Harness the power of your nervous system to support healthy relationships and personal well-being.
Why is it that when you have a tense conversation with a boss, coworker, or partner, you feel like you're staring down a charging rhinoceros? How is it that both situations cause a fight-or-flight response-and what can you learn from it?
As it turns out, the same neurological processes that cause unwanted stress can also be harnessed to summon relaxation, spaciousness, and equanimity. In Befriending Your Nervous System, clinician Deb Dana presents a simple, hopeful message: when you approach these subconscious processes with openness, mindful attention, and-above all-curiosity, you can gain the understanding necessary to shape their outcomes. Dana draws from the recent explosion of research in Polyvagal Theory, which posits that our most hardwired survival responses are regulated by the vagus nerve and can be consciously regulated through repeated exercises.
Here, you will learn:
• How to interpret the subtle language of the nervous system
• Present-moment awareness and the mechanics of choice
• Your personal "protection-connection" equation
• How to cultivate and savor positive nervous states
• Why it's paramount that you examine your internalized stories about the world
• How to discover the stillness available in every moment
• What actually nourishes your autonomic nervous system
• The continuum of resilience
• The process of reciprocity, rupture, and repair
• How to recognize physical cues of both safety and danger
Dana teaches how to work with the body's innate ability to pick up social signals and cultivate "micro-moments" of safety, retraining your automatic responses to stress, conflict, and hardship. Including in-depth practices such as guided imagery, meditation, and ongoing self-inquiry, Befriending Your Nervous System offers a practical user's manual for anyone seeking greater wellness, self-awareness, and emotional resilience. Learn to engage with your subconscious nervous system processes to change moments of stress into ones of relaxation, spaciousness, and equanimity.
Deb Dana
Deb Dana, LCSW, is a clinician and consultant specializing in using the lens of Polyvagal Theory to understand and resolve the impact of trauma and create ways of working that honor the role of the autonomic nervous system. She developed the Rhythm of Regulation Clinical Training Series and lectures internationally on ways Polyvagal Theory informs work with trauma survivors. She is a founding member of the Polyvagal Institute, clinical advisor to Khiron Clinics, and advisor to Unyte. Deb's clinical publications include The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation and the Polyvagal Flip Chart: Understanding the Science of Safety.
Deb is delighted to partner with Sounds True to bring her polyvagal perspective to a general audience through Befriending Your Nervous System: Looking Through the Lens of Polyvagal Theory and Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory.
To learn more, visit rhythmofregulation.com.
