Difficulties In Healing

Have you ever been told:

• “Your body is attacking itself.”
• “We don’t know why you have this.”
• “You’ll need to learn to live with this and manage your symptoms.”

From my point of view, these kinds of declarations take the wind out of your healing journey.

The truth as I see it is that your body may feel stuck right now, but with the right support, your energy can improve and your symptoms can reduce or resolve over time.

I know that this healing journey can start by supporting your nervous system and emotional well-being and that it can make a big difference in sustaining your health.

Root Cause

I see that many chronic illnesses from autoimmune conditions to chronic fatigue to fibromyalgia and long COVID share a common root issue. That is that the body stays in a threat state and cannot complete the healing cycle

This threat state is a state of the nervous system which may have been true to some degree at one time, but when it has gotten stuck, healing cannot happen.

Healing does happen when you can be flexible to access a broad spectrum of nervous system states and be able to balance, to regulate, to return to the most healing ones.

A regulated nervous system is an important key to health. Living in our society today can easily dysregulate your nervous system, making sustaining health difficult.

Regulation

I see that nervous system regulation starts with knowing the different states in which it can function and being able to recognize those states when you are in them. This gives you power to see dysregulation and choose activities to bring more balance.

Without getting too technical with an anatomy lesson, I present six states that the nervous system can move through and how to balance each one. This is based on the Polyvagal Theory by Stephen Porges.

Introduction to Nervous System States

From this spectrum, you can see that the most healing states are from engaged, to connected to meditative. The others have their function in survival. By recognizing when you are not in a threat state but your nervous system has gone there, you can learn to regulate to the more healing states.

This is a very basic introduction so that you can see a path forward, and is not meant to be all you need in order to regulate yourself.

Build Awareness

Some people may not even know what dysregulation looks like, so basically what I am referring to is if you are thinking your way through life and not feeling it, you may be dysregulated. In addition, other symptoms of dysregulation can be

• inability to feel body signals like hunger and tiredness
• over-focusing on others’ needs
• loss of clarity of inside body sensations like heartrate and breathing
• loss of trust in your body

You cannot regulate if you cannot feel. This is key because besides being underdeveloped, some people feel too much and become hypochondriac.

• Underdeveloped – burnout, unable to feel needs
• Overdeveloped – panic, overactive, hypersensitive

In addition, it is possible to over-feel your body and under-feel your needs.

Also, it is possible to mistake nervous system threat survival messages for gut instinct because of being cut off for so long.

Tracking nervous system body signals is the new vital sign!

Stop, Look, Listen

It is possible to reconnect and recognize the nervous system state you are in. At that point, you can regain conscious choice and choose a tool to rebalance.

The most basic practice for anybody is to use your senses to orient yourself when you feel dysregulated.

STOP and notice your heartrate, your breathing, and your posture.

LOOK around you to notice what you see. LISTEN to the sounds surrounding you.

BE AWARE of your thoughts. NOTICE what you are feeling inside your body.

Take at least 30 seconds to notice details.

This in itself can be a reset.

Handling Dysregulation

If you now notice that you are in one of the following three states without a true survival threat, then you may want to choose one of the following tools to help re-regulate.

Dorsal vagal (withdrawn, numb, disconnected) – soft music, speech, nature time with full sensory focus, body micromovements, gentle sensory inputs, safe connection with pet, partner, friend, paced breath

Sympathetic (wired, irritable, restless, anxious) – grounding, chi gong, African drumming, shaking movements, paced breath work, orienting to the environment

Freeze (overwhelmed, dissociated, foggy) -apply warmth, calming sounds, weighted blanket, havening, near-far gaze, orient to the space around you, titrated mobilization, gentle stretch like shoulder roll, look for safety cures

And Beyond

Now that you getting a taste of what might be needed in order to heal difficult health conditions, I can talk you through some places to start. Or for some of you who are not severely dysregulated, we can start with some simple practices. Call me for a consult at 928-649-9234.

Since I am not an expert in this area and it is nuanced and can be a circuitous healing path, I refer patients who need in-depth work to the Primal Trust Program. Start with a free 30 question online quiz to determine how dysregulated your nervous system might be.

You can download a free ebook “How Healing Happens” which introduces you to the ideas behind the program and offers a few starter tools, I would recommend getting your feet wet with the 40-day program to see what can shift in your health. (with the code drcheryl2, you can receive 10% off!)

I believe that for difficulties in healing it is important to see others in your condition who are on the path at various stages of recovery so that they can reflect back to you that you are no different than where they began and give you hope that healing is possible. Therefore, you might consider the membership. The website walks you through the options and what you get in each program.

Whatever you decide, I offer the invitation to go beyond your current nervous system limitations now that you have this model of how you might be operating. As always, bring awareness to this moment, listen to your body, and see how healing can happen.