Healing is understanding that “story follows state.” (Part IX)

Healing as understanding that “story follows state.”
Welcome to Part IX exploring “What does it mean to heal trauma?” Today, we consider the idea that “story follows state.” What does this mean, and how does it relate to healing trauma?

This idea suggests that healing involves realizing that one’s story, one’s narrative within any particular state, is state-dependent. Deb Dana and Stephen Porges put it this way: “story follows state.” This means that worldviews depend on certain states of consciousness, and that when states change, so does the worldview as well as the experience of the world itself. In this discussion of “states,” we are referring to what we covered in the sections on homeostatic theory by Antonio Damasio as well as the broad three-tiered states described by Polyvagal Theory. In homeostatic theory, different states are feeling states, the actual felt sense a creature has at any given point in time. In Polyvagal Theory, the three tiers of states are ventral-vagal states (often referred to as states of social orientation and connection), sympathetic activation states (fight or flight, mobilized states), and dorsal vagal states (of shutdown, freeze, collapse, and so forth).

Every body state influences the mind (this is “psychophysiology”), and the mind creates the stories and narratives about events and experiences and relationships and the world, as well as one’s place within all of it. In states of social connection, one’s worldview spontaneously tends to be more open, creative, positive, and hopeful, and stories that may arise from these states are suggestive of optimism, possibility, belonging, and love. However, the moment one’s state shifts out of a ventral vagal state into a state such as sympathetic activation, the world becomes potentially dangerous, threatening, disheartening, uncertain and scary, and one’s narrative about the world and one’s place in the world may become uncertain, untenable, disconnected, as well as potentially enraging, irritating, untrustworthy, disappointing, and relentless. When a person finds themselves in a state of dorsal vagal collapse, the world becomes unbearable, overwhelming, and potentially life threatening, and stories that spontaneously arise from these states of consciousness may be stories of failure, disconnection, hopelessness, and meaninglessness.

Let’s take a fairly “benign” activity, like going shopping for groceries, and look at it through each state in the Polyvagal framework. In a ventral vagal state, groceries are manageable. In a state of sympathetic activation, going out for groceries may feel daunting and potentially a life-or-death struggle against drivers, parking, pricing, other shoppers, lines, masking or not, whether or not it’s happening with partners or children, and so forth. It can be an activated, irritating, and even terrifying hypervigilant battle. In a state of dorsal vagal shutdown, groceries may be overwhelming, impossible and hopeless. The activity – getting food – is the same. But the state completely changes the experience of this activity.

The power and potential of this pathway is similar to that of the yogic gunas (explored in a separate thread) – it offers the perspective that one’s worldview and one’s sense of meaning, purpose, safety, connection, and so forth are state-dependent. What this means is that whenever one finds oneself in a state of activation or shutdown, they can expect that their story is going to be predictable, and have certain themes, all of which relate back to one’s sense of safety and connection. This offers the chance to create more space for the narratives, to non-judgmentally understand and accept that these worldviews and narratives arise on their own, they are spontaneously and, in a way, native to these states of consciousness. They live in these states and always will.

Healing in this regard becomes acceptance that this is, in a way, a mechanism of the embodied mind. If one feels activated, there will be a shift in one’s sense of the world. If one feels shutdown, it will likely result in a change in one’s story about possibility, connection, safety and belonging. When one shifts out of these states and into a state of ventral vagal activation, they will notice how their sense of purpose and possibility automatically change. They change on their own. They change without having to do anything. Thus, this approach could be considered a path of wu wei, a path of non-action and acceptance that these stories depend on state and they are not personal. Anyone in a state of mobilization or collapse can be expected to have certain narratives that arise, all of which share the common thread of how one’s sense of safety, connection, purpose and belonging are impacted. Around the world, studies on the mechanisms of Polyvagal Theory consistently demonstrate that regardless of culture or place, when one is in a state of ventral vagal activation, their narratives link to a sense of safety, connection, belonging, purpose, and hope.

Concluding this thread, healing becomes releasing one’s attachment to the idea that these stories are personal (even though they may feel unique to each individual). These stories are stories of states. They are stories about what life is like in these states of consciousness. So healing, realizing one’s sense of wholeness, is realizing that wholeness itself is not impacted by one’s state of consciousness.

Wholeness is not impacted by one’s state of consciousness.

Wholeness is unaffected. In fact, wholeness means all of these states are a part of the whole being, a part of the whole of existence. While states of mobilization and collapse can be very unpleasant, the narratives that arise come on their own, just as stories of hope naturally arise from states of ventral vagal activation. Healing, health, and wholeness are always present, always available now, regardless of the specific story that may be told from the vantage point of a specific state.

Part X continues this series, exploring healing through a concept from yoga and the Upanishads known as the gunas.

REFERENCES FOR THIS SERIES

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Badenoch, B. (2018). The Heart of Trauma (First edition ed.). W.W. Norton & Company.

Banerji, D. (2016). Seven quartets of becoming (Second impression ed.). Nalanda International.

Blackstone, J. (2018). Trauma and the unbound body. Sounds True.

Damasio, A. R. (2019). The strange order of things : life, feeling, and the making of cultures (First Vintage Books edition, February 2019. ed.). Vintage Books.

Freud, S. (2010). Civilization and Its Discontents. W. W. Norton & Company.

Herman, J. L. (2015). Trauma and recovery. Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group.

Larson, G. J. (1969). Classical Sāṃkhya (1 ed. ed.). Motilal Banarsidass.

Levine, P. A., & Frederick, A. (1997). Waking the tiger : healing trauma : the innate capacity to transform overwhelming experiences. North Atlantic Books.

Levine, P. A., & Kline, M. (2008). Trauma-proofing your kids : a parents’ guide for instilling confidence, joy and resilience. North Atlantic Books.

McLaren, K. (2010). The language of emotions. Sounds True.

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Heal. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved November 23, 2022, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heal

Miller, A. (1997). The drama of the gifted child : the search for the true self, revised edition. Basic Books.

Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory : neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation (1st ed. ed.). W.W. Norton.

Porges, S. W. (2017). The pocket guide to polyvagal theory : the transformative power of feeling safe (First edition. ed.). W. W Norton & Company.

Siegel, D. J. 1. (2012). Pocket guide to interpersonal neurobiology : an integrative handbook of the mind (First edition. ed.). W.W. Norton & Company.

Siegel, D. J. 1. (2018). Aware : the science and practice of Presence, the groundbreaking meditation practice. TarcherPerigee, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

Solomon, M. F., & Siegel, D. J. 1. (2003). Healing trauma : attachment, mind, body, and brain (1st ed. ed.). W.W. Norton.

Van der Kolk, Bessel A. 1943-. (2015). The body keeps the score : brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Penguin Books.