What’s all the fuss about Polyvagal Theory?
Plus, three exercises to help you befriend your nervous system
3 min read
If you do a Google search for “Polyvagal Theory” today, more than 1.3 million results appear, demonstrating the rise of its popularity. Dr. Porges, the researcher behind this work, foresaw the ways monitoring heart rate variability amongst newborns and the insights drawn from that, could be applied in a therapeutic setting. Today, with increasing prevalence, more and more clinicians are helping clients to tune into their autonomic nervous system and the Vagus nerve, as a key entry point for regulating feelings, finding safety, and improving overall well being.
Polyvagal theory has been getting a lot of buzz lately, so if you’re in therapy, therapy-adjacent self-work, or therapy curious, you’ve likely come across this content in passing. So, what’s all the fuss about and why is it having such a moment? Polyvagal theory, created by Stephen Porges, has distilled cutting-edge research about the nervous system into language that helps people make sense of their moment to moment living experience within their bodies, environment, and in relationships. Notably, this theory names the social engagement system or ventral state that are wired into our bodies from birth, which move us toward connection, feelings of safety, openness, and more.
Before we jump into the framework behind Polyvagal Theory and some practical uses, it’s important to name why this information can be so powerful for folks. Sarah Shuster, therapist at Downtown Somatic Therapy shares that, “Clients often show up to sessions with a lot of self-critical shaming about the hopeless, isolated, and shut-down place they find themselves in – or by contrast - the overworked, activated, and anxious feelings, behavior, and thoughts running the show inside.” In addition, Sarah notes that her clients often feel shame about the vacillating between various states, the belief that they should always be feeling good or striving toward positive feelings.
“Clients often feel shame about the vacillating between various states, the belief that they should always be feeling good or striving toward positive feelings.”
As Porges’ research explains, our nervous system has three core states: the ventral system, the sympathetic system, and the dorsal system. These run along a hierarchy with ventral at the top and dorsal at the bottom. When our bodies are in a ventral state, we feel connected, organized, and social – we have the sense that things are OK, we feel hopeful, and we believe the world around us is safe.
Moving down the hierarchy, our sympathetic system is our action-oriented, adrenaline-prone, mobilized system where our fight/flight response takes place. As Deb Dana, author of Polyvagal Practices puts it, the sympathetic system is the alarm system of the body and can manifest as difficulty sitting still, chronic back issues, and the sense that danger is near.
Finally, on the bottom of the rung is the dorsal state, which is categorized by a shut down, frozen, numbness; a sense that “I don’t exist” and behaviors that accompany that like isolation, hopelessness, and aloneness.
The key takeaway here is that all three of these states, including the ventral state, is not only accessible to us, but has been wired into us from birth; even if we have lived in mostly chaotic environments. Our system is naturally fluctuating between the three states, and befriending our nervous systems is the first step in helping us to notice, track, and then regulate upward to the ventral state that leaves us feeling more socially engaged and connected. As it turns out, our social engagement system is a necessary component of well-being; and thinking of it as a system that we have the capacity to tap into is a powerful shift from the distracted, hopeless, and activated place many of us stay.
“The ventral state is not only accessible to us, but has been wired into us from birth, even if we have lived in mostly chaotic environments.”
Three Simple Exercises:
Identify whether you lean toward a more sympathetic or dorsal state and start to identify what the triggers, signs, and physical sensations are that let you know you are moving toward and then squarely in either a fight/flight sympathetic response, or a shut-down dorsal response. Connect with each of these states without judgment but using your observer’s eye.
Create an image of your ventral place inside with as much detail and specificity as possible and practice returning to it.
Linger in the moments where you feel just 5% more connected, social, joyful, hopeful, and organized.
Deb Dana uses the acronym SIFT in her book Polyvagal Practices: Anchoring the Self in Safety to describe how we can tap back into a memory associated with a ventral state by actively channeling the body sensations, image, feelings, and thoughts.