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Good Life Project

How to Feel Safe, Secure & At Peace | Stephen Porges, Ph.D. & Seth Porges

Good Life Project

Jonathan Fields / Acast

Education, Wellness, Self-improvement, Midlife, Health & Fitness, Intentional Living, Personal Growth, Living Well, How To

4.53.4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2023

⏱️ 65 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Why do we sometimes feel unsafe or anxious for no reason? Neuroscientist Stephen Porges, Ph.D. shares how his groundbreaking polyvagal theory reveals the hidden workings of our nervous system. He and his son Seth Porges, explore in their new book Our Polyvagal World: How Safety and Trauma Change Us, how subjective feelings of safety versus danger shape our health, happiness and ability to connect.


Learn how becoming "neuroception architects" adept at transmitting cues of safety through our voice, face and presence can override default survival circuits - helping us consciously create environments that nurture true security.


You can find Stephen & Seth at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript


If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Dr. Jud Brewer about anxiety, safety, and habits.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

If you actually want to activate the Vegas in the way that is conducive to making us feel safe,

0:04.4

that is conducive to positive health, that is conducive to happiness, is actually really simple.

0:09.0

It is positive social interaction. Being around and having conversations face-to-face talks with people who make you feel safe

0:16.4

is the single most effective and best way of activating the Vegas.

0:19.7

And the reason for this is because the part of the Vegas responsible for feelings of safety, the

0:24.6

Ventral Vegas branch, it plugs into a part of the brainstem called the Ventral

0:28.7

cortex.

0:29.7

It's kind of a control hub where the Vegas plugs into it as well as the cranial nerves are directly

0:34.1

responsible for social interaction. The cranial nerves that allow us to move our face to adjust the

0:39.0

intonation of our voice, to shrug our shoulders, to actually be an expressive social being, they are kind of commingled into brainstem

0:46.7

with the branch of the Vegas that is associated with safety.

0:49.3

So when we feel safe, the ability for us to be expressive social creatures, it activates the part of our

0:57.6

Vegas that makes us feel safe, creating a feedback loop. So have you ever wondered why we sometimes feel unsafe or anxious for no apparent reason,

1:08.0

or maybe struggle to pinpoint what helps you feel truly secure?

1:12.0

When we feel this, nearly every part of us wants to helps you feel truly secure.

1:12.5

When we feel this nearly every part of us wants to retreat to shut down to isolate, and the effects

1:17.6

on not just our mental health, but also physical health are potentially devastating.

1:23.0

Yet feeling unsafe, insecure, vulnerable is the state so many of us

1:27.2

unwittingly live in and suffer the consequences.

1:30.2

Without realizing what's really happening,

1:32.4

or understanding there's actually a lot we can do to reverse it to feel safe secure at peace connected and alive.

1:39.0

The key is understanding a critical part of our nervous system known as the Vegas nerve, how it affects us, and what we can do to harness its power for good.

...

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