A Framework

Self as Water

{13 minutes}

Self as Water

Our core neurobiological self

It was only recently, when filming Healthy Relationships with Dr. David Mars, when he said this phrase: core neurobiological self, that we realized this was the proper neuro-scientific way of speaking about something ancestrally deep that doesn't translate well into English and the modern view. Through trauma, the body-mind system becomes like a veil of increasing thickness, obscuring our relationship with our own essence.

Related Practices:

See Getting our Nervous Systems back to Normal. See Healthy Relationships, see Clinical Applications of Polyvagal Theory. See a Polyvagal Perspective on Resilience, The Unangan Way, Becoming a Real Human Being, Gratitude Practices, the Art & Science of Connection, and the films Turning on the Connection System, State of the Union, The Polyvagal Theory, Heartfulness. If you'd like a brief introduction to the Polyvagal theory, visit our Brief Illustrated Guide to Polyvagal Theory. For a comprehensive exploration of the theory with its developer, see The Future of Medicine and Mental Health, with Dr. Stephen Porges, PhD. See Polyvagal Mapping. With regard to healing traumas and down-shifting other distress states, see Healing Trauma.

Who taught us this?

We learned this from many people. This framework unites strands of indigenous awareness with the Polyvagal Theory, marrying ancient ancestral awareness practices with the cutting-edge of neurophysiology. The notion of core neurobiological self came to us via David Mars, PhD, who learned it from Antonio Damasio (1999), see The Feeling of What Happens, and Jaak Panksepp (1998-2008).

Go Deeper...

See the chapter of the same title in our book Restorative Practices of Wellbeing.

Who taught us this?

We learned this from many people. This framework unites strands of indigenous awareness with the Polyvagal Theory, marrying ancient ancestral awareness practices with the cutting-edge of neurophysiology. The notion of core neurobiological self came to us via David Mars, PhD, who learned it from Antonio Damasio (1999), see The Feeling of What Happens, and Jaak Panksepp (1998-2008).

Video: | Photography: | Licensed from Pexels.com, used with permission.