C.L.I.M.B. to Safety

5 steps to find calm when life hits hard. (Fun, free resource inside.)

Your nervous system has a “way home.” Do you know yours?

Some of you might know I’m a long distance motorcyclist. 

It’s not only that I love the travel or the adventure, but the quiet. The incredible presence that motorcycling forces you into. 

Absolute and complete, single moment attention. It has transformed my nervous system. 

Constantly monitoring and modifying for wind, rain, cold, the unexpected terrain, glaring sun, sand or animals on the road, coordinating and watching my riding partner. 

My system has become incredibly adaptable. My ability to return to safety stronger and my steadiness more robust.

It’s also helped me expand my capacity for joy. That’s the other, unknown, unexpected, and incredible benefit of strengthening your nervous system that most of us miss. 

Motorcycling has become a Neural Exercise – stretching the edges of what my system experiences as safe just enough each time. Not too much, but just enough. Recovering and regaining regulation, over and over. (More on that in my next email).

But it’s not all just accidental or coincidental. 

I’ve transformed my nervous system on purpose because I know how. 

I’ve learned that there is always a way “home” to safety (eventually).

Then we can C.L.I.M.B. to Safety. 

Here’s how…

We each have a unique nervous system. 

It’s shaped by our DNA, our epigenetics, our experiences, our sleep and a million other variables. 

What works for me, won’t work for you all the time or at all. And vice versa. 

What works for me today may not work tomorrow. 

We have to get to KNOW our nervous system in order to meet it where it is. 

If we can’t meet it in the state it is, all attempts to soothe it will fail. 

{Riding home from CO recently, with lots of time to think and some heavy wind, I came up with a new way to regulate myself more quickly in intense circumstances. 

I battled a fair bit of punching bag style headwind — coming at you from the front with hits to your right and left shoulder every few seconds. And then sometimes, the wind changes all together and smacks you sidelong. 

Whamo! 

When the hit is hard enough it’ll send a rush of adrenaline through your system, which for me, lands right in my feet like a burst of electricity. 

In one of those moments I start to think about how I soothe myself. How do I get back to steady?}

I C.L.I.M.B. back. 

C - I’m…Curious. 

Curiosity is gentle and friendly and inquisitive. It’s soothing.  It could be “checking-in”, but that feels clinical or evaluative to me. 

L - Then I…Listen. 

How am I? What’s my state, how’s my body, my emotions, my mind?

I - Then I Initiate some kind of Intervention. A deep breath. A “f*ck!” I can hum a little or squeeze my legs or push into my feet to ground me. Each flush of dysregulation requires something different and only I know what will work. 

M - I…Modulate or Modify. I see if it worked. What else do I need? I adjust. 

B - My favorite: Bet. On. Myself. 

At first, I thought B was to “be with”. To settle into the experience, to not be afraid of it. Yes, that…

But sometimes what we really need is to bet on ourselves.

Breathe. 

You’re climbing.

In service, 

Chantill

FREE Resource

I made these fun images for your phone. Use them as a screensaver or wallpaper. Change them out when you feel like it. Carry this little reminder with you so gradually, day-by-day, you bring your nervous system up to the surface of your awareness so you can soothe it and CHANGE IT!

Get Your C.L.I.M.B. to Safety Screensavers Now!