AHA Moments and Superhighways

In our healing work, we have AHA moments of deep insight.

In neuroscience they’re called neural networks. In yoga they’re called samskaras and vasanas. In everyday life, we know them as ruts or deep grooves of habit.

“Neurons that fire together, wire together.” Dr Rick Hanson

In our healing work, we have AHA moments of deep insight into how our nervous system and brain work. We see how things arose and we see how we are affected by old patterns. We see how our fourteen-year-old struggled to figure out life on their own and feel a rush of compassion. We had no one guiding us. No one to see us. No one to protect us then.

When we learn through experience that we are on our own, we develop strategies to try to protect ourselves from harm. Some of us came out fighting. Others fawned and gained protection by people pleasing. Others took off emotionally and sometimes physically. We numbed our pain to a tolerable level and ended up disconnected and unhappy as adults.

We repeat what works to keep us safer. We do it again, and again, and again. If we can get away with it, a fight response is more energizing and less paralyzing than flight or freeze but they all have consequences. With a fight response, we gain a sense of control and avoid feeling powerless. Each…