Welcome back to the somatic series!

This is the series where I am using somatic psych theory to help people learn and map out their autonomic nervous system (ANS), develop a healthier relationship with themselves, and eventually build stronger communities.

This is the 5th part of Unit 3, which explains trauma from a somatic perspective, what triggers are, the concept of biological rudeness, what glimmers are, and how to regulate your ANS out of survival mode through self-regulation and co-regulation.

Chapter 12 covered an overview of how fear and anxiety shows up in the nervous system as a way to lay the foundation for talking about trauma.

Chapter 13, discussed trauma from a somatic perspective, specifically what trauma is and some of the effects chronic trauma has on our brains, bodies, and communities.

Chapter 14, focused on triggers: What triggers generally are and how to identify your own triggers so you can continue this somatic self-learning journey.

Last chapter, Chapter 15, broke down biological rudeness: What it is and how to tell the difference between misunderstandings, regular relationship conflict, and danger.

This chapter, Chapter 16, will explain the concept of glimmers, how they compare to triggers, and how to use them to support your mental and physical health.

Video version here!

What Are Glimmers?

One way to explain glimmers (a concept/label invented by Deb Dana, LCSW) is by explaining what they are not. So let’s talk about triggers again real quick. A trigger is something that reminds your body/ANS of a past traumatic experience. When a trigger comes along, your critical thinking and reasoning turns off and it’s almost like a memory time capsule is opened up in your body. Your ANS, *in seconds*, reviews any similar past experiences in your memories for helpful ways to respond, compares it to your current situation, and then makes moves (like releasing cortisol and adrenaline or freezing) to try to get you to safety, way, way before your conscious mind even knows what’s really going on. Ideally, receiving this download of old hinformation would give you the information you need to survive this specific moment as quickly as possible. Once that trauma time capsule opens, all the emotions, thoughts, physical sensations, etc from the original trauma and every other time you’ve felt like that comes rushing back to you.

Ok so, just like triggers are things that activate our trauma time capsules to give us a survival information download, glimmers are things that activate our vagus nerve to let us know that we are safe. One cool thing about the brain is that our amygdala doesn’t only remember and organize the unpleasant experiences in our lives. We are not just walking traumas stacked up in a trench coat pretending to be human. Our amygdala stores our pleasures and joys in a similar way too. That’s why the smell of baked goods can remind some people of home or the sound of a certain song can take you back to when you were a kid in a good way.

Glimmers and Safety

The process of learning yourself, of doing “the work” isn’t only stress tolerance and deactivating triggers. Just like it is essential to map out your ANS to understand how your body responds to stress, it is equally important to learn how your body responds to the so called “little” pleasures, joys, peaceful times, and things that excite you, motivate you, and stimulate your interest. What kind of person are you when you are not fighting to survive *all the time*? Who are you (and how do you respond to the people around you, the world at large, and future possibilities) when you are not in a regular state of crisis?

Experiencing glimmers (both alone and with other people) is an important part of getting out of survival mode, feeling safe, turning your critical thinking and ability to connect with others back on, and healing from trauma in general. When you are more actively stressed and your prefrontal cortex is off, it is harder to build and/or maintain your relationships with yourself and your community. Think about how much harder it is to keep up a regular sleep routine when stressed or harder to eat consistently. Or how much more effort it takes to answer text messages or emotionally connect with someone when you are out of it. Or how many if not all of your regular routines and hobbies tend to be put on pause when stress levels get too high. Stress and trauma cause us to disconnect from ourselves and others. Glimmers, along with other somatic strategies like grounding and body scanning, are part of the process of getting reconnected.

Using Glimmers for Dopamine and Stress Reduction

It might seem silly to focus on the small, everyday pleasures when it feels like life is going to hell, but that is exactly the right time for glimmers. Remember that because the autonomic system is faster than the conscious mind, it is technically the root of emotions and thoughts (and behaviors/actions). Your ANS senses a danger and activates, your body responds, and then you interpret the physical feelings you feel as an emotion and/or create a narrative/story to make sense of why you feel that way. So if someone’s goal is to understand their thoughts, feel and manage their emotions, and change their behaviors, it all starts with learning and building a relationship with one’s own autonomic nervous system. Polyvagal theorist and clinical social worker Deb Dana calls glimmers “micro moments” of emotional regulation. Like intentionally micro-dosing pleasure and joy as a strategy to regulate your autonomic nervous system.

Dipping your toe into pleasant feelings & situations without it being potentially overstimulating or triggering. Using glimmer moments is not about forcing yourself to be happy. That can be too overwhelming for someone and make their nervous system more dysregulated or even shut down. It’s about giving yourself a little dopamine boost that your ANS can handle and benefit from.

So what does that look like in real life? The goal here is to get curious about how your body literally, physically responds to pleasant, new, and interesting things. Check out the previous chapters on Play (and how playtime for kids and adults supports our vagus nerve’s ability to regulate our autonomic nervous systems & emotions and connect with ourselves & others) and Rest (aka how stillness is essential for healing). Glimmers can be active and playful, restful and lowkey, and everything in between. Some common glimmers to start with could be a nice cup of tea, a meal that comforts you, a video that makes you laugh, taking a walk outside and slowing down to enjoy what you see, cuddling with your pet, or spending quality time with loved ones. Notice how these examples are relatively chill.

You want to choose things that actually give you a little dopamine zing without putting too much stress (even if it’s good stress) on your body. What’s important at this point is that you are steadily building somatic/bodily awareness: leaning into what makes you feel safe/at peace at a core level, learning what your body is asking you for throughout the day, and learning how to answer that request.

This is where the previous chapters on grounding, the body scan, and the notice & name exercise come in handy. One way to enjoy a glimmer (either in the wild or something you curated and set up for yourself) is to ground yourself into the present and then do a body scan (or a body check-in) so you can fully take in how your body is responding to this nice little situation you found yourself in.

Remember that the point of grounding is just to get you back into the present moment. Imagine if you didn’t ground 1st and you were too caught up in something to fully enjoy the glimmer. Ugh, what a waste, right? Being grounded into the present moment will help you feel more of the nice physical sensations and emotions related to the glimmer. And then the body scan allows you to notice more of the sensations and emotions you are feeling. That helps your body log in more moments where you are feeling better instead of being unhelpfully stuck thinking and ruminating on just the stresses and traumas.

If you are dissociating or dealing with high levels of anxiety or anger constantly/consistently, you may need a different (gentler) approach. Remember that chronic & complex traumas make the nervous system more sensitive and that needs to be accounted for when using somatic tools. I’ll explain this gentler approach in Unit 4.

Glimmers and Community Building

Ok so not only does working with glimmers help you connect with yourself and reduce stress, but it also helps you connect with other people. Remember the ventral vagus’s Social Engagement center from Chapter 5? The Social Engagement Center is the connection the vagus nerve makes between our brain stem, heart, and the muscles in our faces (facial expressions), the muscles in our middle ear (listening), and the muscles in our larynx/voice box (speech/singing).

The purpose of the SEC is so people can send, search for, and receive signs of safety to and from each other AND to receive signs of safety from the environment. Our eyes scan the environment and look at the people around us. Are we safe? We look at their facial expressions. Our ears tune into noises in the background and to the tone in how people speak to us. Are we safe? That is 1 of the questions our autonomic nervous system (aka our gut, our intuition) is asking. While also sending signals through our brain stem to our heart, and rest of our bodies so we can fully connect to the present moment and with the people around us.

Glimmers specifically activate and support the vagus nerve, meaning intentionally paying attention to the glimmers in your life not only helps to regulate your ANS and release dopamine (a important hormone for pleasure, learning, motivation, etc), but also helps you rest and nurture your interpersonal relationships. In my clinical work with clients, some of the 1st homeworks I give involve paying attention to and using somatic tools to sit with small glimmer moments (maybe 1x a week to start and eventually daily) as a way to help people slowly come out of a dorsal vagal shutdown and to reduce the stress in their bodies. Glimmers are invitations to pause, to recharge yourself, and/or to connect your ANS to the autonomic nervous systems of other people in your life.

Regular exposure to glimmers helps you feel regulated enough to want to be in community and sharing those glimmer moments with others builds connections and makes them stronger. Think about it: there’s safety and dopamine in being seen and sharing a moment together. This is part of what makes healing possible in all relationships, not just romantic: being cared for in emotional & practical ways plus asking for help and then actually receiving it is so healing. And those interpersonal healing moments between you and other people help you unlearn thought patterns and behaviors you learned through trauma that might have been helpful at one point in your life, but are holding you back now. Intentionally experiencing glimmers on your own and/or with others helps to keep your prefrontal cortex on in the face of current and future life stresses, which also helps you critically think, manage your emotions, build stress tolerance, and keeps you mentally and emotionally flexible and open to new experiences.

Letting yourself notice and sit with the glimmers in your life is a nice way to take breaks from, and over time even reduce, the effects that stress and trauma have on your body. Chronic stress and complex trauma cause us to disconnect from ourselves and others, which can cause or make worse health and mental health conditions and can keep us trapped in unhelpful or dangerous behavior patterns and situations. Glimmers, when used intentionally from a somatic perspective, give us the dopamine and clarity we need to make better decisions for ourselves and to make meaningful and sustainable community connections.

Thanks for reading! The next chapter will cover the basics of self-regulation and how to apply somatic tools and strategies to release stress and intentionally enjoy the glimmers in your life!