🌬️ Your Nervous System Speaks in Sensations

Your body is constantly scanning the world for cues of safety or danger — a process called neuroception. You don’t have to think about it. Your nervous system just knows. And it shifts you into different physiological states to help you survive.

This inner system isn’t binary — it’s a ladder of responses:

• At the top is Ventral Vagal, where you feel grounded, open, and connected.

• In the middle is Sympathetic Activation, where your body prepares to fight or flee.

• At the bottom is Dorsal Vagal Shutdown, a state of stillness, collapse, or numbness.

But there are also transitional and adaptive states along the way:

• The Fawn response often appears alongside sympathetic arousal. It’s when your system chooses appeasement — overasserting kindness, caretaking, or pleasing others — as a survival strategy to stay safe in threatening relationships.

• Transition states are the spaces between rungs — those moments when you’re moving from shutdown toward activation, or from fight-or-flight toward calm. These are tender, in-between places. You might feel restless, tearful, foggy, or uncertain. That’s okay. These shifts are part of the journey.

These shifts aren’t flaws — they’re ancient intelligence. But with awareness, you can begin to map them. You can learn to recognize: “Where am I now?” and then gently respond to your system’s needs.

Use the slider below to tune into your body and get a reflection of where you might be on the Polyvagal ladder right now.