CHAPTER 2

NEUROCEPTION

Listen to the wind, it talks. Listen to the silence, it speaks.

Listen to your heart, it knows.
—​N ATIVE AMERICAN PROVERB

Since humans first appeared on earth, we have been find-

ing ways to safely move through the world. From ancient nav-
igational aids like the North Star and the Viking sunstone to
20th-​century machines that use echoes of radio waves, sound,
and light, we map what is unseen and navigate to safety. Using
the process of neuroception, the second organizing principle
of Polyvagal Theory, the autonomic nervous system listens
intently, searching for cues of safety and watching for signs of
danger to help you orient and take action.

BENEATH AWARENESS

Through neuroception, the autonomic nervous system is lis-

tening inside to what is happening in your internal organs;

© 2020 by Deborah A. Dana, excerpted from the book, Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and
Connection. Used with permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company.

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 20 POLYVAGAL EXERCISES FOR SAFETY AND CONNECTION

outside, scanning the environment; and between, sensing the

connection to another nervous system. Cues of life-​threat
bring a shift into a dorsal vagal state of immobilization or
collapse. With cues of danger you step into sympathetic fight
and flight. Cues of safety activate the ventral vagal branch
and the social engagement system. A pang of hunger, the size
and temperature of a room, the feel of a chair, a face with
a smile or a frown are just some of the experiences that are
taken in by the process of neuroception and bring an auto-
nomic response.

MINI EXERCISE
Consider your personal neuroceptive cues.
– What is a cue of safety or unsafety from inside
your body?
– From the environment?
– Between you and another person?

Neuroception is a passive pathway always running in the

background moving your clients up and down the autonomic
hierarchy. Beneath awareness, neuroception assesses present
moment demands initiating some actions while inhibiting
others. A neuroception of safety calms, connects, and damp-
ens the need for protection. By first regulating the passive
pathways of neuroception, a platform of safety is created that
provides support for engaging the voluntary pathways involved
in the process of change (Porges & Carter, 2017).

© 2020 by Deborah A. Dana, excerpted from the book, Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and
Connection. Used with permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company.

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 Neuroception 21

Neuroception is a deeply subcortical experience that hap-

pens below the realm of conscious thought and outside of
awareness (Porges, 2017a). This internal surveillance system
takes in a constant stream of information and responds by
making autonomic adjustments that move you either toward
connection or into protection. Always working in service of
survival, neuroception activates “the most adaptive [behav-
ior] as interpreted by the nervous system” (Porges, 2017a, p.
176). Long before the information reaches the brain to form
a thought, biology has taken action. While you are often
unaware of the cues of safety or danger, you feel the auto-
nomic response. Reactions are felt on the inside, (e.g., warmth
in the heart, ease of breathing, stomachache, or dry throat)
and are sometimes seen on the outside (e.g., smiling, blushing,
a relaxed or stiff posture).

MINI EXERCISE
Consider some of the ways you experience
autonomic reactions.
– Which are known only to you?
– Which are visible to others?

SAFETY VERSUS DANGER

Neuroception is tuned through individual experience to take in

cues in particular ways as safe, dangerous, and life-​threatening.
Based on interactions with people and places, neuroception cre-

© 2020 by Deborah A. Dana, excerpted from the book, Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and
Connection. Used with permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company.

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 22 POLYVAGAL EXERCISES FOR SAFETY AND CONNECTION

ates habitual patterns of connection or protection. Over time,

your internal radar is calibrated to respond in particular ways.
Shaped in an environment that is safe and supportive, the sys-
tem reads cues accurately and inhibits defense systems in safe
environments or activates them when there is risk (Porges,
2004). Shaped in an environment that is unpredictable and
filled with unexpected events, an environment in which you
feel unsafe or unseen, neuroception is biased toward protection
which leads to a mismatch between autonomic state and actual
safety or risk (Porges, 2015a). This mismatch activates strate-
gies that keep you from accurately sensing safety and inhibiting
defense responses, or identifying danger and initiating protec-
tive responses. These early autonomic patterns live on through
neuroceptive tendencies that create an autonomic profile.
A neuroception of safety is incompatible with a neurocep-
tion of danger or life-​threat, making this an either/or experi-
ence (Porges, 2015a). Through neuroception, your autonomic
nervous system is either open to connection and the possibility
of change or locked in a protective response and stuck in a
survival story. Patterns of connection arise from cues of safety
that the down-​regulate your defense systems and activate the
social engagement system (Porges 2015a). Research has shown
that health effects of positive affect, including greater longev-
ity and better immune function, are more than the absence of
negative affect (Segerstrom & Sephton, 2010). An embodied
sense of safety requires both the reduction or resolution of cues
of danger and the experience of cues of safety (Porges & Lewis,
2009). One without the other may not be enough to move
out of a state of protection into readiness for connection. The

© 2020 by Deborah A. Dana, excerpted from the book, Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and
Connection. Used with permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company.

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 Neuroception 23

nervous system needs the active appearance and experience of

cues of safety (Porges, 2015a).
The hopeful message from Polyvagal Theory is that auto-
nomic patterns and autonomic profiles can be reshaped. While
early experiences shape the system, ongoing experiences can
reduce or even resolve cues of danger. Cues of safety, often
missed in the midst of cues of danger, can be recognized and
over time become more abundant. One of the ways to reshape
your system is to first bring perception to neuroception and
then add context through the lens of discernment. Bringing
attention to the present moment invites you to consider the
origins of cues of danger. Has a cue from the past reached into
the present? While it was a necessary survival response when it
first activated, is it needed now?

MINI EXERCISE
Stop for a moment to notice your neuro-
ception. Take in the environment through
sight and sound. See the people and things
around you.
What are the cues of safety and danger? Are
there enough cues of safety to bring you into
a readiness for connection? Or do the cues of
danger keep you poised for protection?
Use this question to look through the lens of
discernment: In this moment, with this person,
in this place, surrounded by these things, are
you actually in danger, or are you safe?

© 2020 by Deborah A. Dana, excerpted from the book, Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and
Connection. Used with permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company.

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 24 POLYVAGAL EXERCISES FOR SAFETY AND CONNECTION

BACK TO BEGINNINGS

Neuroception launches a cascade of embodied events that

become a story. When entering into an autonomic state, the
information about that state travels up the autonomic path-
ways to the brain. There, a story is created to make sense of the
experience. The physiological state creates a psychological story.
Using the metaphor of a river, imagine the flow of experience.
At the river’s source is neuroception and at the river’s mouth is
the story. In between lie perception, autonomic state, feelings,
and behaviors (Figure 2.1).

Neuroception Perception State Feelings Behavior Story

FIGURE 2.1. From Neuroception to Story

We’re accustomed to entering the river downstream with

feelings, behavior, or story. But neuroception happens at the
farthest point upstream. You need to make your way back to
the starting point, leaving behind story, behavior, and feelings
to identify the state and bring perception to neuroception. It is
when you travel back upstream to consider neuroception that
you become aware of how your internal surveillance system
begins the sequence of events that eventually leads to the way
you are feeling, acting, and thinking.
Attitudes, actions, and the way you see the world are the
result of the autonomic nervous system moving between states
of connection and protection. The stories you inhabit begin far

© 2020 by Deborah A. Dana, excerpted from the book, Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and
Connection. Used with permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company.

PolyvagalExercisesForSafetyandConnection_txt_final.indd 24 2/13/20 4:38 PM

 Neuroception 25

away from the thinking brain in the autonomic nervous sys-

tem with a neuroception of safety, danger, or life-​threat.

MINI EXERCISE
Bring to mind an experience and make your
way to the river’s source. Bring perception to
the neuroception that was the starting point.
What was the cue of safety or danger that you
followed downstream into feeling, behavior, and
finally story?

Through understanding the process of neuroception, you

can begin to honor the ways the autonomic nervous system
listens and acts in service of your safety and survival. Know-
ing that neuroception shapes the first part of your story, you
can begin to listen in new ways and learn to become a skilled
story editor.

© 2020 by Deborah A. Dana, excerpted from the book, Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and
Connection. Used with permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company.

PolyvagalExercisesForSafetyandConnection_txt_final.indd 25 2/13/20 4:38 PM