Engage with Novelty and Satisfy Your Protective Limbic System
A Healing Visualization from Kimberly Burnham.
This visualization applies David Rock’s SCARF (Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Fairness / Respect) business model to the physical health of the community of cells that make up unique individual people.
The way to make nervous system resources available to fuel our desires, move in comfortable-efficient ways, communicate in our relationships, enjoy our experiences and express our wonder in the world around us is to reassure our limbic system, our protective brain that we are safe. Ensuring we are taking in appropriate information from our environment is one way to reassure this ancient protector. How we pay attention and take in sensations and information influences, everything. It is that simple and that complex.
I am a big fan of the Japanese saying,
“There are many ways to the top of Mount Fuji.”
There are also many ways to reassure our nervous system and keep it in peak health and ensure prime communication skills on all levels. When we are afraid and posed to fight, fly or run away, it is hard to rest and digest, those functions of the parasympathetic nervous system. In order to sleep, to recover, to heal we must feel safe enough to rest and digest, absorbing the knowledge and nutrients we need.
We are the descendants of people who paid attention to every sound in the woods, savannah, meadows and deserts. That is why we are here. They were careful. They paid attention. They ran away from danger. They fought with their enemies. They were vigilant. They sought out food, shelter community and protection from the world. They survived and passed along their hopes and fears and their world view. Their limbic system protected them. That is why we are here.
The thing is, we live in a different world. We are served by viewing the world in a different way. We can reset our limbic system and not only survive the harshness of the world but thrive in the beauty and abundance of this world, we live in today.
Some of you may be disagreeing with me. You may think there is nothing we can do with our nervous system. No way to change our mind set or the protective nature of our limbic system. Perhaps you are saying, it has been too many thousands of years in the making.
And if we approach things in the same way and see the world in the same way, we will continue to get the same things, the same outcomes in our health, relationships, and in our lives.
Let’s think of it as marketing. What would I have to do, show you, or teach you if I want to sell the idea that you can change your nervous system function, that your limbic system can feel safe, loved and appreciated. You can connect with the sensations in your life — what you choose to see, hear, taste, smell, touch and feel at a skin level, at a cellular level and in your intuitive gut and with the energy and clarity of your brain.
Our bodies are made up of cells, a community of cells. These cells have intricate relationships with each other. They each have a job to do. In most cases they have several jobs, each of which is valuable and often vital to the health, well being and pursuit of happiness of the unique, individual they make up. Our nervous system protects us and keeps us alive.
The question is what does it protect us from and what is the quality of aliveness that we are willing to be satisfied with?
Our nervous system, particularly our limbic system cares whether we are safe and getting enough information to make safe choices. It doesn’t care if we are comfortable, enjoying life, thriving and being productive, but we care and each of us can do something about it.
Business coach, David Rock has written several fascinating books on how our brains either support us to think clearly and have insights or works against our decision making process. He has developed the field of Neuroleadership, an emerging field of study focused on bringing neuroscientific knowledge into the areas of leadership development, management training, change management, education, consulting and business coaching.
While David Rock doesn’t apply his work to physical health. Many of his ideas on interpersonal relationships and productivity can be applied to the community of cells that contribute to our health. He uses The SCARF model, which involves five domains of human social experience: S — C — A — R — F . Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness or Respect.
Let’s look at this together.
Think about an area of your body, which you wish functioned better, was more productive, more efficient, or more comfortable. An area you wish would contribute more effectively to its purpose in life.
SCARF Exercise
Now consider these questions.
You don’t need to find all the answers completely for this exercise to have benefit. Just asking the question can have a positive impact because it directs you attention to the area and through biofeedback mechanisms can improve blood flow and nervous system connections to the area. You can also put one of your hands on the area to deepen your attention.
Fill in the blank……..
What is the status of ______________ in my body as a whole? What can be done to increase the status or how this area feels?
For example, What is the status of the liver in my body? Consider for a moment what is status in a physical sense. Someone with higher status often has more resources available to them. So consider what does the liver need in terms of resources.
One thing is blood flow carrying nutrients, especially protein. So eating better quality protein can increase the status of the liver. Also in Traditional Chinese Medicine, the liver is associated with anger issues. So finding activities to address anger in productive, satisfying ways increases the status of the liver. Both of these things also increase over all health in the body and our ability to rest, digest, recover and heal.
Now back to your chosen area. How does certainty or uncertainty in my life affect __________________?
For example, how does certainty in my life affect my knees? One way, to increase certainty for your knees is to always walk on even, level surfaces. That way your knees and legs can be more certain about how they should move and balance. A surprise, an unexpected curb or crack in the sidewalk can throw your balance off and cause a fall.
On the other hand a life with no variability is well ….. boring. A different way to increase certainty is to increase the amount of incoming information on which our balance, our steadiness in life is predicated.
If my eyes are good and I can see the curb, then my knees will know how to deal with it, how to adapts or adjust so that walking is smooth and comfortable. Wearing shoes that are comfortable and also allow for more information to travel from the point of contact with the ground up to my brain and balance centers also allows me to adjust appropriately.
Take a moment and notice how the area of your body that you have chosen feels. What information is it sending to your brain? What response is your brain sending back?
Can ______________ do its job in my body in an autonomous way and is it properly supported?
For example, Can my lungs do their job in an autonomous way? Obviously, the lungs are surrounded by the rib cage and the neck and shoulder above and the diaphragm below. Compression from any of these areas makes it harder for the lungs to do their job. Also if the liver is adhered to the diaphragm due to trauma or inflammation, then every time the diaphragm contracts and relaxes it has to drag the liver along for the ride. Self-massage or breathing exercises can also help support lung function as can dealing with the emotions of grief and sadness, often associated with the lungs.
Take a breath now and feel how your lungs move. Feel the flow of oxygen to your chosen area. Does the chosen area move or respond as you breath in? As you breath out?
There is a point just above the wrist found by placing the web spaces of the hands together and letting the tip of one index finger nearest the top of the wrist gently fall into place. This point, where the tip of the index finger meets the skin just above the wrist is Lung 7 in Traditional Chinese Medicine and often used to improve lung function but also to relieve headaches and to calm the mind before sleeping.
Rub this point on each arm, now and later when you are going to bed. Notice what changes.
Notice the relatedness of one action or how you feel.
Relatedness. How is ______________ related to its neighbors, blood flow in the body, or nutrient flow in the body?
For example, How is your sacrum related to its neighbors, which include the lumbar spine, hips, colon, uterus / prostate, bladder, etc? Our center of gravity is in the sacrum. Our sense of groundedness rest here. It is also near the colon, the end of the digestive system and the bladder or end of the kidney or renal system and intimately involved with our reproductive system. The sacrum is the interface between the spine and the legs and between the right and left side of the body. Consider how exercise, eating with intention, or healthy sexual relationships can improve the relationship of the sacrum to the surrounding areas.
What is your chosen area related to? What does it touch? What does it hold?
What does it respect.
Consider the question, How do I show respect for ________ ? Is it fair how this area is treated?
For example, How do I show respect for my heart?
Dietary and exercise choices certainly influence how fairly or respectfully your heart is being treated. Doing the things you feel passionate about, the things that call to you and bring you joy — the emotion most associated with the heart — also influence heart health and how each cell in the heart interacts with each other and with the whole community of cells that make up our bodies.
Consider your health and healing goals.
What area of your body could use a little more: Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness or Respect. What is one thing that you can do today that will raise the status and sense of comfort and safety of your physical, emotional and energetic body?
A character in the book, The Speed of Dark, once asked, “if there is no light inside of our heads, how can we see what is happening in our dreams?”
More and more scientific investigators are looking at visualization research compared with actual physical activity. There are a lot of similarities. While imagining you are sleeping is not the same as actually sleeping, visualizing a step by step process before you go to sleep and then seeing yourself sleeping and visualizing the process of waking up and noticing how relaxed and refreshed you feel can have an impact on the real sleep.
Close your eyes for a moment and imagine the relationships inside of your head.
In the center of your head sits the Suprachiasmic Nucleus, the Biologic clock, that part of the brain that balances your restorative sleep and alert, productive awakeness. This biological clock sits deep inside the head.
It is part of the hypothalamus, that part of the brain that regulates — well in a word — everything. It is called the supra (above) chiasmic nucleus because it sits above the optic chiasm, where the nerves coming from the right eye cross the nerves coming from the left eye on their way to back of the head, where visual information is interpreted.
It is an interesting piece of real estate right here in the command center of our rhythmical and cyclical nature
The optic chiasm is at the center of a large X with the upper arms of the X being the two eyes and the bottom part of the X being the occipital lobe or visual cortex at the back of the head. That is from front to back.
From bottom to top we follow the spinal cord up into the head where it merges with the brain stem. Just above the brainstem is the thalamus (our sensory or pain control center). Slight in front and below the thalamus is the hypothalamus. The suprachiasmic nucleus of the hypothalamus sits above the optic chiasm, which sits above the pituitary gland (the master of our hormonal system. The pituitary sits in the sella tursica, a little saddle in the delicate sphenoid bone.
The sphenoid bone makes up the bottom and back parts of the orbit of the eye and the only part you can feel is at your temples on either side of the head. Above the hypothalamus and thalamus is the corpus callosum, which are nerve fibers joining the right and left side of the brain.
I have gone into detail here so you can visualize the area but what does it all mean?
It means this is a busy neighborhood and a connection between the central area of the brain, the bones of the skull (sphenoid), the master of the hormonal system (the pituitary), the center of the visual system (optic chiasm), our sensory and pain control system (the thalamus), the master regulation and homeostasis (balance) organ (hypothalamus) and the coordinator of the right and left side of the body (the corpus callosum), and on either side the middle cerebral artery bringing nutrient and resources to the area.
What can you do today to increase the health of this vital area? How can you increase its Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness. How can you treat it with more Fairness or Respect? What is one thing that you can do today that will raise your status and sense of comfort and safety of your physical, emotional and energetic body?
