Anchored focuses on the bold therapeutic problem of how to return to the safety of our body. Anchored is about getting reacquainted with bodily feelings without the familiar embedded associations of these feelings with dangerous events.

In order to co-regulate, I have to feel safe with you, you have to feel safe with me, and we have to find a way to come into connection and regulate with each other. We turn to a friend to listen or look to a family member

In survival mode, the dorsal vagus takes us out of awareness, out of connection, and into collapse and immobilization.

Finally, around 200 million years ago, the other branch of the para-sympathetic nervous system, the ventral vagal system, came into being. The energy of this uniquely mammalian system allows us to feel safe, connect, and communicate. To feel into this system, remember sitting and talking with a friend, think about walking in nature feeling

connection, brings a sense of relationship. The experience of connection encompasses four domains: connection to self, connection to other people (and pets), connection to nature and the world around us, and connection to spirit.

In a ventral vagal state we can acknowledge distress, explore options, and reach out for and offer support. We are resourced and resourceful. Our attention is focused on connection to ourselves, to others, to the world, and to spirit.

Immobilization and disappearing are the survival strategies of the dorsal vagal system.

the elements of well-being — context, choice, and connection — which help the nervous system anchor in safety and regulation.

Our story, and how we think, feel, and act, begins with neuroception.