Yes!! This is the core of therapies like ERP for OCD, and I love that you are pulling it in to work under the SafeSeat. Those safety responses are like a highway in the brain, so well-used and therefore strong...interrupting the speeding truck down the highway makes it turn off onto new paths. The more 'side-tracks', the less used the highway becomes. I love your idea of laying on the floor! An embodied signal for the nervous system. I'd love to hear more about how this develops alongside/within/away from the SafeSeat.
Thanks Leonie...What I see as an addition to the SafeSeat is to physically do something unpredictable when you experience the "poke" from the outside. My understanding is that the brain can not distinguish reality and what is actually happening in the moment. It is receiving signals from the metabolism and when it interprets those signals it is using all of its memories in the file cabinet to predict what might happen and to prepare you for action. So, it doesn't take away from the SafeSeat because my experience is that I had to build a capacity to stay with the intensity instead of disassociating from it and yet doing a different action instead of the predictable one has been a focus for me for awhile. I just found the info I needed about the brain to put it all together. 😍
I love this sooo much!!! Polly is very anxious about a plane trip we are taking soon...I will add the physical poke to our usual SafeSeating process and see what it does 🩷
Yes!! This is the core of therapies like ERP for OCD, and I love that you are pulling it in to work under the SafeSeat. Those safety responses are like a highway in the brain, so well-used and therefore strong...interrupting the speeding truck down the highway makes it turn off onto new paths. The more 'side-tracks', the less used the highway becomes. I love your idea of laying on the floor! An embodied signal for the nervous system. I'd love to hear more about how this develops alongside/within/away from the SafeSeat.
Thanks Leonie...What I see as an addition to the SafeSeat is to physically do something unpredictable when you experience the "poke" from the outside. My understanding is that the brain can not distinguish reality and what is actually happening in the moment. It is receiving signals from the metabolism and when it interprets those signals it is using all of its memories in the file cabinet to predict what might happen and to prepare you for action. So, it doesn't take away from the SafeSeat because my experience is that I had to build a capacity to stay with the intensity instead of disassociating from it and yet doing a different action instead of the predictable one has been a focus for me for awhile. I just found the info I needed about the brain to put it all together. 😍
I love this sooo much!!! Polly is very anxious about a plane trip we are taking soon...I will add the physical poke to our usual SafeSeating process and see what it does 🩷