Pathways to Regulation

There are several ways to think about regulation of the nervous system out there. One of them is the Healthy Mind Platter by Dan Siegel and David Rock. However, I find Bruce Perry’s ways to regulation a little easier to remember and to categorize my regulatory activities.

Bruce Perry talks about the importance of rhythm in his Neurosequential framework. He talks about how the first rhythm one is exposed to is the heart of beat of the parent when the baby is in the womb. He highlights the importance of regulatory activities to be rhythmic, patterned, and repetitive.

Bruce Perry mentions four major ways we can utilize to regulate our nervous system:
-Bottom-Up: Any activity you can think of that focuses on your senses (here we want to think about the 8 senses: taste, smell, hearing, vision, interoception, vestibular, and proprioceptive)
-Top-Down: Use your thoughts to help you calm down (this could be positive self-talk, mantras, prayers, etc.)
-Dissociation: Any activity that makes you lose track of time or your surroudings (reading, watching tele, scrolling on your phone, etc.)
-Co-Regulation: Hanging out with people who really get you

Now, keep in mind, it is also important to also have proper sleep, balanced eating, spending time in nature, and some exercise.

However, while sleep in foundational, a friend of mine said it’s the first thing to go and the last one to come back when people are dealing with stress or mental health difficulties.

Here is a pdf summary with pictures I have created for your convenience.

What this means in practice

What this means in practice is that you may want to start thinking about what type of regulation you are most drawn to.
Then start thinking about whether they all fall within one category, or can you find a few activities for each category?

What it helps with is that you can then utilise different ways to regulate when one of the category is not available or possible.

These thoughts can also be helpful if you are an adult and supporting a child or young person with their regulation to start looking into the different ways they can regulate.

Finally, keep in mind that mixing up categories together is even more regulating. So having a nice warm beverage with a really good friend for instance matches quite a few categories.