The way I talk about this work comes from my teachers.

 Low and slow.

 Fast is slow and slow is fast.

 Which is especially challenging in this culture of quick fixes.

 It’s also hard because low and slow means that we hardly register change most of the time.

 Yes… There are times when a single session can shift something big, and you know you’ll never feel the same again.

 However, that is usually because we have built up to a significant shift.

I also liken it to tectonic fault lines. The pressure builds until it finally slips.

Of course, that can be catastrophic in the context of plate tectonics.

What we do with SE is to prep the ground (the nervous system) to be able to handle and integrate the big changes.However, the slow, steady work changes things just as massively, albeit over a longer period.

Think slow water erosion instead of earthquakes. (Which feels like a strange metaphor at this moment with the big floods).

Three times this week, long-term clients realized that they were handling or experiencing things substantially differently than they had in the past.

One started working with me specifically to feel more joy and happiness. We have gone on to work on far, far more than that, of course, but I pointed out that they were using the exact language they had felt was out of reach when we began.

Another client brought it up themselves. Realizing that they can track where their nervous system is most of the time, and take steps before they get too activated. They have also been shifted enough to be able to really see the overwhelm that they used to live with – all the time.

The third amazing human found themselves comparing this summer to last summer, and marveling at how differently they are handling themselves.

I also had a conversation with a colleague last weekend. We were comparing notes (without specifics) about how partners can sometimes react in the face of this shifting nervous system.  

It seems to be a common phenomenon for the long-term partner to sometimes prefer the “old you” to the new one… And say it out loud!

We both understand why this happens. And since we are both deeply invested in our own work, we can only shake our heads and stand up for ourselves and our clients!

Finally, in my Collapse Resilience group, there has been discussion about how we are changing and how that can (and does) echo out into the greater world. Having the experiential knowledge that we can stay regulated even though the world is coming apart at the seams seems… bizarre. And there is no other place from which real, coherent change can happen.

 Which brings it all around again. 

Change can happen. But it is rarely fast. It takes work.

 And regulation is the key – the first, and lasting, piece of this nervous system work.