100 Ways To Heal

18/12/2023

27/09/2022

A great simple walking exercise for feeling happier and more positive.

When taking a walk, try adding a positive affirmation and go through the alphabet, and pick a positive affirmation for each letter.

With every step I take, I'm feeling more abundant
With every step I take, I'm getting brighter and more brilliant
With every step I take, I'm consciously creating
With every step I take, I'm divinely directed
With every step I take, I'm eager and enthusiastic about my path
With every step I take, I'm feeling fabulously fit and financially free
With every step I take, I'm grateful and glowing . . .
Etc.

Notice how uplifted and energized you feel!

Using the alphabet has three additional positive benefits:

#1 Momentum - It takes a while to go through the whole alphabet!

"When you repeatedly return to a pure thought, maintaining it for at least 68 seconds, in a short period of time (hours in some cases or a few days in others), that thought becomes a dominant thought. And once you achieve a dominant thought, you will experience matching manifestations until you change it."
Esther and Jerry Hicks

#2 Structure - The alphabet gives a framework to your affirmations. If your mind wanders, you can just return to whatever letter you left off. You will be able to remember where you were and carry on.

#3 Creativity - It will direct your mind to think of new or unusual words that you might not otherwise think of. For example, for Q, "quickly "and "quality" are delicious words. It's like opening a new door to find the surprises behind it.

16/09/2022

Unknown Author

13/09/2022

28/08/2022

27/08/2022

ℹ️🌿 [Infographic] – HOW THE NERVOUS SYSTEM RESPONDS TO TRAUMA | BY NICABM

It can often be difficult for trauma survivors to understand how or why they reacted a certain way during a traumatic experience.

Instead of seeing their trauma response as the result of a split-second, unconscious decision made by their nervous system, your client may blame themself for not reacting differently.

This can be especially true for clients who went into the freeze or collapse response.

But Ruth Lanius, MD, PhD has a simple way of explaining how the nervous system responds to trauma that can be very helpful for clients.

This powerful piece of psychoeducation can ease feelings of shame and self-blame, and help clients appreciate the nervous system’s efforts to keep them safe.

We put it into an infographic that you can share with your clients. Have a look.

Download the infographic here:
https://www.nicabm.com/how-the-nervous-system-responds-to-trauma/

26/08/2022

21/08/2022

🧡Please visit the link in our profile to learn more about Somatic Experiencing.
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A common misconception when learning how to regulate our nervous systems is that regulation means being “calm”. And this isn’t actually the case.
Even if we seem “calm”, it doesn’t always mean we are in the present moment. If we’re calm in the sense that we feel safe, at ease and in the present moment, we are experiencing what’s called our Ventral Vagal Complex of the Parasympathetic nervous system. This is great, and…. we also want to still have access to the other states of mobilization or immobilization….. we just don’t want to get stuck there.

So you can think of regulation as the ability to experience stressors and still come back down to baseline, aka the present moment, shortly after. An example of what this might look like is if you’re stuck in traffic running late to an appointment. You may be anxious, flustered, and your heart may be racing. But once you arrive to your destination, your heart rate settles and your tension softens. This is how our bodies can move in and out of stressors in a healthy way.

Similarly, if we were camping and suddenly a bear came into our campground, we’d want to be able to mobilize (run) to safety and hide somewhere safe. But what happens in our early life when the bear is a parent that comes home drunk every night? Or a caregiver that is consistently unavailable for us, or makes us feel like we are a burden? Then, our little system stays on high alert all the time.

This is how we can end up stuck in places that leave us hyper-vigilant, anxious, or avoidant, or shut down.

The goal here is not to measure how often we can make ourselves calm, but rather, how we can begin to experience more and more safety and presence following stressful moments.

Our nervous systems are not designed for perfection, but for flexibility ❤️

You can begin with simply noticing your surroundings more and more throughout your day. Look around, where are you? What do you notice when you look around? How do you feel in your body when you notice those things?
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10/07/2022

We all get stuck in life. It happens. Sometimes, we can get stuck in our business, private practice, relationship status, stress, depression, etc.

One of the things that doesn't get highlighted very much when it comes to both a mental health diagnosis, chronic illness, or repeating patterns of self-destruction is nervous system flexibility.

One of the big reasons why we don't follow through on goals, have a hard time healing from chronic illness and can't seem to shake a mental health issue is because our nervous system is rigid, not flexible.

And, until recently, we didn't even have the language for this kind of thing.

But, the work of Dr. Stephen Porges, Ph.D. and Deb Dana, LCSW on the Polyvagal Theory is starting to give us a map of the nervous system and how to begin to become more flexible with it.

And, when we have a flexible nervous system, we have improved mental health, improve chronic illness symptoms, we can achieve our goals and upgrade our lives.

The cool thing about the Polyvagal Theory is that it presents to us a predictable hierarchy of the nervous system, in three "phases" or "parts."

We used to think that the nervous system was two antagonistic parts, the "sympathetic" (stress) and "parasympathetic" (calm). But it's a little more nuanced.

There are to "parts" of the parasympathetic nervous system, one "part" is ancient, and one "part" is pretty new.

The Polyvagal Hierarchy is as follows:
1. Ventral Vagal Complex (Parasympathetic)
2. Sympathetic
3. Dorsal Vagal Complex

You can think of the Ventral Vagal Complex as your "Higher Self." It's your executive functioning, and it's your ability to calm yourself, to have regulated emotions and transpersonal awareness around problems. Ventral is where health, growth, and restoration are possible, and it's all about the diaphragm.

You can regulate the Ventral system with chanting, long exhales, pranayama, vagal stimulators, and good old fashioned play and friendship.

The Sympathetic System tends to run up and down your spine, and this is the fight/flight system. When you have anxiety, stress, etc. - this system is active.

The Dorsal Vagal system is below your diaphragm and is all about shutting down, immobilization, isolation, dissociation, and being invisible. Think of dorsal as a turtle who puts his head back in his shell.

Our ability to navigate these three systems is key to understanding how to improve our mental health, our ability to heal, achieve goals, have solid relationships, and thrive.

That's why one of the most important skills out there is emotional regulation. Emotional regulation comes from knowing your "ventral dials" , your "sympathetic dials" and your "dorsal dials" and how to surf the responses of your nervous system with more awareness.

Learning this skill set is key for success in business, relationship, health, heck.. life.

And, it's something I've worked on with my clients in private practice for years.

I've been shy to bring out more neuroscience around mental and physical health and high performance, but it's something I am going to be doing more of because the changes we've seen our clients who get this and then embody it is truly phenomenal.

Know this: you don't have to stay stuck in anxiety, depression, chronic illness, not following through, in relationship stress.

You CAN learn how to surf your nervous system and become more flexible.

And, perhaps, just realizing that there is nothing WRONG with you and that you are doing the best you can based on your history and current skill sets can start to reduce shame and fear and all that.

And, if you can set your intention to simply learn how to make your nervous system more flexible, perhaps that will open up brand new possibilities that you haven't yet considered.

I can't wait to see what you do with this new awareness.

You got this!

Remember to get out there, take action, and make it real!

Your biggest supporter,
Mastin