Understanding Neuroception

How Your Nervous System Detects Safety and Danger

Your nervous system is always working — even when you’re not thinking about it.

One of its most important jobs is to answer this question:

“Am I safe right now?”

It answers that question automatically, outside of conscious awareness, through a process called neuroception.

What Is Neuroception?

The term neuroception was introduced by Stephen Porges, developer of Polyvagal Theory.

Neuroception is your nervous system’s automatic threat-detection system.

Unlike perception (which involves thinking), neuroception happens below the level of conscious awareness. Your body is constantly scanning:

• Facial expressions

• Tone of voice

• Body language

• Environment

• Internal sensations

• Memories

• Subtle cues of unpredictability

All of this happens in milliseconds.

Before you “decide” how you feel, your nervous system has already made a safety assessment.

Your Nervous System as an Alarm System

Think of your nervous system like a home alarm system.

Its job is not to make you comfortable.Its job is to keep you alive.

When it detects safety → you move into regulation, connection, and openness.When it detects danger → it activates protection.

The nervous system has three primary states:

🌿 Ventral Vagal (Safe & Social)

You feel grounded, connected, flexible, present.This is the Window of Tolerance (WOT).

⚡ Sympathetic (Fight or Flight)

You feel anxious, activated, irritable, restless, hypervigilant.

💤 Dorsal Vagal (Shutdown)

You feel numb, disconnected, fatigued, hopeless, collapsed.

These states are not choices.They are protective responses.

When the Alarm Becomes Sensitive

After stress or trauma, the nervous system can become more sensitive.

The alarm may go off:

• In safe situations

• Around neutral cues

• When there is no current threat

This does not mean you are broken.

It means your nervous system learned something and is trying to protect you.

As described by trauma therapist Rebecca Kase, symptoms are often the nervous system’s attempt to solve a problem it believes is still happening.

The Good News: Neuroception Works Both Ways

Just as your nervous system detects danger, it also detects safety.

You cannot think your way into regulation.But you can send your nervous system cues of safety.

When your body experiences enough cues of safety, it begins to recalibrate.

Noticing What Soothes You

Safety cues are personal.

They may include:

• Warm eye contact

• A steady voice

• Your dog resting next to you

• Being near water

• Soft lighting

• A favorite blanket

• Gentle movement

• A predictable routine

• Certain music

• Nature

When you intentionally notice what feels even 1% more settling, you are training neuroception.

You are teaching your nervous system:

“This is safe. You can soften here.”

Over time, this builds capacity.

Moving Back Into Your Window of Tolerance

Regulation is not about eliminating activation.

It is about:

• Increasing flexibility

• Expanding your Window of Tolerance

• Recovering more quickly

When you identify and repeat safety cues, your nervous system learns:

• Not all activation equals danger

• It can return to baseline

• The present moment is different from the past

This is how healing happens — not through force, but through experience.

A Gentle Reflection

Ask yourself:

• What environments feel easiest in my body?

• Who helps my nervous system settle?

• What sensory experiences feel grounding?

• When do I feel most like myself?

These are not small details.They are data for your nervous system.

Final Reminder

Your nervous system is not the enemy.

It is an alarm system that has been working tirelessly to protect you.

The goal is not to silence it.

The goal is to help it learn the difference between past danger and present safety.

And that happens through repeated, embodied experiences of safety.

-Jana Grimes, LMHC

therapy@janagrimes.com