It’s time to reset your nervous system and thrive

polyvagal theory explains the vagus nerve and the fight or flight response

Working long hours, family demands, financial challenges, and of course maintaining relationships, whilst caring for those you love – can all take its toll on your nervous system .
Many women find their cycle becomes affected, and fatigue is a common symptom of a stressed out adult!

Talking therapies only work until a point, exercising can sometimes further burn you out, and over indulging may become more common that you would like.
Perhaps it is time for a system reset to get you back in control of your life?

What is the Vagus nerve and why is it important?

The Vagus nerve is the 10th pair of cranial nerves that originate in the brain stem and travel down past the oesophagus, past the heart and lungs, and plunges deep into the abdomen.

  • It has a motor function – stimulates muscles in the pharynx, larynx, and soft palate; and stimulates muscles in the heart, where it plays a role in lowering resting heart rate.
  • It has a sensory function – sensation behind the ears and parts of the larynx (voice box).
  • It also has a visceral function where it monitors the internal organ environment, supplying information for the larynx, esophagus, lungs, trachea, heart, and most of the digestive area.

The autonomic nervous system comprises both the sympathetic (fight or flight) and the parasympathetic (rest and digest) branches.
The parasympathetic nervous system allows the body to relax and rest, and to assimilate the food you eat. The body will find it difficult to move into a restful state when it is sick, under mental pressure and strain, or when it is exhausted. It is for this reason that stress management and energy healing is so important. It is impertive to a healthy body and mind.

When the vagus nerve becomes dysregulated or weak, you will struggle to tap into your rest and digest state. This may lead to feelings of stress and anxiety, with varied external and internal signs and symptoms :

  • Anxiety and depression
  • Aggression
  • Emotional dysregulation
  • Indecision
  • Chronic inflammation
  • Difficulty concentrating or brain fog
  • Dizziness or fainting
  • Chronic pain (particularly gut)
self massage can be helpful to reset your vagal tone, you will learn how to do this in your session with Belle

The Polyvagal Theory

Developed by Dr Stephen Porges, the Polyvagal Theory explains the nervous system feedback in a loop to the brain’s command centre, instructing it to be on alert (fight or flight) or relaxed (rest and digest). In short, it is all about safety.
If the brain interpets the feedback and decides the body is not safe, then the heart will beat faster, blood pressure will rise and digestion will not be a priority. Conversely, if the brain deems the body safe, then the opposite effect will happen.

In today’s busy stress filled world. it is easy to forget to process, or release built up stress and tension. It is not uncommon to use food or alcohol, or sexual behaviour to distract from pain, grief, hurt, failure or shame.

When the body is always feeling negative emotions and stress, it can leave a lasting impression of anxiety or depression, and chronic fatigue or PTSD can result.

It is time to hit the reset button

Nervous System Balance program is for people who are feeling the effects of too much stress and not enough rest, and who want to start thriving again.

The program is designed to be completed over 6-8 weeks, and involves 6 x 90min balancing sessions.

No two sessions are the same, and with personalised, simple to follow daily routines of movement, breathwork and meditation tools balance can be restored to the nervous system.

What to expect
A series of sessions you will attend via zoom, that will include mindset coaching, as well as polyvagal theory-inspired exercises, to bring yourself back into balance.

With a nervous system reset you will:

– sleep better

– feel more calm

– feel more in control of your life

– enjoy improvement in your relationships

– get your mojo back

– enjoy life again

Working on releasing stored stress, reducing the mental chatter and developing routines around building safety within the body are the cornerstone for calming the nervous system.

This program is a reset, that will produce better quality of life and habits that will serve you for a lifetime. No matter what the challenges are that you face, movement, meditation and mindfulness will be appropriate.

Soul fragments: how to put yourself back together

Feeling numb, disconnected, exhausted, apathetic, resentful? Perhaps life is feeling like it is too hard, and like it is always an uphill battle? 

When you are disconnected from your soul, in two or many pieces, it can feel like the life you knew or always thought you would have is never going to eventuate.

Some refer to this as a dark night of the soul, but it is a deeper and more intense experience than this. When the soul begins to fragment, you are as a greater risk of losing yourself altogether and it is a long journey home to retrieve all these parts you have lost. 

In traditional counseling/ psychology terms, we would call it an existential crisis whereby a person may be catapulted into questioning “why am I here” or “what is this all for?” out of a response to a significant life change (such as divorce, death of a partner, loss of a job, global pandemic). However, it goes deeper than a mere “mid-life crisis” or a questioning, when the soul has fragmented. It goes to a place of questioning (at least unconsciously) “why do I exist?” or even “do I exist?”

The degree to what one will experience when one’s soul has fragmented is determined in part by the degree to how much has indeed fragmented or split. But also, it will depend on which parts have split from the whole and how much this will cause turmoil or angst in the person experiencing it. 

How does a soul fragment?

Pain, trauma, neglect, abuse, arguments, ungroundedness, mental health issues, ADHD, constant anxiety, phobias, history of depression – can all influence the degree to which a person will experience soul fragmentation. A pattern of coping will always be the first sign that soul fragmentation has begun: drinking, drugs, and risky behaviour (the usual suspects in younger years). One-off situations can cause soul fragmentation, however, it is more likely that it will be repeated behaviours that lead to the most destruction. This is why it is so hard to get off the merry-go-round once it has gained momentum. 

These poor choices may extend into unstable employment, possibly lead to crime, or at the very least, making very poor choices that result in consequences that are difficult to move through, let alone past. 

Then what happens is you forever need to re-face the shame, and guilt associated with poor choices that were resultant from the depth of pain, despair, anger, frustration, guilt you were feeling back then, in that moment that you made poor choices to begin with. 

The cycle is vicious and never-ending and will inevitably lead to more parts of yourself splitting and detaching from the whole of who you are. 

The whole is made up of the sum of its parts

In order to understand the “whole,” let me explain who you are. You are an energetic being that is having an experience in this body, in this world, in this lifetime. You are a celestial accident with odds at 1 in 102,685,000 that you exist. However, here you are! 

We experience Deja Vu (when you feel like you’ve been somewhere before), you shiver (did someone really walk all over your grave?), you have inherent skills that you’re good at without any training (I was always good at massage therapy, right from when I was young – with no idea why I “knew” how to treat pain, I just “knew”). Some of you are inherently intuitive. You know things. And coincidences always happen to you. Some of you have such bad luck all the time. Like it follows you around. And some have felt extremely blessed like everything they touch turns to gold (I once worked with a client who told me he’d fucked a fairy. He was a multi-millionaire.)

I have worked with hundreds of clients and taken them through past life regressions or seen their past lives through their healing sessions. I “know” there is more than one life we get to live – because I have seen it and heard people re-telling their stories with passion, emotion, and great detail (to which they are super surprised – it blows their minds!) 

And this is how I know that we have many parts of our souls that make up the whole of who we are. 

The fragmenting

We come into this life with unfinished business  – or unresolved energy – from another lifetime. Sometimes that lifetime is on this earth, and sometimes it isn’t. I believe some of the inherent skills are not accumulated in this earthly place. These skills are from another dimension. The more negative aspects – the ‘bad karma’, the unlucky, the poor circumstances, the destruction, the pain – I believe this is unresolved energy from another earthly lifetime. And these energies can cause a lot of pain in this lifetime and ultimately be a vehicle to learn many lessons if you want to. 

When a person begins to fragment parts of their soul, it is due to an unacceptance of the energy they hold and what lessons need to be learned to resolve it. It is usually painful to resolve the energy. And this is why we resort to alcohol, sex, drugs, risky behaviour, and choosing the wrong partners – it is all part of the drama that keeps you distracted from the soul pain you are feeling in the first place. It is impossible to resolve soul energy when you are distracted in the earthly ‘pleasures’ (or pains). 

The further you go into the pain of this lifetime, the harder it becomes to turn things around because you have begun to split from the initial “whole” you entered this world as. It then becomes a quest or a soul journey to find your way back to all of who you are. Not leaving any part behind – even the parts you wish weren’t there. This is the hardest part – complete self-acceptance. 

The Parts

The parts of you make up are all who you are. And to wish some of them didn’t exist, or to banish those parts and pretend they don’t exist is the ultimate disservice and self-hatred. A large part of the healing journey will require that you accept all those parts of you – even the ones you are ashamed of – and to welcome them back with loving arms. This can take years or a lifetime. Or never. It will ultimately determine your happiness or contentment. This explains why some people can have everything you could imagine but still be depressed and deeply unhappy. 

Some parts will be easy to accept – like your generous heart, ability to make people feel comfortable, solution-focused mind, and inherent ability to see the good in people. But other parts, such as your emotional reactivity, your anger towards your parents, your judgments, your proclivities, your fantasies, your biases, will be less palatable to accept.

You will make unconscious choices from these less-palatable parts. You will do things or say things that you are not proud of. If you keep doing them, you will experience the consequences. And it often doesn’t feel good. This feeling of shame or regret will then propel you to keep making bad choices or say things that arent in alignment with your highest good and purpose. And so you fall further short of where you “think” you should be. 

Its a slippery slope. 

So how do you stop sliding and come back to alignment? (please read on, but promise me you will have patience for yourself in this!)

How to come back home to yourself

The first step is that you are aware that you are sliding, or on the roller coaster of doom. YOU have to notice that life isn’t turning out how you expected it to. Or the way you think it “should”. From here, you can notice what your unconscious expectations have always been. Counselors will often get you into your childhood because we can uncover the schemas you are measuring and living your life by. It’s an interesting journey to mentally re-investigate. However, it is only half the story. 

You have to begin soul-retrieval practices that call those parts of you home that have fragmented and left the safety and sanctity of the whole of all that you are. 

This process can take months, years or even a lifetime.  And it is not for the faint-hearted. There will be pain. It is inevitable, however, most humans are averse to pain and try to avoid it at all costs (remember the alcohol, drugs, and risky behaviours!)

I suggest that when you are ready to begin the process of soul retrieval, you connect with a healer to help support you on the journey. Give yourself some time – usually 12 weeks is a good amount of time to begin with – that you will allow your focus to be on this one particular area of your spiritual journey. Invest in a journal. Dedicate time each day for spiritual practice. And always finish your day by calling back your soul fragments before you go to sleep. 

How you do this, and what you do is entirely up to you. Your Soul already knows what you need in order to recover your Parts, but your mind may want a particular routine or structure to follow. 

Gratitude Journalling

A deeper practice of soul retrieval can come through daily gratitude journalling. This is a well-researched practice, that has been proven to improve mood stability, a sense of greater meaning and purpose. This gentle act of self love every day can help you to improve your ability to focus on that which is important to you, and that which brings you joy. The more you train your conscious mind to focus on the good things, the more you will notice the good things (no matter how small they may be).
Belle has created a Gratitude Journal that coaches you through the process over a period of weeks or months.


The Practice:

Upon waking:
“I call in all parts of me that have fragmented and not returned home after my sleep” 

Within 1hr of waking:
Journal about what your goals for the day are (spend 5mins) 

Within 1hr of sleeping:
practice gentle breathwork and yin yoga to prepare the body for sleep (10-30mins) 
Spend a few moments contemplating what you are grateful for on this day

As you close your eyes:
“I now call all parts of me that have fragmented and ask that they return to the unity of all that I am. May all parts of me be held by my higher consciousness as I return to myself.”


Need more help?

To get started, simply book a healing session and together you will create a plan that your soul can settle into and find comfort within. Including bespoke meditations, yoga and breathwork practices.

Scrub your Socials- take your power back

Starting off the new year and taking your power back with a digital clean up clean up can be the most important thing you do at the start of the new year! Take your power back by removing negativity in your Socials, and removing the dead weight in your Inbox!
The collective energy for us at this time, is to restore, to connect and to enjoy. Why not use this time to restore your own energy, connect to those things that matter to you, and to embrace the idea that our life is for us to enjoy.

Here are my top tips when it comes to socials and digital life, so that you can clean up the energy in this space. Remember – we get energy strands of connection in the online world, just like we would in peson.
EVERY person you see on social media you will create an energy strand with.
EVERY person who scrolls your feed will create an energy strand with you.

Do you want that? Regularly clearing out your online space is a healthy part of your energetic hygiene practices. Just like if you went to a pub, you would come home and have a shower…consider this the same routine.
Cleanse
Release
Renew your boundaries!


My Top 5 Tips take your power back with a digital clean up:


1. Scrub your socials:
Go thru all your socials and remove any account that doesn’t give you good feels when you see it.
This includes people as well as biz accounts (but we will get to that in Step 3).
If it isn’t an account that LIGHTS YOU UP …its gone!
Remove it ASAP and get that lower vibration out of your field. Otherwise, it will continue to drag you down.
It happens gradually over time, without you even realising, and one day you declare to the world “I’m going off FB / IG for a while in order to rest and recharge”.
Um really? Why not just stop using it before announcing to the world you are over it? (It’s a bit of a bugbear of mine!)

You see, this kind of behaviour comes from a lack of boundaries in this department, and you honestly only have yourself to blame. However – we don’t do “blame” in my world, we simply LEARN and don’t look back. (I think perhaps a trigger releasing session would help in this case though!)

So here is your new mantra:

I get to decide what is in my feed

What I click on, the algorithm decides I like

I must be diligent about what I click on

I get to control my experience

If I don’t like what someone is posting I SCROLL on, OR I delete / mute / unfollow / block etc

My socials. My choice!

Never again will you feel whiny and in your victim mode about how “bad” social media is for you!

Personally, I love IG as I can follow hashtags I’m truly interested in, and that inspire me and teach me.

Everything else is a no-go for me and my mental health. This includes “friends”, or family who I am afraid I will offend if I unfollow. (And honestly, how often do you see these so-called ‘friends’ anyway? Would you share a meal with them? That’s what I ask myself. If I wouldn’t then I wont allow them into my energetic online field either. Another Q to ask yourself – if you wouldn’t share a meal with them, are they really a friend? Does it matter in the grand scheme of things if you removed them from your digital life?)

2. unsubscribe.
We get hundreds of emails every day – so be discerning about what you will accept in your inbox. If you’re anything like me you have signed up for a discount on a shopping platform and keep receiving their newsletters. I also have well-meaning sign-ups where I wholeheartedly decide I will be interested in a particular website and its offerings and then promptly never read another email from that site ever again. And yet they keep sending me emails!
My brain likes to pursue many a rabbit hole, and I get really interested in topics for short periods of time. Then I am over it. The dopamine hit wears off. Are you like that too? Well, the time is now for you to start cleaning out your emails and only keeping those that actually add value to your life – like mine.

OR not.

The choice always remains yours – so embrace your power to choose and decide what you want bombarding your inbox. It does take a fair bit of time, so I suggest putting on some music, or a podcast or watching Netflix and doing it simultaneously. That way you can just keep powering through the ‘unsubcribes’ and GET IT DONE.

3. unfollow/unfriend.
This is a tough one, as it pulls on the heart strings doesn’t it? I can’t tell you how many times a client has said they simply must stay “friends” with a family member out of fear they will offend them if they don’t.

STOP

DOING

THIS

This is the very definition of giving your power away. I didn’t know until a short time ago that we can actually mute a Facebook ‘friend’ and we won’t see their posts anymore. I love this as it means that you don’t have to completely say ‘goodbye’, just ‘let’s have a break for now’.

I know that it feels uncomfortable when you make these small decisions about a friendship or family connection, but it is really about being kind to both yourself and them. Your negativity – even in private – still affects the energy strands that connect you both. So what you are doing is removing your trigger so you can take back control of your own energy. That’s got to be a good thing – right?
A few years ago my cousin’s wife unfriended me, and I didn’t realise for a while. It definitely made our relationship non-existant as I haven’t heard from her or my cousin ever since. I have never tried to contact her again as I feel awkward and uncomfortable knowing I’m not her ‘cup of tea’ – which is okay. We never had anything in common, except she married my favourite and much loved cousin. It’s a shame, because her one small act caused me some heartache, and means that my kids don’t know hers. Remember – be kind. To yourself and others.

Be ruthless with ‘friends’ that you don’t even know. If they post things one time that are questionable, or directly opposite to your values then consider whether this is the content you want to consume. Some people vent and it triggers your own stuff. (Maybe it’s time to do an Emotion Code session though?) That’s ok. Cut them some slack and start looking at why it affected you so much. If they do it again, and it really annoys you, offends you, or crosses a line – it’s time to unfriend. No one wants to leave their front door open to angry, bigoted, racist, keyboard warriors, conspiracy theorists etc…so think of your account as your front door to your own energy field.
You need to put a line of defense between you both.

4. mute. I’ve mentioned it before but it needs its whole paragraph and time in the sun. Instagram has a mute button, and it is totally fine to use it. Just see how when you use it, that your life doesn’t end!
But you can use your own mute button on many things – like not replying to a message as soon as you receive one. You can choose to mute yourself during a conversation, and just hang up and plead “it dropped out” if queried.
Muting yourself means you get to decide what comes out of your mouth. It also means you retain your own power. There is no rule book that says you “must” respond. So choose when you do.

5. rest. I know you think that sitting on the couch and mindlessly scrolling for 3 hours is resting. It is not.

It is scrolling, and it is not mindless.

It is very mindful – and not in the best way.

When you are scrolling away you often lose track of time, and you ignore your kids and animals, and probably forget to do the chores around the house. Bbe intentional about your scrolling. But don’t call it rest. Cos it ain’t.
Resting is when your body AND mind get a break. (This is also not called sleep).

Resting involves an intention to slow down, and to just be in the present moment. My favourite way to rest is in my hammock with a blanket (if it is cooler) and a pillow under my head and knees. I love the feeling of swaying gently. I often don’t read in the hammock, I just look at the trees and the sky.
Some people say that resting can be reading a book – but the mind is still active.
Others say resting can be swimming – but the body is still active.

Many people find it hard to just sit and do nothing for a period of time, except breathe and be. So i invite you to set a timer for 3mins and just allow yourself to be in the present moment. Lay down. Watch the clouds. Listen to the birds. Just rest. And when the timer goes off, set it again for another 3mins. You’ll be amazed how quickly time flies doing nothing.
Resting is the biggest gift you can give yourself in this busy life we live. So choose to consciously do it for a few minutes per day – and watch how your entire perception will shift.

Start today

Scrubbing your digital energy field is an act of self love. Start today and notice how less-stressed and anxious you become. Removing the negativity, the draining, the anger, the complaining, the comparison and the sense of missing out can help restore your balance and your enjoyment of life. When you become ruthless at guarding your own energy, you will find the rest becomes easier and life becomes happier.

Good luck xx