Anchored Quotes

“In our evolutionary history, being a part of a tribe was essential for survival. We survived in groups. There was strength in numbers. When we are anchored in the safety of ventral regulation, we look for connection and see possibilities for friendship.”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“In addition to this quick, short-term adrenaline-fueled response, the sympathetic system also responds to distress with the release of cortisol.”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“Once you gain confidence in your ability to stay anchored, you can intentionally adjust the balance toward calm when you feel a rise in anxiety or toward more energy when you need to take action.”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“Without the vagal brake we lose our anchor in safety and connection and move into the protective states of fight and flight.”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“The function of the vagal brake is to allow us to feel, and use, some of the mobilizing energy of the sympathetic nervous system without being pulled into the survival state of fight and flight.”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“On each inhalation the vagal brake offers a slight release and the heart rate speeds up just a bit, and then on the exhalation the vagal brake reengages, and the heart rate returns to a slower beat.”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“From the diaphragm upward is the realm of the ventral vagus. This is the place where we anchor in safety and can both self- and co-regulate.”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“Place one hand on the base of your skull and the other hand over your heart. Imagine the ventral vagal pathway and feel the energy moving between your two hands. Take a moment to acknowledge the abilities for regulation and connection this system brings. And now move your hand from your heart to your abdomen. With one hand on your brainstem and one hand on your abdomen you’re connected to the dorsal vagal pathway. Imagine this pathway and feel the energy that moves here.”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“When we are disconnected from our bodies, we are also disconnected from the ability to tune in to the important information being sent from the body to the brain through the vagal pathway.”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“To summarize, our autonomic nervous system is made up of the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems with the vagus providing the primary pathways for the parasympathetic system through the dorsal and ventral branches.”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“Immobilization and disappearing are the survival strategies of the dorsal vagal system”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“While we may think our brains are in charge, the heart of our daily experience and the way we navigate the world begins in our bodies with the autonomic nervous system.”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“The final element, connection, brings a sense of relationship. The experience of connection encompasses four domains: connection to self, connection to other people (and pets), connection to nature and the world around us, and connection to spirit.”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“Choice is the second element necessary for a regulated nervous system. With choice it’s possible to be still or move, approach or avoid, connect or protect.”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“Without explicitly stated information, we are more likely to sense unsafety and move into a pattern of protection.”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“When we learn to attend to neuroception, we can begin to shape our stories in new ways.”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“Neuroception follows three streams of awareness: inside, outside, and between.”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“Reflecting on the two sentences “The world is …” and “I am … ,” we see how dramatically our stories change as we move from one state, one building block, to another.”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together. CARL SAGAN,
COSMOS, EPISODE 5”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“When the inner workings of our biology are a mystery, we feel as if we’re at the mercy of unknown, unexplainable, and unpredictable experiences. Once we know how our nervous system works, we can work with it.”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“The role of the autonomic nervous system is to store, conserve, and release energy to help us safely move through our daily lives.”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“it is the bodily feelings and not the events that are central to the experience of trauma.”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“If the autonomic nervous system is well resourced, we are resilient and there is a low threshold to trigger states of safety that would lead to spontaneous social engagement and co-regulation. Alternately, if we are locked into a defensive state, feelings of safety may not be easily accessible.”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“if we are locked into a defensive state, feelings of safety may not be easily accessible.”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

“. Looking through the lens of the nervous system, we understand that we are all trying to anchor in the state of safety that supports connection to self, to others, to the world, and to spirit and provides the energy we need to navigate our days. When the inner workings of our biology are a mystery, we feel as if we’re at the mercy of unknown, unexplainable, and unpredictable experiences. Once we know how our nervous system works, we can work with it. As we learn the art of befriending our nervous system, we learn to become active operators of this essential system.”
― Deb Dana, Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory