Getting Our Nervous Systems Back to Normal
How do you get your nervous system settled again?
FRAMEWORK
≈ 7 Minutes*
This is a navigational aid to help you see how the platform is organized. The tiles in the following section are educational films and conversations.
The Evolved Nest
Dr. Darcia Narvaez introduces us to the crucial concept of the Evolved Nest.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
≈ 30 minutesTriune Ethics Theory
Dr. Darcia Narvaez explores how morality is constructed through experience rather than cognition. This moves us towards an Indigenous view of morality.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
≈ 30 minutesTurning on the Connection System
Natureza Gabriel explains the importance of connection for wellbeing.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
≈ 45 minutesDeviations from the Nest: ACES
Dr. Vincent Felitti, Co-Principal Investigator of the ACES study, explains what it means for our wellbeing.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
≈ 60 minutesClinical Applications of the Polyvagal Theory
Deb Dana, LCSW helps us apply Polyvagal Theory to our wellbeing.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
60+ minutesFrom Head to Heart in Neurophysiology
Dr. Stephen Porges on the origins and implications of the Polyvagal Theory.
CONVERSATION
60+ minutesEscaping the Prison of the Mind
A conversation with Earl Simms about escaping the prison of our own thinking.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
≈ 30 minutesThe Greatest Distance in the World
Kuuyux Ilarion Merculieff on traversing the distance from the head to the heart.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
60+ minutesHeartfulness
A deep dive into mindful awareness, or mindfulness, which would be better termed 'heartfulness' in English.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
60+ minutesThe Original Language (or How to Talk to Everything)
Exploring the role of language in experiencing relatedness.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
≈ 60 minutesThe Language of Transformation
A conversation with Tiokasin Ghosthorse about the language of intuition.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
≈ 60 minutesExiting the Language of Domination
The Lakota language has no words for domination.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
60+ minutesPeace with the Earth
Tiokasin Ghosthorse explores the difference between peace on earth, and peace with earth.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
≈ 60 minutesPsychologies of Liberation
Dr. Mary Watkins on co-liberation and accompaniment.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
60+ minutesDeprogramming the Colonial Mind
How do we exit the thoughtforms of domination into which we have been socialized?
EDUCATIONAL FILM
≈ 60 minutesHealthy Relationships
Dr. David Mars explores the nature of what makes relationships healthy.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
≈ 60 minutesHow Whiteness Operates
Natureza Gabriel on the invisibilized inner workings of whiteness.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
≈ 30 minutesAn Unfinished Conversation about Race
Lee Mun Wah facilitates a deep inquiry into racism and what is required to dismantle it.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
60+ minutesIn Someone Else's Shoes
What would it feel like to live as a person of a different race?
EDUCATIONAL FILM
≈ 30 minutesRelational Mindfulness
Master Diversity trainer Lee Mun Wah on applying mindfulness in relationships.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
60+ minutesBuilding Peace
Pete Jackson explores the martial discipline of building peace within and around us by dismantling the constructs of war.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
≈ 60 minutes**
This is a navigational aid to help you see how the platform is organized. The tiles in the following section are frameworks.
The Analogy of Self as Water
Understanding Polyvagal Theory through the lens of water.
FRAMEWORK
≈ 20 minutes3 Steps: Assess, Down-Shift, Connect
An approach to figuring out how to work with your own distress.
FRAMEWORK
≈ 20 minutesCalming Anxiety
How can we understand anxiety differently so that we can calm it more effectively?
FRAMEWORK
≈ 10 minutesChange the Inputs
Your nervous system is an input/output system. So if you want to change how you feel, change the inputs.
FRAMEWORK
≈ 30 minutesDeviation from the Ancestral Baseline
Dr. Darcia Narvaez explains the origin of our deviations from ancestral baselines (cultural, individually, and with respect to worldview).
FRAMEWORK
≈ 30 minutesAn Illustrated Guide to Polyvagal Theory
We use imagery of the Polyvagal Theory to enter into its meaning and significance for our wellbeing.
FRAMEWORK
≈ 60 minutesInteroception and Neuroception
An exploration of the concepts of neuroception and interoception as they relate to healing.
FRAMEWORK
≈ 45 minutesNot Consuming Other People's Waste Energy
On not consuming the waste energy someone else hands you.
FRAMEWORK
≈ 30 minutesThe Shape of our Yearning for Relatedness
On the importance of learning to understand the shape of our yearning for relatedness.
FRAMEWORK
≈ 10 minutesTaking Charge of Your Own Wellness
A conversation with Dr. Tabatha Parker about taking charge of our own wellness.
FRAMEWORK
≈ 45 minutesTell Your Story
Because if you don't, someone else will– and you may not recognize it as your own.
FRAMEWORK
≈ 20 minutes***
This is a navigational aid to help you see how the platform is organized. Let's jump in. All the tiles that follow are practices.
Accompaniment
Practicing non-heirarchical reciprocal attunement (i.e., friendship).
RELATIONSHIPS PRACTICE
≈ 20 minutesAllow Yourself to Grieve
An exploration of working more skillfully with grief.
EMOTIONAL PRACTICE
≈ 20 minutesAncestral Neurotechnologies of Wellbeing
A conversation about connection phenomenology.
CONVERSATION
60+ minutesAnimal Rituals
Lest you think humans are the only creatures that engage in courtship rituals...
NATURE PRACTICE
≈ 7 MinutesApprentice to Grief
What does it mean to turn towards grief as teacher?
EMOTIONAL PRACTICE
≈ 10 minutesA Brief Illustrated Guide to Polyvagal Theory
Our shortest visual introduction to the work of Dr. Stephen Porges.
SELF PRACTICE
≈ 5 MinutesA Polyvagal Perspective on Resilience
Dr. Stephen Porges shares a polyvagal perspective on resilience.
CONVERSATION
≈ 45 minutesArt as a Vehicle for Self-Knowledge
How can we use art to find out more about who we really are?
CREATIVE PRACTICE
≈ 20 minutesThe Art of Witnessing another Human
How are we to bear witness to one another's humanity & what happens when we do?
RELATIONSHIPS PRACTICE
≈ 20 minutesAs the whirlwind intensifies
Staying centered in times of increasing intensity.
SELF PRACTICE
≈ 7 MinutesBarefoot Shoes
How barefoot shoes can contribute to your sense of wellbeing.
SENSORY PRACTICE
≈ 5 MinutesBefriend a Tree
Building ropes of connection with a particular tree & why you'd want to.
NATURE PRACTICE
≈ 7 MinutesBeings of the Ancient Future Now
Rediscovering original social circles and our Indigenous selves.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
≈ 60 minutesBird Language
Because you are the only animal in the forest who doesn't understand it.
NATURE PRACTICE
≈ 7 MinutesBoxing
A practice to restore the energy of self-defense and clarify boundaries.
RELATIONSHIPS PRACTICE
Build Friendships
On the challenges and opportunities of building friendships with people who are different than you.
RELATIONSHIPS PRACTICE
≈ 45 minutesBuild Multi-Cultural Communities
What it takes to build multi-cultural community.
RELATIONSHIPS PRACTICE
≈ 10 minutesBuilding Ropes
Exploring the San concept of building ropes of relatedness.
RELATIONSHIPS PRACTICE
≈ 7 MinutesClean Your Heart
How do we clean our hearts when we have been exiled from them because of unethical behavior?
EMOTIONAL PRACTICE
≈ 30 minutesComing out of a High Intensity Push
So you pulled an all-nighter, and now you can't sleep.
SELF PRACTICE
≈ 5 MinutesCommon Ways of Disconnecting
Twelve common ways people fall out of connection.
RELATIONSHIPS PRACTICE
≈ 15 minutesCompost Winter
Year-ending practices of inner composting and reflection in winter.
NATURE PRACTICE
≈ 5 MinutesThe Cure for Loneliness
How do we learn to bring our authentic self into relationship with others?
RELATIONSHIPS PRACTICE
The Daisy Model of Self-Regulation
A simple model for understanding how your nervous system works.
FRAMEWORK
≈ 30 minutesDiscover Tiny Moments of Unexpected Beauty
Finding the sublime hiding in the ordinary.
SELF PRACTICE
≈ 2 MinutesDismantling Deathways
Tiokasin Ghosthorse on the language required to recover the impulse of Life.
RELATIONSHIPS PRACTICE
60+ minutesDismantling the Construct of War
Pete Jackson explores Sun Tzu's The Art of War, and how the construct of war has been applied to society to divide us.
AWARENESS PRACTICE
≈ 45 minutesDream Tracking
John Stokes on applying the art and science of tracking to your dreams.
AWARENESS PRACTICE
≈ 30 minutesEasing out of the Pandemic
Helping your nervous system feel safe around others after two years of isolation.
SELF PRACTICE
≈ 20 minutesEmbodied Movement
Exploring the wheel of awareness through body movement.
MOVEMENT PRACTICE
≈ 30 minutesEmotional Yoga
A practice for contacting, clarifying, and metabolizing emotional energy.
EMOTIONAL PRACTICE
≈ 30 minutesExamine How You Use Language
Practice putting language in service to your evolution.
SELF PRACTICE
≈ 5 MinutesExplore Transition Zones
The zones of interface between different ecologies are often the most vibrant.
NATURE PRACTICE
≈ 5 MinutesFanning the Fires of Community
Sobonfu Somé on the heart of the village.
RELATIONSHIPS PRACTICE
≈ 10 minutesFeeding Your Confidence
This set of exercises is designed to nourish the root of your confidence.
SELF PRACTICE
≈ 15 minutesFeel Your Feelings
Many of us don't know how to fully experience our own emotions.
EMOTIONAL PRACTICE
≈ 20 minutesFour Sacred Colors, Four Sacred Gifts
Ilarion Merculieff explains the four sacred directions and the four sacred cultures.
INDIGENOUS LIFEWAYS
≈ 5 MinutesGet to Know your Local Flora and Fauna
Becoming familiar with the non-human inhabitants of place.
NATURE PRACTICE
≈ 10 minutesGetting Out of the Box
Tiokasin Ghosthorse on dissolving the mental box of the English language.
AWARENESS PRACTICE
≈ 15 minutesGratitude Practices
John Stokes on the importance of gratitude and its potential for healing.
AWARENESS PRACTICE
≈ 7 MinutesGrief Tending
On rituals for attending to our individual and collective grief.
EMOTIONAL PRACTICE
≈ 15 minutesHacking Your Connection System
Quick tricks for turning on the connection system.
SELF PRACTICE
≈ 5 MinutesHawa'iian Indigenous Natural Farming
Indigenous Hawaiian perspective on the land and spirituality.
INDIGENOUS LIFEWAYS
≈ 60 minutesHear Where You Are
Bio-acoustician Michael Stocker on the sense of hearing throughout the animal kingdom.
SENSORY PRACTICE
≈ 30 minutesHold Tight to Littles
Indigenous childrearing practices to optimize neurodevelopment.
RELATIONSHIPS PRACTICE
≈ 5 MinutesImplicit Bias & Owning Whiteness
On applying Polyvagal Theory to anti-racist practice.
RELATIONSHIPS PRACTICE
≈ 20 minutesLearn to Set Clear Boundaries
Exploring the power of setting clear boundaries.
RELATIONSHIPS PRACTICE
≈ 30 minutesLift Weights
Sometimes you need to push something heavy around–so it doesn't stay inside you.
MOVEMENT PRACTICE
Listening to the Story of State
Deb Dana, LCSW on listening to the autonomic state beneath our cognitive stories.
AWARENESS PRACTICE
≈ 5 MinutesMitákuye Oyás’iŋ
Tiokasin Ghoshorse on deeper meanings of the Lakota phrase Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ.
INDIGENOUS LIFEWAYS
≈ 2 MinutesMourning the Wild Destroyed
Mourning for places we love that have been harmed.
NATURE PRACTICE
≈ 15 minutesMystery Symptoms and Time Delays
Explores not being able to understand the relationship between changes in symptoms, and what caused them.
AWARENESS PRACTICE
≈ 5 MinutesNourish the Roots
Indigenous farming techniques for fortifying plant growth.
NATURE PRACTICE
≈ 45 minutesOpen your Heart
A Kundalini yoga practice for deepening feeling and opening the heart.
EMOTIONAL PRACTICE
≈ 10 minutesOrienting to the Four Directions
Becoming directionally oriented to the four cardinal directions.
NATURE PRACTICE
≈ 7 MinutesProgress is another word for domination
Progress is the transformation of Mother Earth into merchandise. And human beings and nature, as a whole, into labor and resources for the accumulation of wealth for the benefit of the few.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
≈ 60 minutesPrune Your Trees
Master Gardener Arthur Baker on the art and science of pruning.
NATURE PRACTICE
≈ 45 minutesThe Quick Checklist
If you don't feel good and you don't know why, try this quick list.
SELF PRACTICE
≈ 2 MinutesReflective Listening
Listening to understand what is important to the speaker.
RELATIONSHIPS PRACTICE
≈ 20 minutesThe Relationship between Immunity and Stress
How connection strengthens immunity.
SELF PRACTICE
≈ 7 MinutesResilience in the Black Community
Tiara Maldonaldo, Earl Simms, and Gloria Yamato on resilience.
CONVERSATION
60+ minutesResponsibilities versus Rights
Chief (and Professor) Oren Lyons on why it should have been a Bill of Responsibilities.
INDIGENOUS LIFEWAYS
≈ 5 MinutesRestoring the Sacred Feminine
Ilarion Merculieff on the importance of restoring the sacred feminine.
INDIGENOUS LIFEWAYS
≈ 20 minutesThe Root Disease of Modernity
Collective acculturation into the dissociation at the heart of modernity.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
≈ 10 minutesSecrets of Natural Movement
An extraordinary workout led by John Stokes.
MOVEMENT PRACTICE
≈ 45 minutesSelf-Compassion
Treating yourself the way a true friend would treat you.
AWARENESS PRACTICE
≈ 7 MinutesThe Seven Infinitive Forms of Domination
Back to the latin to understand how we got into this domination paradigm.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
≈ 60 minutesSmile
The neurophysiology of the smile and its importance as an access point to the Connection system.
EMOTIONAL PRACTICE
≈ 5 MinutesSmile when you Exercise
Turning on the connection system while you work out.
MOVEMENT PRACTICE
≈ 7 MinutesSpeaking from the Heart
On learning to speak from your heart– not your head.
AWARENESS PRACTICE
≈ 15 minutesSpoken Word
Jahan Khalighi demonstrates the power of the spoken word.
RELATIONSHIPS PRACTICE
≈ 5 MinutesStare Vacantly into the Distance
Boketto: The Japanese art of staring vacantly into the distance.
SENSORY PRACTICE
Take the Unpaved Road
Because it is about the journey, not the destination.
NATURE PRACTICE
≈ 2 MinutesThe Tao of Apocalypse
How embracing the destruction wing of creation can bring us life.
SELF PRACTICE
≈ 45 minutesThere Should be Wetlands Here
On the casual and normalized desecration of land in the name of progress.
NATURE PRACTICE
≈ 20 minutesToward Indigenous Models of Forest Stewardship
Beto Borges and Tashka Yawanawá on Indigenous models of stewarding forests.
INDIGENOUS LIFEWAYS
≈ 45 minutesTracking and the Arts of Life
An introduction to the art and science of hard-ground tracking with John Stokes.
NATURE PRACTICE
≈ 45 minutesTracking Basics: (Developing Intuition)
A simple outdoor practice for augmenting our intuitive abilities.
AWARENESS PRACTICE
≈ 5 MinutesTracking Physiology
The intersection of Polyvagal Theory and hard-ground tracking.
AWARENESS PRACTICE
≈ 20 minutesTracking the Movement of Attention
Moving attention through the eight channels.
AWARENESS PRACTICE
≈ 30 minutesTransforming Vicarious Trauma
A framework for addressing secondary traumatic stress for caregivers.
SELF PRACTICE
≈ 20 minutesTurning Your Nervous System into Your Ally
Dr. Jeff Rockwell on how to turn your nervous system into your friend.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
≈ 20 minutesThe Unangan Way
Kuuyux Ilarion Merculieff on his Unangan people's lifeways.
INDIGENOUS LIFEWAYS
≈ 45 minutesUnderstand the Realness of Others
The reason oppression exists is because we don't think others are as real as we are.
RELATIONSHIPS PRACTICE
Use Your Hands
On the importance of hand-work and the hand-made in wellbeing.
HAND-BASED PRACTICE
≈ 10 minutesVisit A Country Where You Don't Speak the Language
Explorations in stepping outside your cultural context.
RELATIONSHIPS PRACTICE
Vista Views
Looking out from high up is one of the two primal view situations of deepest relevance to our biology.
SENSORY PRACTICE
≈ 7 MinutesWash Their Hair
In Brasilian Portuguese, the word cafuné describes the sensuality of running your hands through someone's hair.
The Way of the Tracker
A very deep dive with John Stokes, Founder of the Tracking Project.
CONVERSATION
60+ minutesWays of Knowing with Your Feet
On non-cognitive ways of knowing: thinking with and through your feet.
AWARENESS PRACTICE
≈ 20 minutesWeaving Living Networks
Practical and tactical relational technologies for weaving living networks.
RELATIONSHIPS PRACTICE
≈ 30 minutesWhat is Technology?
An exploration of what we mean by the word 'technology'. Why don't we talk about ancestral technologies? Relational technologies? Cultural technologies?
FRAMEWORK
≈ 20 minutesWorking with Betrayal
On working with betrayal and other emotions you don't want to feel.
EMOTIONAL PRACTICE
≈ 20 minutesThe Yawanawa Light
Chief Tashka Yawanawá on the Indigenous Yawanawá people of Acre, Brasil.
EDUCATIONAL FILM
≈ 30 minutesYoga
Which comes from the Sanskrit word for 'yoke': as in yoking the mind and body together.
MOVEMENT PRACTICE