Wildfires & your nervous system
Fire season is rolling into Central Oregon, and I wanted to share something that's really helped me...
The very first season that I experienced what we now call "wild fire season" I had a curiosity and an innocence, it was something new for me and my first time living out west.
When this new "season" came again the next year, and even earlier the following, I started to notice my nervous system reacting differently. The moment I smelt smoke I would experience grief, frustration, and/or an anxious feeling. Within the web of feelings there was a sadness for the beautiful land, the animals, and the loss, as well as a hyper vigilance for checking conditions, sometimes a valid fear for safety, and a dreaded feeling that it would never end.
After the season would pass I wouldn't think much of it until the following year.
The next season would come around and the overwhelming emotions would hit me double time. It was clear to me that there was more to process here.
See, I grew up in Midwest, and had the chance to part to the South for graduate school. Since I "got away" and also because I see patterns and energy, it was clear to me that many folks in the midwest tolerated the winters less and less year after year (meaning these folks complained more, were more agitated by predictable conditions). Now, there are folks that moved away (snow birds) for the joy of it, and there are folks that really held onto the struggle of winter year after year to a degree that I could feel that it was not just the fact that winter can truly be cold and miserable at times. It was more than that, they were subconsciously carrying compounded past struggles forward into the present moment.
The connections became more clear to me as I discovered that I was subconsciously carrying my compounded stress forward each fire season. As my own experiment, I felt there must be a way to distance myself to gain perspective and shift my nervous system.
I focused on a few key things:
feeling my feelings
presence with each season
using breath to transmute pain
bringing the blue sky into my reality and a coherent heart regardless of what was outside my window
I developed a brief practice to help do just that, and the cool thing is it can be translated to other hard things we've been holding year after year.
This is it:
Finding Calm in the Haze: Healing Meditation for Wildfire Smoke Days
It's free for you, try it, and let me know how it goes for you.
Presently, several years later, I'm feeling like I'm in a very different place when the smoke rolls in. I feel trusting, I feel alert, and I feel like I can move through all of my feelings and return to a coherent baseline most days. This time of year will never be easy, but I do feel that finding a coherent place is my power.
I don't want you to bypass the big feelings, or the hyrpervigilance meant to keep you safe, but I do believe we can process and shift out of the survival states that freeze us or overwhelm us and return to our connected selves where our hearts and minds are aware and conscious.
If you're looping in sadness, grief, anger, fear, or feel like it's never going to end or it's just going to get worse you're not alone, your feelings are valid. If your lens is jaded by the past things will typically appear worse than reality, we can only make a more connected world when we ourselves are in that space first.
Try the practice now
Share it with someone in need
& if you'd like 1:1 support please reach out.
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With love & wonder,
Dr. Jessica