Do you need to regulate your nervous system before you learn Focusing? Read on…
A Reader writes:
I feel I need to heal my nervous system. I want to learn Focusing but first I feel I need to concentrate on regulating and bringing safety to my nervous system.
Dear Reader:
I’ve always suspected that Inner Relationship Focusing already is a primary way to regulate the nervous system and bringing an experience of calm and balance to your life.
But I felt like I needed to know more so, inspired by your question, I read a helpful article by Dr. Linnea Passaler. According to Dr. Passaler, there are five steps to nervous system regulation.
- Awareness: being attuned to our bodily sensations and emotions.
- Regulation: learning how to respond to stressors in a healthy way.
- Reverse damage: undoing the negative effects of trauma or chronic stress.
- Expand capacity: increasing our ability to cope with stress.
- Connection: having supportive relationships with others and with the world around us.
I was really struck by that list because truly, Inner Relationship Focusing includes and helps with every single one of those processes.
Focusing is being attuned to our body sensations and emotions.
In Focusing, you learn to be Self-in-Presence, which means you un-merge from your overwhelming emotions and instead create a loving inner environment for your hurt inner parts. Which is also how to undo the negative effect of trauma or chronic stress.
In doing so, you definitely increase your ability to cope with stress. And when you take a training which includes Focusing partnership, you are multiplying your supportive relationships with others. A Focusing partner is someone who accepts you as you are, and is there for you as you explore your inner world.
All in all, it seems true, as I suspected, that Inner Relationship Focusing is a way to regulate and heal your nervous system. And there’s no time like the present!
