Intrinsic

It's easy to be defensive during an argument. Acknowledging another's point of view in the heat of the moment is not in most people's nature. It's a skill.

There's an instinct when we're confronted to defend ourselves. In emotional conflict the nervous
system goes into a stress response (freeze/flee/fight) and we can lose access to whole-brain/body resources.

Acknowledging the other in this state can feel like agreeing, which implies defeat. In reality taking a moment to make sure what's being said is understood means nothing about our own take on the situation. It puts a powerful space / / before reacting. In that space is the opportunity to read, regulate and respond with clarity.

In the Skill of Stress reading state (acknowledging) is 1/3 of the course. Reading state extends beyond our own physiology to include the environment and other people. We can't control others, or even the environment, but we can put that needed pause between our conditioned defenses to assess and align a more optimal response that can create the understanding required to get real needs met on both sides.

Often by practicing this I find there is instant co-regulation. The 'other' feels more seen, less defensive, and more prepared to listen in turn.

Hope this helps someone today!


plus

READ STATE
Ruminating on past/future vs.
BEing present.

One contracts our experience, the other expands it.

True?

Last week felt contracting for me as I puzzled and planned without enough presence. Even in pain I’ve found if I can just be present and
B R E A T H E
my options, resources, tolerance, and imagination expand.

hope this helps someone today ~ all we need is here, now.

🆘

=1experience

Trauma in your tissues ~ all the way down to GENE expression.

It makes sense that Adverse Childhood Experiencces (ACE) would cause a ripple of mood 'disorders' in adult life. Clinical anxiety and depression are linked to trauma in decades of research and categorized as psychological issues. Current research on ACE find biomarkers (measurable physical changes) that reveal a direct connection between adverse experiences in childhood and inflammation, brain development, and gene expression. Why is this good news?

Using the biomarkers connected to ACE, "scientists hope to be able to pinpoint which kids are at greatest risk of long-term health effects — and provide a metric for studying the effects of treatments such as specialized therapies." (in the study linked in bio)

By tracking epigenetics in relationship to ACE and ongoing public health, we can eventually validate treatment options that directly affect physiology and gene expression to meet health problems at the root instead of at the fruit. The fruit, in this case, are the psychological manifestations (anxiety, depression, mood "disorders") of a physical system operating with less bandwidth. Adults who score high on the ACE test need tools that directly tune into the physiology and epigenetics of responding to stress.

When we consciously direct our state through interventions like voluntary breathing or cold exposure, we also directly affect gene expression for long term health benefits. (research links in bio)

Genetic material is like a code that informs how our system operates. To tolerate adverse conditions well, we need to stay on top of updating that code. With Adverse Childhood Experiences, and I'd say trauma at any age, it's all the more important to apply strategies that give agency over what's being entered into that code. This research might open doorways for more of the population to take ownership not just of breathing and the body, but of that genetic material. Wow.

Any method (yoga/jiu jitsu/resistance training/running/breathwork...) that is not a true practice can become a coping/numbing tool.

A true practice transcends the method. If you are practicing engaging with your breath and nervous system well during it, you won't need the method anymore to find stability.

We all know people (myself included) who have found a method, tied themselves to it religiously, and then gotten into a rut with it where it either becomes an addiction (I HAVE to go ______insert method of choice) or we rely on it to feel good in a way that without it we would be lost.

Sometimes during the experience we are checking out instead of checking in. Escaping instead of being present with our real needs. This can lead to injury and maladaptive cycles if unchecked.

Most of us have had injuries, gyms close, teachers move, increased work or family demands, etc which have stripped us of some method we became reliant on at some point. How did you deal?

Breath is singularly amazing in that way ~ if you apply breath skillfully as a practice in your training methodology, you can use it to understand yourself in daily life. You can practice it anywhere, anytime, and develop a way to reconnect instead of repeat old patterns of habit.

That is adapting well to stress ~ what I'm always looking to learn more about!

Happy practicing! Share your favorite methods to practice if you like ~ and how you can tell when you're in escape mode with it, versus adapt-mode.

In our N = 1 Group and 1:1 Mentorship, we are studying how to FEEL instead of THINK our way through life.

If you’re over-thinking a process in your life, try feeling into how you want it to unfold. Layer sensation with conscious breath practices and you become an Alchemist ~ shifting your lived experience to create from a state of connection rather than mere mental strategies.

Possibilities hidden in the maze of the mind emerge from the chemistry of connection that don’t require stress and strategy to discover. We are all given the tools to play with these forces.

Thank you for sharing the practice and musings with me!




charles


🆘

=1Exposure

One is simply a connected, present, aware, alive, basic FORCE

The other is a reflection of this force filtered through past conditioning, ego, and predictive fears.

Anyone can practice the former, it is a birthright. Being conscious in a medical sense after all means you are Here. Now.

Next time you catch yourself making meaning of perception, projecting your filtered reflections on your experience, wing self-conscious / / disrupt it.

Breathe
Be with what is
Look for the source of the reflection

It’s always Here. Now.

Interestingly we often “self-regulate” by dropping self-consciousness to just be with what is…this is all stuff I’m working with in my own unfolding process anyway!

=1