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04. Body Safety Knowledge

One of the primary roots of suffering, dis-ease and incoherent resonance is an underlying belief that you are not safe and under a chronic level of threat. Usually, this perception is associated with any type of past (including ancestral trauma) or present trauma that has not been completely resolved and/or is still playing out in real time. 

With trauma (regardless of whether it's physical, emotional or mental in origin) the body goes into a multi-level survival mode. 

Dr. Robert K. Naviaux, MD PhD is a prominent researcher on “The Cell Danger Response”. His work has shown that any type of persistent trauma can trigger a universal cellular response to threat, stress or injury. At the cellular level, this is characterized by a hardening of the cell membrane, release of ATP into the extracellular space reducing the cell’s potential for energy production, activation of innate immunity and changes in the gut microbiome. In an ideal scenario, this response to trauma is short lived and should fully resolve with complete healing. However, in situations where the healing cycle gets disrupted, this cellular pattern persists leading to symptoms such as fatigue, fragmented sleep, pain and increased light, sound and tactile hypersensitivity. Taking this a step further to the interpersonal level, it is common to also experience reduced socialization. 

The Cell Danger Response is consistent with the Polyvagal theory where stress and perceived threat result in reduced vagal tone and similar physiological and social consequences. Basically, when you chronically do not perceive you are safe, your mood, sleep, immune system, autonomic nervous system, energy, digestion, sensitivity to the world around you and pain experience all become dysregulated making it difficult for you to function and engage in meaningful social interaction creating a perpetual vicious cycle. Yikes!

When working to heal trauma, an important consideration is: Are there any threats still actually there or are they just being perceived as so? With a history of physical/emotional/mental trauma such as surgery, physical injury, abuse, adverse childhood experiences and/or PTSD the actual threat has passed. In these cases, you are dealing with a body-heart-mind-soul that still believes danger is still present. What these dimensions of yourself really need is to realize they are safe (provided they genuinely are and not still in actual danger).. 

However, what about in situations where a threat is actually still going on but you aren’t aware of it? This specifically concerns pathogenic and/or chemical derived traumas that are being continuously experienced within our cells for many of us and most of the time without our conscious awareness. 

Let’s consider the pandemic situation of the “long hauler” COVID cases where we are seeing multiple tissues and organs exhibit chronic problems associated with the virus spreading and creating dysfunction throughout the body. This can happen not only with the COVID virus but other types of pathogens as well. 

The Epsein-Barr (mono) virus, Herpes virus and Lyme disease are examples. The problem with diagnosing these is that our current medical testing only tests bodily fluids such as the blood, mucous, urine and stool. We do not typically test for the many different types of potential pathogens or take tissue cultures from organs, such as the brain and nervous system which are the locations hypothesized for them to reside in.

We also must consider that there are many other types of strains of these pathogens that likely exist that we are currently unaware of let alone be able to accurately test for them. Just because we can’t currently test for them or your lab values come back negative does not mean that they cannot exist. 

In addition to potential pathogens, we also must respect all the potential chemicals our bodies are exposed to and really appreciate the burden our immune and detoxification systems are under as they are constantly trying to keep us clean and healthy. 

Therefore, when we see persistent trauma states with chronic symptoms such as dysregulated mood, sleep, immunity, autonomic nervous system function (ex-POTs), energy, digestion, hypersensitivity to the world around you and increased pain we have to consider what is still might be feeding the trauma pattern. What elements are still active and which are in the past but you are still perceiving in present time? 

 

Furthermore, when healing trauma from a body-heart-mind-soul approach the following aspects must be considered. 

  • What aspects of each dimension are actually experiencing or believe they are still experiencing trauma and under perceived threat?
  • How do you best facilitate healing them?

The bottom line is that your body-heart-mind-soul all need to all be on the same page and in agreement that you are indeed safe and sound in both actual and perceived reality. The Master Guide has the techniques, tools, resources, recommendations and knowledge to guide you along your journey. Set your intention to embody safety.

 

Browse the following 4 levels or use your testing technique to determine which level(s) is most important for you to focus on right now to restore optimal safety.

 

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