Regulate Your Nervous System (With Havening Techniques)
The Power of Nervous System Regulation
At the heart of all of our emotions, stress responses, chronic anxiety, and feelings of overwhelm is a part of our bodies that we usually don’t give much thought to: our autonomic nervous systems.
Our nervous system state massively affects every aspect of our wellbeing - from our energy levels and motivations - to our immune, digestive and endocrine systems - to our perceptions and the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and the world around us - to our feelings and emotional responses.
Because of this, one of the best things you can do to take charge of your life, your emotions and your overall well-being is to learn to regulate your nervous system.
What is Nervous System Regulation?
Think of your nervous system as the control center for your entire body, shaping your experiences at an unconscious level. It affects every system in your body and shapes your experience of life in hundreds of different ways at a primarily unconscious level.
And, it’s incredibly important to understand that most of the stress, overwhelm and anxiety we feel on a day to day basis is actually the result of our nervous systems being dysregulated.
When our nervous systems are dysregulated, it means they’re stuck in a stress or trauma response cycle. And, the trickiest part of this dysregulation is that we can’t think or talk our way out of it.
In order to regulate our nervous system, we have to use our body to signal to deep parts of our autonomic nervous system that we are safe, so it can come out of the stress or trauma responses cycle and back into a state of flexible health and balance.
Regulate Your Nervous System with Havening Techinques®!
The nervous system regulation exercise in this episode will effectively and gently create those physiological signs of safety in your body so that your nervous system can get unstuck.
Havening Techniques®, also called Havening, are a psycho-sensory therapeutic approach that uses gentle touch to create effective change in deep parts of the nervous system and brain.
Havening touch has been shown to create Delta waves in your brain that down regulate your amygdala - which you can think of as the kingpin in charge of your stress and trauma responses. So, we’ll do Havening touch for the entirety of exercise to maximize the soothing effects this regulation exercise will have on your nervous system, body and whole self.
In this exercise, we combine Havening Techniques® with Orienting to create a deep sense of well being and safety within your body, nervous system and whole self!
WATCH ON YOUTUBE:
(The guided regulation exercise begins at 6:49)
Do this exercise regularly!
One of the most beautiful things about this exercise is that it has immediate AND cumulative effects.
If you do it regularly, you’ll be creating more and more regulation in your system, so that you have an easier time feeling calm, centered and balanced moving forward. I do this exercise everyday - at least once - because life tends to be dysregulating and this exercise never fails to make me feel so much better.
Remember: The more we regulate our nervous systems, the more we create conditions that support our healing, self awareness and personal growth.
Timestamps for this episode:
00:00 - The Power of Nervous System Regulation
01:54 - What is Nervous System Regulation?
04:07 - About Havening Techniques
04:53 - About Orienting
05:48 - How to do Self-Havening
06:49 - Guided exercise: Regulate Your Nervous System with Havening Techniques
Learn more about Havening Techniques and the science behind them
About me
Hey, I’m Karena!
I’m a trauma informed emotional healing coach here to help you quickly identify and heal the subconscious blocks, old emotional wounds and self-sabotaging core beliefs that are holding you back!
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