Neuroception: Your Body’s Constant Scanner for Safety and Threats

Ever find yourself worrying about things that seem a bit…out there? Like those bizarre, intrusive thoughts that pop up out of nowhere or the times you spiral down a WebMD rabbit hole convinced you have a rare disease? You’re not alone, and there’s a fascinating explanation rooted in how our bodies and brains are wired.

Neuroception is the term used to describe your body’s ability to scan the environment for relevant signals of safety, danger, or threat. It’s like having a radar system that’s always on, even when you’re not aware of it.

Life History: Optimal vs. Less Optimal

Certain life experiences can affect how this radar works. If your life history includes things like non-secure attachment, traumatic experiences, or a lack of felt safety, your body may remain in a state of continuous sympathetic activation, leading to disregulation. This can take anywhere from 30 hours to 4 days to metabolize the stress in your body.

Conversely, if your life history includes regulation, secure attachment, positive experiences, and an overall sense of safety and wellbeing, your body is better at metabolizing stress, often taking up to 6 hours to process and move on. Healthier life history can often mean less worry.

The Relevancy Radar: Perception Shaped by Experience

Your body’s radar system isn’t just scanning for generic danger; it’s looking for what’s specifically relevant to you based on your life history. High arousal impacts this relevancy process because it grabs your interest and makes you focus on potential threats, often ignoring everything else.

This collapsing of experiences means that past events can shape how you perceive current situations. For instance, if you were bitten by a snake on a desert hike as a child, your body might collapse “desert” with “snake,” causing fear and heightened alertness in similar environments, even if there’s no snake in sight.

Survival Brain vs. Learning Brain

Survival Brain:

• Focused solely on safety and threats.
• Perceptions of reality are collapsed based on past experiences.
• Quick to be triggered and see challenges as insurmountable.
• Interprets attempts at resolution as manipulation or control.

Learning Brain:

• Focused on possibilities and constructive engagement with the world.
• Open to different perspectives and views of reality.
• Calm, receptive, and curious.
• Less likely to be triggered by challenges, seeing them as opportunities for growth.

To help your body feel safe and reduce hypervigilance, practice self-regulation exercises such as deep breathing, mindfulness, and grounding techniques. By teaching your body that it’s safe, you can gradually shift from a state of constant alert to one of calm and curiosity.

Understanding the mechanisms behind our worries and intrusive thoughts can be incredibly empowering. By recognizing the difference between survival and learning brain modes, and actively working towards self-regulation, you can transform how you perceive and interact with the world around you.

Remember, you’re doing better than you think. Keep nurturing your sense of safety and wellbeing, and give yourself the grace to grow.

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