Resilience
We often refer to resilience as our ability to cope and bounce back. Whatever happens, we adapt and keep going. Until we can’t - which is probably why you are here.
Coming from a polyvagal perspective, Dr Stephen Porges and Michael Allison define resilience as:
“It’s the ability to utilise your resources when they are needed and to restore when they are not needed. So it is a switching on and off ….. Our culture says if you can be mobilised for a short period of time, maybe we can reward you enough to be mobilised for a longer period of time and for longer and longer, and then our bodies kind of give up, and we call that burnout. We have all kinds of complex terminology, but basically, we have lost our resilience.” - Dr Stephen Porges
Resilience, in the ‘old’ definition, is sympathetic, fight and flight energy. It’s grit, and it’s exhausting and not sustainable without consequences.
In the new definition, resilience is about recovery and rest as much as it is about action. We are calmer, less emotional, more creative in finding solutions, and more connected to ourselves and others around us. We know more instinctively what actions we need to take, and more importantly, we know how and when to rest and recover. We have better cognitive capacity and intuition, and we are healthier and much nicer to be around.
What would you rather be?
So how do we build this new resilience?
Building anything takes time and practice. And that is what we do together.
We first become aware and learn about how our own body and brain work. We start to understand our own automatic reactions through the lens of our nervous system. As we do this, we start to shift and change them with practical tools and techniques that are easy to include in our day. We don’t need gadgets or special clothes to do this. We have the ability to do this with what you have now.
This isn’t about changing your life, although you might do that. This is about approaching the life you have in a different way. This is about living your life with real resilience.
The Process
Polyvagal Theory
Developed by Dr Stephen Porges Polyvagal Theory guides our understanding of our automatic physiological reactions.
As we understand how our body and brain work together to keep us safe we can let go of blame and judgment and work to improve our health and resilience and relationships
Understand what the vagus nerve actually does, how your physiology, your health, your reactions and your relationships all connect.
Functional Breathing
Functional Breathing for every day. This is not a breathwork class - this simple, effective breathing for your life every day.
Breathing is free. It is automatic, and we can also control it. Learn how to breathe deeply and slowly and improve your ability to cope with life, all the time.
Improve performance whether you are delivering a talk or exercising. Improve your overall health and sense of well-being.
Therapeutic Sound
Evidence-based listening therapies developed by Dr Stephen Porges and Anthony Gorry are used by certified practitioners around the world.
The Safe and Sound and Rest and Restore Protocols are based on decades of research and evidence.
These protocols help regulate the parasympathetic nervous system and modulate our reactions to stress.
Coaching
The foundation of everything I do is my training as a Martha Beck master coach and my International Coaching Federation professional certification, together with my life experience supporting my daughter’s recovery from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and POTS and my career in international sports journalism.
“If you want to improve the world, start by making people feel safer” Dr Stephen Porges
This information includes proprietary content about the Safe and Sound Protocol, used with permission from Unyte Health Inc., a leading provider of evidence-based listening therapies for nervous system regulation.
