Rewiring Your Brain for Success

This post discusses the novel co-creative self-healing modality I developed for rewiring your brain for success.

The sacred self-healing method can be used for wiring your brain for success when you have MCAS. I mentioned in this post that limbic system health is key to healing Mast Cell Activation Syndrome or histamine intolerance. In this post, I share my method for limbic system retraining based on forgiveness.

What is MCAS?

Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) is a chronic condition that affects all organ systems. MCAS is serious and disabling and people with MCAS experience often significant and debilitating symptoms daily, including anaphylaxis, which can be fatal.

MCAS is often found in combination with other chronic conditions such as Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS).

Frequently healthcare providers do not know about MCAS, and the tests for MCAS are problematic because they are not uniformly reliable. MCAS can be difficult to manage. Treatments include blocking mast cell mediators with anti-histamines and mast cell stabilizers, as well as avoiding triggers.

Check out this post on how to manage MCAS.

What is Limbic System Dysfunction?

Limbic system dysfunction refers to the impaired functioning of the limbic system, a complex set of brain structures involved in regulating emotions, memory, motivation, and responses to stress. When the limbic system is dysregulated, it can lead to a wide range of emotional, physical, and cognitive issues. This dysfunction is often linked to trauma, chronic stress, neurological conditions, or inflammatory processes.

Limbic system dysfunction contributes to anxiety, depression, OCD, and increased sensitivities. These sensitivities — from light, and touch, to foods, and environmental triggers — are common with MCAS patients. Having your limbic system regulated is part of the overall MCAS solution.

Causes of Limbic System Dysfunction

1. Trauma and Chronic Stress:

• Prolonged stress or trauma can overactivate the amygdala and impair the hippocampus, leading to heightened fear responses and difficulty regulating emotions.

2. Inflammation:

• Systemic or neuroinflammation can impair communication within the limbic system, affecting emotional and cognitive processing.

3. Toxic Exposures:

• Exposure to mold, chemicals, or other toxins can disrupt the limbic system’s ability to regulate sensory input and emotional responses.

4. Neurological Injuries:

• Brain injuries, such as concussions or strokes, can damage limbic structures.

5. Hormonal Imbalances:

• Dysfunction of the hypothalamus may contribute to hormonal dysregulation, exacerbating emotional and physical symptoms.

Symptoms of Limbic System Dysfunction

1. Emotional Dysregulation:

• Anxiety, depression, irritability, or emotional overwhelm.

2. Cognitive Impairments:

• Memory problems, brain fog, or difficulty concentrating.

3. Sensory Sensitivities:

• Heightened sensitivity to light, sound, smells, or touch.

4. Sleep Disturbances:

• Trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or experiencing restorative sleep.

5. Physical Symptoms:

• Chronic fatigue, pain, or autonomic dysfunction (e.g., rapid heart rate, gastrointestinal issues).

6. Hypervigilance:

• A heightened fight-or-flight response, even in safe situations.

Conditions Associated with Limbic System Dysfunction

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

• Anxiety disorders

• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)

• Fibromyalgia

• Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS)

• Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)

• Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS)

How to heal limbic system dysfunction

There are many options for limbic system retraining available including:

Cranio Sacral Treatment (CST)

Osteopathic treatment

Quantum Neuro Reset Therapy (QNRT)

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

Dynamic Neuro Retraining System (DNRS)

Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP)*

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

I have tried all of these healing systems and the one I found to be the easiest to use and the most effective was the Safe and Sound Protocol.

Re-wiring your brain with the Safe and Sound Protocol

The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP), developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, is designed to help “rewire” the brain by calming the autonomic nervous system and improving its regulation. SSP achieves this by leveraging the principles of the Polyvagal Theory, which emphasizes the role of the vagus nerve and the social engagement system in emotional and physiological regulation.

Here’s how the SSP rewires the brain:

1. Engaging the Social Engagement System

• SSP uses specially filtered music that stimulates the middle ear muscles, improving sensitivity to human voice frequencies while dampening background noise.

• This enhanced auditory processing helps activate the ventral vagal complex (part of the parasympathetic nervous system), which regulates social engagement, safety perception, and calm states.

• Over time, this strengthens the brain’s ability to interpret cues of safety and reduces chronic fight-or-flight responses.

2. Calming the Autonomic Nervous System

• By shifting the autonomic nervous system toward a parasympathetic state, SSP helps reduce hypervigilance and reactivity commonly associated with trauma, anxiety, and stress.

• As the brain experiences repeated cues of safety, it begins to “rewire” its baseline responses, reducing overactivation of the sympathetic nervous system.

3. Improving Neural Regulation

• SSP stimulates the vagus nerve, which plays a critical role in regulating emotions, digestion, and heart rate.

• Regular activation of the vagus nerve through SSP helps the brain and body develop new patterns of self-regulation, improving resilience to stress and enhancing emotional balance.

The bucket theory

The bucket theory offers a helpful analogy for understanding symptom reactions with MCAS.

Think of your body as an empty bucket that you want to keep from overflowing. Different foods and activities fill your histamine bucket at different speeds but they combine to form the total level of histamine in your body (how full your bucket is). A fuller bucket means you have more histamine symptoms. When you manage triggers, reduce exposure to known triggers, and take medications and supplements to reduce histamine, you can manage the level of your bucket.

Know your typical symptom progression

Knowing your symptom progression in a symptom flare is the key to developing your own rescue plan. In this post, I discuss how to determine your own symptom progression. Once you know what typically happens in your symptom progression you can design a rescue plan to address those symptoms.

Get my free ebook, symptom log, and meal plan!

Want a tool to easily keep track of your symptoms? Sign up for my newsletter and you will receive my free 50-page ebook of lower-histamine, grain-free, sugar-free recipes, my free symptom log, and a free two-week meal plan!

Forgiveness meditation: Using the sacred self-healing method for MCAS

Another tool I use for brain retraining is forgiveness.

The following how-to video is a guided meditation that walks you through the process of identifying an issue, like your health situation, and bringing it to the light for forgiveness. I have a number of free YouTube videos on my channel that assist with this process, but this one is a good place to start.

Why forgiveness: The root of the sacred self-healing method for MCAS

Forgiveness is one of the core principles of the Sacred Self-Healing Method. And by forgiveness, I mean as it is viewed by ACIM, as it is known in shorthand. When I talk about forgiveness, people are not thinking of the type of forgiveness that ACIM teaches. They might be thinking about pardoning an offender, no matter what happened, and losing their power in the process. They might be thinking about sexual abuse in the Catholic church, and the abhorrent practice of pretending that it did not happen. They might be thinking about a victim telling a rapist to their face that they are forgiven. But this is not how ACIM teaches forgiveness.

ACIM does not ask you to forgive the situation; it suggests that you only desire to see it differently. You still have MCAS, a chronic illness; it is a truth and real in this experience of embodiment. But when you decide with your right mind to see it differently it means that you declare that, yes, it is happening, it is a truth, I honor my feelings about it, AND I am deciding not to have it define me anymore.

So, the Sacred Self-Healing Method is a powerful way of seeing your situation differently. It gives you tools for acknowledging the hard aspects of your illness, or any situation while teaching you how to think differently about it. It doesn’t greenwash or offer toxic positivity. It is a helpful technique that meets you where you are and assists you in getting unstuck.

Try it out!

I invite you to try out the Sacred Self-Healing Method using the free YouTube video linked above as well as others on my channel.

If you want to know more, my books are available for purchase online.

I offer online self-study courses on the Sacred Self-Healing Method.

I am also available for one-on-one Chronic Illness Support Coaching to help you feel better, manage your triggers, and prioritize your healing!

Sign up for the SSP!

The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) is a listening therapy based on Polyvagal Theory that helps heal nervous system regulation. Many people with MCAS have nervous system dysregulation stemming from infections, toxic exposures, concussions, and trauma. The SSP is an easy-to-use app where you listen to specially filtered music for 30 minutes each day for a 5-hour cycle. Studies show the SSP has a profound effect on mental health and chronic conditions

You can sign up for the SSP here!

Order my book!

Rocks and Roots chronicles my journey solo backpacking the Superior Hiking Trail and overcoming nervous system dysregulation, gut dysbiosis, and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome symptoms to hike 328 miles successfully.

Check out this powerful frequency device

Healy is an individualized microcurrent device I use to reduce inflammation. Check out this post for more about Healy.

Sign up for a session!

I provide one-on-one in-person and remote chronic illness and caregiver coaching and Sacred Self-Healing Sessions based on the Sacred Self-Healing Method, a proven novel co-creative healing modality detailed in my Books. 

Click here for more information.

What do you think?

I’d love to have your reply below!

Disclaimer

The preceding material does not constitute medical advice. This information is for information purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, cure or treatment. Always seek advice from your medical doctor.