Secure Base
Als de wereld om je heen in beweging en vol onrust is, hoe kun je er dan voor zorgen dat je niet gaat ‘malen’ en goed blijft slapen? Stap 1 is om je veilige basis te vinden. Dat is het ankerpunt waarnaar je steeds terugkeert als je gedachten alle kanten op gaan. Dat ankerpunt kan je adem of je lichaam zijn, maar ook een voorwerp of elk ander ijkpunt. Een training mindfulness helpt je om het alsmaar doorgaan stop te zetten, en de automatische piloot uit te schakelen. Door terug te gaan naar je anker, ontspan je. En daar reageert je zenuwsysteem op.
“Life is best organized as the series of daring ventures from a secure base.“
John Bowlby
Secure Base for stability and vitality
A Secure Base is an anchor to which you can return in the midst of all the movement and turmoil within yourself, one that’s coming from others and from the environment around you. Such a secure foundation gives you the stability, connection and resilience to face the challenges in your life.
Bonding pattern
If you grew up in a safe environment, as an adult you experience a safe basis within yourself: a solid foundation from which you can connect with the others and the world. But if your base wasn’t safe enough, you developed a survival strategy to compensate for that feeling of insecurity. For example, you are very autonomous and independent, and you do not dare to connect. Or you are constantly looking for attention and validation, and you have trouble being independent. In many situations you unconsciously activate your survival strategy to bring yourself to (false) safety.
Create a Secure Base
You can change those survival patterns by giving yourself a safe base. For example, by consciously bringing your attention to the body and investigating whether there is a place that is safe enough. If so, you feel centered. But you can also experience a safe base in the space around you, or in sounds you hear. You can always return to this new experience of security. After all, it is always there – even when everything around you changes.
Neuroscience
Secure Base training uses the Stephen Porges’ polyvagal theory. That theory shows how the autonomic nervous system responds to signals; from the body, from (the) another person and from the world around you. Depending on how the autonomic nervous system interprets those signals, the different layers of the brain are activated:
- the primitive brain
- the emotional brain
- the thinking brain
The traffic light
You can look at the traffic light as a metaphor for the different states of the nervous system. During the day it constantly changes its lights’ color. After all, the autonomic nervous system always scans for danger! That danger can come from the environment, from contact with another person or from signals from the body. The nervous system then mobilizes automatically. When the danger passes, the nervous system returns to the ‘green zone’. However, in an unresolved trauma, the nervous system is constantly in ‘yellow’ or ‘red’ and rarely in ‘green’. You perceive yourself and the others from a state of threat.
If you feel safe enough, the different layers of the brain are connected. You are ‘online’, and are open to connect with yourself and the others. You experience a sense of security: the nervous system is in the ‘green zone’. You are aware of bodily sensations, feelings and thoughts. But you are not caught off guard or carried away by it. You are relaxed, and can respond more consciously to questions and situations.
But if you don’t feel safe enough? Then the emotional brain mobilizes in response to danger by fleeing or fighting. If this defense strategy no longer works, the primitive brain reacts by freezing. You are ‘offline’ and lose connection with yourself and the others. The nervous system has been activated and is now in the ‘red zone’. From that red zone you observe yourself and the others. You quickly feel attacked or you constantly want to prove or defend yourself.
However, with simple exercises you can bring the nervous system back into the ‘green zone’
Secure Base model
The Secure Base model, the secure base itself with its three qualities: Centered, Connected, Clear, is central. Each Secure Base training helps you (to) develop and promote these three qualities, the 3 C’s, whereas the emphasis might be sometimes (more) on one quality, and other times (more) on (the) another.
In the training you will learn how to tolerate and regulate even the most difficult feelings without being overwhelmed by them. This will change your view of yourself, of the others and of the world. Many participants also discover that this process can also help them in connecting with eachother. This way you break through the feeling of being alone and isolated, and you feel more connected.