Any journey of soul embodiment, inner child healing, core wound healing and trauma healing is not complete without understanding our Nervous System and in this article I’ll explain why.

Firstly, the nervous system goes into every organ and cell in our body. It influences our entire physical health and energy levels as well as our emotional and mental state.

Our nervous system as an adult is the accumulation of all of our past experiences, however there are some very foundational times which contribute to our baseline wiring which I’ll mention below.

Our nervous system first forms when we are 5 weeks old in the womb. It is then shaped by our Mother’s level of regulation as we experience life through her nervous system responses while in the womb. We are wired with a core feeling of either, “the world is a safe place” or “the world is not a safe place and I need to prepare myself for danger.” This is our most foundational imprinting that acts like a lens that we then experience life through once we are born.

The next big event which greatly influences how our nervous system is wired, is our birth. Unfortunately our Western medicalised birthing system has many practices which lead to trauma for both Mother and baby. The following examples are considered traumatic which would lead to trauma and thus dysregulation in the nervous system for the baby. 

• C-section
• Breech
• Forceps/Vontouse
• Drugs (due to them crossing the placenta and affecting the baby)
• Separation of Mother and baby
• Premature birth
• And I would personally add to this list needles that are given at birth due to the resulting physical pain. This may not trigger a trauma response but it will certainly trigger a baby’s sympathetic response.
• If the Mother is experiencing trauma during her labour/birth this will be felt by the baby and can have lasting impacts

After birth, the next 5 years are especially crucial in building upon this foundational wiring of the nervous system. What impacts whether the nervous system is wired with safety and security or fear and insecurity is the following:

• The Mother’s degree of regulation: this is transferred to the child and forms part of their attachment wiring
• The level of co-regulation that the child received in particularly from the biological Mother
• Any separation of baby and biological mother, even for short periods of time, especially in the first 2 years.

Those that come out of childhood with an insecure attachment are more likely to experience trauma later on in life when encountered with difficult life situations. Any event or ongoing events that are highly stressful later in life are more likely to be experienced as traumatic due to the lack of capacity wired into the nervous system from those first foundational years. As we then grow and experience our teenage and early adult years, the stress and trauma becomes accumulated in our body, leading to more and more mental, emotional and physical health issues.

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Trauma is defined as anything which overwhelmed our capacity to process it. Therefore trauma is a completely subjective experience and leads to emotions being trapped in the body and resulting ways our nervous system adapts to survive. Our nervous system patterns become our biological patterns or disease and illness, as well as our mental and emotional health.

Healing at the level of the nervous system means releasing this trapped emotion from the body and restoring regulation to the nervous system.

Many people think they have healed their trauma. But if there is still dysregulation within the nervous system and the resulting physical, emotional or mental expressions, then complete trauma healing has not yet occurred. It means there is more work to be done and understanding how to work at the level of the nervous system is KEY for creating complete healing.

Something I’ve come to realise is that the outcome of Soul Embodiment requires a deeply regulated nervous system. It is when we are regulated that our ventral vagal parasympathetic nervous system is activated and this is known as the ‘social engagement system.’ It is when our heart is open, and we feel safe to be our authentic self, safe to connect with others and have the capacity to move forward in our life with joy.

The idea of embodying our soul means being able to create from and respond to life from our true self rather than our wounds. This means responding to life from our heart, with compassion, self-love, boundaries and empowerment and from a place of knowing what you need to really thrive in your life and having the ability to take that action so you can move forward and create all your heart desires.

This is what we all desire, however this requires the inner work and in particular a somatic approach that supports you in releasing the stored and accumulated stress and trauma from your body and building a deeply regulated nervous system. This results in physical, mental and emotional health and wellbeing.

This looks like having resilience to deal with life’s stressors without shutting down, avoiding or collapsing and being able to keep our heart open in hard times and choose love over fear.

If you are ready for this depth of work and the resulting transformation, I invite you to watch my free webinar and then to book a free consult to see how a somatic approach can support you in achieving the deep healing, embodiment and wellbeing you seek.