Listening to the Story of State

{6 minutes}

Listening to the Story of State

What story is our nervous system telling about our experience?

Founding faculty at the Polyvagal Institute, Deb Dana LCSW, LICSW walks us through the three different stories our nervous systems can tell about any event. This practice provides a profound window into how the present moment state of our nervous system - be it grounded in safety and connection, or fight and flight, or shutdown, will write the story of our experiences. It deepens something that we say in Polyvagal Theory, which is that story follows state. In other words, the story that we tell ourselves about what is happening is derived from the Autonomic state of the nervous system.

Related Practices:

This practices really fortifies our ability to self-assess and understand the way that our own nervous system works. It is excerpted from a longer conversation with Deb called Clinical Applications of the Polyvagal Theory. It expands upon and deepens the first part of 3 Steps: Assess, Down-Regulation, Connect. It is connected, conceptually, to a deeper understanding of Polyvagal Theory, which you can gain through our film The Science of Safety, or our conversation with Dr. Stephen Porges about resilience: A Polyvagal Perspective on Resilience. This is also related to Core Neurobiological Self, and Coming out of Fight, Coming out of Flight, and Coming out of Freeze. See Interoception. It involves Tracking our own Physiology, and is related to the Pattern Language of Nature (we are part of nature) and to Bird Language, particularly the baseline distinction between safety and threat. If you'd like a brief introduction to the 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. With regard to healing traumas and down-shifting other distress states, see Healing Trauma. For another map of working with our attention, see Tracking the Movement of Attention.

Who taught us this?

The Polyvagal Theory is the pioneering work of Dr. Stephen Porges, PhD. Deb Dana is Founding Faculty, with Dr. Stephen Porges, of The Polyvagal Institute. She is the author of The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy, Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and Connection, and the forthcoming Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory. She is co-editor, with Dr. Stephen Porges, PhD of Clinical Applications of Polyvagal Theory, of which this deep learning platform, our Official Polyvagal posters, and our Restorative Practices of Wellbeing book/app are also examples.

Who taught us this?

The Polyvagal Theory is the pioneering work of Dr. Stephen Porges, PhD. Deb Dana is Founding Faculty, with Dr. Stephen Porges, of The Polyvagal Institute. She is the author of The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy, Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and Connection, and the forthcoming Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory. She is co-editor, with Dr. Stephen Porges, PhD of Clinical Applications of Polyvagal Theory, of which this deep learning platform, our Official Polyvagal posters, and our Restorative Practices of Wellbeing book/app are also examples.

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