Full Transcript for You Know Better. So Why Does Your Body Still React?

the flip side, for some of you, it might not feel like anxiety at all. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:58.319 It might feel like absence, like someone is speaking to you and you can hear them, but you feel several feet behind yourself, almost as though you're kind of observing like your own life through glass, or you walk into a room and your attention immediately leaves your own body and moves toward everyone else. 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:12.400 And in these moments, when you're monitoring the world around you, it's like you notice just the smallest changes in tone, the slight withdrawal, the expression that disappeared almost as quickly as it arrived. 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:19.120 And before you've even consciously decided to assess the room in this way, your body already has. 00:03:19.840 --> 00:03:32.159 Now, regardless for what side you fall on, it's likely that the place that you see all of this most clearly is in the moments that you wish you could take back. 00:03:32.479 --> 00:03:42.479 Like when your child asks you for something for the fourth time while you're trying to get everyone out the door and your response just comes out a little bit sharper than you intended. 00:03:42.639 --> 00:03:46.879 And then almost immediately another part of you arrives and says, Why did I do that? 00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:50.159 I know, I know better. 00:03:50.719 --> 00:03:56.000 But that sentence, I know better, contains so much of what I want to talk about today. 00:03:56.240 --> 00:03:58.639 Because you may, in fact, know better. 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:00.479 You likely know better, right? 00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:02.879 You've spent years knowing better. 00:04:03.039 --> 00:04:11.759 You may understand your childhood and your attachment patterns and your triggers and your trauma responses and your relationships and coping strategies. 00:04:12.400 --> 00:04:15.439 You may have done years of therapy. 00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:18.240 You may have read the books and listened to the podcasts. 00:04:18.399 --> 00:04:20.480 Hello, we're here listening to another one. 00:04:20.800 --> 00:04:26.319 You may be able to explain yourself with extraordinary accuracy. 00:04:26.639 --> 00:04:35.040 And your body may still react before any of that knowledge has a chance to step in and to intervene. 00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:42.079 And I think this is one of the most difficult and demoralizing places to arrive in healing. 00:04:42.160 --> 00:04:45.759 And I know this because I experienced it myself. 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:53.759 And it feels that way because it can create the illusion that all of the work that you have done hasn't worked. 00:04:54.079 --> 00:04:57.439 But I don't think that's necessarily what's happening here. 00:04:57.600 --> 00:05:06.560 I think sometimes we have simply misunderstood what kind of change we were asking that work to create. 00:05:07.120 --> 00:05:18.480 Your symptoms make considerably more sense when we stop asking only what is wrong and begin asking what the body learned to do. 00:05:18.959 --> 00:05:22.399 Anxiety can be anticipatory protection. 00:05:22.560 --> 00:05:30.560 Hypervigilance can be a body that became exquisitely skilled at detecting changes in its own environment. 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:40.240 Shutdown can be a body or an organism reducing contact with experience when that experience becomes too much. 00:05:40.480 --> 00:05:47.920 Our reactivity, think of it as mobilization arriving faster than our conscious choice does. 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:52.800 Now, that doesn't mean every response is useful now. 00:05:53.120 --> 00:06:02.160 It doesn't absolve us of responsibility for how our adaptations or what I call strategies affect other people. 00:06:02.560 --> 00:06:07.680 And it doesn't mean that every symptom should just be romanticized as wisdom. 00:06:07.839 --> 00:06:09.360 I want to set that straight. 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:12.879 Instead, it means there is context here. 00:06:13.120 --> 00:06:15.680 And context changes the question. 00:06:15.920 --> 00:06:28.639 So by the end of today's episode, I want you to understand why your body can continue doing something long after you intellectually understand it. 00:06:29.199 --> 00:06:38.480 And I want you to actually experience one way of working with the part of you that talking has not been able to reach. 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:43.759 Because the truth and the reality is the body is not failing to listen to you. 00:06:44.079 --> 00:06:48.560 It may simply have learned through a language other than words. 00:06:48.800 --> 00:06:52.079 Hello, my friends, and welcome to the Body First Healing Podcast. 00:06:52.160 --> 00:06:53.839 My name is Britt Piper. 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:59.439 I am your host, somatic experiencing practitioner, trainer, author, and speaker. 00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:00.480 All right, my friends. 00:07:00.560 --> 00:07:06.959 So let's first talk about when you understand the pattern, but you're still chronically living inside of it. 00:07:07.199 --> 00:07:14.639 So there is a particular frustration that I hear from people who have already done substantial healing work. 00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:22.160 They aren't coming to somatic work because they have never reflected on themselves. 00:07:22.480 --> 00:07:25.040 Usually it's the opposite. 00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:30.720 They are deeply reflective, they have language, they have insight. 00:07:30.879 --> 00:07:35.360 They can often tell me exactly why they respond the way that they do. 00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:41.279 And then they'll say something like, Britt, I understand all of this. 00:07:41.439 --> 00:07:42.800 Why am I still doing it? 00:07:42.959 --> 00:07:59.519 And that question matters because it exposes an assumption that we make about change, that if we can understand something clearly enough, eventually the body and the nervous system should follow. 00:07:59.839 --> 00:08:02.480 And don't get me wrong, sometimes it does. 00:08:02.639 --> 00:08:02.959

Okay. 00:08:03.199 --> 00:08:05.360 Insight is very powerful. 00:08:05.600 --> 00:08:11.439 Language can organize experiences that once felt chaotic. 00:08:11.600 --> 00:08:14.720 You know, for me, therapy helped me to make meaning. 00:08:14.959 --> 00:08:23.680 It helped me to challenge my distorted beliefs and to build relational capacity and understand the story of my life differently. 00:08:23.920 --> 00:08:29.439 So I would never want to diminish that work simply because I teach somatics. 00:08:29.839 --> 00:08:41.759 But insight is not the only way that a human organism, our body, our nervous system, our brain, the totality of who we are learns. 00:08:42.080 --> 00:08:46.320 There is a kind of memory called procedural memory. 00:08:46.639 --> 00:08:56.639 And I think it gives us an incredibly useful doorway into understanding why the body can seem to lag behind the mind. 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:01.440 Procedural memory is often described as the memory of how. 00:09:02.159 --> 00:09:02.480 Okay. 00:09:02.799 --> 00:09:06.399 It is a form of body or implicit memory. 00:09:06.559 --> 00:09:08.240 Think of it as muscle memory. 00:09:08.399 --> 00:09:08.720 Okay. 00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:14.559 Now, example, you're getting on a bike after years of not riding one. 00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:15.039 Okay. 00:09:15.679 --> 00:09:23.519 You don't need to stand beside the bike and consciously remember with your mind every muscular adjustment required to balance, right? 00:09:23.840 --> 00:09:32.000 Your body has learned an organized sequence through repetition and experience. 00:09:32.399 --> 00:09:38.000 Now, trauma responses are obviously more complex than riding a bike. 00:09:38.159 --> 00:09:40.000 Okay, we can definitely agree with that. 00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:56.480 And that is that the nervous system can learn patterns of action without requiring a conscious story to initiate those responses. 00:09:56.639 --> 00:09:56.960 Okay. 00:09:57.120 --> 00:10:02.639 It can learn that when someone's tone changes, we monitor them more closely. 00:10:02.879 --> 00:10:10.000 When conflict begins to appear, we appease or keep the peace or forego our boundaries. 00:10:10.320 --> 00:10:14.960 When closeness becomes uncertain, we pursue and we chase. 00:10:15.120 --> 00:10:20.559 When emotion becomes overwhelming, we disappear and disconnect from sensation. 00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:32.960 This is why a person can sit in therapy and genuinely know I am not trapped anymore and still feel their body collapse during conflict. 00:10:33.200 --> 00:10:36.720 So your conscious understanding isn't necessarily false. 00:10:36.799 --> 00:10:37.120 Okay. 00:10:37.200 --> 00:10:39.840 And your body's response isn't false either. 00:10:40.080 --> 00:10:45.679 They are different forms of learning existing in the same human being. 00:10:45.919 --> 00:11:05.519 And this is where I think healing becomes much more interesting because instead of spending all of our energy trying to convince the body that its response is irrational, we can begin asking what kind of experience would allow the body to update what it expects. 00:11:05.759 --> 00:11:12.240 A nervous system is constantly making predictions based on what has happened before. 00:11:12.480 --> 00:11:12.799 Okay. 00:11:12.960 --> 00:11:21.679 It is not waiting just passively for reality to happen and then responding from scratch every single time. 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:33.360 It is using prior experience and filtering that experience to anticipate what is likely to happen next and then preparing the body accordingly. 00:11:33.519 --> 00:11:36.240 Okay, this is extraordinarily useful. 00:11:36.399 --> 00:11:40.559 You wouldn't want to consciously relearn the world every morning, right? 00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:42.080 Think about it in that way. 00:11:42.320 --> 00:11:52.399 But it also means that a pattern can persist because from the body's perspective, it remains the best available prediction. 00:11:52.639 --> 00:12:04.399 So this is part of why I don't love the language of getting rid of trauma responses or nervous system responses and expanding its choice, its flexibility. 00:12:04.639 --> 00:12:14.399 So for instance, ifilance has been the body's most reliable way of staying connected to other people, we don't want to rip vigilance away. 00:12:14.639 --> 00:12:26.559 Instead, we help the body and the nervous system to discover that there are moments when attention can return to the self and that connection can still remain. 00:12:26.879 --> 00:12:38.639 So ultimately, the body and the nervous system updates through experience, through showing, not telling, which means that at some point we have to give it a new experience. 00:12:38.879 --> 00:12:47.440 So for the next few minutes, we are going to stop talking about your nervous system and we're actually going to work with it. 00:12:47.679 --> 00:12:52.080 Okay, let's get into just a short, brief somatic practice. 00:12:52.240 --> 00:13:00.159 So if you are driving or doing anything that requires your full attention, of course, I wouldn't recommend doing this practice right now. 00:13:00.320 --> 00:13:01.759 Definitely come back to it. 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:06.720 And wherever you are, just remember that you are in charge of the pace here. 00:13:06.879 --> 00:13:07.200 Okay. 00:13:07.679 --> 00:13:10.000 Your eyes can remain open. 00:13:10.159 --> 00:13:11.679 You can stop at any point. 00:13:11.840 --> 00:13:14.080 You can do less than I suggest. 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:14.559 Okay. 00:13:14.639 --> 00:13:21.200 There's no benefit to overriding yourself in the name of doing a somatic practice quote correctly. 00:13:21.440 --> 00:13:27.440 Now, I also just want to say that we are also not going to begin by just diving into the body. 00:13:27.600 --> 00:13:27.840 Okay. 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:36.080 For someone who is maybe highly activated, internal sensation can already feel really loud. 00:13:36.320 -->

00:13:36.639 Okay. 00:13:36.879 --> 00:13:46.320 For someone, for instance, who's dissociated, being told to suddenly go inside can feel inaccessible or even really destabilizing. 00:13:46.480 --> 00:13:50.639 So instead, we are going to begin with something a bit simpler. 00:13:50.879 --> 00:13:51.200 Okay. 00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:58.080 We are going to allow the nervous system to gather information about where you are now. 00:13:58.720 --> 00:14:08.080 So my invitation to you, without changing anything, can you allow your eyes to just notice the space around you? 00:14:12.080 --> 00:14:16.320 And we don't need to, you know, search for something like calming. 00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:19.279 We don't need to find the prettiest thing in the room. 00:14:21.120 --> 00:14:27.279 We're just allowing the eyes to move at a pace that feels natural. 00:14:27.840 --> 00:14:36.000 And we're also allowing ourselves to just take in a little more of the environment than we were taking in just a moment ago. 00:14:41.519 --> 00:14:44.080 Okay, maybe notice what's in front of you. 00:14:46.960 --> 00:14:54.720 And then without, you know, forcing your head to necessarily move, can we allow our vision to become just a little bit wider? 00:14:55.600 --> 00:15:00.879 Okay, so for me, I'm noticing just kind of the window off to my right, out of my peripheral. 00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:10.720 Okay, just allow yourself to register that there's more to the space than the single point that you were just focused on. 00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:22.240 Alright, now allow your eyes to move again one more time. 00:15:23.519 --> 00:15:26.000 And to just land somewhere naturally. 00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:35.600 And if they do land and pause, can you just allow that to happen? 00:15:35.919 --> 00:15:38.240 Allow them to rest there for a moment. 00:15:45.519 --> 00:15:53.279 Maybe just notice just one ordinary detail about what you're seeing. 00:15:56.159 --> 00:15:59.759 Maybe it's the way that the light falls against something. 00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:14.879 Maybe it's a texture, an edge, a shape, movement outside a window. 00:16:15.919 --> 00:16:18.879 Okay, there's no correct object here. 00:16:20.480 --> 00:16:24.480 We're simply giving the orienting system. 00:16:25.200 --> 00:16:28.960 Okay, our sensory motor system is always orienting. 00:16:30.559 --> 00:16:36.799 We're giving our orienting system time to receive present day information. 00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:42.559 How is our body showing us that we are here right now? 00:16:48.399 --> 00:16:49.039 All right. 00:16:49.759 --> 00:16:55.919 So now I'll just invite you to notice that your body exists inside of a larger environment. 00:17:00.320 --> 00:17:04.319 We call this our peripersonal space, our peripersonal bubble, right? 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:06.240 There's space in front of you. 00:17:09.200 --> 00:17:12.000 There's space on either side of you. 00:17:14.480 --> 00:17:23.359 And even without turning your head around, you may be

able to register that the world continues behind you as well. 00:17:31.599 --> 00:17:38.319 Now just start to see if you can begin to notice just where your body is being supported right now. 00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:49.519 So if you're sitting, for instance, you might notice the surface or the contact underneath you. 00:17:52.240 --> 00:18:02.799 Okay, we're not noticing whether we like it or whether it makes us relax, just the fact that something is holding some of your weight. 00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:13.519 If you're standing, you can notice just where your feet meet the ground. 00:18:16.720 --> 00:18:27.440 Okay, if you're walking somewhere safe enough to continue listening, maybe just notice the change in contact as one foot meets the ground and then the other. 00:18:37.359 --> 00:18:45.200 And in fact, you know, I might encourage you to see if you can release the expectation that this practice is supposed to calm you down. 00:18:48.079 --> 00:18:52.720 Instead, we're just getting curious about what is already happening. 00:18:55.680 --> 00:18:59.839 You know, maybe you notice pressure where your body meets the chair. 00:19:01.119 --> 00:19:08.880 Maybe you notice the temperature of your hands or the contact of clothing against your skin. 00:19:09.039 --> 00:19:15.440 Maybe you're noticing the movement of breathing without forcing it or trying to deepen it. 00:19:15.759 --> 00:19:22.960 And maybe this is common, maybe internal sensation feels difficult to access today. 00:19:23.599 --> 00:19:27.599 And if that's true, can you just stay with the outside world? 00:19:28.319 --> 00:19:32.799 Okay, we don't have to go inward simply because I invited you there. 00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:44.640 So we're either orienting inward, which we call interoception, or we're orienting outward, which we call extrosception. 00:19:44.960 --> 00:19:53.440 Okay, so if there's somewhere in your body that feels relatively neutral, okay, see if your attention can rest there for a moment. 00:19:56.559 --> 00:20:01.039 Okay, and I'm not saying it has to be the safest place or even just the calmest place. 00:20:06.720 --> 00:20:11.359 Think of this as being somewhere that isn't asking very much from you. 00:20:16.240 --> 00:20:24.559 And from that place, is there any weight, any temperature, any pressure, tingling stillness? 00:20:26.400 --> 00:20:29.039 Maybe you can't quite find words for it. 00:20:29.440 --> 00:20:30.559 We don't need words. 00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:31.920 That's okay. 00:20:34.160 --> 00:20:42.880 But just notice what happens when you allow your attention to remain there without trying to amplify the sensation or hold on to it. 00:20:46.160 --> 00:20:49.359 And then can we allow our attention to widen again? 00:20:51.920 --> 00:20:58.000 See if you can be aware of that place in your body while also remembering the room around you. 00:21:04.640 --> 00:21:17.200 I think this is a moment where there's kind of that invitation to just remember that we don't have to disappear into our bodies, tracking our sensations in order to be quote, quote, embodied. 00:21:17.519 --> 00:21:23.359 Okay, we can be here in our bodies and still connect into the world around us. 00:21:26.799 --> 00:21:31.519 Now I'll just invite you to see if there's any small adjustment that your body wants to make. 00:21:32.559 --> 00:21:39.440 Okay, and this isn't necessarily an instruction to move, it's just an invitation and notice whether an impulse is already there. 00:21:40.960 --> 00:21:44.079 So for me, I'm kind of stretching out my back a little bit. 00:21:45.680 --> 00:21:47.759 Which is followed by a yawn. 00:21:49.200 --> 00:21:49.519 Right. 00:21:49.599 --> 00:21:59.680 So maybe your posture wants to change, maybe your jaw wants to move, or maybe you want to shift your weight, you know, stretch your body, stretch your fingers, or maybe your body. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:02.799 Wants just absolutely nothing from you. 00:22:03.920 --> 00:22:06.240 Okay, let that be true too. 00:22:08.240 --> 00:22:17.920 Alright, and now without evaluating the practice, okay, just see if there's anything that feels different from when we began. 00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:20.799 And notice I didn't say better. 00:22:21.039 --> 00:22:23.039 Okay, I just said different. 00:22:23.759 --> 00:22:27.680 Okay, maybe you can feel the floor more clearly. 00:22:27.839 --> 00:22:31.680 Maybe your breath has started to change on its own. 00:22:31.920 --> 00:22:35.279 Maybe your eyes are just taking in more of the room. 00:22:36.559 --> 00:22:40.880 Maybe you feel more sensation or less if it was really loud. 00:22:41.039 --> 00:22:43.359 Maybe an emotion appeared. 00:22:44.799 --> 00:22:48.480 Maybe you're irritated that I keep asking you to notice things. 00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:49.039 Okay. 00:22:49.759 --> 00:22:51.599 And maybe you feel exactly the same. 00:22:51.759 --> 00:22:53.920 Okay, all of that is information. 00:22:55.680 --> 00:23:01.680 Alright, so as we close out our practice, just allow your eyes to register the space one more time. 00:23:02.799 --> 00:23:04.880 Just noticing where you are. 00:23:07.839 --> 00:23:08.160 Okay. 00:23:08.960 --> 00:23:15.359 And then give yourself a moment to just come fully back into whatever you were doing before we started. 00:23:19.039 --> 00:23:28.319 Now, before your mind immediately starts grading that experience, I want to catch you. 00:23:28.480 --> 00:23:41.279 Okay, because there is a tendency, especially among people who've done a lot of personal work, to turn even a five-minute encounter with the body into another performance metric. 00:23:41.519 --> 00:23:42.880 And man, was this me? 00:23:43.359 --> 00:23:43.599 Right? 00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:44.960 Did I did I regulate? 00:23:45.119 --> 00:23:46.079 Did I feel enough? 00:23:46.240 --> 00:23:48.480 Was that the sensation I was supposed to find? 00:23:48.559 --> 00:23:50.880 Like, why couldn't I access anything? 00:23:51.200 --> 00:23:55.519 The

point wasn't to produce a state or to produce a feeling. 00:23:55.680 --> 00:24:06.880 The point was to create an experience in which you remained in relationship with yourself without forcing your physiology to become something else. 00:24:07.119 --> 00:24:16.079 Okay, some people might notice a spontaneous breath or a swallow or warmth or maybe more visual clarity. 00:24:16.559 --> 00:24:22.720 There could be a small muscular release or just kind of this overall sense of being more present. 00:24:23.039 --> 00:24:33.119 For others, you might be landing after that practice, feeling or noticing maybe discomfort that you hadn't been aware of until now. 00:24:33.519 --> 00:24:35.519 And some people notice very little. 00:24:35.759 --> 00:24:36.079 Okay. 00:24:36.559 --> 00:24:43.839 Okay, so practices like this, you know, we're not trying to prove that we can withstand more, more discomfort. 00:24:44.160 --> 00:24:51.039 We are creating the conditions in which your nervous system doesn't have to protect you quite so intensely. 00:24:51.359 --> 00:24:53.440 So this practice is yours now. 00:24:53.599 --> 00:25:02.480 Okay, we've made it its own chapter in this podcast episode so that you can come back to it without having to find the entire conversation again. 00:25:02.720 --> 00:25:10.240 And now I just want to transition, okay, and I want to talk about the difference between a moment and a capacity. 00:25:10.960 --> 00:25:16.240 So whatever you notice during that practice matters so much. 00:25:16.960 --> 00:25:22.079 But I also don't want to inflate it into something that it isn't. 00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:22.480 Okay. 00:25:22.640 --> 00:25:37.359 A few minutes of orienting can give the nervous system a new reference point, but it cannot undo years of adaptation and procedural patterns, okay, in one sitting. 00:25:37.599 --> 00:25:45.440 And anything free on the internet or paid for on the internet, okay, that implies 10 minutes will permanently reset your nervous system. 00:25:45.599 --> 00:25:50.559 They are selling you a fantasy about how biological change actually happens. 00:25:50.799 --> 00:25:51.039 Okay. 00:25:51.200 --> 00:26:02.400 This is one of the places where I think nervous system culture has accidentally reproduced the same urgency that many people are actually trying to heal from. 00:26:02.559 --> 00:26:06.799 And that can look like becoming obsessed with the release, right? 00:26:06.960 --> 00:26:15.359 The somatic release, the shake, the cry, the breakthrough, the dramatic moment when the body finally lets something go. 00:26:15.759 --> 00:26:30.480 Those experiences can absolutely be meaningful, but they are not the metric that somatic experiencing practitioners, which is the modality that I'm professionally trained in, that is not the metric that we go off of. 00:26:30.880 --> 00:26:32.640 We measure capacity. 00:26:33.039 --> 00:26:39.680 Okay, and capacity is less glamorous because you usually recognize it after the fact. 00:26:39.920 --> 00:26:40.240 Okay. 00:26:40.400 --> 00:26:46.160 It is realizing six months later that a difficult conversation didn't consume the rest of your week. 00:26:46.319 --> 00:26:53.039 It is noticing that someone else's disappointment no longer immediately becomes an emergency that you have to fix. 00:26:53.279 --> 00:27:01.759 It can be feeling anger and discovering that you can remain present enough to decide what you want to do with that. 00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:02.720 And stress. 00:27:02.880 --> 00:27:04.160 I mean, let's talk about stress. 00:27:04.240 --> 00:27:08.640 It can be feeling stressed, which we feel all of the time, right? 00:27:08.880 --> 00:27:12.880 Without interpreting stress itself as evidence that you are unsafe. 00:27:13.039 --> 00:27:13.359 Okay. 00:27:13.839 --> 00:27:23.119 That kind of change tends to be built incrementally because nervous systems adapt through repeated experience. 00:27:23.680 --> 00:27:29.440 Now, think about as an example, what happens when we build physical strength. 00:27:29.599 --> 00:27:29.920 Okay. 00:27:30.160 --> 00:27:31.759 The body needs weight. 00:27:31.920 --> 00:27:32.160 Okay. 00:27:32.240 --> 00:27:33.359 Think of dumbbells. 00:27:33.440 --> 00:27:35.119 It needs weight, what we call load. 00:27:35.359 --> 00:27:39.279 But load alone doesn't create strength. 00:27:39.599 --> 00:27:41.680 The dose actually matters. 00:27:41.839 --> 00:27:42.160 Okay. 00:27:42.559 --> 00:27:44.240 Recovery matters. 00:27:44.480 --> 00:27:46.079 Repetition matters. 00:27:46.160 --> 00:27:47.599 It doesn't happen overnight. 00:27:47.759 --> 00:27:50.559 Now, the nervous system is the same. 00:27:50.640 --> 00:27:50.960 Okay. 00:27:51.119 --> 00:27:54.960 It doesn't just change its patterns overnight. 00:27:55.119 --> 00:27:55.440 Okay. 00:27:55.599 --> 00:28:00.799 The ways that it shows up, these survival strategies, these procedural patterns. 00:28:01.039 --> 00:28:03.200 It adapts over time. 00:28:03.759 --> 00:28:08.799 So nervous system capacity asks something very similar of us. 00:28:08.880 --> 00:28:09.200 Okay. 00:28:09.279 --> 00:28:11.599 The goal is not a life without activation. 00:28:11.680 --> 00:28:14.480 And activation, we really just mean stress. 00:28:14.720 --> 00:28:18.720 And that's something that we explore deeply in the body first healing program. 00:28:19.039 --> 00:28:28.319 And I actually think that idea profoundly misunderstands biology because a healthy nervous system should mobilize. 00:28:28.480 --> 00:28:28.799 Okay. 00:28:29.039 --> 00:28:35.279 It should give you energy when something matters, when something feels stressful or activating. 00:28:35.359 --> 00:28:37.759 It should help you defend a boundary. 00:28:38.079 --> 00:28:42.079 It should increase your vigilance when there is genuine danger. 00:28:42.319 --> 00:28:48.240 It should conserve energy when resources are really scarce and you are just spread thin. 00:28:48.480 --> 00:28:48.799 Okay.

00:28:48.960 --> 00:28:57.359 So healing cannot mean eliminating the very survival and nervous system responses that kept our species alive. 00:28:57.599 --> 00:29:13.119 What we are looking for is the key term here: flexibility, which is the ability for our nervous system to respond or to go into survival mode, we could say, without becoming indefinitely stuck there. 00:29:13.279 --> 00:29:13.599 Okay. 00:29:13.920 --> 00:29:16.079 And that takes practice. 00:29:16.240 --> 00:29:24.799 And it's not because we're doing, you know, healing wrong if it takes time, but because adaptation itself does take time. 00:29:25.039 --> 00:29:29.200 So that's what the Body First Healing program was really built around. 00:29:29.440 --> 00:29:36.160 And I just want to say if you're not ready for something like that, I have a free nervous system assessment linked in the show notes. 00:29:36.319 --> 00:29:37.839 Okay, you can begin there. 00:29:38.079 --> 00:29:44.640 And that's a place where you can learn a little bit more about the patterns that your own system tends toward. 00:29:44.960 --> 00:29:56.480 But for those of you who have been wondering what it would actually look like to spend more than a podcast episode learning this work and experiencing this work, then I want to give you some clarity around that. 00:29:56.640 --> 00:29:56.880 Okay. 00:29:56.960 --> 00:30:02.079 So let's talk about just what six months of body first healing work actually looks like. 00:30:02.240 --> 00:30:02.559 Okay. 00:30:03.039 --> 00:30:11.279 I first just want to say that I didn't come to this work because I needed another like interesting thing to study. 00:30:11.440 --> 00:30:13.119 Like I am such a nerd. 00:30:13.279 --> 00:30:15.119 My bookshelves are next to me right now. 00:30:15.200 --> 00:30:16.400 They are piled high. 00:30:16.559 --> 00:30:16.880 Okay. 00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:36.720 I came to it because after nearly 15 years of walking the traditional route of talk therapy and a cocktail of medications and just doing all of the things that so many of us are told to do when we are recovering, healing, or trying to become more well. 00:30:37.440 --> 00:30:43.519 There were still places that my understanding or that my talking could not reach. 00:30:43.759 --> 00:30:49.519 Kind of like I mentioned at the beginning of the episode, I had language for exactly what had happened to me. 00:30:49.680 --> 00:30:50.720 I had the insight. 00:30:51.039 --> 00:30:52.240 I had sought help. 00:30:52.400 --> 00:31:01.200 I could tell a very coherent story about my experiences and understand why certain things affected me the way that they did. 00:31:01.440 --> 00:31:03.279 So none of that work was wasted. 00:31:03.440 --> 00:31:06.000 I mean, some of it absolutely changed my life. 00:31:06.240 --> 00:31:13.200 But there was a difference between being able to explain my body and being able to inhabit it. 00:31:13.440 --> 00:31:22.160 In other words, there were things that I understood

cognitively that my physiology had not yet learned experientially. 00:31:22.640 --> 00:31:36.799 And this is why for so many of those years, I was stuck in the debilitating cycles and patterns of coping strategies that became really destructive to my health, to my relationships, and just my overall well-being. 00:31:37.039 --> 00:31:47.200 Now, once I began working at the level of the body, healing became less about collecting just another explanation for myself. 00:31:47.440 --> 00:31:52.240 And it became more about creating different experiences inside of myself. 00:31:52.400 --> 00:31:58.079 Now, that distinction eventually became foundational to the way that I work. 00:31:58.319 --> 00:32:10.319 And that sounded like, you know, not how do we get rid of this symptom or this coping strategy as quickly as possible, but what makes this response make sense? 00:32:10.559 --> 00:32:13.039 You know, what is the body attempting to accomplish? 00:32:13.119 --> 00:32:21.039 And how do we help it develop more options than the ones that it learned when options were limited? 00:32:21.279 --> 00:32:24.799 Okay, so that is the work underneath the body first healing program. 00:32:25.119 --> 00:32:31.680 Now, the body first healing program is a six-month program because I don't think this work lends itself to being rushed. 00:32:31.759 --> 00:32:32.079 Okay. 00:32:32.160 --> 00:32:44.160 In the somatic experiencing world, we really value what we call titration, which is slow, tolerable baby steps in helping the nervous system to stretch but not stress. 00:32:44.400 --> 00:32:44.640 Okay. 00:32:44.799 --> 00:32:48.880 We always say that slower is actually faster when it comes to nervous system work. 00:32:49.200 --> 00:32:57.440 Now, the format, okay, there is a self-paced educational curriculum because understanding your nervous system does matter. 00:32:57.599 --> 00:32:57.920 Okay. 00:32:58.319 --> 00:33:04.240 But the program is deliberately built so that information is paired with experience. 00:33:04.480 --> 00:33:37.279 So throughout those six months, you're learning the framework while practicing it in your actual life with weekly nervous system gym sessions, live question and answer calls with me weekly, live somatic experiencing, one-on-one sessions with me, a community connection and co-regulation call, and also a private community, as well as an on-demand library of somatic practices that you can return to when you need support. 00:33:37.519 --> 00:33:43.039 Now, the curriculum itself can begin with roughly 30 to 45 minutes a week. 00:33:43.200 --> 00:33:43.440 Okay. 00:33:43.599 --> 00:33:50.799 These are bite-sized little lessons every week in the suggested program schedule and their videos that you watch. 00:33:51.039 --> 00:33:57.680 And then you can choose how much of the additional live support or the live calls make sense for you. 00:33:57.839 --> 00:34:13.360 Now there's also flex time built into the program, okay, because I have no interest in turning healing into just another rigid standard that you might fail at when your child gets sick or work explodes, or life just simply becomes life. 00:34:13.519 --> 00:34:13.840 Okay. 00:34:14.000 --> 00:34:25.119 So in this program is where your body begins discovering through repetition rather than persuasion that there are other ways to move through the world. 00:34:25.440 --> 00:34:35.840 And rather than me telling you what that impact can look like, I want you to hear directly from previous graduates about the impact that this program has made in their lives. 00:34:36.719 --> 00:34:40.000 Hi, I'm Donna, and this is my story in a nutshell. 00:34:40.239 --> 00:34:50.159 Some of my symptoms were abdominal discomfort, bloating, muscle spasms, sensitivities in my nose, my eyes, my ears, fatigue and brain fog. 00:34:50.239 --> 00:34:54.559 I found Brit and decided to give the Body First Healing Program a try. 00:34:55.679 --> 00:34:59.760 Here I am six months later to try to explain what this has been like for me. 00:35:01.039 --> 00:35:12.400 Britt consistently continued to answer my questions, to encourage me, and just acknowledge that what was happening made complete sense and that I wasn't crazy. 00:35:14.159 --> 00:35:18.559 Yeah, I was so thankful for that, and I've felt really supported throughout this whole process. 00:35:18.800 --> 00:35:26.719 The difference between then and now, the original symptoms are completely gone, and I gained resilience and capacity to move through hard things. 00:35:26.880 --> 00:35:29.760 Probably the biggest takeaway was just what I learned about my own body. 00:35:29.920 --> 00:35:35.920 We are designed with intentioned and with the capacity to truly heal. 00:35:36.480 --> 00:35:40.159 And it's beautiful and amazing and miraculous. 00:35:40.320 --> 00:35:44.719 And uh just really thankful for getting to learn this step. 00:35:44.800 --> 00:35:47.280 And I wish everybody could learn it. 00:35:47.519 --> 00:35:48.480 Thank you, Britt. 00:35:49.920 --> 00:35:59.199 So I'm 33, and for as long as I can remember, I've lived with anxiety, fear, intrusive thoughts, compulsions, OCD. 00:35:59.679 --> 00:36:05.519 For the first time in my life, I feel safe and I feel at home in my own body. 00:36:05.760 --> 00:36:11.440 Instead of kind of trying to think my way out of everything, I've learned to track what's happening in my body. 00:36:11.679 --> 00:36:14.079 I live far more in the present. 00:36:14.320 --> 00:36:21.840 And it feels like I'm I'm kind of seeing the world for the first time with like fresh eyes. 00:36:22.239 --> 00:36:32.079 And I'm now able to recognize those early signs of activation, and I feel like I've got this inner like well of resources. 00:36:32.320 --> 00:36:40.159 My relationship with my husband, with my friends, my family, and even my dogs have completely transformed. 00:36:40.400 --> 00:36:44.320 The Body First program has transformed my life. 00:36:44.559 --> 00:36:54.480 And

if you are considering it or thinking about whether it would be something, you know, that would be helpful, I would highly, highly recommend. 00:36:54.719 --> 00:36:57.519 It has just been life-changing for me. 00:36:57.599 --> 00:36:59.039 So thank you so much, Br. 00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:12.400 So I also want to be really clear about the scope of the program, okay, because good nervous system work requires honesty about what something can and cannot provide. 00:37:12.559 --> 00:37:12.880 Okay. 00:37:13.360 --> 00:37:15.280 This is a group program. 00:37:15.599 --> 00:37:18.639 It is not one-to-one trauma processing. 00:37:18.800 --> 00:37:24.960 And it also isn't just a substitute for therapy or medical care or psychiatric care. 00:37:25.199 --> 00:37:25.519 Okay. 00:37:25.679 --> 00:37:37.440 It is a structured six-month environment for learning and practicing and embodying nervous system work with guidance, with repetition, and with community around you. 00:37:37.679 --> 00:37:47.519 So if you have been listening to this episode thinking this is the next step, this is the missing puzzle piece in my healing journey. 00:37:47.840 --> 00:37:53.760 Then the next actual step is to simply apply through our application. 00:37:53.920 --> 00:38:01.840 We ask just a few questions because we want to understand what you're experiencing, what you've already tried, what kind of support you're looking for. 00:38:02.079 --> 00:38:13.840 After you submit the application, you'll receive information about the program and next steps so that you can make an informed decision about whether the structure really, really aligns for you. 00:38:14.079 --> 00:38:18.480 Now you can apply at bodyfirsthealing.com forward slash program. 00:38:18.880 --> 00:38:22.559 Again, that is bodyfirsthealing.com forward slash program. 00:38:22.800 --> 00:38:26.079 And of course, the link is down in the show notes. 00:38:26.400 --> 00:38:36.079 But whether you apply or never do anything else, okay, after this episode, I just want you to keep the practice that we did today. 00:38:36.239 --> 00:38:36.480 Okay. 00:38:36.559 --> 00:38:40.800 And maybe even more importantly, I want you to keep the question underneath it. 00:38:41.199 --> 00:38:50.719 The next time your body does the thing you wish it wouldn't do, just see what happens if you become curious before you become corrective. 00:38:50.960 --> 00:38:51.280 Okay. 00:38:51.440 --> 00:38:56.800 Not how do I make this stop, but what makes this response make sense? 00:38:57.039 --> 00:39:02.480 Okay, there is a very different relationship to the body on the other side of that question. 00:39:02.639 --> 00:39:06.880 And it doesn't mean that we surrender agency to every impulse. 00:39:07.039 --> 00:39:07.199 Okay. 00:39:07.360 --> 00:39:13.519 It doesn't mean that our histories and what we've been through excuse the ways that we affect other people. 00:39:14.079 --> 00:39:19.840 It means we stop requiring shame to be the mechanism of our change. 00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:26.800 Okay, we can take responsibility for a pattern without despising the body that learned it. 00:39:26.960 --> 00:39:35.840 Okay, our bodies and our nervous systems were incredibly brilliant and they learned to survive and adapt in overwhelming experiences. 00:39:36.480 --> 00:39:43.920 And so what we do here and what we do now is we just update those patterns because they're a little outdated. 00:39:44.079 --> 00:39:44.320 Okay. 00:39:44.480 --> 00:39:51.039 You can want something to change without treating its existence as evidence that you've failed. 00:39:51.119 --> 00:39:51.360 Okay. 00:39:51.519 --> 00:40:00.000 And you can understand that healing is sometimes less about finally finding the sentence that explains everything. 00:40:00.239 --> 00:40:10.960 And it's more about accumulating enough new somatic experiences that the body no longer has to organize the present entirely around the past. 00:40:11.360 --> 00:40:15.280 So whatever you decide, the practice in this episode is yours. 00:40:15.440 --> 00:40:17.920 Okay, come back to it whenever you need it. 00:40:18.079 --> 00:40:33.039 Not to force yourself into calm, not to perform regulation correctly, okay, but just to practice being here long enough for your body to receive a little bit more information about where and when you actually are. 00:40:33.440 --> 00:40:35.440 All right, my friends, I will see you next week. 00:40:35.599 --> 00:40:40.159 If this episode landed so well with you, remember you can always send it to a friend. 00:40:40.400 --> 00:40:47.440 Reach out over DM at Heal with Brit on Instagram and let me know just what resonated, what stood out. 00:40:47.599 --> 00:40:52.400 I hope to see you again soon here on the Body First Healing podcast or in the Body First Healing program. 00:40:52.719 --> 00:40:53.199 Thanks, guys. 00:40:53.360 --> 00:40:54.719 See you next week. 00:40:57.760 --> 00:41:02.000 Thank you so much for tuning into the Body First Healing podcast. 00:41:02.239 --> 00:41:10.239 If this episode resonated with you, I would be so grateful if you subscribed, left a review, or shared it with someone that you love. 00:41:10.480 --> 00:41:12.079 I'll see you back here next week. 00:41:12.159 --> 00:41:14.719 And until then, be gentle with yourself. 00:41:14.880 --> 00:41:19.599 You're doing the best you can with what you have, and that is more than enough. 00:41:19.840 --> 00:41:27.119 Just a quick note this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. 00:41:27.360 --> 00:41:31.039 Always consult a qualified provider for personal support.