Creating An Environment for Deep Transformation (Nervous System Learnings)

Some understanding of my nervous system that has really solidified over the past few months

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Over the past few months I really internalized some phenomena with my nervous system that have helped me understand my relationship with it more deeply. 

I am not a nervous system expert and don’t claim to be. I just wanted to share a few of the experiences here that have impacted my own understanding in case it’s helpful.

As a background, I’ve been regularly practicing various forms of somatic experiencing for about 5 years. The unifying factor amongst all the different modalities is directing your attention to feeling and meeting whatever is arising in the space where your body is.

I usually do this as a part of some form of subconscious exploration and transformation process. An example of this would be noticing my unhealthy patterns through my response to life and then bringing my reaction as an entry point into contemplative practice.

My favorite practice is one I learned through RenXue. It mirrors the high level memory reconsolidation sequence which is the only scientifically verified process for permanent transformation.

Here’s an outline of the memory reconsolidation sequence from the book Unlocking The Emotional Brain.

First you access the subconscious through recalling the situation or memory while shifting the attention to sensations in your body. Maintaining gentle awareness on any prominent sensation or tension, you welcome whatever information or sensations emerge.

When our nervous system feels safe (parasympathetic dominant), there is a greater capacity to meet these experiences. This supports the transformation process.

When the nervous system doesn’t feel safe, it stifles the transformation process.

Either your protective mechanisms kick in preventing you from fully accessing an experience or you’re only able to access a certain depth of the underlying energy associated with it. You can think of depth like layers an onion. When it comes to healing unsupportive inner material, the deeper the layer, the greater the healing. 

Below are a few things I’ve really internalized lately that seem to create a greater sense of safety and more conducive environment to transformation.

Human Coregulation

One thing that’s become more clear over time is that I seem to be able to go deeper into my feelings and inner space in the presence of working with a facilitator. I kind of sensed this working with my teacher over the years, but impact of working with another human on the nervous system was never emphasized in the RenXue teachings.

It wasn’t until I started to familiarize myself with Aletheia that I started to see this phenomenon is actually well known. In this system, they acknowledge that the presence of another nervous system can help attune yours to be in a state of safety. This aids the depth and ease of the transformation process.

In our current scientific model, this broad phenomenon is mostly categorized as "interpersonal neural synchronization" or "neural coupling. Early research around centers around emotional contagion, physiological coregulation, and social coherence. Props to my friend

Jonny Miller

from Nervous System Mastery for sharing theses studies. He is definitely who I recommend for all things nervous system.

I think as we move into a more bio-electrical view of health and the world that views the nervous system as a source of energetic perception, we’ll see a lot more interesting research here.

Acknowledgement of this phenomenon has a couple interesting implications.

In the world of A.I. and robo-therapists, it seems like good ol’ fashion human connection may offer a depth of experience hard to replicate with technology.

It also points to some the dynamics to be aware of if you only perform these type of practices in isolation. I’m hesitant to say limitations because clearly there have been people in history who’ve went very deep places without somatic facilitators.

The bigger picture in my opinion is how this relates to humans gradually becoming more aware of their innate capacity to help heal themselves and others. Though holding space to regulate the nervous system seems like a small thing, all of these unacknowledged components of natural human abilities start to paint a much more powerful picture than what the predominant narrative tells us today. 

Nature and Water

I’ve been in Costa Rica for about 5 weeks with my family. We’ve been to Uvita, Santa Teresa, and now Nosara.

I’ve known for awhile that nature can have a big impact on our nervous system, but I’ve never experienced such a visceral difference as being down here. Many days since we got here I’ve felt completely blissed out. It feels like I’ve ingested a substance.

Many people like to focus on the biochemical reasons people feel good in places like Costa Rica. There’s no question that eating good food and reduced toxin exposure helps you feel better. 

But to me, the feelings I am experiencing are most certainly related to differences at the bio-electrical level. I don’t know of any instances of fresh fruit that drops someone into prolonged periods bliss.

Being immersed in the raw frequencies of nature without all the invisible distortion created by modernity seems to be automatically sustaining my nervous system into new depths of ease.

This is a picture of our backyard in Santa Teresa. It felt awesome living in the jungle.

Beyond creating the bliss experience, these conditions seem to really enhance the depth of my inner explorations. I feel like I have far more capacity to go into and remain open to tension in my body so that it can unwind down here.

It’s made me realize how our environment can have a big impact on our capacity for transformation. When you live in an environment that is naturally stressing your nervous system, it’s like you’re running with a weighted vest. This impact extends to everything we do including transformation work.

I can see why historically yogi’s and devotees to consciousness expansion have lived in more natural settings. It’s just more supportive for an increasingly sensitive system and the evolution of consciousness.

Obviously, I don’t think it’s required to live in a more natural place for consciousness transformation. I’m sure there’s countless examples of people living in densely populated regions who were able to go to and embody profoundly deep places. It just seems living in an environment that’s supportive to your nervous system makes things a bit easier.

As I reflect on my own priorities in life it’s obvious that I need to live in a more supportive environment than I do currently. This trip has really solidified that I care more about feeling a state of deep ease and connectedness than I do convenience, opportunity, or luxury. For many of us community is the wild card. It seems like there many supportive places for humans where you also can have community. You just have to find them and be willing to build a new community, move your existing one, or split time which is not ideal.

Natural Water

The other thing I’ve noticed is how water seems to prime my nervous system to go even deeper. 

Many times over the past few weeks, dropping into a natural body of water seems to catalyze energy moving through my body. I interpret this is a sign that something is ready to be faced. Healing opportunity like this arise naturally when the nervous system is in state of safety and relaxation (parasympathetic dominance).

This is my favorite natural pool I would go to in Mal Pais, the town next to Santa Teresa.

When I meet these experiences submerged in water, there seems to be an even deeper capacity to feel and remain open to everything. I probably look like a lunatic to other people when I just go into these experience in public. Oh well. I care more about being free than looking weird.

It seems like as the evolution of consciousness becomes more front and center, there’s a pretty consistent pattern of people wanting to spend more time in nature, and then eventually live in nature. 

On the surface, I mostly assumed this was due to a growing reverence and appreciation for life and stillness. I now see how this lifestyle is just what is supportive to your evolving nervous system and priorities.

My outlook for the next 10-20 years is that we’ll see less people want to live in cities. It just doesn’t align with the evolution of consciousness which is happening on the planet right now or the evolution of our species.

As people all around me who were not into any of this a year ago immerse themselves in this exploration, it’s just kind of clear that many more people will go through everything I just described. I imagine many will no longer find the tradeoffs of urban living worth the nervous system tax.

Some people I’ve chatted with point to the idea that existing cities could be developed to be more human friendly. I frankly doubt this will happen near term. It’d would mean un-doing many of the fixtures of modern convenience like wifi everywhere, cell towers and overbuilding so there’s a coffee shop within 5 minutes at all times. There is also no alignment between the profit motives of big business and the health of our bio-field.

I think the more likely scenario is we’ll see more and more aligned communities that are built on a healthier foundation that have a village vibe.

Things I Hope To See

Maybe it’s who I enjoy spending time with, but it seems like nervous system literacy is becoming more popular. This is exciting. It seems like a perfect entry point for a lot of scientism to embrace the metaphysical and spiritual paradigm. 

What I’m really interested in seeing research on is how the nervous system evolves as consciousness expands. My own experience and investigation of different wisdom traditions leads me to believe that nervous system transformation is just a natural part of human evolution - not just in its capacity, but in the functions it can actually perform. A small example of this would just be increasing your capacity to receive and interpret information.

I feel like outside of adepts in kriya yoga, kundalini phenomenon, or other metaphysical practices, I don’t really see many people acknowledge this. Though the interest in all of it does seem to be growing. As more people have these experiences, it seems like understanding them will become more of an imperative!

Cheers,

-Scott

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