Resonance – Episode 25
Verbatim Transcript
Speaker: Viktoria Levenberg
When your nervous system is in fight or flight, your reticular activating system is programmed to
scan for threats. I used to be one of those people that was on high alert, imagining every possible
worst-case scenario that could ever happen so that if it happened at least I was prepared. What I
was was just making myself miserable. Oh my friends, we think we're in control, but really it's just
this nervous system that's kind of running us. It's really cute. Your nervous system is your friend.
Is our life a hologram? I mean, look, there is only one way to find out. But what I'm going to share
with you today is a way where science is catching up with the fact that we might actually literally
be creating our own reality from the inside out. Without further ado, let's dive in and enjoy so
you can see for yourself.
Welcome to Resonance, a podcast for ambitious, heart-led humans craving more balance, depth
and aliveness in their lives. I'm your host Vik — health coach, yoga teacher, facilitator and fellow
high achiever learning to live in tune with my nervous system, not against it. In this space, it's
here to remind you that you can have it all: the career, the success, the fulfilment — all aligned
with your truth. Through honest conversations, expert insights and practical tools, we'll explore
how to work with your body, mind, emotions and spirit, not against them. And the best part? You
don't have to stay stuck in survival mode to get there, because true well-being is not about being
perfect. It's about being in resonance. Let's dive in.
Alright, welcome, welcome. I don't know about you, but the energy is definitely starting to get
quite festive and Christmassy. I don't know what it is about this time of year, but also like in New
Zealand the weather gets warmer, you know, everything's sprouting, everyone's kind of out and
about, we've got more sunlight and it's just like everything perks up. And at the same time you
can also feel this collective stress level elevating, right? People are starting to think about what
are the Christmas plans and what are we gonna have for Christmas dinner and who who are we
going to go see and what presents do I need to get. And ha, speaking of which, at the time of this
recording it is, um, we're pretty much into like early November and, um, apparently I have family
visiting for Christmas who haven't booked their tickets yet so I'm also on that similar stress boat.
And this is the thing: life's just gonna keep on lifeing, but the thing is like how equipped are we to
deal with it? This is what resonance in our work together is about—it's getting our nervous
system back into that resonant place because we will fluctuate between flight and fight and
freeze and fawn and flop and then into the parasympathetic nervous system of rest and digest.
It's a dance. The dance is gonna continue. That is a OK. But the thing is how well equipped are
you to consciously, as quickly, as effectively, as sustainably as possible, make your way out of the
fight or flight into that resonant space?
This is what we're gonna be diving into today, slightly with a little tangent. So we will be talking
around the nervous system response, but more specifically we will be talking about how
important it is for you to be in that place of resonance so that you can see more good, more
opportunities, more safety in your life rather than constantly perceiving all the potential threats
around you.
And it feels like such a full circle moment bringing this episode to you because I used to be one of
those people that was on high alert and hyper vigilant and projecting and kind of imagining every
possible worst case scenario that could ever happen so that if it happened at least I was
prepared. The thing is like the things that happen in life are beyond my imagination. I was never
prepared. What I was was just making myself miserable on a random weekday just because that's
how my nervous system was wired.
And so if you haven't figured it out by now, if you've been hanging around here for a little while,
let me tell you again that your nervous system runs the show in your life. Oh my friends, we think
we're in control, but really it's just this nervous system that's kind of running us. It's really cute.
And today what we're gonna speak about is particularly through our reticular activating system
where we are predisposed to see what we have been conditioned to see, what we expect to see,
what has been familiar in our lives, what has been recurring in our lives.
Let's unpack this because it is quite a complex one to get your head around, but once you do you
start to realize that whoa, I actually can create my own reality. But it starts with the nervous
system first. So let's dive into the nervous system.
Alright, your reticular activating system — it is part of the nervous system. It is short for RAS. It is
a network of nerves in your brain stem, so that reptilian part of the brain that literally acts as
your filter. So what it does is it acts like this veil that decides from all of your five senses, all the
information, the millions and billions of pieces of information that are literally bombarding you
every single second of every single day, your RAS decides what actually makes it through into
your consciousness and your attention. It filters out everything else that it thinks is irrelevant and
it directs your brain's energy and focus.
So let's say for example that you want to buy a new car — who's had this before? You want to
buy a new car and then you find the car you like and then all of a sudden you see that car
everywhere, right? That is a classic example of your reticular activating system at play because
you have identified this and so it is now scanning your environment and you see it and you bring
that into your life and you bring that into your consciousness. However, the same also works
against your favor because let's say you are pursuing a business opportunity and you want to, uh,
I don't know, grow your audience or whatever it is, but you are so busy and so stuck in this state
of fight or flight and you're so stressed that your reticular activating system is putting all of its
energy to scan for threats and to keep you safe. It's not going to register all of the other
opportunities and things in your environment. So for example like that one friend offering to help
you write copy for a magazine or someone inviting you to a networking event — like all of that
might just seem way too far out there to the point where you might not even consciously have
picked up on it or heard it.
And like, it's such a great example of how like we hear what we wanna hear most of the time
unless we practice real presence, bringing ourselves back to the present moment and kind of
perceiving what is happening from as neutral as elevated of a state of awareness as possible.
And so look: what does the reticular activating system do in summary? It filters. It is your filter. It
a) looks for potential threats and b) it looks for what's familiar. Because remember, like your
nervous system is your friend, okay, and the better we understand our friend the better we can
get along because your nervous system's job is to keep you alive. So it will always note perceived
threats first. Say for example like that undertone in your boss's emails or the fact that your
coworker is taking longer to reply or whatever else — it will always, always, always find perceived
threats before seeing possible opportunities.
But the great thing is, my friends, is that we can learn to shape our reticular activating system so
that it can see opportunities and more good in our life. So today's episode was inspired by my
little riff at the end of last week's episode where I spoke about gratitude practice and enjoying
your life and seeing more good in your life. Because the thing is where you focus your attention
that area becomes more and more pronounced and familiar to your reticular activating system,
which means it will pick up more of that information and bring it more into your consciousness.
And there have been studies that are done on this where people who focus on more good in
their life start to see more good in their life because their reticular activating system is becoming
more used to looking for the good in their life. And the same thing works the other way, like you
know these chronic complainers and like I'm, uh, I grew up in Germany and, um, I've got a
German passport so hopefully I can say this and this won't offend too many people, but I would
say that Germany's got a pretty strong culture of complaining. Like my god, they will just find a lot
to complain about, to the point where like my mom and I used to go on cruises and people would
line up to wait at reception for like an hour or two just to file their complaint, and then they'll
probably also complain about the fact that they had to wait at reception. It's really, um,
interesting to observe.
But that is just how their reticular activating system is wired, and that's actually a really nice little
side tangent to the point where like your reticular activating system is, uh, conditioned on your
life experiences and environment and circumstances. But it also stems from your upbringing. It
stems from your culture. It stems from your ancestors, um, so just be aware of that.
So for example if you are someone who — I grew up in the German culture as I did — like, there
was a really long time where I was really primed to being like a chronic complainer as well. Um,
but I slowly started to rewire my brain out of that pattern because I noticed that it just was not
serving me.
So if we can learn how to shape our reticular activating system so that it can see opportunities
and more good in our life, maybe life really is a hologram. Maybe everything that is a possibility is
already actually out there right here right now. We just can't see it yet because our nervous
system hasn't been primed and safe enough to allow that good that we are craving so deeply into
our life.
Maybe the life of your wildest dreams is already right in front of you, but you were just blind to it.
Maybe you just didn't see it yet because it didn't make the 0.00001% of information that actually
passes through the filter.
And here's the crucial piece — and I spoke to this a little bit earlier — when your nervous system
is in fight or flight your reticular activating system is programmed to scan for threats. Because
when your nervous system is in fight or flight your nervous system thinks your life is at risk. So of
course your reticular activating system is not gonna think about that one random conversation
you had with a potential business partner or the fact that this car crossing in front of you could
swerve and hit you. Like, of course, right? But also like pretty unlikely that that would happen
anyways — that's just how the nervous system works, right?
And so what we need to do — like our job and my job is to help you do this — is to bring our
nervous system back into a state of resonance first, a state of coherence, a state of alignment so
that our reticular activating system can develop the bandwidth to notice the opportunities that
are aligned with your goals, your desires, your wishes, the life of your wildest dreams, because it
is already there — we just cannot see it.
And you might be wondering, okay, but how do I get my nervous system into a state of
residence? How do I get out of the fight or flight? Look, um, some of you listening may have had
the chance to join the founding members launch of the Stress Reset. Some of you might actually
be the founding members, so you are already in the right place. If you haven't, you decided not
to join for whatever reason, it will be coming back next year. So my recommendation to you
would be to get on the priority waitlist, which I'll link up in the show notes below.
But also if you've been paying attention as you've been listening to this podcast and all the
episodes and all the wisdom that I'm sharing, I've shared plenty, plenty of ideas with you on how
to bring your nervous system back to a state of coherence. I mean I have said it many, many
times — my No. 1 is always my meditation practice. However, anything that gets you into a place
of rest and digest will do.
So of course before I had my meditation practice there were other things like yoga and, um,
before that to be honest I was in chronic stress so there wasn't much rest to digest to start with.
Um, but look, the more you can start to experiment with what works for you and the more you
can practice living from that place of a sympathetic — now of a parasympathetic nervous system
response — the more you start to notice things around you and perceive opportunities that are
in front of you rather than just trying to make it through another day.
So this, my friends, is why we always come back to the nervous system. This is why I keep talking
about this. This is why we keep sharing and we bring people on, and it is my mission because you
cannot thrive and achieve everything that you want in life if you are stuck in survival mode,
because you will literally filter out, block out all the opportunities that are trying to get your
attention and come your way.
This is why I do the work that I do. So my invitation for you this week is two-fold.
Step 1: find a way to get into a resonant nervous system state — a state of balance, a state of rest
and digest, a state of coherence — whatever that looks like for you.
Step 2: from that place, set an intention. Like, focus your awareness, focus your attention to
something good that you desire in your life. Maybe it's a wish. Maybe it's something you're
looking to achieve. Maybe it's something you're looking to change in your life. Just practice
coming into a resident nervous system state first and then setting that intention, and watch how
slowly your reticular activating system will start to allow more information to pass through the
filter that is aligned with that intention.
But like if you are there in flight or flight — fight or flight, and like stressed out and just
overthinking and you're like, oh I really, really wanna achieve this amazing thing that I've never
done before, but also like no it's not gonna happen, OK? Like that's just not how life works. You
gotta come into the body first — rest and digest — and then the life of your wildest dreams, it's
right there in front of you. The goggles will come off and you'll be able to see what was right in
front of you all this time.
So that's just my little riff on the reticular activating system — short and sweet this week. I would
love to hear how this resonated with you again. Um, if you've got a little bit of FOMO on the
Stress Reset, make sure that you join the priority waitlist so that you are the first to know when
we open doors again, and I'm gonna let you in on a sneaky sneaky secret which is there will be
fast action bonuses in this next launch, and those on the priority list will be the first to know
about these fast action bonuses. So I really, um, I encourage you to take that opportunity — it's
literally just putting your email and name on a list, nothing else.
Um, and I will see you next week where we have got such a juicy conversation coming your way
about how the system is broken, how we are living in a productivity system that is designed for
women to fail. And I'll just leave it at that cliffhanger and I'll see you next week. Have a fantastic
week ahead. I am sending you so much love. Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom
of my heart for listening, for being part of this community. Bye for now.
I get asked by busy women, moms, entrepreneurs and high-achieving professional boss ladies all
the time how is it that I navigate all of these things and stressors that I have going on in my life.
And I'm gonna let you in on a little secret — it's not doing less. No. It's not even just the
meditation or the yoga. It's none of that. It is the fact that I have mastered how to work with my
nervous system and my body, not against it.
And so I would love to invite you to the Stress Reset. It is my signature virtual retreat in which we
unpack my stress detox framework so that you can finally thrive. You can be the magnetic,
radiant woman that you know is deep down inside, rather than that bratty, really moody person
who you don't even recognise that's losing her ish at her friends and family. Cause I know that it
is tough. I know you've got a lot going on. The Stress Reset is your first step towards change. Join
the priority waitlist today — the link is in the show notes. I would love to see you there.
The views and opinions expressed by guests on Resonance are their own and do not necessarily
reflect the views of me, Viktoria Levenberg, Living Health, or anyone working within the Living
Health brand. This space welcomes a diversity of ideas, experiences and stories, and part of
Resonance is learning to take what aligns and gently leaving the rest.
Also, while I am a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach and deeply passionate
about well-being, this podcast is intended for educational and inspirational purposes only.
Resonance does not substitute personalised medical, psychological or therapeutic advice. Always
seek guidance from qualified professionals for any physical, emotional or mental health concerns.
