This email is part of a multi-email series on how I helped my husband reconnect to himself, improving his physiology and psychology which had been battered by the energy we call PTSD and Hypervigilance.

This is my third email. The previous email I shared about my Team, and the kinds of people who helped me on my path as I supported Stew, my kids, and our family. You can read it here.​

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With this email Reader, I want to share more about the present day and how I am healing through my own Hypervigilance.

Because now that Stew and I are on another side of this, there is space and opportunity for me to shift this high resource behaviour.

But before I get there, I need to be clear. . . . Hypervigilance isn’t bad. Just like PTSD isn’t bad.

Both are perfectly normal responses to perfectly normal responses (no, that is not a typo).

Much like what I say about persistent pain.

Pain and persistent pain are very normal biomechanical, physiological and psychological processes.

And . . . (here's the juicy bit) they don’t have to be part of a normal way of living.

For me, Hypervigilance was a very natural subconscious choice during a significant period of time that was not normal.

I needed it when I needed it.

And now that Stew, Stew and I, Us as a Family are in a different space, I can see that Hypervigilance is a behaviour that is well grooved pattern that I don’t really need in the same way.

It has been about 3 weeks that I have begun to become curious about how I choose Hypervigilance and the physiological and psychological resources it uses. I am more connected to when it wants to help out, how it may protect me, and also how it shuts down other key patterns.

So I am leaning into it more, asking both It and the other patterns that are shutting down what is actually needed.

Because like many sensations and responses in my body (and what I teach my clients), they are messengers.

Messengers letting me know about what is working, where more support may be needed, and what may be missing.

Now that I have space and opportunity, I can engage and explore the response.

What is It actually asking me? What is It suggesting I need?

As I engage in those questions, I am able to feel its qualities - its grip, its hold, its desire, its guidance.

I can also feel a new pattern sprouting from the cracks in the cement - a depth of clarity which is very calm.

One that is less sympathetically driven, one with more parasympathetic qualities.

It's kind of fun, Reader! I have had moments like this in past healing journeys, so I know to not rush this.

Hypervigilance has been of great service to me and Stew, and as crazy as it may sound, as I honour its service, and learn from it, that new sprout can root and grow.

The next email that is coming is about how I have used (and continue to use) technology in this specific phase - and how tech has helped me bridge my brain and body in a new way.

Stay tuned for more.

If there are specific questions or insights you are curious about how I have handled, please let me know. I am happy to share more if it gives you insight into your own healing journey.

And if you know someone who would benefit from this email, please send it along.

Much love,
Susi

PS. This is my own journey about how I have applied the principles I know work well in helping people to recover and heal from persistent pain. It is not intended to be a suggestion about how you or your clients should go through their healing journeys. If something resonates, superb! If not, please discard.

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