What Are the Best Neuroplasticity Programs?

What Are the Best Neuroplasticity Programs?

by | May 31, 2022

I love this question. However, it’s probably not for me to answer for you because you are the expert in you. I have written a book, ROCK STEADY, which talks about neuroplasticity, what it is, how we could implement it, and why it’s important. It’s a capacity for our brain and body to change, particularly with our nervous system and our neurons, and how they talk to each other. Everything we do, whether it’s moving our arms and legs, talking, listening, seeing, smelling, tasting, everything we do has a neural network and we have a lot of pattern recognition to help us very quickly analyze the world, respond to the world, and experience the world. Rather than to hear a cluster of sounds, we hear words, we hear sentences, there’s context. So, neuroplasticity is about rebuilding a new normal so that what we hear and how we move and what we feel feels solid, feels steady, feels at peace, feels calm, feels relaxed, and, in a nutshell, feels like this new normal that we have created.

I have a Free Starter Kit for people who are interested in just getting a little taster, which includes my masterclass on healing Vertigo & Tinnitus with neuroplasticity. I have a 7-day Support Program, which is about learning how to be kind to ourselves, how to identify what we’re feeling, create safety, and look at what we don’t like, how to deescalate fear, start to ask some really simple but powerful questions to engage in the neuroplasticity process. I have an Overcoming Trauma program, which helps look at trauma patterns, whether they’re generational trauma, whether it’s an acute trauma, whether it’s subtle and chronic trauma over a lifetime since childhood. In this program we explore how we can actually soften, learn about ourselves, and reverse some of those trauma patterns using neuroplasticity so that, again, we can build a new normal and come back to this expansive, relaxed, spacious, available version of ourselves rather than feeling triggered and closed, and contracted, and constricted, which is classic for someone who’s experiencing trauma, and that can really impact our ability to work and to hold relationships, and to have a fun, easygoing, carefree life.

And then, my most comprehensive guidance is the ROCK STEADY program. It’s a neuroplasticity program with global peer support. We have live monthly calls. It is jam-packed with tools that cover the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual realms of healing. You get to explore that in your own time. You literally become the expert in your body and learn how to heal by listening to your body. We see amazing results with the ROCK STEADY program, and that would definitely be my recommendation for someone who’s serious about using neuroplasticity. The ROCK STAEDY path is life changing and I continue to use the ROCK STEADY skills and tools in my own life, even though I no longer have any vertigo, tinnitus, or dizziness symptoms. And a lot of my trauma patterns are now softened or weakened or resolved because I’m in this process of listening and responding to my body in real time every day. I find it to be the biggest gift. So, the ROCK STEADY program would be my best program for me and the one I recommend for anyone who is resonant and relates to the conversations I’m having.

 

How to Repair the Autonomic Nervous System

How to Repair the Autonomic Nervous System

by | May 31, 2022

I love this question and it shows that there’s a little bit of an understanding about how we have this nervous system that could potentially be in fight, flight, and freeze mode, protecting us and working very hard to keep us safe. But there’s also another part to the autonomic nervous system, which is the parasympathetic nervous system, and that’s what helps us to digest our food, to rest, to sleep, to engage in feeling joy and pleasure, and sensuality, and sexuality, and that part of our nervous system can be hijacked by the sympathetic system, which is potentially overprotecting us when it’s locked in fear or anxiety. It doesn’t want to trust anyone or anything, and that can keep us in chronic symptoms — can keep us in chronic conditions, and can prevent the body from adequately going into that beautiful, lovely, soft repair zone. So, repairing the nervous system and learning how to disengage and sooth the anxiety system, the stress system, and to switch into the repair system, rest and digest system, at call, is important in the healing process.

Once we’ve got those skills and learned how to do it, we can do it whenever we want, wherever we are. Everybody does it differently. The way you do it will be different to how I do it. There is a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual piece, or pieces, I should say, that we need to understand about ourselves, to learn how to engage that parasympathetic system. It’s not cookie cutter. It’s not like taking a few deep breaths is going to work for everybody all the time.

But what could it look like? Yes, it could look like taking time to yourself. It could be having some smooth, steady, natural breaths. It could be going for a walk. It could be self-talk. It could be holding yourself physically and cuddling yourself in whatever way feels nourishing. It could be talking to a friend. It could be writing yourself a letter. It could be tapping through limiting beliefs that are holding you back. It could be directly meeting a fear and embracing that fear, and greeting that fear, and coming to peace with that fear. It could be feeling through a trauma pattern until the trauma pattern resolves. There are lots of ways to activate the parasympathetic nervous system and self-regulate that sympathetic stress system, and the best way to navigate that is through self-study, which means listening to your body, knowing yourself, and knowing how to respond in real time here and now to your present needs.

 

Dizziness After COVID-19 Vaccination

Dizziness After COVID-19 Vaccination

by | May 26, 2022

So, this is something that is being spoken about a lot. There are many people in my ROCK STEADY community who are noticing symptoms of dizziness or vertigo, or feeling not quite right after receiving a COVID-19 vaccination. What does it mean? This is your body’s way of saying “my immune system is active, I’m working harder, I’m assimilating this vaccine”, and all of those things are okay, that’s what the vaccine is for — It’s to trigger an immune response. And, for some people, that will mean the body is feeling over-resourced, it’s feeling tired, it’s perhaps feeling like it’s multitasking too much, or it’s exhausted, and all of that can lead to this sense of dizziness, imbalance, and feeling not quite right.

So what to do about it? First and foremost, rest, trust your body, keep your doctor informed, but we really want to avoid getting anxious about it or making a really big deal about it. In the ROCK STEADY community, and I discussed this extensively in my book, we like to take a no big deal approach and to be present and kind and supportive with what we’re feeling rather than catastrophic or escalating the situation. So, you could read my book, ROCK STEADY, or join my ROCK STEADY community and my ROCK STEADY program for comprehensive peer support and professional guidance on how to reverse dizziness and return to normal by building a new normal and changing the way your nerves communicate, which is a process called neuroplasticity. There are many options for healing if you find yourself in this situation.

 

Can You Get Vertigo After The COVID-19 Vaccine?

Can You Get Vertigo After The COVID-19 Vaccine?

by | May 26, 2022

Yes, it’s absolutely possible. The vaccine is triggering an immune response, and for some people, when their body is very active and fighting an infection or their immune system is busy, that could result in some feelings of dizziness and vertigo. Generally speaking, this vertigo would be transient, temporary, and would resolve in its own time — typically within a day or two. Certainly, within six weeks, we would expect any vertigo condition as a result of vaccine to settle down and return to normal.

If you have chronic vertigo or dizziness after the COVID-19 vaccine, it could be that a more serious diagnosis has been prompted or stimulated. And often, there’s a genetic component, which means it was sitting there in your DNA anyway. It might have been ready to express itself with or without the intervention of a vaccine. So then, after the COVID-19 vaccine, the immune systems had a little bit of a nudge and perhaps a bigger vestibular issue arises. Likely, even without the COVID-19 vaccine, that vestibular diagnosis would have come about anyway, in time.

Not to worry though, we can reverse vertigo. Vestibular conditions are all treatable. The ROCK STEADY program has comprehensive guidance on how to return to normal and build new normal neural pathways that allow you to return to balance and steadiness. So, the ROCK STEADY program is where I would go for peer support and comprehensive guidance if you find yourself with chronic vertigo or a vestibular concern after the COVID-19 vaccine.

 

How does Stemetil Help Vertigo?

How does Stemetil Help Vertigo?

by | May 26, 2022

When we have vertigo, there’s incorrect messages coming from the inner ears to the eyes, to the spinal column, and to the brain. The message doesn’t feel right. It can make us feel like we’re spinning or bobbing. It’s quite an aggressive feeling and it really can make us feel like we’re unsafe. So, in that moment, vertigo is almost always transient and temporary. Vestibular suppressant medications, such as Stemetil, actually stop those messages from functioning. It suppresses them so that the ears are no longer talking to the eyes, spinal column, and brain as effectively.

I would not recommend this for recovery because it stops true recovery — it stops the messages, it stops the talking, and we want the ears, eyes, brain, and spine communicating. A vestibular suppressant, such as Stemetil, could be useful if you absolutely have to go on a bus journey or you absolutely have to do something and you have active vertigo and you want to suppress it in that very temporary situation — just so that you can get from A to B without vomiting or without feeling very nauseous and sick. The Stemetil could be a temporary situation-specific solution that helps to suppress the system. But if used in the long-term, it can lead to conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease, because we’re actually stopping the communication between the ears, eyes, brain, and spine, and some of those brain centers are vulnerable. So, vestibular suppressant medications should be used absolutely at a minimum, especially if we want to use neuroplasticity to heal and reestablish new balance pathways.

 

Labyrinthitis Anxiety Symptoms & Remedies

Labyrinthitis Anxiety Symptoms & Remedies

by | May 26, 2022

When we have any kind of inner ear infection, inflammation, labyrinthitis, neuritis, a vestibular insult or vestibular injury, our inner ear is fighting some kind of infection or inflammation and it needs time to settle down and heal. Often, these symptoms can come on very severely and aggressively. They usually resolve within a couple of days in terms of the intense spinning, vomiting, and just feeling absolutely awful. Sometimes, people say they feel like they’re dying or having a stroke. So, there’s usually a couple of very tender days. And from then on, in an ideal situation, we have this gradual improvement over six weeks or so and we return to normal. Anxiety is a very normal response to this spinning and vomiting, and whatever else is going on as a symptomatic response, that creates an ‘Am I dying?” feeling. Anxiety is a normal response as well, so we can expect anxiety when we have any kind of labyrinthitis, neuritis, or inflammation of the balance organs.

However, if the anxiety is not addressed, soothed, and calmed, the dizziness signals can perpetuate and end up in a chronic illness, such as PPPD (persistent perceptual-postural dizziness). So, for those of you who have a labyrinthitis and anxiety that resolves within six weeks, I think you’re likely fine. For those of you who have the chronic condition or questions, or worries, or anxiety that just doesn’t resolve and you still don’t feel right even after six weeks, I recommend trying the ROCK STEADY program and learning to use neuroplasticity to get the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual toolkit to help reset your brain, your inner ears, your eyes, your spinal column, the whole balance circuitry system, and, of course, to get the emotional support tools to directly address the anxiety that can be inhibiting and preventing recovery.