Reflections on the Past Year
Passing the one-year anniversary of the pandemic invites reflections on the adaptations we have made within our lives over the past year. With the prolonged stress of the pandemic, adjustment to changes in daily life became a marathon rather than a sprint. Access to friends, family, and community supports became a challenge, and routines within the workplace and family life were altered. For many, the pandemic disrupted access to these integral resources that serve as buffers to stress. With prolonged exposure to stress comes the risk of our nervous systems reshaping around patterns of protection rather than being available for connection. Neuropsychologist Dr. Rick Hanson speaks about increasing our ability to cope with ongoing stress as a process of learning to “walk evenly over uneven ground,” which can also be thought of as strengthening our resilience. Resilience is actively built in the brain through intentional behaviors, skills, access to support, and a sense of some control within one’s life.
From a polyvagal lens, our autonomic nervous systems inform how we experience our daily lives, the meaning we make of experiences, and the stories we tell ourselves. There is a neural platform beneath every experience we have. As meaning makers, we often tell ourselves stories based on information we automatically receive from our nervous systems. By increasing our understanding of our individual nervous systems, we can ensure the stories we tell ourselves best serve our overall well-being. In her book The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy, psychotherapist Deb Dana uses the metaphor of a ladder to explain the autonomic nervous system. At the top of the ladder (the ventral vagal state), we have access to optimal brain functioning and our social engagement system. This is the place in which we are available to connect with others, do our best problem-solving, and have perspective. This is also the place where possibility lives. In the middle of the ladder (sympathetic nervous system engagement), we are in a defensive state mobilized with energy, and have tunnel vision with little access to perspective or the ability to connect. It is traditionally thought of as a fight-or-flight state, but in everyday life, it’s experienced as “go-go-go” or “powering-through mode.” The bottom of the ladder (the dorsal vagal state) is a place of immobilization. There is little to no energy and it can even feel like being in a fog or zoned out. The bottom is also a defensive state in which we are unavailable to connect, but without the hypervigilant energy of the middle of the ladder. With prolonged stress, defensive states (whether it is the go mode of the middle of the ladder or the shutdown mode of the bottom of the ladder) can become a home away from home for our nervous systems. Thankfully though, when our nervous systems have been shaped around defensive states from chronic stress or trauma, we can intentionally retune to find our way back to the top of the ladder.
Take a moment to ask yourself where on your ladder you have tended to be over this past year. It is not uncommon to move up and down your ladder throughout your day, but stress over this past year may have led you to spend more time in the middle or the bottom of your ladder. Knowing where you are on your ladder, ideally even becoming a daily check-in habit, invites the question, “what would be most nourishing to my nervous system?” At the top of the ladder, we want to consider what would support us in remaining there longer. To increase our sense of safety, our brains’ negativity bias directs focus on past negative experiences or future threats of harm. Dr. Hanson phrases this as our brain’s tendency to be a “Velcro for the bad and Teflon for the good.” Fortunately, we can to intentionally direct our attention in a way that regrooves our brains’ neural patterns towards resilience rather than experiencing life through the lens of this negativity bias. Dr. Hanson teaches that it takes 10-20 seconds of intentional focus on a positive experience to begin to create a lasting neural structure in the brain. He refers to positive experiences as “good facts” that need to be highlighted to build resilience. With our inherent negativity bias, a negative focus can be misperceived as factual. Our brains disregard positive experiences as irrelevant without our deliberate intention to take in the “good facts” of our day. During those 10-20 seconds, you focus on making a positive moment more vivid, soaking in sensory details of what you see, hear, smell, and how it feels in your body. In the middle of the ladder, we generally need to slow down. One of the most powerful and easily accessible ways to do this is to focus on the breath. Our breath helps to regulate our heart rate variability, which in turn sends cues of safety to our nervous system. We can be in a place of coherence and regain access to optimal brain functioning by using the breath as a tool to open a path to the top of the ladder, which is the place we all want to be. In the middle of the ladder, even just slowing down one’s body, speech, and focusing on one task at a time can provide access back to the top of the ladder. At the bottom of the ladder, we need glimmers of hope and invitations for energy that will create some mobilization. Because there is so little energy at the bottom of the ladder, the interventions can be subtle. For some, this can be as simple as stepping outside to experience nature. For others, making plans in the days ahead creates energy by having something to look forward to. Making a connection with others, moving the body, listening to music, singing, or even just shifting your posture can invite some of those glimmers that light up the path back to the top of the ladder.
Research teaches us that interventions that we may have previously dismissed as being too simple in our fast-paced lives can in fact become foundations of resilience through daily practice. What we once were able to take for granted we may now need to intentionally seek. Micro-moments that seemed irrelevant in our busy, full pre-pandemic lives have revealed themselves to be integral in our overall well-being. Simple interventions and positive experiences are made relevant to our brains and body through intention and focus. Dr. Hanson emphasizes that repeatedly registering positive experiences allows them to be woven into lasting structures within the brain.
As you think about what this past year has taught you about your own foundation of well-being, what have you found to be non-negotiables for your own mental health? How would your nervous system most like to be nourished and supported? Are there small interventions you want to incorporate into your day, like taking those 10-20 seconds to take in a “good fact”? Or would you like to slow down by bringing more intention to your breathing, maybe even setting up reminders to bring awareness to your breath throughout your day? Are there deliberate glimmers and supports you have created or would like to highlight during your week, to give you access to walking on even ground when life becomes uneven? While there is more complexity to mental health beyond this, these considerations can be jumping-off points for building the resilience you need to improve and maintain the quality of your daily life.
Written by: CORINNE EDWARDS, ED.S., LMHC
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