1. Learn about the Vagus Nerve and the nervous system to increase your ability to identify which state you system is in. This helps you to know which tool to bring in to restore calm.

• Practice the Anchoring Bi-Lateral NeuroMeditation/Brain Exercise - to root you into your unshakable center through your Vagus Nerve

2. Practice the Attuning to the Body NeuroMeditation/Brain Exercise to increase your awareness of when you feel safe and when you don't. 

3. Create YOUR version of the Cave of Safety. Then spend time in there savoring & soaking in, the feelings of safety, support & unconditional love/acceptance. Preparation Video

4. Determine HOW and on What, YOUR brain likes to FOCUS. This is KEY to interrupting the amygdala and the threat response in the nervous system. 

Note: If unsure - try these are see if they hold your attention:

• • Molly's Dancing the Cingulate

  • Connecting with AWE

  • Breathing with the Tree of Life

  • JUST FOCUS ON YOUR BREATH!  See as color or illumination if that helps, or focus on the ribs, belly and chest expanding and contracting with each breath

5. Practice Mindfulness and/or Quiet Mind to build your reflex/muscle response to return to groundedness when activating thoughts, feelings and sensations arise - or when people or events push us off course. 

1. Learn about the Vagus Nerve and the Nervous System to develop interoception, and awareness of your state. When you can determine your state, you can use NeuroTools to adjust state and return to calm and the ventral vagal.

• Practice Attuning to the Body 

• Practice Anchoring Bi-Lateral 

2. Practice Mindfulness to build your ability to return to an anchored state when thoughts, feelings and sensations activate us. Mindfulness practices increase self-awareness.

3. Practice Molly's Dancing the Cingulate to stabilize and balance the mind. This is also incredibly helpful as a Focus practice to interrupt activation.

4. Know Thyself - Develop YOUR toolkit (which is going to be unique to YOU, your brain and your system) for interrupting activation, restoration of safety/calm, and strengthening your unshakable center. Focus interrupts and balances. Mindfulness increases our Self awareness, our unshakable center and our flexibility. Open Heart generates compassion for self & others. Quiet Mind builds the observer, increases calm awareness, and prepares us for (or returns us to) sleep. 

• Practice Connecting with AWE & Wonder for restoration 

5. Practice increasing your flexibility - 10 Keys to Success Link

• Notice either/OR thinking and statements

• Bring in/invite - BOTH/AND thinking and statements

• practice non-judgement with self and others

1. Download this image to better identify where the Vagus Nerve is in the body. Seeing it helps with connecting with it.

2. Practice the Anchoring Bi-Lateral NM or Brain Exercise and practice Attuning to the Body to increase interoception and connection with Vagus Nerve. 

3. Study the nervous system activation chart and the Polyvagal Theory Nervous System Arousal Chart. Reflect on and track how you experience activation and what you notice in the body when you are out of the zone of safety.

4. Notice what you feel in the body when in different states, including calm and safety. Begin to notice early indicators of moving into hyper or hypo arousal. 

• Practice Mindfulness to build awareness of these sensations, to increase flexibility, to strengthen ability to remain or return to feeling anchored, grounded through/after activation

• practice Connecting with AWE to return to the ventral vagal

5. Honor Yourself! Work with YOUR system. Remember:

• No Force - You can't force it to be in different state

1. Learn about YOUR nervous system and learn about the Vagus Nerve

• Identify what signals your body sends when you are out of the zone of safety - notice early cues

• Practice Attuning to the Body to increase interoception

• Practice Anchoring Bi-Lateral to interrupt and return to VV

2. Determine HOW and on What YOUR brain likes to Focus. This is key to being able to interrupt activation from the amygdala. You often have to interrupt before you can redirect. Until you are sure about your brain and focus preferences, practice Molly's Dancing the Cingulate 

3. Develop and spend time in the Cave of Safety - when you build the muscle of connecting with the feelings of safety, support, value and unconditional love - this is a powerful tool for helping you to shift your state into the Ventral Vagal. You can receive whatever you need in the moment from this place and from Wise Old You.

4. Practice Connecting with AWE - to shift to neutral and the VV

5. Explore which tools best help you calm and quiet your system - the key is attuning to your heart, mind and system: 

• practice Mindfulness - the key with this is connecting with the imagery * NOTE - you'll find a lot out there claiming to be mindfulness practices and might not be that.

• practice Quiet Mind - there are various routes to this practice. Take time to explore and tease out which you connect with most and which shift you most quickly. 

1. Unpack yourself - explore your temperament, personality and perception. Determine your ACES score as you map your life. Note the support you did or did not have during the difficult times. Turn to a therapist if you need support with this process.

2. Learn about your nervous system and your Vagus Nerve - understanding these helps you grasp their role in your daily lived experience. Practice Anchoring Bi-Lateral and Attuning to the Body

3. Build/develop your unshakable center and connect with VN with the Anchoring Bi-Lateral, Mindfulness, grounding tools, time in the Cave of Saftey (below)

4. Practice Mindfulness to build the muscle of returning to the unshakable center when thoughts, feelings, sensations, people and/or experience, activate us or push us off balance. 

• Note: Mindfulness practice increases self-awareness, builds the observer and aids in flowing more fluidly through experiences.

5. Spend time developing and in the Cave of Safety. This is the place where we can receive whatever we need in any moment. It is a space only for US. We connect with our belief we can endure things and get through difficulty when we connect with the Wise Old aspect of us - our unshakeable center. It generates the feelings of being unconditionally loved, supported and valued. 

1. Take time to connect with people who make you feel valued. If you don't have them, seek them out in person or online - search for issues/groups in area of interest. 

2. Practice Self-Love NM - Notice when judgement/criticism emerge and invite love and compassion

3. Open Heart practices increase our feelings of connection with and compassion for self and others

4. Develop and spend time in the Cave of Safety. 

• increases feelings of unconditional love, support and value

• increases connection with part of us that can get through things and endures

5. Practice connecting with AWE

• get into nature if you can to develop memories of Awe - be sure to use your senses - notice with each sense!

• use memory by remembering with the senses

1. Make list of the people who make you feel woven into life

• give time and energy to connecting with these people

• If you don't have people - spend time giving this to yourself through the Cave of Safety

2. Practice Open Heart:

• OH - Fostering Compassion for Self & Others

• OH - Being the Tree & the Forest

• OH - The Net of Indra

• OH - Fostering Self-Love

3. Spend time in Nature - this aids us in feeling connected to something larger than us, and which endures

• plus the incredible benefits we get from time in nature

• if you can't get out there - be sure to watch the various ways to access nature

4. Volunteer - this gives us an opportunity to connect with others and helping others aids us in feeling like we matter or that we have an impact. 

5. Practice Connecting with AWE and Breathing with the Tree of Life

1. Determine HOW and on WHAT your brain likes to FOCUS

• if unsure and my favorite - practice Molly's Dancing the Cingulate

• practice using Focus when you notice you are out of zone of safety

2. Learn about the Vagus Nerve and the nervous system and the role the amygdala has in our activation/perceived threat

3. Practice the Anchoring Bi-Lateral - to interrupt, to balance the brain and mind, to root into your core immovable center

4. Practice breath as focus - there are so many ways to do this 

• keep it simple - see as color or illumination or focus on the physical sensations of the ribs, belly and chest expanding

• Use your hand as a physical tool to focus with touch and tracing up with inhalation and down with exhalation

5. Practice Connecting with AWE 

1. Determine how and on what YOUR mind/brain likes to FOCUS 

2. Practice Focus when mind racing

3. THEN - bring in Mindfulness practice and 

• let the thoughts come and float on or drift away from you

• imagery matters here - you have to feel them release and let go - try using your breath if you struggle to visualize

• Note: when clinging to a thought or feeling, imagine a balloon floating on a string in your hand. Slowly open your fingers and hand and let the string slip through your fingers and away.

4. Try Quiet Mind practices. Use Connecting wtih AWE, or vastness/expansive vista, or spaciousness/space.

5. Focus on your contact with the bed and the feeling of being suspended as though you are floating on water or being held by a hammock or net. The feeling is in the spine and the solar plexus.