C.J. Llewelyn, M.Ed., LPC – Harmonize Your Vagus Nerve & Chakras to Manage Trauma Response 2024

In this opening module, you’ll explore the very human duality of a soulful journey in a 3-dimensional body, and begin to normalize the struggles we all go through.

C.J. will assert that your soul enters your body to have a human experience. Then trauma happens. There’s no human being that doesn’t experience traumatic moments. Even birth sits on the cusp of life or death.

In this opening session, C.J. will provide you with an overview of your vagus nerve and how it aligns with your seven main chakras. You’ll discover how your soul is the light that dances along this important, life-giving nerve to create the chakric beacons.

C.J. will break down how each of these chakras represent psychological dimensions of your human experience and how you can listen to your body for profound healing cues.

In this session, you’ll learn:

• Bilateral stimulation exercises to ground you in your body as you settle in for the 7-week journey ahead
• How to open to the healing signals of your body through a variety of somatic exercises
• A visualization that connects you more deeply to the essence of your soul

What does the term “trauma” actually mean? How can you understand this term in relation to healing? It’s a word that’s heavily discussed these days, and, in this session, you’ll get trauma informed.

C.J. will share the distinction between a neurobiological response and a soulful emotion, and how polyvagal theory takes the shame out of what seemed to be heightened reactions.

You’ll learn about various types of trauma and dissociation. You’ll explore spiritual and other forms of bypassing, and come to understand how addictions are a way of reaching outside yourself for numbing.

In this module, you’ll discover:

• The various types of trauma, what healing looks like and what to expect from trauma work with a therapist
• How trauma is a generational problem and how to recognize trauma from your own ancestral history
• Visualizations that will connect you to your body in safety and calm

Befriending your biological wiring system helps you access your spiritual inner light. This is because when you know how your body interprets signals of safety, you can calm yourself. And, through a still body, you experience your soul.

In this class, you’ll explore your vagus nerve, not as something you study in anatomy class, but as a felt experience. You’ll learn polyvagal theory, which explains how the three branches of the vagus nerve work to keep you safe.

You’ll recognize the signals your vagus nerve sends you and how those messages can misfire, resulting in emotional disruption, unnecessary discomfort, and inaccurate responses when you have trauma stored in the system. C.J. will guide you through different ways to restore your system to safety.

She’ll also illustrate how mindfulness plays an important part in picking up accurate “cues.” You’ll find that, behind all that wiring, your soul operates your vagus nerve like a driving system.

In this session, you’ll:

• Learn about the ventral (safety), sympathetic (mobility), and dorsal (immobility) vagal branches of your nervous system
• Identify your internal experiences through a mindfulness meditation
• Understand the “ceptions” — proprioception, interoception, and “neuroception”
• Identify when you’re disconnecting from your body, and discover how to shift your current state from dis-ease to ease

Chakras are the keys that unlock your present experiences. They’re literally a reflection of your soul energy that calls out and beckons for return signals from other souls.

In this session, C.J. will break down each of the psychological dimensions of the seven main chakras and how they align with the messaging centers of the vagus nerve.

You’ll learn how the organs in your body can be a messaging beacon.

In this module, you’ll:

• Experience the profound connection between your chakras and vagus nerve as C.J. leads you through chakra visualizations
• Identify when you’re having visceral versus somatic experiences
• Explore the dimensions of essential and evolving chakras as we prepare for a deeper dive into these energy centers in upcoming classes

This week, you’ll work with the first three chakras (root, sacral, and solar plexus), as you learn how these essential energy centers ground your body to this planet… keep your past memories… and contribute to your spiritual and psychological growth.

You’ll learn why these chakras are essential to your spiritual journey, and which branches of the vagus nerve connect to them. You’ll experience how messages of safety and danger are communicated through these chakras through sympathetic and dorsal vagal tones.

While the first three chakras are dismissed as earthly and unspiritual by some, C.J. will explain how they’re the most important energy centers to help you navigate life and form your identity.

In this class, you’ll:

• Drop down in the root, sacral, and solar plexus with movement exercises
• Learn about “attachment theory” and how it plays out in your vagal tone and chakras
• Participate in journaling exercises to explore how your early experiences imprinted in these chakras and the vagus nerve and how they play out in your relationships

In this module, you’ll learn how your vagus nerve — and the light of your soul which travels through it — align with your heart, throat, third eye, and crown chakras.

Now that you understand aspects of the vagus nerve in relation to your chakra energy, you’ll explore how the safety signals of the ventral vagus branch can lead you into more spiritual experiences. You’ll experience how, when your body feels safe, you can connect to your soul.

In this module, you’ll:

• Experience relief through energy psychology and bilateral stimulation exercises
• Understand in detail how the ventral vagus nerve brings clarity to your life
• Discover vocal tones or “prosody,” and how they can connect you with others
• Explore your empathy skills and energy alignment through your crown chakra

In this closing module, you’ll look at how, when we combine safety and spirituality, we can create a safer, more loving experience for others — sending ripples further and further outward.

Is this how we save our planet? Through creating a sense of safety within and loving ourselves first? The answer, according to C.J., is, a profound “Yes,” because safety brings peace.

You’ll learn how the energies involved in various relationships relate to the chakras and vagus nerve. You’ll come to understand that the attitude of expecting safe relationships is an avenue of self-discovery. And, you’ll explore how safety in your body and mind — neurobiologically and etherically — reflects onto others.

In this final session, you’ll

• Discover how to create safety in all aspects of your life
• Use journaling exercises to define physical, emotional, psychological, and etheric boundaries — and help create peace and safety
• Be guided in a somatic exercise to attune to your subtle energies and vagus nerve messaging centers
• Cultivate curiosity, rather than judgment of others
• Learn how to be present by noticing your own neurobiological responses
• Receive wisdom on how to go forth and continue to live in safety

If your soul chooses to come to Earth and live the experiences it wants to learn, does it choose to be hurt? Does your soul underestimate the amount of pain and trauma that your body and psyche might experience? Can your soul get stuck because of this? Beloved Shift Network faculty and medium Suzanne Giesemann connects with her guides in this profound 32-minute video as she shares important wisdom with C.J. Llewelyn about the soul’s choices and journey to the Earth plane.

You’ll learn how the vagus nerve and chakras are really an extension of one another and how they work to inform your body and soul in these chapters from C.J. Llewelyn’s book, Chakras and the Vagus Nerve. Chapter 2, “Finding the Sacred in Your Biology,” breaks down the different branches of the vagus nerve and explains how they create safety in your body so you can access your spirituality. Chapter 3, “The Connection Between the Vagus Nerve and Chakras,” illustrates how each chakra aligns with the vagus nerve.