Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

When we feel safe, our parasympathetic nervous system engages, we experience trust and a sense of grounding, and growth and healing are possible.

When our vagus calms down our body in times of safety, this system also opens up our face, voice, and ears to express safe social behavior to others, and receive it back from them.

the brainstem is the arbiter of whether we respond to threats either by mobilizing our energy for combat or for flight, or by freezing in helplessness, collapsing in the face of an overwhelming situation. But whichever of these responses is chosen, when we are in survival mode our reactivity makes it quite challenging, if not outright impossible, t

Associating intense sensations with safety, comfort, and mastery is the foundation of self-regulation, self-soothing, and self-nurture, a theme to which I return throughout this book.