Welcome back to the somatic series! This next chapter focuses on how our bodies move from 1 state/part of the autonomic nervous system to another. How we move from ventral vagus to fight/flight to dorsal vagal shutdown. I’m using the NYC subway map to show how this works naturally and then how we can influence this process, alone and/or within our community relationships.
Here are the video versions of this post: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
And here’s the video transcription below:
Video Part 1/3
[The video starts with Pierre in front of a NYC subway map.]
[Heading: “Somatic Series: Moving Through Your Nervous System Using the NYC Subway Map” – 0 min, 0 sec]
[0:00] Pierre: “Hey, so welcome back to the somatic series. Today I’m using the New York City subway map to explain how our nervous system moves from chilling to a state of fight or flight to shut down and everything in between: play, freeze, fawn, etc”
[Pop-up: “Part 1/3: 9m2s” – 0 mins 17 secs]
[0:17] Pierre: “And then how we move back up.”
[0:20] Pierre: “We know that the three parts of our autonomic nervous system are working separately and together in order to keep us safe. We also know that the physical sensations that we feel, um, that result from our autonomic nervous system doing its thing behind the scenes, have a huge effect on our thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and behaviors, right? We also know that a part of healing is learning how your autonomic nervous system works in the first place and learning to be in relationship with yourself and your body from a deep like somatic perspective. If any of that didn’t make sense, please feel free to start at the top of my somatic series and work your way right back here to this point.”
[Heading: “The Bronx aka Ventral Vagus” appears over where the Bronx is located on the subway map. – 1 min, 9 secs]
[1:09] Pierre: “So because I’m from the Bronx”
[Pierre gestures arms in an “X” motions to signal he is from the Bronx”
[1:11] Pierre: “I conveniently placed the ventral vagus in the Bronx on the map.”
[An illustration of a train appears in the Bronx on the map to show where we are at this time – 1 min, 17 secs]
[1:17] Pierre: “So I’m counting any time that the ventral vagus is either working alone or when it’s collaborating with one of the other parts of the autonomic nervous system honestly because any time the vagal brake is active, it’s a vibe. Think about cuddling, think about resting, being out in nature, listening to music, enjoying a meal that just hits right for you, being on the same page with someone like they just get you, being in a communal space like a spiritual activity or a concert where you just feel at one with everyone in the room, those times when you could think clearly where you can see all the options laid out in front of you, and you’re able to really critically think and make the best choice for you. Um and also like I’ve said before, let’s think about play.
[Heading: “Fight/Flight aka Manhattan” appears over where Manhattan is located on the subway map. – 2 mins, 10 secs]
[2:10] Pierre: “Play is when the sympathetic nervous system and your ventral vagus collaborate. Yeah, you need the energy from the sympathetic nervous system to help you kind of, you know, play, do what you need to do. But you also need the ventral vagus to help you stay present, to help you stay connected to yourself, and if you’re playing with someone else, to be connected to that person so you can really enjoy that playtime.
[Blue arrow appears between the Bronx and Manhattan show movement down from Ventral Vagus to Flight/Flight – 2mins, 36 secs]
[2:36] Pierre: “When our autonomic nervous system receives signs of danger from the environment, our vagal break relaxes, our prefrontal cortex goes offline”
[An illustration of a train appears in Manhattan on the map to show where we are at this time – 2 mins, 46 secs]
[2:46] Pierre: “and our survival brain takes over. Now, the goal here is to use the energy that we’re receiving in a fight/flight state to move away from danger towards safety, so your vagal brake can re-engage, and you can be in a ventral vagal state all over again. Now, there’s a spectrum to um what you can experience in a sympathetic nervous system activation, right? You could feel a mix of fight/flight and the ventral vagus, which would be play, so I guess that could be like um South Bronx, Washington Heights, Harlem, right? Um, you could also experience fight/flight by itself. So I guess that could be like Midtown or something like that right? And then you can experience dorsal vagus and your fight/flight, your sympathetic nervous system, working together and that could be freeze or fawn. And I guess that could be like Chelsea or the Financial District or something like that.
[Blue arrow appears between the Bronx and Manhattan show movement down from Ventral Vagus to Flight/Flight – 3mins, 57 secs]
[Heading: “Dorsal Vagus Shutdown aka Brooklyn” appears over where Brooklyn is located on the subway map. – 3 mins, 57 secs]
[3:57] Pierre: “Let me just say that I didn’t make Brooklyn Dorsal Vagus because I have any beef towards Brooklyn. Like, I actually really like Brooklyn. Also, the dorsal vagus isn’t bad at all, um, like I’ve explained in the series. The reason why I chose Brooklyn as where the dorsal vagus lives is because um if you’ve ever traveled from the Bronx to Crown Heights, it’s like mad deep and um that’s how it feels like when you’re shut down, it just, you feel so far away from the person who you were that it feels like having to take that 2 hour train ride um from the Bronx to Crown Heights.
[4:39] Pierre: “I guess you can count Downtown Brooklyn as another place where freeze and fawn can live. Um, but as you get deeper and deeper into Brooklyn, that’s representing being more and more overwhelmed”
[An illustration of a train appears in Brooklyn on the map to show where we are at this time – 4 mins, 51 secs]
[4:51] Pierre: “by whatever your nervous system is dealing with in this situation. And the stress can be systemic, it can be interpersonal, it could be stress like pain cause that also counts, it can be all of these things and more, um, but just the more stressors that you’re experiencing, the more cues of danger that you experience and it just gets to a point where your current self-care, your current tools, maybe even your current community just cannot handle it and your nervous system decides that, in order to protect you, it’s time to shut you down.”
[5:30] Pierre: “So I’ve already kind of talked about moving down the map here from your ventral vagus to your sympathetic nervous system’s fight/flight to your dorsal vagus’s shut down, but I just wanna highlight 2 things:”
[Blue arrow appears between the Bronx and Manhattan show movement down from Ventral Vagus to Flight/Flight – 5 mins, 45 secs]
[5:45] Pierre: “One, that moving from your ventral vagus to your sympathetic nervous system’s fight/flight is all about moving away from whatever danger your nervous system has picked up on”
[Blue arrow appears between the Bronx and Manhattan show movement up from Flight/Flight to Ventral Vagus – 5 mins, 59 secs]
[5:59] Pierre: “Moving towards safety so you can go back to that ventral vagal chilling state right?”
[Blue arrow appears between Manhattan and Brooklyn show movement down from Flight/Flight to Dorsal Vagus – 6 mins, 7 secs]
[6:07] Pierre: “And then moving down from your uh sympathetic nervous system to your dorsal vagus is because whatever is going on in your environment is so scary, is so intense, it’s so stressful, it’s so hectic that your nervous system was like nah and decided it needed to protect you. So it put you in this low power mode.”
[6:31] Pierre: “Moving up the map from a dorsal vagal shutdown is more complicated than moving down the map. Kinda like how swimming up to the surface does take more effort than falling into the water in the 1st place. You can really move from shutdown right to that ventral vagal safety. That’s just not how that works.
[An illustration of a train re-appears in Brooklyn on the map to show where we are at this time – 6 mins, 56 secs]
[6:56] Pierre: “Kinda similar to using the subway system.”
[Red arrow and red “no” symbol appears between the Bronx and Brooklyn to show that subway movement between both those specific boroughs and both those specific autonomic nervous system (ANS) states is not possible – 6 mins, 58 secs]
[6:58] Pierre: “You can’t go from Brooklyn right to the Bronx right? You can’t go from Crown heights right to the Bronx. That’s just not how that happens. It’s just not possible. That’s not how the subway was built right? Similarly, that’s not how our brains were evolved, you know? That’s not what it does right? That’s not how the wiring works. You can’t go from shutdown to a ventral vagal chilling sort of thing.”
[Blue arrow appears between Manhattan and Brooklyn to show movement up from Dorsal Vagus to Flight/Flight – 6 mins, 7 secs]
[7:27] Pierre: “You have to go through Manhattan, you know? You have to go through that sympathetic fight/flight energy because it’s that sympathetic fight/flight energy that’s gonna give you that boost that you need to move”
[An illustration of a train appears in the Bronx on the map to represent being in a ventral vagal state – 7 mins, 38 secs]
[7:38] Pierre: “and do the things to get to that safety, either by regulating yourself and/or by co-regulating with your community.”
[7:47] Pierre: “When I say uh that getting out of a dorsal vagal shutdown can be more complicated, moving up that map into fight/flight can be complicated it’s because when you are in dorsal vagal shutdown, that can look like not having the energy or the motivation, etc to do the things that you need to do for yourself or with others that you know make you feel good. Like you know that you love, you know, listening to music or, you know, certain music makes you feel great. And you know eating certain foods makes you feel great. You know that calling certain people or like, you know, spending time with certain people or you know that, um, doing like meditation or walking your dog or something right? You know that your routines or the things that bring you joy. You in theory, you know what they are right?”
[An illustration of a train appears in the Bronx on the map to represent being in a ventral vagal state – 8 mins, 43 secs]
[8:43] Pierre: “When you’re in a more chill ventral vagal state, you remember all of those things.”
[2 blue arrows appear. 1 blue arrow between the Bronx and Manhattan and 1 blue arrow between Manhattan and Brooklyn to show movement down the map from ventral vagus to fight/flight to shutdown – 8 mins, 47 secs]
[8:47] Pierre: “But when your survival brain kicks in, right?”
[An illustration of a train appears in Brooklyn on the map to represent being shutdown – 8 mins, 50 secs]
[8:50] Pierre: “Especially when you’re shutdown. It can be hard to remember the things that bring you joy and even if you remember the things that bring you joy, you might not have the energy or the motivation to do those things”
Video Part 2/3
[The video starts with Pierre in front of a NYC subway map.]
[Heading: “Somatic Series: Moving Thru Your Nervous System Using the NYC Subway Map Part 2/3” – 0 min, 0 sec]
[0:00] Pierre: “So what makes dorsal vagal complicated too is that other people might also be trying to pour into you right? Might be trying to, like, hug you, be trying to like give you advice, be trying to, you know, say words of encouragement, be wanting to spend time with you, but you know, you’re just not able to receive that love because- being connected right?”
[3 Headings: “The Bronx aka Ventral Vagus” appears over where the Bronx is located on the subway map, “Fight/Flight aka Manhattan” appears over where Manhattan is located on the subway map, and “Dorsal Vagus Shutdown aka Brooklyn” appears over where Brooklyn is located on the subway map. – 0 min, 28 secs]
[An illustration of a train appears in Brooklyn on the map to show where we are at this time – 0 mins, 28 secs]
[0:28] Pierre: “That social engagement center. Where does that live?”
[A green checkmark appears in the Bronx on the map – 0 mins, 32 secs]
[0:32] Pierre: “The Ventral vagus, right? So if you’re in Crown Heights, mad far from the Bronx and that’s where the social engagement center lives, you’re kinda too far away from that in order to receive what the people in your life are trying to like, give you.”
[Blue arrow appears between Manhattan and Brooklyn to show movement up from Dorsal Vagus to Flight/Flight – 0 mins, 48 secs]
[0:48] Pierre: “Getting out of shut down, um 1st requires you to ground yourself into the present or being able to ground yourself into the present moment. Ideally creating a pleasant moment for you to then ground yourself into so that your nervous system, your body know that you’re not actively in danger anymore. Um, it also requires you to do some gentle movement, probably. You know, um, you’re probably feeling really stuck. You probably don’t wanna move. You’re probably feeling really exhausted. So I’m not suggesting you push yourself hard because pushing yourself will make your nervous system become overwhelmed and retreat even further. So you definitely don’t wanna be exercising really hard if you’re feeling um emotionally shut down, but you wanna do some gentle movement, even if it’s walking around your place, um going for a walk with a dog or by yourself, um 2-stepping it or dancing around your place, um drumming on something, you know swaying, if there’s any like gentle stimming um that you could be doing that would be a really great opportunity to do that. Um connecting with your community and seeing if there are other people’s nervous systems that you could be connecting with.
[2:19] Pierre: “If shit is just too intense, you know, like, sometimes the shutdown can really just be like shutting down all right and you could just feel like, “I don’t know. I don’t know if I have the tools myself to pull myself out of this. This just feels too deep.” That’s cool. You don’t have to do everything by yourself. Who says? Individualism? No, we don’t do that here. We do community. Access your community. You know, access people that you trust. I’m sure if you reach out, your actual people will not think you’re a burden. I’m sure they will be so happy to reach out and give you that support. To give that safety they feel at least in the moment and pour that into you. Or commiserate around how terrible the world is, but that you have each other no matter what.”
[3:08] Pierre: “Moving out of dorsal vagus into that fight/flight is kinda like warming up your car, it’s like preheating the oven before cooking something in there, you know? This is kinda just easing your body back into movement, easing your body out of shut down. Um, you also want to pay attention to your self-talk ’cause if you’re saying mean things to yourself, if you’re like, “You know know better. This is why you always do this. Ah ah ah” right? Um, that’s just gonna cause your nervous system to shut down even more. So I would suggest, you know, try talking to yourself like you were your friend, like someone you liked, um because I’m pretty sure if somebody else tried to talk sideways to someone that you really liked and really cared about, you wouldn’t let them say that shit”
[3:58] Pierre: “So boom: you realized, “oh wait, I’m shut down right now”. Um, you grounded yourself. You did some movement. You avoided being mean to yourself. And um, you realized that you needed some help from your community so, you know, your community came in and either like body doubled with you or engaged in some gentle movement with you. Um or you know, something, whatever is in your toolkit, whatever works to bring you out of a shutdown sort of feeling”
[An illustration of a train appears in Manhattan on the map to show where we are at this time – 4 mins, 30 secs]
[4:30] Pierre: “So now you’re in fight/flight. Which on 1 hand, congratulations right? Yay you did it! On the other hand, um, this kind of feels not like a success the 1st time you realize, you know, you’re intentionally doing this somatic work. Because that’s when you start to notice how angry you are or how anxious you are. You start to feel those uncomfortable feelings again that your nervous system was just like, “Mm thought we were gonna shut down about this” right? But in order to get to that ventral vagal state, you gotta go through Manhattan right? You gotta go through this fight/flight feeling. You need to allow your body to somatically kind of work through some of this. So you might go, “What are you saying? What does that look like?” Great question.”
[Blue arrow appears between Manhattan and the Bronx to show movement up from Flight/Flight to Ventral Vagus – 0 mins, 48 secs]
[5:29] Pierre: “Moving up from a fight or flight up to your ventral vagus really involves knowing how to check in with your body and figuring out what your body needs. ‘Cause it really depends on what’s going on in that moment. Um, do you have pent up energy that you need to release? Because if that’s the case then you might actually need to go do something to release that so, I don’t know, go exercise or go, I don’t know, play video games. And until you release that energy, your nervous system is not gonna be ready really for you to do anything else. So figure out what you need. Go dance, I don’t know.”
[6:07] Pierre: “Let’s say it’s not that right? Um, are you hungry? Did you eat? And did what you eat have protein in it, ’cause remember, protein helps reduce the stress hormones cortisol in your system so you need some protein, plant-based, animal, I don’t care. Did you have carbs? Because like, your prefrontal cortex needs glucose. So you need sugar or carbs to feed your prefrontal cortex so it can move closer to being able to think clearly, right, and being able to feel safe. If you are hungry or you’re not feeding yourself enough, your body is gonna be in fight or flight a lot because you’re not eating. You can’t be safe until you’ve, you know, you eat. And um, are you dehydrated? Check in on yourself. The basic needs. How’s your sleep? You know, stuff like that. Um, are you cold? Are you too hot? Those are definitely things that can, like trigger um, an increased fight/flight response. Really making sure that your environment is as comfortable as you can make it. And someone can be like, “Oh that’s so superficial. Oh well- ” No. That matters. Like your nervous system needs that love. Like whatever is in your power.”
[7:20] Pierre: “Oh yeah, I forgot. Do you need to stim? Is there any stimming that releases pent up energy for you that’s not harmful, then do that. Please 100% do that. Are you in pain? Right? Are you in any physical pain? Because if you’re dealing with physical pain, that can also make your fight/flight response larger than it would be otherwise and it could also make you more easily triggered, um into a fight/flight response and even right back into shutdown. If you’re already dealing with pain and then something else happens, your nervous system could be like, “Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Goodbye.”
Video Part 3/3
[The video starts with Pierre in front of a NYC subway map.]
[Heading: “Somatic Series: Moving Thru Your Nervous System Using the NYC Subway Map Part 2/3” – 0 min, 0 sec]
[0:00] Pierre: “Doing all of that stuff helps to bring you up the map right? Past the financial district”
[3 Headings: “The Bronx aka Ventral Vagus” appears over where the Bronx is located on the subway map, “Fight/Flight aka Manhattan” appears over where Manhattan is located on the subway map, and “Dorsal Vagus Shutdown aka Brooklyn” appears over where Brooklyn is located on the subway map. – 0 min, 5 secs]
[A large blue arrow appears up the right side of Manhattan to show the movement up the map and the of progress working through Flight/Flight feelings – 0 min, 5 secs]
[0:05] Pierre: “Past, you know, Chelsea and Midtown. You know, up towards, you know, I’d probably say Washington Heights/South Bronx”
[An illustration of a train appears on the edge of upper/north Manhattan & South Bronx on the map to show where we are at this time – 0 mins, 14 secs]
[0:16] Pierre: “So you might be wondering, “Alright. Well, how do I get…how do I get further?” Right?
[Blue arrow appears going up into the Bronx from Manhattan to show the movement up the map from fight/flight into the ventral vagus – 0 min, 20 secs]
[0:20] Pierre: “How do I get in there?” Right? Um, and that requires you really letting your body know that it is safe enough to relax and that it’s time to engage your vagal brake. And that requires you to do things for yourself and/or connect with your community. Things that feel pleasurable. Things that bring you joy. Things that inspire awe. Um things that make you feel connected to something larger than yourself. Right? Things that inspire elevation. You know, those sorts of things. Allowing yourself to enjoy the little things and the larger things in life. Allowing yourself to be principled and aligned with your values. And involved within community. All of those things is so important, um, in terms of having the kind of relationship with yourself that allows you to handle the ups and downs of life.”
[1:30] Pierre: “Moving up the map is actually harder for a lot of people due to chronic trauma. Chronic trauma and viral infections have the ability to damage um and harm your nervous system’s ability to bring you up from shut down to fight/flight to um that ventral vagal state. And for a lot of us, we have to re-parent ourselves and, you know, rehab ourselves and learn skills in adulthood in order to help us, you know, be able to build community and find safety within ourselves. So we’re not at the whim of our nervous systems’ survival cue responses all the time.”
[2:19] Pierre: “Despite the fact that we have system oppressions, our personal and generational traumas, things like sicknesses and viral infections that make it harder for us to um go up the map and regulate ourselves, it is still very possible to learn and map out and connect with your body and your nervous system. Just because you have a rough history and a rough current time, doesn’t mean that healing is just outside of your reach forever. You’re not broken. You know, you can do this. It just takes work. Um and there’s days where it’s hard work. But, I don’t know, all important relationships take work. And your relationships with yourself and your community relationships are so, so important. We cannot survive happily without a good relationship with ourselves and also without strong community and interpersonal relationships.”
[3:27] Pierre: “So some of you might be wondering why I’m taking so long showing any somatic exercises and the reason is because I wanted to lay this theory out as your foundation, as your compass. So you can take the time and learn your nervous system personally and how, um, your emotions manifest themselves in here. Right? And get to know what each part of your nervous system feels like, in here. Because doing somatic exercises without the context can either do nothing or it might potentially make you feel worse. Like for example, um, let’s say you’re emotionally shut down”
[An illustration of a train appears in Brooklyn on the map to show where we are at this time – 4 mins, 9 secs]
[4:09] Pierre: “If you try to do relaxing self-care, it might not actually feel like anything. Like if you’ve ever like, been really stressed out and you try to, like you know, light candles or take a relaxing bath or meditate or, you know, try to do things that are soothing to you, but it’s just not working. And you’re like, “I’m self-caring. Why am I not feeling better? Why isn’t this working?” You might be shut down. And doing relaxing self-care when you are shut down is not gonna help you. Or you might decide to do, like, vagal stretches that, you know, you saw a video on Youtube.”
[Blue arrow appears going up into Manhattan from Brooklyn to show the movement up the map from dorsal vagus into fight/flight – 4 mins, 54 secs]
[4:54] Pierre: “Your dorsal vagus is part of your vagus nerve. So you actually need to activate that fight or flight 1st”
[An illustration of a train appears in lower Manhattan on the map to show where we are at this time – 4 mins, 59 secs]
[4:59] Pierre: “And then once you activate your fight or flight, maybe if you need any pent-up energy released, you do that and you, you know, make sure that you’re ready to-”
[An illustration of a train appears in upper/north Manhattan on the map to show where we are at this time – 5 mins, 8 secs]
[5:08] Pierre: “move to that ventral vagal state. Then that would be a good time, once you’re in fight or flight and ready to not be in fight or flight anyone, doing like-”
[Blue arrow appears going up into the Bronx from Manhattan to show the movement up the map from fight/flight into a ventral vagal state – 5 mins, 18 secs]
[5:18] Pierre: “vagus nerve stretches, doing more relaxing things”
[An illustration of a train appears further in the Bronx on the map to show where we are at this time – 5 mins, 24 secs]
[5:24] Pierre: “That’s when that would be a great time for that. Right? So do you see how knowing your nervous system 1st and developing a relationship with yourself 1st is actually more important than the exercises themselves? These somatic exercises, they’re just tools in a toolbox. You have to have the knowledge to know which tools to pull from your toolbox at any given time.”
[5:49] Pierre: “Remember that the point of somatic work is not to force our bodies to conform to being in a forever ventral vagal state, like forcing ourselves to be happy no matter what. Right? Or forcing ourselves to be calm no matter what. Um, one, I don’t think that’s possible. But I also don’t think that’s particularly healthy at all. Our bodies and our nervous systems are supposed to flow. Right? They’re supposed to flow in and out of each state. They’re supposed to respond to our environment. Respond to signs of danger and safety. We’re not supposed to be feeling 1 kind of emotion all the time. That’s just-”
[Pierre gestures and claps his hands lightly – 6 mins, 30 secs]
[6:31] Pierre: “The reason for somatic work is to build your relationship with yourself so you aren’t at the whim of any triggers that you experience. You’re not, you know, feeling stuck and trapped in a shutdown state. You’re not losing yourself to anxiety or anger. Because you have the relationship with yourself, and, you have the knowledge and you have the tools at your disposal and the community at your disposal in order to support you.”
[7:04] Pierre: “And it also helps, you know, to have an understanding of what the ventral vagus is. You know? The ventral vagal state is not some promise land right? It’s not heaven. It’s not a place of no pain. It is just the part of your brain that allows you to think critically, that allows you to be present, that allows you to engage socially with the people around you, that um allows you to have the capacity to see all the options in front of you, that allows you to build community and maintain community, to give and receive support, to experience joy, to experience awe, right? To rest. Those are all important healing things. Um but that doesn’t mean that we’re supposed to make ourselves stay in a ventral vagal state all the time. Don’t use these tools to try to colonize your nervous system. That’s mean. [Pierre chuckles]
[8:00] Pierre: “The point of this somatic work is to, like I say, to be in relationship with yourself and to learn how to collaborate with your nervous system and your body. And to learn how to collaborate with the nervous systems and bodies of the people around you and people around the world too”.
Thanks for reading! The next part of this somatic series will be an introduction to some somatic exercises that help you learn and map out your nervous system.