Last week we discussed the 2 modes/ orientations our autonomic nervous system has and how Network Spinal helps you return to the non- stress mode. We talked about how this non stress mode allows for growth and evolution to happen in your Nervous System and life.
This week we will discuss how some of this growth happens. Network Spinal is a catalyst for growth/healing. Sometimes this shows up in seemingly unrelated areas of life. As your Nervous System operates more and more in the growth or non-stress mode, your autopilot interrupts the same life situations differently. Where your auto pilot saw things as threats, you might now see opportunity. This would let you have different emotions and thoughts. This means that you may be open to new things or view points. You might have additional perspectives or options pop into your thoughts.
Some things we heard this week at Next Level related to this topic:My posture looks better because I have not been eating out as much.
This person had a significant change on their 1st posture re exam to where their belly was not sticking out anymore. They attributed this change to them not eating out as much since they started care. This was a great chance to explain the catalyst effect. In stress mode, our Brains have more activity in the old animal part, or the limbic system. This part is pain/pleasure driven and operates in the now. There is no logical forward thinking. In growth or non-stress mode, there is more activity and blood flow to the pre frontal cortex. This is our higher thinking logical brain that helps us makes good long term choices. I was also able to show this person how the curves of their spine were changing to give the postural changes seen on top of weight loss.
We also had someone tell us that they had been craving and eating lots of broccoli after their first entrainment. This craving lasted for about a week. This is another example of change in behavior linked to someone’s nervous system switching modes. In growth mode, we are more connected. This means we are able to pick up on the subtle messages our bodies are sending us. It is harder to pick up on the subtle cues when our bodies are locked in stress mode as our senses our first searching for any threats. Intuitively, this person was deficient in something found in Broccoli, and the craving was their bodies message to correct this.
We had someone say they have a general sense of wellbeing since starting care. Again, this correlates with a nervous system operating in growth or non stress. This will lead to different behaviors if it has not already.
People change diets, workout routines, view points and much more when their orientation switches to growth/healing. Healing and growth are multi factorial. This is the great power of Network- The Catalyst Effect.
How Network Spinal helps you grow. The catalyst effect
When do you notice the inital shift to ease?
Last week we introduced the concept of being aware of when your body/ nervous system starts shifting to ease or out of fight or flight mode.
Now we will talk about both why this is so important, and later we will talk why your awareness of this process is vital.
Our Human Operating Systems are about 90-95% automatic, and they have 2 modes or orientations.
These are sympathetic and parasympathetic. Put simply, we have a state/mode where our autopilot is constantly looking for threats and preparing to fight or run for our lives, and we have a state/mode where your body’s autopilot knows it is safe and is able to focus on repair and growth. Survival and safety are the first two human needs and need to be fulfilled before other needs can be focused on.
In a fight or flight state, our bodies are literally geared to fight or run away. This means we are constantly pulling resources from other systems(immune, digestive, endocrine/hormone ect) in order to maintain this high alert state. These systems are vitally important for long term health but not so important for fighting or running for your life.
The initial shift to ease we discussed last week is your operating system beginning the process of returning to the repair and growth mode mentioned above.
When this happens, your body begins to focus on repairs, maintenance and growth. You might even feel a sense of safety as your fight or flight system turns off.
Starting Network Spinal care: The Field
When people start care, we often hear things like I don’t understand how I feel better, they didn’t even do any work me. Or I feel better but I’m not sure it was this (the entrainments)- because people have a hard time wrapping their minds around the fact that such light force contacts can do so much.
In fact, we do minimal work to correct your body. Instead we help YOUR BODY do the work required. We also help provide/ liberate the energy required for this work.
The first step in almost every entrainment is to bring your Nervous System, remember we also call this the Human Operating System, to a state of ease or a parasympathetic state. Your level of awareness of both yourself and the subtle energy around you as well as your current state, dictates when you start to feel this effect.
Sometimes people simply feel relaxed after their entrainment and have no awareness of when the shift to ease happens. Other times you may feel waves of change as a large breaths move through your body or your muscles drop temsion during an entrainment. A bit more awareness would allow you to feel this shortly after you lay on the table right before we begin to “work” on you. If you are really aware of the subtle energy around you, you might begin to feel this shift as soon as you walk in the door.
Part of the reason you might feel a response before we begin physically working and the reason we are able to use such light contacts, is the we leverage the free energy of The Field.
More about this over the coming weeks as we kick off a new year of educational newsletters. We invite you to pay attention during your next entrainment to see when you first notice the waves of change as your HOS shifts from stress to ease.
Network entrainments and emotions.
Have you ever wondered why we hold some contacts for longer than others?
When we hold a contact and have you lift or stretch an area of your neck or sacrum/pelvis we are most likely working with your emotional intelligence.
Muscle tension is often related to stored emotional stress. So in an oversimplified version, we are helping your nervous system process stored emotional stress. This allows the energy that was tied up in muscle tension/ stored emotional stress to be re directed in a more beneficial manner.
The emotional intelligence is pre-rational or before the mind. Emotions are meant to be felt and processed within a few moments. When we use our minds to think our emotions instead of actually feeling them, we end up with concepts of emotions instead of actual emotions. These concepts tend to stick around a lot longer than actual emotions, and this is one way emotional energy gets stored in our bodies/ muscles.
If you have emotions come up after an entrainment or in life in general, we invite you to feel them and not think about them. A formula taught by Donny Epistein that can help with this is AAA. First you need to be aware of the emotion. Then you need to acknowledge the emotion. Finally, you need to accept the emotion. This will allow the energy to move instead of getting stuck/ stored. (this formula works for lots of things).
Grounding
Most people know that getting outside to get fresh air and sunshine is good for you. The sunlight comes from above and the fresh air from all around us. If it is good to connect with Nature above and around us, what about the Earth below us?
It is also very good for us to connect with Nature below us via walking or standing barefoot on Earth- (rock, dirt, grass, water). Do this as often as you can and see if you notice a difference.
Check out this quick exert from the Chopra center and read the article here:https://chopra.com/articles/grounding-the-human-body-the-healing-benefits-of-earthing
“Losing Touch with the Ground You are a bioelectrical being living on an electrical planet. Your body operates electrically. All of your cells transmit multiple frequencies that run, for example, your heart, immune system, muscles, and nervous system. With the exception of humans living in industrialized societies, all living things on our planet are connected to the ground’s electric energy. In industrialized societies, you rarely go barefoot and walk around outside or wear natural leather shoes that allow you to absorb the ground’s energy. For many decades, people have increasingly been wearing rubber and plastic-soled shoes that act as a barrier to the Earth’s energy, insulating them from electrical contact with the Earth. People also generally don’t sleep on the ground anymore, as many cultures have done throughout history. They live and work above the ground, even far above the ground in high-rises. The truth is, you’re disconnected. You’re ungrounded. You are not in touch with the Earth. Could this disconnection be an overlooked factor in the increase of illnesses noted earlier?”
Weather changes and staying healthy
Its supposed to get cold later today so be sure to grab a jacket.
Large temperature swings like this are stressful for our bodies and nervous systems as they have to change or tweak many of their automatic processes to adapt to the change in the external environment. This can make it easier to get sick, especially if your nervous system is already overwhelmed or out of balance.
Here are some of the things we personally do to stay heathy. We do these as reguallry as we can, and we do them more when we are fighting getting sick or are sick.
Getting entrained. Getting entrained helps keep your nervous system in rest or digest versus fight or flight as a default. In flight or flight, energy is diverted away form the immune system into skeletal muscles needed to fight or run away. This can predispose you to getting sick as well as other misfunctions of the immune system. In rest or digest, your immune system has more energy and works better. You are able to digest stored physical, mental and emotional stresses. Your body is also able to better digest bacteria and other aberrant cells.
We do our best to get plenty of rest and sleep although that has been harder the last 12 weeks 🙂
Lots and lots of fluid. When sick or fighting sickness, our go to is hot water with lemon, honey and cinnamon.
We share 1 subscription of Juice plus that we take in spurts. We do not like to take the same supplements or supplement regimen regularly. We use this to perdiodiaclly fill any gaps from our diet. We also take it when we feel we might be fighting getting sick.
We periodically take CBD. One of the important things with CBD is that you need to be consistant while taking it. We usually share a bottle and take it until it runs out. Usually 15-30 days depending on the size of the bottle.
Vit D- almost eveyone is deficient in Vit D. We get as much Sunlight as we can and take Vit D supplement daily, or often as we remember. We also take small dose of Vit A and high dose Vit C.
I persoannly love raw garlic for immune boosting as it is a natural antibiotic. I crush it or cut it and let it sit for 15 min. I eat 1 or 2 cloves every hour while I can stomach it. I usually drink kombucha while doing this to help digestion.
We love coloidal silver. When sick or fighting sickness we take it orally or in nose spray. We also use it in the oil diffuser and humidifier.
I am sure I am forgetting some things as Sarah is always adding to or tweaking our regimen as she is constantly researching and learning, so when you see her in the office, feel free to ask what else she suggests.
Gratitude practice
Its the start of a new week which makes it a great time to remember that we can choose what emotions we practice.
I invite you to stop and practice gratitude for 30 seconds to 1 min and see how it sets the tone for your day.
An easy way to do this is to focus on an event from your life (past, present or future) that you can be grateful for if you pause and reflect.
Start off by by thinking about the event. Remember or focus on any details you can and notice how this makes you feel. Focus on any feelings you have in or around your heart. You might even want to put your hands over your heart and breath deeply into your heart as you do this.
If this has has been easy for you and you still have time, find something else you can be grateful for and repeat the process.
Wishing you all a grateful day!
Eyes open or closed during an entrainment?
Should you keep your eyes open or shut during an entrainment?
The answer is- keep them shut.
Your eyes are the source of about 80% of your sensory input. When you shut your eyes, you are cutting out this extra information so it is easier to be aware of your breath, energy in or around your body or the movement of your body. Remeber awarnessis the first A in AAA. Aware, Acknowledge, Accept.
Face up or face down?
Someone reacently asked why we sometimes have you go back face down after being faceup on the table, and I figured more people might have this currisioty.
Face down care is typically Discover care where you are able to connect to and release stored stresses in your body. Its goal is to add stability to your body/ Nervous System. (Early transform care is also done facedown). If you come in with lots of stored stress/ tension, we will typically work in Discover or discover integrate to increase the ease and flexibility (decrease tension/stress) in your body/Nervous System before potentially going on to work in Transform or Awaken. Discover care helps you process stress to have more fuel for transform and awaken care.
When we have you lay faceup, we are working with either late Transform or Awaken care. The goal of these seasons is radically different than in discover care. These seasons are about growth and making effective change. They add a temporary reorgazational instability to your body/Nervous System. This combined with the new energy your system has from processing stress allows your system to reorganize to a higher level of function. As a practical example of processing stress, think about the energy that goes into holding a muscle spasm being redirected in a more useful way as your body relaxes during an entrainment.
The reason we might have you go back face down, is so we can recheck your spine, muscles and how everything is moving to make sure you are in better shape than when you came in, especially if you experienced a lot of instability or had really big changes in your body that day (ie: came in with a lot of stress in your body.)
As a reminder – instability with a new energy source or more energy = upgrade the system. Instability without a new energy source or more energy= downgrade the system or dis-ease.
If your spine is has large amounts of instability after going back facedown, we will usually do 1 -2 quick discover contacts to help your system organize to a higher level of stability.
Here is a video of Donny talking about the seasons of wellbeing from 2010. Donny is much healthier now than he was in this video. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=seasons+of+wellbeing+donny+epistein&view=detail&mid=6C1DC4B985C5E15D82976C1DC4B985C5E15D8297&FORM=VIRE
How to tell if your body is stressed- self awarness
Good morning!
How can you tell if you are in stress mode (in the automictic part of your body and nervous system)?
Its easy to know when you can actually feel your heart beating out of your chest or your palms sweating and mind racing. It can be harder to tell when you are not actively feeling the effects of the initial stress response. For example, are you able to turn off your flight or flight system after getting home from a crazy stressful day? In this case, a better initial question would be- how can you tell if you are in stress mode when you “feel” fine?
Self awareness is the answer which is ironic because this goes down when you are in stress mode. In a stress response your attention goes out to your environment to access for threats to your safety. This is why you can feel fine and also be in stress mode without knowing it. Luckily our bodies give us plenty of signs if you know where to look. These signs start out small and grow over time if the underlying internal stress environment is not resolved.
Some of the signs you might notice are:
Physically it will be harder to stand up straight and you will notice that you are defaulting to a leaned forward or slumped posture. It will be uncomfortable to correct your posture with your conscious mind since your subconscious mind is defaulting to fight or flight posture. Poor posture, poor muscular coordination, and poor biomechanics will lead to pain and tightness somewhere in your body. This pain will most likely come and go for a while and get worse or move to another area if Nervous system is not addressed. You might find your digestion not working as well as it has been and overall lower energy levels.
Some emotional signs you might notice are: anxiety, worry, mental chatter/ running mind, trouble sleeping, irritability , and being on edge all the time.
Another things that is important is to observe your habits. Are you naturally wanting to do positive things and willing to delay gratification – examples could be reading, working out, meditating, yoga, journaling, eating healthy, going to bed in time, drinking / thirsty for water?
or
Are you craving things not so great for you in the long run? Such as going home to watch Netflix and skipping your working out, getting fast food instead of cooking, drinking to cope with stress, staying up late ect.
Finally observe how you are handling stress in life. Are you going with the flow/ making the appropriate shifts or are you trying to control and force everything? Check out this old post on flowing vs shifting as an preview to a possible triad of change email in the next weeks. https://nextlevelchirodallas.com/7-29-19-going-with-the-flow-vs-making-a-shift/
Any of these signs could help you determine if you are in stress mode. Only after you become aware you are in stress mode, are you are able to do something about it. There are many more ways to know if you are operating in your peak state or not, these were just some that I though of while writing this. Let us know if you have other ways of knowing that we did not include here.
Next week we will cover how we, your Network Doctors, check to see if your system is in stress mode and to what degree. We will also cover how this effects the entrainment you get that day.