Transcript

Ani
Hi and welcome to the Somatic Coaching Academy podcast. Hey there, Brian.

Brian
Hi, Ani.

Ani
Hi. How are you today?

Brian
I’m doing all right. It’s a little bit of a rainy day here today, so I’m feeling the rain.

Ani
Ready for a cat nap? I’m sure our cat is napping on the couch right now all the time.

Brian
He does. He doesn’t need rain to nap.

Ani
No, but he does take advantage of the rainy day napping.

Brian
He does.

Ani
Yeah.

Brian
Well, he looks like he enjoys it more.

Ani
Projecting that for sure.

Brian
Yes.

Ani
Lucky cat.

Brian
Yeah. Well, here we are today.

Ani
Yeah. What are we talking about?

Brian
So grateful that you’re here joining us.

Ani
For the podcast, episode 90.

Brian
Episode 90. Yeah. So this week we are evolving the conversation on coaching for emotional reactivity.

Ani
Well, thank goodness. I’m really glad to hear we are evolving that conversation.

Brian
Yeah, I know this was one that you really wanted to do, this podcast.

Ani
Yeah, yeah. Well, I’ve been doing a lot of talks for the international Coaching Federation on emotional regulation, and I’m actually astounded at how little information there is about emotion, emotional regulation, emotional reactivity as a part of the coaching conversation. Anyway, that’s just really very little being talked about, which is astounding to me because I mean, a lot of us, me included, learned in coaching school, ‘Coaches don’t really do emotions’. Okay. Coaches do emotions all the time. So let’s get educated.

Brian
Yeah, let’s talk about it. So you know how I roll, Ani? I always need to start off with a definition.

Ani
It’s got a definition.

Brian
I gotta put us on the map.

Ani
Yeah, I actually can’t wait to hear your definition of this. So where’d you get it from?

Brian
I looked around again. I looked through the literature on PubMed. I like to kind of look at the research stuff. Because you know you could google like emotional reactivity. You’re gonna get all kinds of things from all kinds of places, which I appreciate because I look through them.

Ani
Sure.

Brian
And then I decide, let’s go to PubMed. Let’s go to PubMed. Yeah. So for me, it’s like, I want to go like, what’s happening in the research? So this is from a study quite a while ago in like the 1990s, 1980s.

Ani
Wow.

Brian
That’s a long, long time ago. But emotional reactivity hasn’t changed much since then. So this is the definition: emotional reactivity has been characterized as the emotional response to an event that may vary between individuals in terms of intensity, the speed at which it reaches peak and return from its peak back to baseline.

Ani
All right, so I didn’t tell you this part, but I was really interested to see in that definition of emotional reactivity what was going to happen. Because we both know that scientists have not agreed on a definition of emotions.

Brian
Correct. Yeah, exactly. And it actually says that in this paper as well.

Ani
Okay, fantastic. So I like them even more that they acknowledged that because I was like, where is he going with this definition of something that scientists have not agreed on a definition around? So I approve of your definition.

Brian
Well, I mean, I just grabbed it. It’s not like I’m not going to defend it or love it. I just like I needed someplace to get us started with.

Ani
Right.

Brian
So what we’re saying with emotional reactivity is obviously from this thing is that’s an emotional response.

Ani
Something happens.

Brian
Yeah. That can differ between people. So something happens in the environment and then we’re having an emotional response to the event. And it’s going to vary between people. It’s going to vary in terms of the intensity at which it happens.

Ani
Yeah.

Brian
It’s going to vary in terms of the speed at which it occurs.

Ani
Yes

Brian
And it’s going to vary in terms of how our emotions, let’s just say, because they didn’t say anything here about the nervous system. They said emotions return back to baseline again. But this is just the definition. The paper goes into more detail around it. But I just wanted to kind of get us on the map.

Ani
Well, I’m thinking about. Well, I appreciate how much variability is in that definition because you and I have a very different experience of emotions, you know.

Brian
Yeah, sure.

Ani
Every once in a while I may have said something to you like, why don’t you have emotions? And you’re like, I have emotions. I just express them differently than you. But the way that you and I experience and express emotions is very varied. So I love how that’s a part of this.

Brian
Yeah. And I would say based on that and what you said too. A key feature of how you and I navigate through the world differently emotionally is specifically around the reactivity. So we have very different levels of emotional response or reactivity to things that go on.

Ani
Yes. So I want you to think for yourself as you’re listening about emotional reactivity for you. Because, you know, for me things happen very fast and they’re very big. And that’s what emotional reactivity in general looks like for me. Although it’s the impulse actually, I will have impulses that I don’t necessarily blow up or act on, but there’s like impulses how many times a day? So sometimes I can get to the end of the day and I might think to myself, well, there was no emotional reactivity, but there were impulses and stuff. So this is something that’s happening for me every day. And I think that’s an important part of this conversation. Because when we talk about emotional reactivity, we could look at the end of our day or week and say, well, I didn’t blow up today or I didn’t blow up this week. I don’t really have any emotional reactivity. And I would say, let’s take a peek at how that shows up for you.

Brian
Yeah. You know what’s occurring to me as we’re having the conversation at this point, Ani, is that emotional reactivity, when we talk about motion reactivity, most people are referring to emotional hyper-reactivity.

Ani
Yeah.

Brian
Not emotional hypo-reactivity.

Ani
Correct.

Brian
I’m thinking like there can be something that comes up and you tend to go to the hyper side. And sometimes I have to try to get myself to react to it.

Ani
Yeah.

Brian
Because I naturally go to the hypo reactivity side. Which makes us like the Tai Chi. Right. So like we’re basically balancing out together. We make one whole nervous system sort of thing.

Brian
Exactly. Living the Tai Chi right in front of everybody.

Ani
Yeah.

Brian
So hyporeactivity is not any more like, I guess, let’s say non-functional than hyper-reactive. Because any level of reactivity in some ways is useful and meant to be. Right now the question is, is it really functional? Is it helping to serve the goals that we want to create or not.

Ani
Yeah.

Brian
I think when I think about function, that’s how I think about it sort of thing. Because certainly, in certain situations, like emotional hyper-reactivity could save your life. Yeah. Where hypo reactivity is going to get you killed.

Ani
Yeah.

Brian
And vice versa is true in certain situations, hypo-reactivity is going to keep you safe. Hyper, not so much. Even beyond normal.

Ani
Yeah.

Brian
So if we’re just kind of looking at like emotional reactivity in our conversation. And I think the way that in contemporary language, if you look out there on the Internet, most people are talking about in terms of the hyper side.

Ani
Correct, for sure.

Brian
Okay, so what are some… So I kind of screened through some of the research and started looking at, well, how do you know that you’re experiencing emotional reactivity? What does the research say?

Ani
Let’s find out.

Brian
Okay.

Ani
I want to know what they say about it.

Brian
So they say it’s when you feel that you have no control over what happens or what you say.

Ani
Okay.

Brian
Okay, so that’s probably in the ballpark, right? You say hurtful things to people, including yourself in moments of anger.

Ani
That might happen to other people. But that’s never happened to me.

Brian
Never happened to you. Okay, so that actually goes back to the self-judgment thing we did like a couple weeks ago. Right.

Ani
I’m sorry, Brian.

Brian
I get it. Good thing. I hypo-react to those things. Yeah, exactly.

Ani
What else?

Brian
All right, what else we got? So your moods change quickly and without warning.

Ani
Yeah, no warning. Didn’t get the memo.

Brian
So, emotional reactivity. There you go. You have suffered from depression or anxiety. Okay. You feel rage at the slightest perceived criticism. Goes back again to that self-judgment piece.

Ani
Yeah, right.

Brian
Those are two features that we talked about a couple of weeks ago.

Ani
Yeah, we talked about that in two podcasts, something ago.

Brian
Yeah, yeah, whatever it was. And your reactions are disproportionate to what’s happening around.

Ani
Oh, 100%. Yes. I like that one.

Brian
So those are features of emotional reactivity, just to kind of again get us all on the same map.

Ani
Your reactions are disproportionate. I guess we could extrapolate that to what you were saying about hyper.

Brian
Sure.

Ani
Right. Because sometimes I would look at you and think like, why are you not emoting anything? And you’re actually in the hypo response of that. Yeah.

Brian
So it’s out of proportion, potentially, to what’s going on.

Ani
Correct. Yeah, interesting when I look at it.

Brian
Okay. So, of course, I look around too, and I say, well, what are other people saying you should do when you are experiencing emotional reactivity? What are some of the things other people say?

Ani
Well, can I tell you something I hear all the time? I hear, take a pause and then choose how you want to act. Yeah, take a pause choose how you want to act.

Brian
So it sounds like for you.

Ani
I’ve heard it’s a lot.

Brian
Someone, something happened. They’re in the emotional reactivity, and then they need to somehow take a pause.

Ani
Yeah.

Brian
And then choose differently.

Ani
Right. Another one I’ve heard. Before you get into your list, I’m just going to tell you a few that I’ve heard. Don’t get defensive.

Brian
Don’t get defensive. I’m just going back to that list we had before. Right. So you feel rage at the slightest perceived criticism and then don’t get defensive.

Ani
Yeah.

Brian
All right.

Ani
Good luck with that.

Brian
Yeah. It seems to me like depending on the speed and intensity of the emotional reaction, sometimes it’s very difficult to.

Ani
Well, yeah.

Brian
Rein things in for sure.

Ani
Especially when you’re a force of nature like me. Yeah, yeah. Another one is just take a deep breath.

Brian
Take a deep breath. Yeah. These aren’t bad.

Ani
They are good suggestions. So want to just like, punch people when they say it in the moment, you know, perhaps. But like, absolutely great ideas. Fantastic.

Brian
Yeah. So some of the ones that people say are the same ones that you’re coming up with, like active listening.

Ani
Yeah.

Brian
You know, so. So instead of getting emotional reactive, actively listen to the person.

Ani
Great idea. Another great, fantastic idea.

Brian
Don’t make assumptions.

Ani
Yeah, Fantastic idea.

Brian
Great one.

Ani
Reminds me of the four agreements right there.

Brian
Yeah. You know, take a breath.

Ani
Oh, yeah.

Brian
Take a break.

Ani
Yep. Take a break.

Brian
Identify the triggers that’s causing it.

Ani
Oh, yeah. Oh, I’m just like, getting a little twitch hearing the triggers thing, Right?

Brian
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Which we’ll talk about in a minute, too. So the interesting thing that comes up is this, for me, when someone is emotionally reactive. And by the way, I think this works for either hyper or hypo.

Ani
Okay.

Brian
Essentially the brain stem and the limbic system, which researchers and people who do these things call the emotional brain. The emotional brain basically hijacks the nervous system from the neocortex. So the neocortex, the frontal lobe, does have some capacity to modulate behavior and modulate physiological function. But it’s a very small thing. When it’s working, even under great circumstances, it still has minimal control to do that.

Ani
Yeah.

Brian
Now, when your nervous system, when your amygdala is activating that fire alarm and your hypothalamus, pituitary gland, adrenal gland, have that HPA axis firing, and you actually get disconnected from the frontal lobes. It’s almost impossible to do consciously directed things like actively listen. Right. Don’t take it personal. Like, don’t make assumptions. Those are all cognitive capacities.

Ani
Right. And your cognition is actually not working so hot.

Brian
Correct. Yeah. With emotional reactivity now.

Ani
Right. It’s like. I don’t know. To me, it’s… They’re not… It’s not that they’re not great suggestions. It’s just so unbelievably challenging to do. It’s like you got to be a superhero to be able to, you know, actually make it work to turn your.

Brian
So I like breath. I like take a breath. Of all the…

Ani
That’s the one you’re going with?

Brian
Well, I’m not saying I’m going with it. I’m saying of the ones that have been suggested, I think that’s the go to or one.

Ani
Because that’ll actually shift your.

Brian
Because that will start shifting your physiological function. I still think there’s actually more powerful things that we’re going to talk about, but of all the ones he talked about, that’s probably the one that I would say to go to.

Ani
Yeah, that makes sense, because that has.

Brian
An impact directly onto your emotional brain.

Ani
Again, you’re impacting your physiology.

Brian
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So where do we want to kind of evolve this conversation to? And in our programs, the way we work with people with this idea of emotional reactivity is based around the three steps to changing a pattern. Because emotional reactivity is a pattern, isn’t it?

Ani
Yes.

Brian
Right. So something’s happening in the environment that we’re reacting to.

Ani
Right.

Brian
And we react typically pretty predictably.

Ani
Correct. Right. I’m just. As you’re explaining this, I’m thinking this to myself. So I think the general conversation about what to do with emotional reactivity is in general, a toothpaste out of the tube kind of situation.

Brian
Yes, exactly.

Ani
The toothpaste has come out of the tube. We’ve tried to… We got to try to get the toothpaste out of the tube. That’s generally the conversation that we’re having around emotional activity. As we evolve the conversation around emotional activity, understanding that emotional reactions are patterns, and there’s a lot you can do before anything is happening that actually primes the system around what happens next, because that’s how our brains and nervous systems work anyway, is on prediction. And so there’s so much that we can do while the toothpaste is still in the tube at any given point, by the way, when you’re having an emotional reaction or not, like just in any given aspect of the day to work these patterns so that we predict differently. And so that part of that prediction process is how our physiology works. So that our physiology works differently, predicts differently when things come up.

Brian
Exactly.

Ani
So it has very little to do, actually, the evolved conversation with what’s happening on the outside, but way more about what is happening on the inside, which is so cool because that’s stuff we can do something about and have control over.

Brian
Exactly, exactly. And all that said, oftentimes what we have to help people do is walk backwards. Like again after the toothpaste out of the tube.

Ani
Yep.

Brian
And so I think you kind of.

Ani
Start from the end and work your way back.

Brian
Work your way back. And we do that in a very mindful, very curious and very compassionate way.

Ani
Yeah.

Brian
Too often, I think Ani, when people are experiencing emotional reactivity, they try to actually curtail the process before fully understanding what the process is.

Ani
Yeah.

Brian
They actually have not done a really good decode or really good investigation about their own internal emotional reactive process. And they’re just trying to short circuit it. But they really don’t know what they’re short circuiting.

Ani
Yeah.

Brian
And they don’t know why they’re trying to short circuit it and what is actually happening in the system. Yeah, right.

Ani
One of the, one of the, I think worst things you can do as a coach or therapist is just tell people not to react to. I have had people tell me that. I’ve had coaches tell me, don’t, don’t react, you know, and I’ve also had coaches tell me, well, you’re going to react. So like it’s just so. Oh my goodness gracious. So what you’re saying is working on these patterns and working from where you are and kind of working back actually as a practitioner, if you’re going to do this with people, it requires us to have patience and understanding and non judgment and curiosity. Because when we enter into this conversation with some kind of judgment, it just, it just starts the judgment cycle with our clients as well. And then they’re in self judgment and off we go. Yeah, it can get so messy. So we really have to enter into the conversation with ourselves and with our clients with openness, with curiosity and with patience.

Brian
Yeah. And so there’s basically three, three stages in any, like kind of changing a reactive pattern. So when someone has a pattern of reaction which we’re talking about here and again we’re mostly reacting to something. The first stage in this is to be able to identify the pattern after the reactivity.

Ani
After it happened.

Brian
After it happens. Because when we talked about intensity, speed, and then returning to baseline, it’s easier to identify what happened when the nervous system returns to the baseline because we have more clarity on what happened in the rear view mirror.

Ani
Yeah. And then you can be like a scientist or experimenter to look back and get all kinds of data points around what happened.

Brian
Right. And the primary data points that we’re looking for are sensations, thoughts, words and actions, because those are the four parts of any pattern. And emotional reactivity is a pattern. It’s a pattern. So we want to know what the sensations, thoughts, words and actions are in retrospect. And actually we even want to know. It’s like after the reactivity. So for instance, let me give you an example because we can look at this two ways. Say you and I have an interaction Ani and I get emotionally reactive by it. And then hour, two hours, three hours, four hours later, when I’m kind of settled out a little bit, I can do two things. Number one, I can say what’s my pattern now in the moment now, two, three, four, five hours after, what are my sensations, thoughts, words and actions after that emotional reactivity. I can also try the best I can to look in the rearview mirror and say what were my sensations, thoughts, words and actions during the event? Right. And so you can do both of that. Both those works like after the event. And that’s really important to identify those features of the patterns afterwards.

Brian
That’s step one. Step two is.

Ani
And step two is kind of backing up.

Brian
Exactly.

Ani
Right.

Brian
But step two actually is almost impossible to do well, unless you’ve done that first step.

Ani
I agree 100% you have to do step one because otherwise you’re not going to be able to do step two.

Brian
Exactly. Yeah. You have to have taken the time to determine what’s the pattern look like right now. And the reason you do it in the right now is because oftentimes after an emotional reactive event, believe it or not, we can actually set up the circumstances of the emotionally reactive event in order to experience the pattern that comes out afterwards.

Ani
I just, this happened to me just last, maybe it was yesterday, a few days ago, where I was recognizing there was some emotional reactivity that I know that I set up the whole thing so that I could enact the pattern that came afterwards.

Brian
Right, exactly.

Ani
So.

Brian
Right. So that’s why it’s important to do the like the present moment pattern after.

Ani
Yeah.

Brian
Because then you might realize, oh, do I have a need to experience this pattern?

Ani
Right.

Brian
And if I do, then that’s fine.

Ani
Right.

Brian
But am I going about getting here by creating an emotional reaction? Emotional reaction, Distress, problems. Right.

Ani
So I’ll tell you the example just so it makes sense to the listeners. So I thought I left enough time to get where I was going, was dropping my daughter off and I thought I had left a half an hour, but I actually left like 10 minutes late and I knew we had to stop and get gas and I didn’t bake that time in to the whole experience. So I was going to get her there basically right under the wire of when she needed to be dropped off. So during the trip I was getting reactive because I’m like, oh my gosh, we’re going to be like, maybe we’re late. What if we’re late? And then I recognized that after the whole thing was over, I was beating myself up.

Brian
Okay.

Ani
So as I was beating myself up and watching that pattern, which is familiar to me, I was like, oh my gosh, I don’t leave enough time to get places literally most of the time so that I can enact the beating myself up pattern.

Brian
Oh, interesting.

Ani
Yeah. So again, tracking it backwards, I wouldn’t, if I didn’t know all these things to be able to track it. I wouldn’t have been able to put the dots together that I don’t leave myself enough time to get places so I can beat myself up.

Brian
Yep.

Ani
So it wasn’t even about what was going on in the middle of the whole thing. It was about the after.

Brian
Perfect. Right? It’s a perfect example. That’s a great example. And so you need to have that because there might be a different way to explore that particular pattern now and not need to create all that drama before to get there.

Ani
Right, right.

Brian
So, so that’s step one. And then again the second part of that is you can in that hindsight, if you have an idea of how you think your sensations, thoughts, words or actions were in the moment, then in this step two part, step two part is to recognize the pattern during the reaction.

Ani
Yep. And this takes a lot of self compassion because the metaphor I use is it’s like watching your house be robbed and you’re tied up and you can’t do anything about it and you’re watching your house being robbed like you’re watching yourself self sabotage, say nasty things, do things you don’t wish you were doing. And you’ve got to be able to watch that. That takes some self compassion. To be able to witness it while it’s going on.

Brian
Yeah, yeah.

Ani
You know, it’s a big deal. I give like people so much credit for getting to the place where they can do that. Because it’s a challenge. Yeah, it’s a big deal.

Brian
And this is why this is an evolved conversation. Because what we’re saying right here is rather than doing things like, again, not bad suggestions, take a break. Active listening, don’t make assumptions. All those things are geared to actually stop the reaction. That’s their job, right? To stop the reaction. What we’re evolving this to is to witness the reaction.

Ani
Because when you witness it, you get awareness. What you have awareness of, you can change and you can actually change and rewire your emotional reactions. Of course you can, because they’re patterns.

Brian
Exactly.

Ani
So the, the coach for me years ago who was like, you’re always going to have a reaction, so just get used to it, didn’t understand that emotions are patterns and you can rewire patterns, you can work with it.

Brian
And the way you rewire them is starting at the beginning. But the way we have to get back to the beginning is to understand the pattern. So when we’re in the reactivity, the evolved kind of idea here is not to try to stop the reactivity, it’s to investigate the pattern, it’s to understand the pattern, it’s to see what exactly is going on with clarity. Because if we understand what’s going on with clarity, then we can do something about it before the toothpaste is out of the tube.

Ani
Right. So first you do it after, then you do it before and then you back up again.

Brian
Yes, exactly. Right. So yeah, first do it after, then you do it during. Right, you become aware of during. And the third step of this is you become aware of the pattern before it happens.

Ani
Right.

Brian
Because before any pattern activates, there are flags. Yeah, there are flags for any pattern. Sometimes these flags are very subtle, sometimes they’re very clear. But that’s what we have to do is we have to identify the sensations, thoughts, words, actions, and we could say environmental factors that would activate this pattern to, to basically create that emotional reactivity.

Ani
And this conversation actually aligns with the new science in emotion and how emotions are created. And so we’re actually looking at context and all of the different pieces of the puzzle that go together to create an emotional, an emotion within us.

Brian
Yes, yeah, exactly. And so in order to do this, we have to become more self aware, really. We have to become a more aware and be able to hold, hold our awareness and our attention at a high enough level, we don’t get kind of sucked in to the whole hijacking part of the emotional reactivity. We have to be able to kind of experience the reactivity, but also watch the reactivity.

Ani
Hey, if you’re a subscriber in our library. So on our website, somaticcoachingacademy.com we have a public library and you can opt into that if you’re not a member of it already. Once you’re a member of it, go into the library, scroll down to the bottom and we have a PDF actually about how to do what we’re talking about right now with becoming aware of that amygdala hijack, so that we can have more conscious awareness over how it works and what tools to use what stages along the way of your amygdala hijack. Because it’s not just an on or off switch kind of thing. It’s more on a continuum. So if you’re not a member of the library, go get your library card. If you are, go into the library, go to the bottom and check out. It’s called Hijacked. The PDF is called Hijacked.

Brian
Oh, perfect. Great.

Ani
Really good information.

Brian
Great resource. I love that.

Ani
It’s really good.

Brian
And there’s, there’s probably some core centering practices.

Ani
Yeah, there are.

Brian
As a part of that.

Ani
Yeah, yeah.

Brian
So, and so the core centering practices are things like take a breath and here’s the, here’s the thing though. Those practices are great for helping us to regulate our nervous system during and after an emotional reactivity, which is important because if our nervous system is more regulated, then we can stay more in that level of objective witnessing. Now, again, we’re not using core centering necessarily to stop the reactivity that may come as a beneficial byproduct of this. What we’re doing is we’re really using that just to be able to stay present. Now that’s one. Also, doing these core centered exercises regularly makes it more likely that we are not going to have as extreme levels of emotional reactivity anyway, so that we can stay more present and experience them and learn more about them as they come through. Right. And it’s also a gateway to deeper change the nervous system pattern. So there’s all kinds of benefits to doing them.

Ani
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Brian
Yeah.

Ani
I love this conversation. It’s such an important conversation. So glad that, you know, listeners and members of our community can be having this conversation. It’s one that, you know, most of the people who are listening to this and are following along with our bouncing ball. They’ve already done some kind of work with this stuff. You’re not new to this conversation, which is why it’s an evolved conversation. And sometimes when people have done a lot of work, they go, I’ve done so much work on this. Yeah, you have. And good for you, because you have. Now you can have this conversation, this evolved conversation around emotional reactivity. If you hadn’t done all that work before, you wouldn’t be to the place where you could have this kind of level of conversation. So good for you. It’s. It’s not that you did that and now something’s wrong with you because you didn’t quote, unquote, get it and you’re not there yet. That’s not it. Now you’re ready to have this level of conversation that’s really exciting because we see people change the trajectory of their entire lives, their relationships, their business, whatever it is, because they’re able to work on emotional reactivity patterns.

Ani
And for me, I would say that the experience of working with these patterns that, Brian, to be honest with you, is very close to an experience that I would call enlightenment. Like, it’s the experience that I’d been looking for in my 20s when I started to meditate and I couldn’t figure out, like, how to feel more enlightened. It feels enlightening to be able to rewire patterns like this and approach life from a totally different perspective from the inside out. And it’s. It’s some work. And it’s worth it. It’s so worth it.

Brian
Yeah, huge. Huge. I. You know, I think in kind of in summary, basically, if I was just going to summarize everything we’ve kind of talked about with one kind of concept and why it’s important to take this evolved kind of somatic approach to coaching, things like emotional reactivity is how important it is to first coach the nervous system rather than the story. Yes, Right. Because our higher brain centers are going to construct narratives based on what we’re experiencing. They’re really good at that. And at the same time, if we get caught up in coaching the narratives, then we can oftentimes not only go into rabbit holes, but when someone’s experiencing emotional reactivity, the narrative gets really skewed, and we end up being very polarized in the narrative. And that can be very difficult for people. Now, if we just took a step back and just coached the nervous system, now we’re coaching the underpinning process that’s driving that polarized narrative. So coach the nervous system first.

Ani
And that aligns with Einstein’s quote about how you can’t solve a problem from the current level of consciousness. So if we don’t coach the nervous system first, we’re actually trying to solve the problem from the same level of consciousness that created it. So you coach the nervous system is actually that change in level of consciousness so that you can get a different outcome.

Brian
Yes. I love it. Fantastic conversation. Thanks so much for sharing your personal experiences. Yeah, super valuable as a reflection for people. I think a lot of people can see and feel themselves in some of the experiences that you shared.

Ani
Yeah, I hope so. And hey, if you have your own stories to share, please do let us know. Comment below. If there’s a place to comment, send us an email. Info@somaticcoachingacademy.com. We want to hear your stories too. Social media. Put it under the you know in.

Brian
The comments and leave us a review on the podcast. We always love hearing what you think there.

Ani
Yep, for sure.

Brian
Thanks so much everybody.

Ani
We’ll see you next week.

Brian
Bye.