This next piece is a video where I re-explain information, covering the overview of the autonomic nervous system from a new angle, using Daniel Siegel’s Hand Model of the Brain.
I’m intentionally taking my time to cover this information to make sure it is clear as possible. Learning your own autonomic nervous system is literally the foundation that I will continue to return to again and again. So I wanted to include a visual explanation for the people who benefit from that.
That said, there *is* some information in this 8-minute video that’s not in the last post so I’m including a YouTube link to the video and I also transcribed the video below to make sure the information is more accessible:
[0:01] Pierre: Hey, I’m back with the next part of my series on how to connect with your body and intuition using somatic psych theory and we’re starting this process by learning your own autonomic nervous system
[0:14] Pierre: Please check our the earlier videos for context. This is an organized video and written series so if you are just getting here, please start at the beginning. I snitched and/or linked this video to the last one
[0:28] Pierre: You might be wondering, “Why is he spending so much time on the overview of the autonomic nervous system?” Having a solid understanding of how your own ANS works is what gives the somatic exercises and tools their power. It’s not actually the somatic exercises and the tools themselves. It’s how you use them according to what your body needs. So you have to know the “Why”.
[0:56] Pierre: Knowing the “Why” helps you stick with the tools even when it gets rough. It helps you be more intentional with your somatic work so you’re not just doing vagal nerve stretches because you saw it on YouTube. It helps you listen and respond to what your body and nervous system needs and it helps you collaborate with your body when you’re making decisions.
[1:21] Pierre: I’m always gonna be linking everything back to the theory and back to the body so we never lose the context and we never lose the “Why”.
[1:30] Pierre: I decided to use Daniel Siegel’s Hand Model of the Brain to visually demonstrate the basics of the autonomic nervous system to make sure y’all got it before we go deeper
[Pierre lifts up a modified fist with his fingernails facing the camera. Pierre points to his right wrist with his left index/pointer finger, tapping as he speaks.]
[1:42] Pierre: Here’s the full hand model of the brain. Let’s start with the wrist. The wrist represents the spinal cord. The spinal cord is the 2-way street where the brain and body communicate with each other about cues of safety and danger in the environment and how to respond to them.
[Pierre opens his right hand and extends his fingers, to reveal his palm to the camera. Pierre points at his right palm with his left index/pointer finger, tapping as he speaks.]
[2:01] Pierre: So the next part of your hand model is your palm. Your palm represents your brainstem. Your brainstem is the oldest part of your brain. Now, connect this to what I told you about your dorsal vagus, which is the oldest and fastest part of your autonomic nervous system. Your dorsal vagus starts in your brainstem and moves down to your heart, your lungs, your stomach, and the diaphragm. Your dorsal vagus regulates how you breathe, how you digest food, and how your heart works. And your brainstem is connected to your fight/flight.
[Pierre starts with the modified closed fist again, opening his fist to show his thumb tucked into his palm. He points to his thumb with his left index/pointer finger, tapping as he speaks]
[2:39] Pierre: The next part of the hand model of the brain is the thumb. The thumb represents the limbic area of our brains.
[Using his left index/pointer finger, Pierre points to his right thumb and then points to the palm of his right hand.]
[2:48] Pierre: As you can see, the limbic area is connected to the brain stem.
[Using his left index/pointer finger, Pierre points to his right thumb, his right palm, and to his right wrist)
[2:52] Pierre: The limbic area, the brainstem, and the body through our spinal cord work together to create and regulate emotions, to motivate us, and to keep and form and make sense of the memories in our minds
[Pierre has his hands down and is just speaking to the camera]
[3:08] Pierre: The limbic area of our brains helps us make meaning of the cues we gets from the environment. I’m gonna get into this a little bit more in the next set of videos where I go deeper into each part of the autonomic nervous system, but let me just say: How we see the world depends on which part of our nervous system is activated at that time. Whether we’re feeling stuck, whether we’re in fight or flight, or whether we’re feeling safe and secure in that moment.
[3:36] Pierre: And the limbic area affects our memories in a similar way. The way our memories are stored and organized depends on how emotionally regulated we were at that time. And how supported we were in our communities. Traumatic memories are stored differently than chiller memories. I’ll circle back to this at a later time.
[4:00] Pierre: To bring some Polyvagal theory into this, it makes a lot of sense that our sympathetic nervous system, the part in charge of our fight/flight response, starts in our brainstem and connects to our heart, eyes, and lungs. Perfectly positioned to be in the middle of that 2-way communication between our emotions and our survival brain, and our body’s responses to it. In this way, the limbic area of our brains helps to regulate our autonomic nervous system by being the connection point between the unconscious and autonomic emotions of our survival brain and our reasoning and conscious thought in our cortex part of our brain.
[Pierre lifts his right hand again to form the modified fist. Pierre strums his 4 fingers over his thumb. Pierre points at the side of his modified fist, where his fingers are, with his left index/pointer finger.]
[4:49] Pierre: The next and final part of the hand model are the 4 fingers covering the thumb, representing the cortex.
The cortex works very closely with the limbic area of the brain.
[Pierre lifts his fingers to show his thumb briefly, points to his thumb, and strums his fingers back down over his thumb to cover it]
[5:02] Pierre: The cortex makes associations, it reasons and make judgments, and the cortex thinks conscious thoughts. So now using the model,
[Pierre opens his fist to show his right palm and points to his palm with his left index/pointer finger]
[5:13] Pierre: If the brainstem receives information
[Pierre points to his right thumb with his left index/pointer finger and uses the finger to tuck his right thumb back into his right palm]
[5:16] The limbic center makes meaning
[Pierre strums his 4 right finger down over his tucked right thumb]
[5:19] Pierre: the cortex applies logic
[Pierre makes a circle-like motion to cover his entire right fist and right wrist with his left index/pointer finger and landing to point at his right wrist]
[5:22] Pierre: and integrates all the information from the body and the outside world,
[Pierre moves his left index/pointer finger up from the wrist to the palm of his right hand and then tucks in his right thumb to his palm with the left index/point finger. Pierre then stops pointing in order to strum his 4 right fingers back over his tucked right thumb]
[5:27] Pierre: the brainstem, the limbic area and our emotions, and our conscious thoughts of the cortex.
[Pierre continues to lift his modified right fist in the air, the full hand model of the brain]
[5:35] Pierre: Now that we understand the hand model of the brain, let’s bring some Polyvagal theory into this.
[Pierre points at the side of his modified fist, where his fingers are, with his left index/pointer finger again, tapping as he speaks.]
[5:42] Pierre: So the cortex thinks its clearest and makes its best judgment calls when our vagal nerve is activated and we are in a ventral vagal state. When our ventral vagus is activated, we’re able to think clearer, assess all of our options, and commune and consult with others.
[Pierre stops pointing, continuing to raise his modified fist – the full hand model of the brain.]
[6:06] Pierre: When we receive signs of danger, when we’re triggered, Our nervous system becomes dysregulated and we “flip our lid”.
[Pierre lifts up his 4 right fingers to show his right thumb. Pierre points at the lifted fingers with his left index/pointer finger and then points to the rest of his hand, tapping at the side of his hand as he speaks]
[6:15] Pierre: Suddenly, our cortex is not connected to the rest of our brain. And we are not able to think as clearly. We’re not able to process information the same.
[Pierre closes his fist to put the hand model back together.]
[6:28] Pierre: From a Polyvagal perspective, when we receive cues of danger, when our nervous system becomes dysregulated, our vagal nerve relaxes.
[Then Pierre lifts up his 4 right fingers to show his right thumb. Pierre points and gestures at his right thumb and his right palm with his left index/pointer finger]
[6:39] Pierre: And this allows the other parts of our autonomic nervous system – our fight/flight or our dorsal vagus to kick in.
[Pierre stops uses his hands and just talks to the camera]
[6:49] Pierre: So in somatic work, we’re looking for a balance: We wanna allow our bodies to do what it needs to do to protect us while also having the option of being able to change which part of our nervous system is activated, if that’s what we want to do. The goal of somatic work is not to force your body to be happy or present all the time. It’s so you have options. It’s so you are not being ruled by your triggers. It’s so your body doesn’t have to be constantly shutting down all the time or constantly in a state of fight or flight, which both can have negative health effects. It’s the ability to know exactly how you feel, what’s causing it, and whether how you feel right now is actually serving you. If it is and you like how you feel, you have the somatic tools to really savor it. If it’s not and you want to change, you have the somatic tools to regulate yourself or to connect with your community. The next video will go even deeper on the sympathetic nervous system’s fight/flight response.
Thanks for reading! The next piece will cover a deeper dive into the sympathetic nervous system’s fight/flight response.