Author: deniseb5

Top Tip #3 – Differentiating Past from Present

Top Tip #3: Differentiating Past from Present

 Top 10 Tips for Troubled Times: Self-care tools to build resiliency and regulation

This is the third of my Top 10 Tips for Troubled Times – a guide to help you build your own First Aid Kit for dealing with times of stress and getting out of overwhelm.  I’ve built this up over a long time and these are my go-to tools, that you can build into your daily routine, to help build resiliency and regulation

Tip#3 is so fundamental to shifting out of trauma, stress and overwhelm – that often it’s not even clearly and explicitly stated.  It’s almost taken as read. 

It’s all about differentiating the past from the present, the THEN & THERE from the HERE & NOW.

The importance of this can’t actually be overstated…

Top Tip #3 – is Differentiating Past from Present

This is all about the importance of connecting with ourselves – a felt sense of ourself, as well as sensory information from our external environment, in the HERE & NOW.

Why is this important?

  • Our survival brain doesn’t know the difference between past and present, it doesn’t really have that concept – it’s all about the immediate, the here and now.  If it FEELS like something is happening right now, then our survival brain will respond AS IF it really was happening right here and now.  Even if what is happening is that we are remembering what something felt like in the past
  • Any memories laid down when we are in extreme stress, or in a traumatic situation, or one which we perceive as life-threatening, are not actually stored as what we usually think of as memories – in that filing cabinet in our head, where we know where we were and can pinpoint it in time (EXPLICIT memories)
  • Instead, they are held as IMPLICIT memories – experiences and patterns held in the body, not cognitively filed away.  This is because in extreme stress, the links between our lower brain and our higher brain go down – so that we can respond instinctively, and fast, rather than weighing up information more slowly with our thinking brain
  • It is also the case for memories from when we were really young, before our brain developed the structures to store memories explicitly up-top in our cortex – these experiences also get stored IMPLICITLY in the body, rather than EXPLICITLY up-top
  • When we are triggered into overwhelm, and our bodies bring up difficult memories and imprints/patterns from the past – they really feel as if they are happening, right here and right now – the whole constellation that experience – of what it was like in the past – the emotions, internal sensations as well as even external sensory perceptions such as smells, noises etc, perhaps how things look/ images, as well as accompanying thoughts, beliefs and meanings, can all be brought up – lit up if you like, as if what was happening in the past is really happening again now
  • That’s what if FEELS like – and remember, the survival brain and body are dealing in sensation and movement not logic
  • So in order to find our way out of overwhelm – it is crucial to recognise that this is what is happening, that what we are feeling is coming up from the past – and take steps to connect with ourselves (our own body) and our external surroundings in the present day, rather than identifying completely with sensations and perceptions that coming up from the past.  If we don’t do this DIFFERENTIATION piece, then those body-based memories and patterns from the past, can really take over

(This is one big reason why we can find ourselves doing the same thing over and over again, even though we think we should know better from experience!)

Your Simple Practice – Differentiating Past from Present 

You can build this exercise in easily with the practices you already have from the first 2 Top Tips.  This is great add-on – to help build regulation and resiliency – and most definitely my number 1 go-to in times of stress and overwhelm!

And just like orienting to safety, you can do it whenever and wherever you are – nobody need know you are even doing it!

Here are the simple steps below – give it a go, and see what you notice!

  1. Eyes open/Orienting practice – Sensing safety (from Top Tip #2)

This let’s your survival brain know it is safe in the HERE & NOW.

  • Feel your feet – maybe wiggle your toes a little
  • Find your seat – or any other point of contact – feel support under your pelvis, behind back, any other points of contact with your body
  • Slowly look around the room, one side then the other – make sure the head is turning around the shoulders – ORIENT to your surroundings, notice where you are
  • Whilst orienting to what is around you, Say out loud (if possible, but you can also say it inside to yourself), something like:
    • “ I can see that right now, I am safe”
    • “Right now, I am OK.  Right here and now, I am safe”

Keep looking around slowly, keep engaging those orienting muscles and tissues in the neck, throat, face.  Keep looking around, slowly slowly.  Slow it right down.  

2.   Differentiation statements – place and time

As you look around, say (out loud if you can) the following statements that differentiate past from present:

  • “Today is {today’s date} and I am in {specific location, in specific place}”

Be really clear about where you are, who is with you if there are others around, when it is (date, even time) – name the specifics.  This helps you get oriented – and also clear about present time and present location!  Remember, your survival brain feels safe when it knows where you are…

3.  Differentiation practices – present day age, present day size

a) Try this, as you look around:  say out loud –

  • “ I am looking around with my {insert present day age} eyes”

So, “I am looking around with my 44 year old eyes / my 26 year old eyes /my 75 year old eyes…”

And this is the really important bit – really try to look with your adult, present day eyes.

What do you notice when you do that?  Do things look different?  Do you perceive things differently? Feel differently?

Because if you are getting hijacked completely by memories from the past, whether you know what they are or not, this important shift in internal state, which can happen when you shift your sense of visual perception  – the ‘eyes’ with which you are seeing – present day eyes, not nervous system patterns from the past – can really help you shift back into the present.

b) Bring your attention to your body, your felt sense of your own body, in the present moment

  • It can help to gently squeeze or touch your own body, especially arms and legs – this can be helpful to bring your attention back into your present day body
  • Really notice your height, notice the length of your legs and arms, really take in and feel your body in the present day
  • The Grounding Exercise from Top Tip #1, is an excellent one to combine in here – to really get clear that you are really here and now!

See works for you – and what you notice as you do this 🙂

Remember, it is good to practice this multiple times a day (I’d suggest 5 times a day to start with if you can manage that, 5 – 10 mins at a time), as well as whenever things feel challenging / unhelpful thoughts are coming in, or you are feeling overwhelmed

And importantly, stick at this until you notice something shift.

Because, we can’t actually change the past.  In the present, right here and now, is actually the only place we can make sense of the past, integrate challenging memories and experiences and find healing, resourcing and recovery.  

 Building Your Tips for Troubled Times – stay connected for more step by step tools to add to this fundamental one!

Top Tip #2: Orienting to Safety

 Top 10 Tips for Troubled Times: Self-care tools to build resiliency and regulation

This is the second of my Top 10 Tips for Troubled Times – a guide to help you build your own First Aid Kit for dealing with times of stress and getting out of overwhelm.  I’ve built this up over a long time and these are my go-to tools, that you can build into your daily routine, to help build resiliency and regulation

This Top 10 Tip is probably the single most important practice I’ve come across, to help shift out of stress and overwhelm.

It’s simple, and for many people, it’s a real game changer.

Top Tip #2 – is Orienting to Safety

This is all about the importance of connecting with the FELT SENSE of SAFETY, in the HERE & NOW.

Because our bodies instinctively know what it feels like to feel safe, but sometimes we need to guide our survival brain to notice that we actually are safe in the moment – before our brain and nervous system will come out of red alert.

Why is this important and how does it work?

  • Sensation and movement are the languages of the (lower) survival brain and brain-stem – so using sensation (direct sensing) and movement are the ways to communicate with our survival brain
  • Safety is a FELT SENSE experience – not a concept or an idea.  Our body instinctively knows what safety FEELS like, no matter how unsafe we may be feeling in general in our lives at the moment
  • When we get into overwhelm inside our nervous system and our body, or we are in a really stressed state, focusing more and more on what is going on inside us – whether thoughts, worries, emotions, body sensations, flashbacks/images or a whole cacophony of all these – is not the way out
  • Instead, we need to notice and orient to our external surroundings – really notice if we are actually safe, RIGHT NOW, in this moment
  • Once our survival brain actually registers safety, we can start to come out of ‘red alert’

This practice works for a number of reasons:

  • We are using sensation to communicate with the survival brain:  This practice helps us slow down, and gives our survival brain the time to take in sensory information from our external surroundings – then it can register that we are actually safe right here and now, in this moment.  We are pointing our attention and guiding our survival brain to take in the information it needs in order to know it’s safe to come out of red alert
  • We are using movement to help communicate with our animal brain:  If an animal in the wild can look around, orient to its surroundings, know where it is – then it knows it is capable of responding if needed to whatever happens – it’s ‘online’, ready and able – and that is a good place to be! If we can feel that, we don’t have to be constantly in red alert…. we can feel able to respond appropriately IN THE MOMENT to WHAT IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING RIGHT NOW
  • We are shifting out of the locked focus tunnel vision that we go into when we are under threat:  When we are feeling under threat, our vision narrows down as we lock onto and track a perceived source threat.  This happens whether we are feeling under threat in general, or there is an actual source of threat there.  By widening our field of vision, opening up to look more broadly, we can shift out of a threat response
  • We are using movement to engage the evolutionary more recent human parts of our nervous system that can rapidly help calm us down:  By looking around, turning the head on the shoulders, we are moving and engaging the tissues of our Social Nervous System, the part of our parasympathetic nervous system that according to Stephen Porges Polyvagal Theory allow us to connect with others and performs a key role in in mediating our fight/flight/freeze responses to stress that are more primitive

Your Simple Orienting to Safety Practice

This simple exercise is great to do multiple times a day – to help build regulation and resiliency – and most definitely also in times of stress and overwhelm.

And the really fantastic thing about it – is that you can do it whenever and wherever you are – nobody need know you are even doing it!

Here are the simple steps below – give it a go, and see what you notice!

  1. Eyes open/Orienting practice – Sensing safety

This let’s your survival brain know it is safe in the HERE & NOW.

  • Feel your feet – maybe wiggle your toes a little
  • Find your seat – or any other point of contact – feel support under your pelvis, behind back, any other points of contact with your body
  • Slowly look around the room, one side then the other – make sure the head is turning around the shoulders – ORIENT to your surroundings, notice where you are
  • Whilst orienting to what is around you, Say out loud (if possible, but you can also say it inside to yourself), something like:
    • “ I can see that right now, I am safe”
    • “Right now, I am OK.  Right here and now, I am safe”

It is important to keep looking around slowly, keep engaging those orienting muscles and tissues in the neck, throat, face.  Keep looking around, slowly slowly.  Slow it right down.  

It can also help to gently squeeze or touch your own body, especially arms and legs – this can also be helpful to bring your attention back into your present day body

2.  Additional options

Some people also find it helpful to name (out loud or internally) what is around them – ‘Just the Facts’:

    • Notice colours, objects, shapes, around you – simply name them, just the facts e.g. red, square, door
    • Really notice who and what is really here, now, in the place where you are
    • Maybe notice some things in the room that you enjoy / attract your attention
    • Sounds you can hear – inside & outside the room e.g. name 5 different things you can hear

But see what works for you 🙂

It is good to practice this multiple times a day (I’d suggest 5 times a day to start with if you can manage that, 5 – 10 mins at a time), as well as whenever things feel challenging / unhelpful thoughts are coming in, or you are feeling overwhelmed

The most important thing is to stick at this until you notice something shift.

It could be a deep breath, yawning, stomach rumbling noises – which are all signs that your nervous system is down-regulating.  It might be a DECREASE in difficult feelings, thoughts or uncomfortable sensations.  You may also notice a change in your vision – perhaps seeing colours or objects more clearly, or noticing that your field of vision is wider, and you can see more clearly.  You might just feel more ‘here’.  The nervous system learns by noticing differences – and even small shifts are important.

It’s the doing it that matters, and makes a difference – both in the moment, and in the long run.

Because the more times you can find your way back to a sense of relative safety in the moment, the more you are growing new pathways in your nervous system, and building your capacity to stay in a more regulated place inside.

And it’s only when we can find a calmer, more settled place inside, and feel safer, that we can have the energy and the ability to deal with whatever we do need to in our external circumstances.

 Building Your Tips for Troubled Times – stay connected for more step by step tools to add to these fundamental ones!

Top Tip #1: Grounding

 Top 10 Tips for Troubled Times: Self-care tools to build resiliency and regulation

I’m sharing over the next posts my Top 10 Tips for Troubled Times – a guide to help you build your own First Aid Kit for dealing with times of stress and getting out of overwhelm.  I’ve built this up over a long time and this are my go-to tools, that you can build into your daily routine, to help build resiliency and regulation

The very first Tip I’d like to share with you for your tool-box for troubled times is deceptively simple – but really fundamental.  So here we go!

Top Tip #1 – is Grounding

Grounding Practices © Denise Barnett 2018

Why is this important?

  • Because sensation and movement are the languages of the (lower) survival brain and brain-stem
  • And our lower brain and our body fundamentally feel safer and better when we have a clear FELT SENSE of which way is down… of where Gravity it
  • When we get into overwhelm, typically our energy is all up in our heads and swirling around up top – and we may even lose connection with our body and stop really feeling where we are, feeling our connection with the ground
  • If we can get a clear sense of that vertical line in our body, and our connection with the ground….and send our energy down in our body…… we can be in a better place to deal with whatever we need to

A Simple Grounding Practice

This first simple exercise is great to do multiple times a day – to help build regulation and resiliency – and most definitely also in times of stress and overwhelm!

There are 2 simple parts to this practice – check it out below – give it a go, and see what you notice!

  1. Calming the brain stem

 

  • Place both hands behind the back of your head, cradling your brain stem
  • Say out loud (or to yourself!) that your intention is to calm your brain stem and ground your energy
  • Keep doing this for a few minutes, with the intention of calming and grounding
  • Notice what happens, what might shift for you

 

 

 

2. Sending the energy down into the ground

 

  • Standing – Feel your feet on the ground, and bend your knees – just until you can really feel the muscles in the front of your things (quads) engage
  • Press the palms of your hands together in front of your heart – feel the resistance, really press your hands into one another
  • Send the energy down in your body, into your legs and feet
  • this also more clearly in your body

 

 

The most important thing is to stick at this until you notice something shift.

Perhaps it’s feeling heavier in the legs, more contact with the ground, maybe a sense of dropping inside.  The nervous system learns by noticing differences!  So even small shifts are important.

It’s the doing it that matters, and make a difference over the long run.

 Next Tips for Troubled Times – will add to this, and step by step give you more tools – so stay tuned!

Experience shapes us, but it doesn’t have to dictate us….

The importance of experience, relationship and connection – in laying down our core patterns – as well as changing them

Our nervous system learns through experience.   And our brain and wider nervous system pathways are grown and shaped by our experiences when we were really little.  We all have a basic sequence in which we grow, but it is our early experiences in relationship/connection with our primary caregiver (typically our mother), that actually determines how our brain and nervous system actually grow – what pathways and templates we lay down.  

This has big implications for what it takes to heal from difficult experience, stress, overwhelm, or traumatic events, and to grow greater resiliency.

As well as working with the reptilian survival brain, we also need to include and understand the important role that our emotional brain and our attachment experiences and patterns have in shaping not just our bodily experience, but our fundamental sense of self, and our perceptions and beliefs about who we are and what the world is like.

To get out of overwhelm, it’s helpful to be aware of 2 key things:

  1. It’s all about connection – and we’re all interconnected

Our ability to connect with our own body, as well as our ability to connect in safe, mutually supportive relationship with others – and our autonomic nervous system regulation, our physiological health (neuroendocrine system, cardiovascular health, immune system), our capacity and way of responding to stress, our ability to regulate our emotions – these are not separate things.   They’re all intimately connected – and were all shaped by our early experiences in relationship.

We are truly all connected.  Depending on on early experiences though, we may not feel that to be true.  We may feel isolated, lack support, and feel that the world in general and other people in it, are fundamentally not safe.

2. Our early experiences in relationship lay down our fundamental templates –  our default settings/pathways in the brain and wider nervous system 

This isn’t just about nervous system regulation, actually ALL our basic templates for physiological health, ability to respond to stress, our ability and capacity to regulate affect (emotions), and our ability to form supportive relationships with others – are shaped in relationship when we are really young, including pre-natally.

This is a big topic – but here are a few key facts:

  • Even before we are born, before we are even conceived in fact, the genes in the cells that become us, are selecting for what would be the most helpful adaptations to survive in the particular environment we are going to grow into (our mother’s body, our family, our society, the environment – as well as ancestral and intra-generational influences)
  • As an infant, our brain is growing in response to our mother’s ability to regulate her emotions, her heart-brain connections, and how coherent all her non-verbal behaviours are in relation to what emotions we feel from her heart field
  • By the age of 3 months old, the amygdala (the fear processing centre in our brain), has already made a determination one way or the other – a +ve or -ve setting has been coded – either the world is basically safe, and I am fundamentally OK, OR I need to be afraid, and I am not OK: there is something wrong with me
  • By the age of about 18 months old, our basic templates and patterns in our brain and wider nervous system have already been laid down – we’ve created the basic maps that organise our experience and our responses

Phew…..

What does this mean about what we need to do to recover from difficult experience or get out of overwhelm?

We need to include all levels of our experience

It’s really been my experience both in my life, and in working with clients that working this way with the body and the nervous system ‘bottom up’, is often the missing link that can finally get people out of being stuck, and moving towards greater choice and a new sense of possibilities.

But just as we could work with talk therapies, ‘top down’ from the thinking brain for a long time, and still feel stuck, so it is equally true that we could work with sensation and movement (kinaesthetic pathways) ‘bottom up’ til the cows come home – and still find ourselves going round in old familiar loops when it comes to how we are in our everyday lives.  

If we miss out the core emotional brain patterns and attachment glue that holds it all together, we miss what lies at the heart of being human. And we won’t be able to shift those formative templates into a new more helpful place.

Real lasting change, comes from building new pathways both bottom up AND top down, and including the relational pieces.  It’s about integrating all these different levels of our experience.  And the more complex and long-standing our symptoms, the more it’s the case that we need to take a multi-pronged and a multi-layered approach.  

We need to create experiences of connection, to build new pathways

The way we grew the pathways in our brain and body was through experience and connection, and so that’s what we need in order to change those pathways.  We need to create and absorb new experiences – felt sense experiences, not theoretical concepts or ideas.

Experiences of safe connection – with our own bodies, as well as experiences of safe mutually supportive connections with others, are key to being able to change these underlying ‘settings’ and pathways in our brain and our body that determine our wellness on all levels.

It takes time to shift our fundamental patterns – but it is totally possible!

Patterns in our brain and body that were laid down so early on, are resistant to change – they are so foundational.  And so it takes time to shift them.  It does take persistence, and the right support, but the good news is, it is totally possible!   These patterns may be tough to change, but they can be shifted.

The ‘neuroplastic’ quality we have to soak up our experiences and grow new pathways is on our side even as adults.  We can change and grow new pathways, we are inherently able to adapt and learn. And our underlying life force and health is always underneath whatever patterns and imprints we have due to difficult experiences.

What’s the most important message of all?

Our history does not have to determine how things turn out.

Just like this beautiful tree that I was delighted by in the Adirondacks, we can still grow tall and strong, and take our place in the forest even if we have challenges to overcome.

It’s not what happened to us, but how we’ve been able to digest our experience, integrate and ‘make sense of it’, that matters.

And that is what determines how and who we can be in the here and now.

We are wonderfully, incredibly complex beings, part of the beautiful web of interconnected life on this planet. This is big stuff…

Time to plant our feet firmly on the earth.

Time to root like a tree and grow new branches to meet the sky.  

Time to reconnect.

Experiencing the Top 10 Tips for Troubled Times:

Armed with this information, we’re set to get started on the Top 10 Tips for Troubled Times. As we go through each of them, I’ll keep fleshing out these themes of connection and experience – and tie each in to important tit-bits of understanding about the body and the nervous system as we go.  Your don’t have to get all this stuff now… the exercises that accompany each Tip are designed to be experiential, so that you can learn this from the inside out.  And that is what really matters.

But if you’re chomping at the bit to read more about all this stuff….I’m including a few choice resources below!

Early attachment:

There are a number of great, informative videos on Myrna Martin’s website here:

http://myrnamartin.net/videos/

I particularly recommend the 6 minute excerpt from The Moving Child film 

And if you are a practitioner or interesting in studying more on this early development, I can’t recommend highly enough Myrna’s Online Video training which synthesises over 45 years of her work in this field. Module 1 alone on Attachment is an absolute treasure trove of knowledge and perspective shifting wisdom and experiences.

Connections to wider societal and ecological aspects – a fascinating interview with Gabor Mate

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_are_so_many_adults_today_haunted_by_trauma

Adverse Childhood Experiences – how our physical health is shaped by childhood experiences – a popular Ted Talk by Paediatrician Nadine Burke:

 

 

 

Link to the ACES Study:  https://acestoohigh.com/aces-101/

Honouring my teachers and sources:  With gratitude and thanks to the teachers from whose work I have adapted and shared understanding.  I particularly want to recognise Myrna Martin whose work on early attachment and pre and peri-natal development has elucidated things for me and connected things for me in a way I only dreamed of before!  

Your survival brain doesn’t know what day it is…..

The 3 key things you need to know, to understand how to get out of overwhelm and build resiliency

We’re not given the manual for how to live in a human body at school.  Most of us have never been taught how to regulate ourselves, or deal with difficult emotions or trauma.  We don’t have the instruction booklet for operating our brain or our nervous system!

But to really heal from difficult experience, we need to connect in a new and different way with our body, and the parts of our brain and our nervous system, that underlie our basic functioning.   We must go beneath our thinking brain, and harness the wisdom of our ancient body intelligence.

There are the 3 key things you need to know about how your brain and your nervous system work, to understand what to do to get out of overwhelm and build resiliency. 

You can find out what they are in the video below – where I explain these 3 Keys in as plain English as possible!

  • The 3 key things you need to know, to really ‘get’ what happens when you are overwhelmed, or stuck because of difficult events from the past
  • The keys to calming the survival brain and settling the nervous system

Of course, the nervous system is complicated… and there’s a lot more to understand.    And there are lots of great resources out there, where you can find out more about the brain and nervous system if you’re keen to find out more!  [Check out anything by Dr Dan Seigel as a great starting point, or Peter Levine’s books (the originator of SE) if you’re interested in the trauma angle]

Don’t worry, you don’t have to understand it all now!  As we go through each of the Tips, you’ll actually find out in practice, through experience what these things mean.  You’ll literally make sense of it all!

But this is the start of your basic kit of understanding

These are like the Building Blocks for your First Aid Kit that you can pop your Tips and Tools into, to grow your very own survival kit

Building your First Aid box….

 Over the coming weeks I’m going to share with you my Top 10 Tips for Troubled Times: Self-care tools for resiliency and regulation.  This is my practical First Aid Kit of simple self-care practices that make a big difference when times are challenging

  You’ll get a step by step guide, to build your own First Aid Kit for getting out of overwhelm and developing resiliency and regulation

  With each Tip you’ll receive a simple exercise or practice, that you can build into your daily routine

  The information is broken down into manageable chunks, so you can find your own pace, and take it one step at a time

And remember…

Although it’s takes times to get out of overwhelm and start to heal from ongoing stress or difficult events from the past, the good news is, that with the right knowledge and support it is totally do-able. Step by step.

So may the road rise to meet you on your journey ~ and I look forward to sharing the way

Honouring my teachers and sources:  With gratitude and thanks to the many wonderful teachers from whose work I have adapted this simplified knowledge.  Particularly Anne Cheshire SEP, Myrna Martin, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen (BMC), Dr Diane Poole Heller, Peter Levine & SE Faculty 

    Want to get my Top 10 Tips for Troubled Times direct to your inbox?

Awesome – sign up below 

   Know someone else who could use a little First Aid right now?

Please share this with them ~ this is vital info, that we just don’t get taught at school. And it can really make a difference

 

Swedish country duos + the survival brain: My Favourite First Aid Kits

 

I have 2 favourite First Aid Kits:  both can really help me feel better quickly.

The first is a Swedish pair of sisters who sing devine alt-country folk inspired harmonies and whose song-writing I just adore.  Their voices could light up the coldest darkest winter day in Stockholm and make it feel warm and full of possibility.

The second though, is the one I’d actually like to share with you over the coming weeks.  It’s my own First Aid Kit of simple self-care practices that I can wheel out whenever times are challenging.

These are my Top 10 Tips for Troubled Times:  Self-care tools to build resiliency and regulation

I’ve built this up over a long period of time, and I’m excited to share it with you.  These are the things that have made a really made a massive difference in my own life, and in those of my clients.  And they’re the tools that amazing teachers from around the world have shared with me, that really work. And I’m really excited to pass them on to you.

This knowledge can be such a game changer!

Here’s what I’m going to share with you over the next weeks:

  Building Blocks for your First Aid Kit:  In my next post, first I’ll share with you your basic kit of understanding, that you can then put your Top 10 Tips inside of………..

  • The 3 things you need to understand, to really ‘get’ what happens when we are overwhelmed, or stuck because of past difficult events – neurophysiology, in simple English
  • The keys to calming the survival brain and settling the nervous system

  My Top 10 Tips for Troubled Times  

  • Step by Step, over the next weeks, you’ll get a guide to help you build your own First Aid Kit for getting out of overwhelm
  • With each Tip there’s a simple exercise or practice, that you can build into your daily routine, in order to help build resiliency and regulation in your nervous system

And to get you going, here are a couple of items that I’ve collected from both my First Aid Kits:

   My favourite picture of the human brain (I’ll simplify this further in my next post, in case you’re not an anatomy & physiology geek…. I confess I kind of am…….)

This is the incredible ‘Brain Forest’ by Dr Stephane Treyvaud

The Brain Forest copyright Dr Stephane Treyvaud 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

    A fabulous song from the other (Swedish) First Aid Kit:  My SIlver Lining


And if you listen to the lyrics, this can really be applied to recovering from trauma.

It’s not an easy road, but if you keep going, step by step, you will surely get there.  And there are many Silver Linings waiting on the other side.

Welcome to the journey!   

    Want to get my Top 10 Tips for Troubled Times direct to your inbox?

Awesome – sign up below 

   Know someone else who could use a little First Aid right now?

Please share this with them ~ this is vital info, that we just don’t get taught at school. And it can really make a difference