“State creates Story.” -Dr. Stephen Porges
Over the last several years, I have begun to educate my clients on Dr. Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory. This theory shows how our Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) shapes our experiences of safety and impacts our ability for connection. Having this information through mindful attunement to our bodies allows us to be active in our Nervous System response to situations which allows us to feel empowered.
A ladder is a helpful picture for the daily movements our ANS makes. The top of the ladder is when we feel safety and connection. If we experience something threatening like a frown on a stranger’s face, we may move down the ladder to a “mobilized” state. The goal of our ANS is to get back to safety so we may flee the situation by avoiding the stranger or become aggressive and frown back so they know not to continue their “threatening” behavior. If we do not feel like those actions have brought us back to feeling safe (the top of the ladder), we move further down into an “immobilized” state which might involve freezing. Each part of the ladder requires different responses to get back to the top.
Stories of who we are and how the world works begins in the ANS. We take in information from our environment through our body and then our brain which translates/encodes the information into beliefs.
information from environment —> body —> brain —> beliefs
If we bring in information that seems threatening, the message/belief is “I am unsafe” “I am in danger”. If we have information that tells us there is no threat, the message/belief is “I am safe” “I can be at ease”. As Dr. Porges teaches, “State creates story.”
Sometimes we may interpret information as dangerous when it is not because of previous experiences and trauma. We may become hypervigilant and be primed to see things that are dangerous when they aren’t. Our brain and NS job will always be to keep us safe. When our safety has been threatened, our NS response to keep us safe may unintentionally negatively impact our sense of being in the world and with other people.
There is hope! We can work with our nervous system to bring it back to feeling safe (getting back to the top of the ladder) so we can evaluate situations and people with more accuracy and trust we have the capability and capacity to care for and protect ourselves while being in the world and in relationships.
