The Somatic Science® Approach- Part 3
Somatic Science® is a highly effective neurocognitive & nondual wisdom approach. It supports our nervous system to become regulated, relaxed and harmonized with itself & the external environment. This helps us to develop a basic capacity for self-attunement and self-regulation, which are essential for satisfying relationships with our self and others. This approach fills the void left by Science and Spirituality yet embraces both, which ignore the great importance of Nervous System Regulation in our lives.
Awakening to joy every day is possible. The "how" is not about new techniques or methods. It is about witnessing & understanding our experience without ideological, spiritual, scientific, religious, technological or philosophical prejudice.
In the second part of this blog series, I reviewed the basis for this approach. You can read it here if you missed it. I also reviewed the basic biology of the threat response cycle (TRC), and my take on the developmental consequences of childhood adverse experiences (ACEs). Without this basic understanding of our own nervous system, remembering our essential happiness is so hard that it might as well be impossible.
To live in presence is our birthright and our innate condition. The present moment only exists as a perception within consciousness. Here we show that there are no substantial obstacles to presence, only beliefs and superstitions created by our "mind" - a form of cognitive fixation.
Healing ANS Fixations
This approach is the result of an alchemical process where curiosity, effort and insight over decades come together at the edge of what is known. I wish to share this understanding with you. I have learned to heal ANS fixations—patterns of tension, behavior, or cognition -"thinking" that reflect incomplete cycles within the mTRC. These show up as chronic muscle tension, anxious thoughts, or avoidance behaviors. Binding refers to how these fixations trap energy in our metabolism and nervous system, reinforcing the mTRC and keeping us stuck in these patterns.
As long as this energy stays trapped, we continue to feel stressed, anxious, or unhappy, no matter what is happening around us -in Reality. Fixations become our default way of coping, which interrupts natural self-updating cycles and locks us into a state of dysregulation.
Our solution is to use the natural functions for self-updating in a relational fashion that is grounded in a very distinct way of perceiving our lives. In summary, this requires metacognition, neurocognition and an extremely tight container of safety.
Curiosity, a parasympathetic state, fosters a sense of wonder and exploration, contrasting with the fear-driven mTRC. It's a neurocognitive reflection of nervous system health and opens the pathway to our heart-mind, our only link to unconditional happiness.
Transforming Fixations: Igniting Self-Relational Metacognition
A crucial part of healing from chronic dis-ease and unhappiness is bringing the fixations in our ANS into explicit awareness.
If you were reading this with implicit cognition, you were focused on what is written or trying to understand it, somewhat automatically. Now that I am pointing it out, perhaps you are aware that I am aware that you are reading this right now, as I write it. This makes metacognition fully explicit. More simply, your body was breathing before and that was possibly implicit for you cognitively. But now perhaps you are aware of the breathing process explicitly. You now have metacognition of the process of breathing.
We use metacognition in the same manner when we perceive patterns of tension, behavior or thought, and deliberately engage with these perceptions in a relational dialog. Our approach benefits from the scientific understanding that our nervous system's physiology is “wired” with a process called interoceptive feedback such that any bodily perception that we can be aware of in turn can be aware of us noticing it. By asking our bodily perceptions some form of: "Are you aware that I am aware that you exist?" we can cultivate our inner capacity for self-regulation and begin to release and re-process the immense quantities of bound metabolic energy contained within the mTRC.
This dynamic integrates neurocognition & metacognition, helping us resolve fixations and move toward a state of equilibrium where the mTRC is greatly diminished or completely absent. Over time, we recondition our nervous system to respond appropriately to real threats and allow for coherent triggering of the TRC. It is a healthy and joyful alternative in contrast to perpetuating old, fear-based (imaginary) patterns that trigger the mTRC.
This approach integrates insights from interoception, metacognition, and evolutionary biology, bridging mind-body dualities. By highlighting the "heart-mind" connection via vagal circuits, it mends the illusory divide between emotional and cognitive processes to promote interconnected well-being.
The Power of Self-Regulation
Somatic Science® suggests that releasing our selves from the cycle of unhappiness requires a unique tracing of the cycles required by self-regulation. This dynamic reinforcement builds on a new understanding of evolutionary biology and taps into our capacity for metacognition—our awareness of our own cognitive processes. This involves becoming aware of interoception—tuning into our internal bodily sensations—simultaneously with an explicit awareness of the external environment via exteroception. Only then are we able to recognize when we're reacting to imaginal threats rather than real ones. This by itself can help us shift from an activated mTRC back into a neutral or positive sense of safety. Self-regulation isn't about ignoring stress by “transcending”, “bypassing” or "thinking positive"; it's about consciously guiding our nervous system out of "checkout mode" and into a beneficial felt sense of explicit safety, rest, recovery and curiosity. When we intentionally engage in this, we naturally turn to the relief of presence, so we are much better equipped to handle life’s challenges.
Self-regulation is a unique blend of interoception and exteroception coupled with metacognition and neurocognition. It helps us differentiate between real and imagined threats, shifting our nervous system from a state of threat-activation to one of safety, curiosity & wellbeing.
Please stay open to our last and final blog on this series, which we will publish next week. There we will complete the introduction of our approach and explore the neurobiological consequences of Curiosity and its effects on our daily life. Thank you for your interest!
Here are the links to the previously published segments:
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