safe self regulation lives in that in between space that overlaps between the somatic and the autonomic. And this is where we can actually get in to the nervous system, it's where a lot of our best safe self regulation tools lie. We have this beautiful harmony between our reflexive actions to the world, and the deliberate actions that we can choose in response to our perception of the world. And that is really important to remember as we are trying to develop a toolbox or an arsenal of ways to handle all of our experiences, past, present and future, and to build and retrain resilience, especially if we're coming out of a place where we have felt stuck or disconnected

if people listening get no other message I hope they get the message to meet yourself with kindness and compassion, because these are subconscious responses that are happening outside of your awareness. 

Now the good news is, and that we'll talk about that in a moment is, you can start to bring in your conscious awareness to start to pull yourself out of those states, but your system is doing that for you at an unconscious level to protect you. You're not making that choice, so free yourself from any judgment and guilt and meet it with kindness and compassion,

The overarching theme throughout our discussion was connection, making, keeping and healing connections throughout the body and the nervous system. In this four part series, we're going to explore those connections between chronic pain, the nervous system. Integrating movement and breath and finding new ways to befriend our body and fully experience life. This is part one of our connection series, chronic pain and the nervous system. Please welcome my guest. Colleen Jorgensen.