The tone and shape of your spine determines your quality of life.
Defensive Physiology
Over time we accumulate tension from life's stresses and traumas and it gets BOUND in the body, mainly in the spine causing a DEFENSIVE posture.
This has a direct and negative impact on our quality of life as it affects many things.
Our function, mood, emotions, thoughts, and even our relationships.
Mostly it goes unnoticed - and can really have a negative impact on our life.
We can help you with this.. in fact, it's a central theme to Inspiring Wellness - helping you move out of defensive physiology and into growth!
Defensive Physiology
We will help you break out of the Defensive Physiological patterns so you can live life more in a Growth Physiology!
Humans first are adaptive creatures - we respond to stress and danger to make sure we are safe.
Our fight or flight (sympathetic) response is crucial for living. But..
Is it always on?
DEFENSIVE PHYSIOLOGY
Is your body always in defence?
Many people are STUCK in a constant state of TOO much stress, and this is partly because our spine and body is in a defensive state.
What I am saying here is that the body, once stuck in defence, will cause us more likely to stay in it.
Our body will cause us to then think stressful thoughts, thus keeping us more stressed.
We get stuck in a cycle - body causes stressful thoughts,
Stressful thoughts cause body to be stressed.
So we need to address both the body and mind.
We do both!
NSA care is amazing at helping both - but especially the body.
One thing to keep in mind is that body and mind are not really separate - they are like opposite sides of the same coin!
That's why I often wrote body and mind as one - bodymind.
The 5 Defensive Patterns
When life feels overwhelming, the nervous system has built-in ways to protect us. In NSA, these are called the five defensive phases.
They are different patterns the body and mind can fall into when under stress - shaping how we hold ourselves (posture), how we think, and how we relate to others.
01
Phase One
Effected by the wounds of the past
02
Phase Two
Fear of Future
Confrontation or Events
Fear-based thoughts
What if's
​
Tension/distortion in the upper cervical part of the spine.
03
Phase Three
Identity
Who am I as a _____ (mother, father, partner, employee/coworker, friend, sibling, etc.)
How should I be in the world?
Who do I need to be to be loved and accepted?
​
Tension/distortion in the pelvis.
04
Phase Four
In your head
Mental constructs
The mental rules and models of how things are
Forcing reality into how things 'should be'.
​
Tension/distortion in the upper-mid part of the spine.
05
Phase Five
Lack
Not enough ____ (support, money, etc..)
Lack of resources
Victim
​
Tension/distortion in the lower part of the spine and upper-mid/shoulders.