of faulty neuroception … Highly attuned neuroception or sensitivity to real and perceived danger is not faulty, it is an adaptive neurodivergent trait that can be a strength if our neurological differences are well supported.  Much better to be highly attuned or sensitive neuroception.  (Its more accurate to talk about faulty neuroception when someone is perceiving safety in a situation that is actually dangerous, due to social naivite).

 Another issue is ventral supremacy where ventral social engagement as often as possible is our goal. However, the reality is that our world is dysregulating. Safety is a limited resource in this society. It’s okay to be dysregulated some of the time.  (As Deb Dana says it’s the flow, not getting stuck). Releasing the chaotic energy of sympathetic activation is important. Allowing some space for disconnection and avoidance is important, allowing ourselves to spend time in dorsal rest, a low-energy safe version of the dorsal shutdown state.

 Finally…

What is vagal tone?  (This also comes from Janae Elizabeth – Trauma Geek) Vagal tone is measured by tracking heart-rate and breathing rate at the same time.  Higher vagal tone means that the body can return to a coherent state quickly after a stressful experience ends. Higher vagal tone does not mean a person will be less activated by stressful events, but that they will recover more easily after safety is restored. People with low vagal tone do not recover as quickly after safety is restored. If you have low vagal tone, you may feel stuck in high or low activation for a long time after a stressful incident has ended, or even flip-flop between those two up and down states.  Your body may be getting all the safe signals from your environment and your vagus may be sending the correct signals to attempt to control your heart rate to get you back to feeling calm/safe.  So if the vagus is nerve is functioning correctly, why do some people have low vagal tone? Because a fatty protective layer of insulation around the nerve (called myelination) is weak or almost non-existent. Without insulation, the electrical information in our nerves can’t always travel to its intended destination. Without insulation, the neural information from the vagus gets scattered around the body instead of going straight to the heart. Low vagal tone is due to low myelination.    Low myelination resulting in low vagal tone is the most common physiological effect of developmental trauma or emotional neglect (ie. lack of co-regulation). Low vagal tone is associated with cardiovascular conditions, strokes, depression, diabetes, chronic fatigue syndrome, and inflammatory conditions.

All human infants are born with low myelination. If development is not interrupted, a healthy myelin sheath is formed by age 2 or 3. When an adult caregiver is in safe coherent state, the child’s mirror neurons detect and replicate that state. The more frequently the child is in this mirrored ventral vagus state, the healthier their myelin sheath will be  Generally, industrialized nations do not allow sufficient parent-child bonding time for the development of healthy vagal tone. Low vagal tone is a “silent epidemic” that affects the majority of the population in industrialized countries.  If human development requires time spent with an adult who is in a coherent state, what are we to do if we didn’t have access to that in our childhood? If you did not get to form this neural protection in childhood (like me), there is good news!

Adults can build myelin (a process called remyelination) and improve their vagal tone through co-regulation just like babies do. Spending time in a mirrored ventral vagus state allows the body to form a stronger myelin sheath at any age. Depending on how much mirrored ventral vagus time you can spend each week, you may be able to see a major shift in vagal tone after a year or two. There’s an old phrase in neuroscience that says “neurons that fire together wire together.” The myelination of the vagus similarly depends on the activation of the vagus nerve via safe connection with another mammalian nervous system.

The myelination process is one way nature proves that we need each other.

 

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So ….

Top suggestion is please keep noticing when you’re mainly in Red Amber or Green. Maybe keep an autonomic diary, are there particular times/places/people/things which help you go to Green? Where you notice you go to Red or Amber? We all go to each of these states, that’s so normal, the secret is to flow between and not get stuck.

Find songs, objects and other things that connect you to each state and maybe write or draw them, make a collage with pictures from each state.

Which words work for you for each state? (colours of traffic lights? Or dorsal, sympathetic, ventral? Or maybe a sound or an animal which reminds you of each? What works for you?).

Do you go up to Green? This is Deb Dana’s way and the one that many love. Ruth Culver has created a traffic light diagram amalgamating IFS with polyvagal - for her and many others this makes sense… green is at the bottom, grounded. See www.calmheart.co.uk Which do you prefer? What works for you?

You can ask yourself for each state, how is it for me… the world is? How do I feel? Ie the world feels safe and I feel calm in Green etc ..

Having sat in whichever state, when it’s time to move… Can you find yourself taking a lift down or up to feeling Green from the state you’re in? Going with a trusty companion, in your mind? Or if green is ‘up’ then can you climb a tree through the states? Or mountain climb together? What works for you?

Very simply - if you’re in Red (dorsal vagal) feeling very low/collapsed/people pleasing/shutdown/trapped .. or frozen (between dorsal vagal and sympathetic - think deer in headlights) take a pause from conversation or whatever you’re doing … sit and look at the sky, listen to quiet music, an audio book, gentle comedy, imagine walking on a beach or out in nature. Do you have a safe space? Remember a time when you were feeling safe or a holiday or a pet? What is helpful to you personally in this state? Quiet, slow. Maybe someone can come and sit with you here, not moving or doing much. Just with. Maybe leaning back to back. Just alongside.

If you’re in Amber - activated and maybe wanting to move, fight, blame, judge, help, if there’s an urgency … think organised movement - bicycle ride, clean the oven, turn on music and dance. Brisk walk in nature. Play with a pet. Go for a swim. Work out. Chop logs. Use Smovey rings or weights. With someone alongside is good if that feels ok. What do you like doing?

If you’re feeling overwhelmed (sympathetic - Amber) here is my favourite list - below. Most are aimed at bringing in the vagal nerve which runs in the face/ears and into heart and lungs. I invite you borrow this list - or picking out the ones you like - somewhere you can see it, then just take one idea that feels ok to do :

PAUSE breathe, deepen your breath be here, right now, nothing to do, nothing to change.. here you can take this time

Ask your parts to allow you just a little more space in your body so you can be there with them. Ask them to turn down their volume. They know how! Maybe you have some practices to help you unblend?

Awe- Maybe you might sit in the garden and look at the sky, the trees, be in awe of nature. Awe is just wonderful! Maybe you can recall seeing a rainbow or throwing snowballs. How it feels to play an instrument, being in the flow.

Nature - Feel the wind on your face. Feet and hands in the earth. Bring nature indoors - flowers, plants… greens and blues might be calming?

Make a space in your home full of beautiful calming “anchors” so you can be filled up when you look or touch. I have flowers and candles and things I like to look at and touch.

Conscious Breathing - maybe find some practices that you like (“box” breathing, diaphragmatic breathing etc extend exhale if anxious, sip in breath if feeling very low).

What sights, sounds, tastes, textures, smells bring you even a tiny bit of pleasure? Can you bring them to mind or have some of them close by, look at photos?

Is there something you like doing with your hands, keep them occupied might be helpful, making something or drawing, a fidget toy? Chopping vegetables, painting, Knitting, sewing and moulding clay, jigsaw puzzles...

Stretch and sit up if you’re slouching, also - smile or do monster faces - activate that vagal nerve! Yoga is wonderful

Sing, chant, hum. Join a choir for extra social engagement points. Make a foghorn sound (Peter Levine).

Play - laugh, be silly, play with a pet, a child. Make silly faces. Listen to comedy. Draw with your left hand or non dominant one. Walk in a funny way. Bounce on a trampoline. Be weird and wacky in a safe way, that feels good to you.

Chew gum! Also some people like to crunch as that is calming for some. There are necklaces you can ‘chew’ on.

Listen to midrange music, soothing vocals ... Disney is good. What do you like? (Maybe you can make a playlist of the songs that make you feel Green... and another that is Amber and another for Red?)

Look up a body scan and listen to it. I personally like Tara Brachs ones but there are many of varying lengths with different people

Hug yourself and rock forward/back and side to side (see Peter Levines work)

Deep pressure self massage. Deep pressure, hold, release is most soothing for many people but you can experiment? Stroke the back of your head and face. Tickle yourself - your face and ears particularly. Chuckle for bonus points!

Weighted blankets or mats can be soothing. As can cats or a pet!

What did you love doing as a child? Is there something you might enjoy doing that you loved doing back then?

Finally - this list isn’t exhaustive, and please add in the comments things that help you. I invite you to look up Deb Dana’s work (she has a book 50 polyvagal exercises for safety and connection and a polyvagal card deck). Also there are many resources on the internet about ‘vagal nerve' stimulation.

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My top four recommendations … books and podcasts by Deb Dana - she’s so warm and her writing is so accessible, Seb Porges’ very engaging explanation of polyvagal theory (developed by his father, Stephen Porges - his books are rich and somewhat complex), the amazing auditory intervention SSP which I offer my clients alongside therapy) and Ruth Culver’s really useful infographic chart which amalgamates Polyvagal theory and IFS.



Podcasts/youtube

·       Polyvagal meets IFS   A talk with Deb Dana  https://podcasts.apple.com/gh/podcast/polyvagal-meets-ifs-a-talk-with-deb-dana/id1481000501?i=1000486160028

·       Seth Porges explains polyvagal theory in an engaging way! https://youtu.be/br8-qebjIgs

·       The new Safe and Sound Protocol video!   https://youtu.be/Xu_4LAS2Prw

·       Polyvagal and the SSP explained  https://youtu.be/GCRmkGSdN_0

·       Deb Dana explains polyvagal theory https://youtu.be/JXGy7M4kvaY

·       Stephen Porges – how safe do you feel? Revolutionising mental health with the Polyvagal Theory https://youtu.be/f2ZJ0NJ4d0g



Warm wishes

Natasha

 
Natasha Wilson
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