Great stuff, Gary. I would love to find time to explore the Autonomics theory.
On first glance, I wonder whether some of these responses are not "built in" to our being, but are the result of ancestral trauma and thus are learned. It's like how when someone does something hurtful, a lot of people immediately say, "Humans are violent." I disagree with that blanket statement and lean more toward trauma as the root of such aberrant behaviors. I would go so far as to say many ailments are the result of traumatic experiences that remain unhealed.
Furthermore, we are being poisoned at exasperating levels in our water, air, and food — not to mention our minds filled with "entertainment" and other garbage — and of course this is all traumatic to our entire being.
The responses are healthy and adaptive for acute situations, in the moment survival. Trauma tends to push into one or more of these survival states semi-permentantly, which we are not supposed to be in for extended duration [e.g. parkinson's is when we are stuck in the freeze response]. Under these conditions, Gabriel calls these states "pathogenic".
Thanks, Gary, for the crucial distinction between acute and pathogenic. It makes sense. I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I typically share these kinds of discussions with my husband who is a board-certified music therapist developing his private practice after working nearly 20 years in a state forensic psych facility.
After a particularly depleting work week, I was actually working in a new way just today with my hands and feet! Using breath and qigong to reactivate my hands especially, it brought my overall energy a massive upgrade.
I also just talked to my gal who is away at massage school. She has taken to polyvagal theory as an essential aspect of what she wants to do - the school presented it as a kind of organizing principle on the very first day of class which impressed me greatly.
Thank you for this update - so grateful for your and others' ongoing work!
what a brilliant and necessary expansion of polyvagal. i had no idea. When i saw the name autonomics, i was a bit concerned it would align with bidenomics, and am grateful that it does not.
Great stuff, Gary. I would love to find time to explore the Autonomics theory.
On first glance, I wonder whether some of these responses are not "built in" to our being, but are the result of ancestral trauma and thus are learned. It's like how when someone does something hurtful, a lot of people immediately say, "Humans are violent." I disagree with that blanket statement and lean more toward trauma as the root of such aberrant behaviors. I would go so far as to say many ailments are the result of traumatic experiences that remain unhealed.
Furthermore, we are being poisoned at exasperating levels in our water, air, and food — not to mention our minds filled with "entertainment" and other garbage — and of course this is all traumatic to our entire being.
The responses are healthy and adaptive for acute situations, in the moment survival. Trauma tends to push into one or more of these survival states semi-permentantly, which we are not supposed to be in for extended duration [e.g. parkinson's is when we are stuck in the freeze response]. Under these conditions, Gabriel calls these states "pathogenic".
Thanks, Gary, for the crucial distinction between acute and pathogenic. It makes sense. I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I typically share these kinds of discussions with my husband who is a board-certified music therapist developing his private practice after working nearly 20 years in a state forensic psych facility.
Wow I so look forward to delving into this!
After a particularly depleting work week, I was actually working in a new way just today with my hands and feet! Using breath and qigong to reactivate my hands especially, it brought my overall energy a massive upgrade.
I also just talked to my gal who is away at massage school. She has taken to polyvagal theory as an essential aspect of what she wants to do - the school presented it as a kind of organizing principle on the very first day of class which impressed me greatly.
Thank you for this update - so grateful for your and others' ongoing work!
Interesting that PVT is itself now so prevalent. Organizing principle is a good way to describe these types of maps..
what a brilliant and necessary expansion of polyvagal. i had no idea. When i saw the name autonomics, i was a bit concerned it would align with bidenomics, and am grateful that it does not.
Yes, I'm not keen on the choice of name, reminds me of something machine like or robotic.
it relieves me that you agree. i'm very sensitive to language - esp these last few years...