I want to share something with you that I have discovered. I..

I want to share something with you that I have discovered. It is called "the Polyvagal Theory". It is an explenation that gives us information about how we find safety; connection with others; how we go into fight, flight and freeze responses; how we survive. The neurophysiology foundations of emotions, attatchment, communication and self regulation.

Poly= many
Vagal= vagus nerve

You have probably heard about the fight/flight and the rest/digest responses that is governed by the Autonomic nervous system. But Dr. Stephen Porges, the man behind the study, identifies a third type of nervous system response called "the social engagement system"! ; mixed signals of activation and calming that operates out of unique nerve influence that runs through the ventral branch of the vagus nerve. The social engagement system help us navigate relationships, and is commonly found in modern mammals who live in societies and have a strong family- and friendly connection to other beings of the same- or across species.

The Autonomic nervous system (ANS) is the set of nerves that controll everything that happens in your body that you don't think about doing, like keeping your heart pumping, breathing, pulse regulation, temperature, digestion, sweating, blinking, hormone regulation and all those things.

The ANS is divided in two parts; the sympathetic (SNS) and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS)

Sympathetic nervous system:
(Peripherial, see picture) Is not a part of the vagus nerve, but other nerves connectet to the ANS. The SNS branches merges from the spinal cord and spreads out througout the torso and limbs. The sympathetic responses has to do with mobalization, and governs the fight/flight respond.

Parasymathetic nervous system:
(Central, see picture) has three branches, two running from the brain and down the back of our core tunnel (throat and thoracic cavity) and one that runs from the brain and down the front of the core runnel.

«Dorsal Vagus»
Goes around the brain stem, down the back between the spinal cord and the core tunnel, and connects in the lower abdomen. Has to do with immobilization and governs the freeze respond. Body goes in to shock/shut down mode: pulse goes way down, shortness of breath lowers the oxygen intake, skin gets cold, body can release urine and feses.

«Low tone dorsal Vagus»
It also goes down the back and has to do with immobilization, but governs the nice "slowing down" feelings. The body is resting and digesting, getting sleepy, activating cell repair, gut repair and enhancing the immune system.

«Ventral Vagus»
Goes to front of the core tunnel, and connects to the face, larynx, pharynx, heart, lungs, and basically all the organs above the diaphragm. It is the only part of the ANS that is partially controllable by will! It controlls the facial expressions, eye movement, swallowing, yawning, breathing, and also parts of our hearing and tasting senses. It gorverns our ability to socially engage and connect with each other.

The polyvagal theory teaches us how we store trauma in our nervous system when we don't get safety and love and nurturing after life threatening traumatic experiences. It brings new light to the freeze respond, which is the most ancient survival mechanism and is often found in reptiles, but works a bit differently in humans.

All the branches of the vagus nerve are unmyelinated at birth, but the ventral branch develops myelination during childhood. Myelinated nerves sends faster, smoother and more complex signals than unmyelinated nerves. Eye gazing, loving connection and touch, cuddling, communicating, rocking, dancing and playing with babies sparks up the myelination process of the ventral branch and set the ground foundations for how we socially engage and connect, how we handle attatchment, and our ability to self regulate and reconnect to ourselves.

Children who grow up physically and emotionally abused or neglected often suffer from mental illnesses caused by trauma. Common examples are Reactive attatchment disorder, PTSD and Disinhibited social engagement disorder. The freeze respond is activated when we are in life threatening danger that is out of our controll, and for children who never experience safety- it is activated all the time and becomes the normal state of being. In order to get out of freeze respond we have to reconnect to our ventral vagus and learn how to activate it and self regulate our neuroplasticity.

That is why taking controll of your breathing, doing different physical and mindfullness practices, tantric practices and dearmoring plays a big part of all the different therapies for healing trauma: anxiety, PTSD, bordeline and bipolar desease and many, many other mental illnesses. It is all about reconnecting to the ventral vagus.

Hope you learned something, let me know if you feel more enlightened or more confused, and please feel free to ask questions! If I don't know the answer it will only make me study harder to find an answer 😁🌹