Photo Credit: Amadeo Muslimović
Do you ever overreact to simple life situations? Like a small conflict with a friend or a loved one? Do new relationships and commitment intimidate you? Do you tend to retreat when you should engage? If any of this sounds familiar it is because your body and brain have learned patterns of behavior, similar to a roadmap for cars, on how to proceed with life based upon your past experiences. So when something similar happens you get triggered. Which not only affects you emotionally but can have physical impact. But Neuro-Emotional Technique (NET) can help.
Not only do I use this technique as a doctor, but my doctor has used it on me in the last few years, which has both changed my physiology and my life.
How does it work?
This technique works with the body’s nervous system and neurological pathways to help relieve stress in both the present and from the past. The Limbic System (which is located in the brain) is comprised of several brain structures, which help to regulate our basic emotions (sadness, fear, pleasure, anger, etc.). It also stores or encodes memories from our past emotions. Whenever our brain thinks that we are in danger (whether we actually are or not), or whenever we come face-to-face with a similar stimuli to something negative that happened to us in the past, our Limbic System lights up. (This noted by functional MRI studies.) In response to this, it causes an outpouring of stress chemicals to flood our bodies. If we experience these emotions over time it can lead to disease formation and a lot of different illnesses.
So what does that look like practically?
If you’ve ever had any sort of emotional or physical trauma this technique will help. Most of us have something in our past that qualifies and can be helped by this, even if we don't consider it to be categorized as "trauma." Let's say you were bit by a dog when you were 5 years old. That memory of pain and fear is encoded or stored in the Limbic System of your brain. So, as a 30 year old, every time you encounter a dog, that brain center is activated and not only do you remember that trauma that happened when you were 5, but your brain also relives it and sends a lot of stress hormones throughout the body which puts you into fight or flight response. Long term stress surges in your body (even if its just perceived) can lead to development of disease.
We are all familiar with the Pavlov’s dog example. Whenever you ring a bell and give the food the dogs salivate. After awhile if you just ring the bell and even in the presence of no food the dog will salivate just at the sound of a bell. That’s called classical conditioning in psychological terms. However, if you continue to ring the bell and don’t show the food to the dogs, the salivation rates will drop off and eventually cease. That’s known as extinction.
NET works very much like that, by performing the technique over and over without the negative affect which previously occurred (insert some emotional trauma that happened to you in the past) associated with the traumatic event the pattern goes into extinction much faster than if it were just left alone.
How does NET come in?
NET helps to practically and simply identify the underlying stress patterns and utilizing acupuncture systems and allows the practitioner to help to neutralize the stress pattern. This leads to extinction of the stress response at the stimulus (old memory). NET not only helps you with emotional patterns and trauma, but often times it helps with physical pain that is related back to an emotional event that might have happened years ago.
Why this is a life changing technique:
We, all of us, in some way or another, have had both physical or emotional or both experiences in our past which have changed the way that we perceive and respond to the world. The trauma might be something very small to something that’s very significant, from being bitten by a dog, having a difficult family life to being abused, experiencing a death of a loved one, losing your health, experiencing war, or many other difficult circumstances but it changes the way that we relate to other people and to the environment around us.
For example: we’re afraid to have healthy relationships because of a unhealthy pattern we saw in our parents, we are afraid to apply for that job promotion because growing up we were "never good enough," we repeat the same type of relational patterns because we think that those unhealthy patterns are the only ones which are safe and familiar, we eat unhealthy foods in order to cover our emotional or physical pain, we beat ourselves up over and over again over patterns that we can’t break.
Sound familiar? We ALL have them!
NET can help you break of those patterns and pain and give you more freedom.
And the greatest part about it is that there are functional MRI studies, conducted by Neuro-Emotional Technique Corporation, which demonstrates this technique. They demonstrate before and after of the brain (limbic system) light up when the brain perceives the "stimulus" or threat, and after the technique is performed another MRI is done to see how the patients respond. The results demonstrated that the Limbic “stress system” didn’t kick in even in the same presence of the stressful stimulus.
If any of these sound familiar to you and you’re ready to make a change and feel better—not only emotionally, but physically —give me a call or click the button below.
If you are interested in further addressing this topic, please feel free to reach out and schedule an appointment. Dr. V is a Chiropractor and Functional Medicine Doctor in Elmhurst, Illinois who evaluates patients from the inside out, focusing on areas including hormone imbalance, digestive health, anxiety/depression, autoimmune disease, and many others.