Beyond Stuck - Using Nervous System Science & The Enneagram For Growth

Module 1

Why do we care about the nervous system?

Here's What You'll Learn:

• How your Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) evolved over millions of years and impacts the way we respond to modern day stress

• The unconscious way we are always scanning for cues of danger 

• How to identify which of the 3 autonomic states you are in using the Polyvagal Ladder
  

Downloadable Resources:

• Autonomic Profile Map (you'll be using this throughout the course!)

• Sensation Words & Emotion Wheel
  

Action Steps

• Download the Autonomic Profile Map

• This week, complete the first column of your Autonomic Profile map by: 

• Noticing when you’re in each state-- what does it feel like in your body, what emotions are you feeling? Use the sensations & emotions worksheets in the Download section if needed. 

• Fill in the 2 sentences “I am” and “The world is” about what you are thinking/believing is true about yourself and the world in each state. 

Key Takeaways:

• You make sense, all behaviors are adaptive and your nervous system's attempt to keep you safe and protected

• We can't think or talk ourselves out of being in a protective state, instead we have to SHOW our system that it is safe (which we'll be learning how to do together in this course!)

• Story follows state- when we shift states, our body transforms. The way we experience taste, sight, and touch all change based on which state we're in. Then when the brain has a second to catch up and make meaning of those sensations, the story follows. Our experiences of situations will be very different depending how safe you feel.

Module 2

Getting to Know Your Personality Story with the Enneagram

 Here's What You'll Learn:

• How to use the Enneagram as a map for the common stressors that send us down the ladder

• Identify the basic needs being met by your behavior patterns and investigate how to reframe beliefs, thoughts, and stories that may be keeping us stuck 

Downloadable & Additional Resources:

• Enneagram 101 & Test- Start here if you’re unsure what your Enneagram type is or need to take the test to develop your working theory.

• Autonomic Short Stories prompt 

• Enneagram for Growth packet 

• Extended Subtype Descriptions- Beatrice Chestnut is the leading Enneagram expert on instincts. If you're trying to figure out your type, the extended descriptions also mention common mistypes. If you know your type, check the 3 subtypes to see which instinct may be dominant for you. 

• Brief Subtype Descriptions

• Upside-down: The Nine Enneagram Countertypes: Podcast episode about the nine countertypes (the subtypes where the dominant instincts conflicts with the energy of the type)

Action Steps:

• Identifying Triggers & Glimmers- This week, complete the 2nd column of your Autonomic Profile map by identifying triggers & glimmers for each state. Giving language to your experiences is important: as you begin to notice and name your states and identify triggers/glimmers, you come to see that there is a predictable order to state changes.

• Autonomic Short Stories - fill out the Autonomic Short Story prompts  2-3 times this week (5 minutes each) to investigate if the story still fits. 

• Enneagram for Growth Packet- look through the Enneagram for Growth packet for your type for a summary of the basic fear, motivation, stressors, childhood messages and defense mechanisms. There are also recommendations for growth, development and awareness practices that we'll look at more closely in Module 3. 

Key Takeaways

• The Enneagram is a powerful and dynamic personality system that describes 9 distinct and fundamentally different patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

• Each of the 9 patterns is based on a specific way of perceiving the world and an associated driving emotional energy. These patterns determine what individuals of each type pay attention to and how they direct their energy and behavior. Underlying each of the 9 patterns is a particular belief about what we need in life for survival and connection. 

• Personality patterns are developed in early childhood as a way of protecting our “true self” from threats to our safety and security. From this perspective, personality is a “false self” that develops to help us adapt and survive, although this is an unconscious process. 

• Unlike other personality tests, instead of focusing on WHAT you do, the Enneagram focuses on WHY you do what you do. The behaviors of people who are the same type can look really different but motivation is the same. Similarly, we can all embody similar behaviors but may have different motivations. 

• The true intention of the Enneagram is to support growth and transformation by helping you to become LESS identified with your personality and the patterns that make it up.

• The Enneagram helps you develop compassion for yourself and is a map for understanding why you act the way you do. From there you can more easily observe these patterns in action and create space to choose differently. 

Module 3

Regulating Resources

Here's What You'll Learn:

• The impact our sense of connection has on all aspects of human well-being 

• What the Window of Tolerance is

• How to use different regulating resources that are appropriate for each autonomic state and lots of ideas for: 

• Self-regulating resources

• Co-regulating resources

• How to complete the Stress Response Cycle 
  

Downloadable Resources:

• Regulating Resource Guide.
  

Action Steps:

• Check out the Regulating Resource Guide for ideas to try out this week and in the future 

• Commit to spending 10-15 minutes a day for the next week trying out different resources. This is the work (or play!) that will get you unstuck - use the next 7 days to really focus on making it a priority.

Key Takeaways:

We’re Wired for Connection

• Human beings are wired for connection: belonging to a group has been a survival strategy throughout evolutionary history. 

• Connection is a biological imperative (just like eating & sleeping). 

• Disconnection (perceived or real) compromises our nervous system’s ability to regulate and impacts physical and mental health.  

• As infants, we learn to regulate our nervous system through connection with a caregiver. This is called co-regulation.  It is through co-regulation that a foundation of safety is created and attachment follows.

• Our need for co-regulation continues as adults, but we also have the ability to self-regulate. Self-regulation is the ability to get back to a ventral state by yourself. 

• As adults we are only able to self-regulate to the extent that we were co-regulated as children. 

• We must first feel safe to be able to form strong social relationships. We need experiences of safety and connection with others to be able to get back to a regulated, calm nervous system.

Uncomfortable ≠ Unsafe

• To get unstuck, you need to experiment with doing things that will feel uncomfortable. The reason we tend to put off the things that we (mentally) know we need to do is because they dysregulate our nervous system. You need to show your system that uncomfortable is not the same as unsafe.

• If you spend most of your time in protective states (sympathetic or dorsal), it's not uncommon for the ventral state to feel uncomfortable. In the beginning it may feel unsafe to rest in ventral, so we'll work on helping you learn to trust it.

• The key is balance- providing some amount of challenge to your system without completely overwhelming it.

• Trying to "push outside your comfort zone" too quickly can lead to you getting stuck in a loop between flight/flight and shutdown. 

• Stress is needed to build resilience, but it shouldn’t be too severe or prolonged. 

• The concept of the Window of Tolerance is helpful for guiding us to the 'Goldilocks amount' of discomfort (not too much, not too little, but just right) 

• Window of Tolerance (WOT) is used to describe the zone of arousal in which a person can function most effectively, the where they are typically able to readily receive, process, and integrate information and otherwise respond to the demands of everyday life without too much difficulty.

Regulating Resources - Be Your Own Guru

• A resource is anything we do to regulate

• Different states require different resources to navigate back up the ladder. Applying a resource that doesn't match the need of the state you're in can keep you stuck there. 

• When in hyper-arousal or sympathetic mobilization, there is too much energy flooding the system. To move from here, the resource has to bring a way to safely discharge energy. 

• When in hypo-arousal, or dorsal shutdown, the system has entered a state of conservation where there's not enough energy to support regulation. To move from here, the resource needs to bring a gentle return of energy. The resource can't bring too big of a shift in energy or it will feel dangerous and push the system further into disconnection. 

• Our motto is BYOG - Be Your Own Guru -  no one knows what you need for healing better than you. When it comes to resources, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all prescription.  As we go over types of resources, pay attention to which ones you may want to try. 

• Also keep in mind the Enneagram perspective on types of resources that may be needed or unbalanced for each triad.

• Anxiety is not an emotion, it's a placeholder for emotions that need to be felt. 

Module 4

Repatterning with Resilience Routines

Here's What You'll Learn:

• How to repattern using two strategies:

• Implementation Intentions- this is a formula that invites your nervous system to re-pattern by clarifying when, where, and how you want to respond differently

• Resilience Routines- think of this as a workout plan for your nervous system that will increase your capacity to meet challenges without getting stuck

Downloadable Resources:

• Re-Storying Worksheet- Use this resource when you feel stuck in a thought loop, or are believing the stories your brain is creating out of a protective state. Notice the thought for what it is, which is simply just a thought. Allow it to be like a bubble of air rising through water and bursting at the surface, no longer there.

• Resilience Routine Worksheets

Key Takeaways

• The Enneagram shows us that you are not your personality. The Enneagram type that you resonate with represents what you are most efficient at (because you've been doing it your whole life!). But we are whole brained humans and  have access to the qualities of every type. 

• Growth means becoming more efficient in accessing and using the other parts of our brain.

• Brain stem – The Instinctive Triad is most efficient with the functions associated with the brain stem. The brain stem works along with Autonomic Nervous System to keep you alive, generating your gut responses and constantly regulating between sympathetic and ventral functions

• Right brain – The Feeling Triad is most efficient with the functions associated with the right brain, which drives our emotions. This is the 2nd system to come online during development, and is responsible for processing emotions, imagination, creativity, empathy. Your right brain is not about instinct but intuition.

• Left brain – The Thinking Triad is most efficient with the functions associated with the left brain, which drives intellect. This is the 3rd part of the brain to fully develop, and is responsible for thought, analysis, and logical reasoning. In partnership with the right brain and brain stem, the left brain enables you to communicate richly, solve complex problems, and organize information. 

• Remember, you may have efficiencies in other triads than your main Enneagram type. You likely know best where you are inefficient and where you could benefit from some balance. 

1. Story follows state. If you’re getting caught in your thoughts, remember this is just a story. The story follows whichever state you're in. If you're in a protective state, the story will be very different than the story that emerges from a ventral state. Even if nothing about the objective reality of the situation changes! Use the Autonomic Story Resource.

2. You make sense. The antidote for shame or feeling stuck is self-compassionate. Our bodies are doing only what they know to keep us safe, and how incredible is that-- the body’s capacity to act on our behalf and protect us without our awareness of it. Remember, uncomfortable is not the same as unsafe.

3. Connection is a biological imperative. If you are struggling during this pandemic, there are reasons why.vWe need to feel connected to others, to ourselves, and to the world around us. Notice who you’re around when you feel your best. Identify those people that you know you can depend on while things are difficult.  What resources are available to us? Going on a hike, having a distanced hang, connecting to your breath.

What's next?

• You've made it to the end of the modules-- CONGRATS- it's a big deal that you're continuing to show up for yourself! Of course this isn't the end of the story ; ) 

• Now that you've completed the modules, it's time to integrate these practices into your life. Undoing patterns takes ongoing practice and that's why we're here to support you as you move forward. 

• Expect that you WILL fall back into old patterns at times-- this is completely normal. It means that you're a human. Resist the urge to get down on yourself for it, and remember that the process of noticing it happen is a huge win. The re-patterning process is celebrating small wins, noticing the shifts in how you’re responding, and letting your body experience that you're capable of stretching and expanding.