We often hear the term self sabotage and it is generally referring to a behavioural response where someone is stopping their own growth, success or connection with others in relationships.

Is it really a thing and do we understand what is going on in the person’s response?

I often talk to my clients about the concept of ‘getting in our own way’. That is where our autonomic nervous system is acting out a response from the past in the present moment because we are triggered. Do you find yourself attracting the same type of people in relationships, getting the same feedback at work or finding it really hard to shift some patterns of behaviour no matter what you do or try?

What is really going on here?

We have stuck stress or trauma in our body and the stress cycle is uncompleted so we have this stuck survival energy in our body. It can be either stuck in ‘on’ high sympathetic arousal where we might feel constriction, tension, anxiety, hyper alertness or just being stuck in a constant state of fear. Or we can get stuck in ‘off’ where we feel disconnection, frozen, exhausted, flat and just have no energy to connect with others. Either way this is stress physiology that is stuck in our body.

When we work with the body somatically we are able to unwind those old patterns that have become well worn pathways in our nervous system. The path of least resistance for our body to travel down.

We build more capacity or resilience in our nervous system so we are able to be present to the emotions, feelings or sensations coming up and not react to them. That is how we change these patterns.