Polyvagal Theory IRL

For me anyway...

We are on Chapter 3: An Embodied Tour of the Vagus. Not to be confused with the Vegas! 🎆 🎩

How are you all feeling after reading the chapter about the vagus? Excited? Overwhelmed? Inspired? All of the above?

I loved this chapter and will surely read it many more times to let the details sink in.

I’m not going to do a step-by-step unpacking of this chapter, though. Instead, I’d love to share how Polyvagal Theory has helped me be more empathic with myself and others.

Jill talks about Polyvagal Theory throughout the chapter and hones in on Stephen Porges’ concept of neuroception on page 92. Neuroception is our internal (often unconscious) assessment of whether or not we feel safe. If we perceive that we’re not safe, our sympathetics upregulate.

We might go into fight or flight mode. If we are in a prolonged or acute state of sympathetic activation, we might also freeze, flop, or fawn.

I’m not sure about you, but I wasn’t familiar with freeze, flop, or dawn before learning PVT. We’ve all felt frozen in fear before — Jill described how she started to sense herself freezing while she was getting ready to go on the Today show.

Flop refers to a vagal shut down, where we might faint or black-out or the floaty feeling of dissociation.

Fawning is an innate people-pleasing response.

As we think about neuroception and what triggers our spidey senses, it is equally important to consider neurotype.

Neurotype refers to the way our brain processes the world and informs our behaviors. There are many words used to describe different neurotypes — introvert/extrovert, highly sensitive, orchid and dandelion, etc. People who have autism or ADHD or lifelong anxiety have different neurotypes as well.