201 – Using the Polyvagal Theory to Balance Your Nervous System with Deb Dana

You know the feeling when your nervous system kicks into overdrive. Maybe you freeze in place or your heart starts racing, your body pumping with adrenaline. This automatic response often feels like it overtakes us. But what if you could control and balance your nervous system instead of it controlling you? 

In today’s show, I’m interviewing the incredible Deb Dana, one of the leading experts on the nervous system and the Polyvagal Theory. The Polyvagal Theory offers us cutting-edge insight into the third nervous system response that Porges calls the social engagement system, based on the Vagus Nerve. In this episode, we talk about how we can both understand and balance our nervous system — from the different ways we respond to fear or danger (including fight, flight, freeze and a new one you might not be aware of) to how we can change our response to stressors over time. We explore how we can stop moralizing our nervous response, how to listen and pay attention to our nervous system and how others’ nervous systems can help us regulate. It is FASCINATING!

Listen to discover:

• What the Polyvagal Theory is and why it’s important for you to know about it
• Understanding the Polyvagal Theory to learn how to better balance the nervous system 
• How the Polyvagal Theory could be linked with depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue and other ailments  
• How we can reshape our nervous system
• Specific ways to self-regulate when you are stressed, based on YOUR unique nervous system 

This blends attachment theory, stress response, self-regulation, co-regulation and SO much more. The big takeaway is that you have a choice! Even though you don’t get to choose how your nervous system is wired, you can eventually shift how you respond to situations and regulate your own system — which is so empowering! 

“We don’t get to choose our survival response.” – Deb Dana

“We want to stretch our nervous system but not stress our nervous system.” – Deb Dana