Disrupting Your Internal World

Yesterday I talked about how real progress usually happens incrementally. And that’s not to say that you can’t make a lot of progress quickly. It has to do with the way that your nervous system reacts to adversity.

To put it another way, when everything is going your way, it can be hard to measure how far you’ve come - but adversity will show you real quick.

In a way our nervous systems and minds are like systems - they get used to dealing with data in familiar ways. Your nervous system analyzes the data you encounter in a situation and reacts accordingly.

That’s how triggers happen - the nervous system is analyzing something as a danger because you’re reminded of something that happened previously. It doesn’t matter if you don’t even really remember the original something. As Bessel van der Kolk wrote, “The Body Keeps the Score”.

That’s why it can be so hard to break a habit - not only has the mind and nervous system gotten used to the behavior, but there’s a purpose that behavior is fulfilling. All the things you get addicted to - they’re soothing, calming the nervous system. At least they were originally.

This is why psychedelic plant medicines are so powerful - they disrupt these programs that are running on auto-pilot in the brain and nervous system. They are literally acting on a part of the brain known as the Default Mode Network (DMN). You might as well call the DMN the system (network) that reacts (mode) in the way that it’s used to (default).

Now why is this important to progress? Remember when I said real progress happens in increments? The reason is these default patterns. And that’s also why integration is so important. Because you are learning to change patterns, making different decisions and processing things differently into your already established brain and nervous system.

Besides plant medicine, the 2 most consistent things I have practiced for system reprogramming and integration are breathwork and somatic practices. Breathwork is another disrupter of the DMN and transformational/holotropic style breathwork actually works similar to plant medicines. Somatic practices help build awareness of what’s happening in your body and let you get in touch with the things triggering you in life-altering ways.

I’m grateful to integrate these practices into my coaching offerings as well. In addition to my 6 month coaching container for integration, I also piloted a shorter program focusing on breathwork this year which got really positive feedback and better results than I or the client had expected.

And in February I’m beginning my training as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, which will assist me in continuing to add somatic resources into my practice as well.

I’ll be sharing more about these as they develop and I appreciate you sharing this journey with me. It’s a beautiful thing to pause and reflect on how much progress you’ve made.

Tomorrow I’ll share about the Summit I’m a part of (which has some amazing workshops and free gifts).

Until then friends be well and stay warm.

Jonathan