Today, I have applied 4 drops of Hyssop to my heart.  This medicinal essence helps us let go of our stories, open the heart, and forgive all those around you—but especially offering self-forgiveness.  Life offers us opportunities to learn and grow.  Hyssop can inform us to say: “everything happens for us, not to us.”

Our embryological development and the primal roots of our structure, perception, immune system, and body responsiveness (how relaxed our bodies remain when exposed to stimuli) are imprints that affect our brain development.

Newborns live primarily in the right brain, experiencing the world nonverbally and intuitively. Still mostly unformed, they have not yet learned how to experience and take in the world outside the womb. They have not yet embodied all the changes they experienced in utero.

Babies who live in a safe and consistent environment will have the easiest time adjusting to life on the outside. Once their nervous systems, fluid bodies, and breathing patterns have time to calm and settle in, they can begin to experience what it is like to lie on their tummies, sit up, or roll around. They begin to explore and embrace their core. As babies develop their somatic intelligence through these experiences, they become ready to try new things. At about nine months, you can see babies really coming into their physical and energetic selves.

Many factors affect a baby’s development, both pre- and postnatally. Our prenatal connection to mom through the umbilical cord provides our first experience of relationship, bonding, and attachment, sculpting our relational IQ and influencing later behavior and decision-making. Every baby is a product of two biological parents and is connected to the rest of its tribe, including generations of grandparents who watch over its growth and development, and to siblings, even those who died in miscarriage.

And then there’s the baby’s environment after birth. Is the newborn surrounded by competent, loving care-givers in a safe environment? What kind of energy does the child absorb from relationships in its family or household? Babies take in and hold the stories and unexpressed issues of their parents or family, and those issues silently, invisibly, become part of the baby’s foundation.

The Survival Response

The Fight-flight-freeze is programmed into one of the most “primordial” parts of the brain, and as the child grows, this can manifest in difficult or frustrating behaviors. When children withdraw, struggle for control, or swing between those two poles, their survival responses may be triggering them to act out ancient unspoken tribal patterns of fear and dominance. Children who have embodied these patterns may have a limited ability to react “normally” to their experiences or to transition from one experience to another.

The Importance of the Enteric Brain

That’s right, we have a second brain! The enteric brain is a network of neurons that are embedded in the lining of our gastrointestinal system. It develops from the belly button and umbilical chord after the fifth week of gestation. After birth, successful bonding and attachment with the family helps develop the enteric brain’s capabilities. Especially when family connections are loving and supportive, the enteric brain can be key in calming the survival response.

Everything in our culture moves so fast, and this can be a big problem for babies. For example, babies who come into the world via our birthing-industrial complex are often transferred to a nursery immediately after birth, before being brought to mom. This may be convenient for the medical providers, but it is not the best move for the baby. Newborns who remain skin-to-skin with mom right after birth have a much lower fear-paralysis reflex response than those who are immediately removed to another location.

Immediately after birth, the infant continues to develop its attachment and connection with its loving family. The attachment between mother and child is easy to understand, but other close family members are also connected to the baby on many levels and have a strong influence on the baby’s development. Everyone in the newborn’s family needs to have time/space to adjust to their new roles and how it changes their relationships with each other.

Amphetamines are a big part of treatment today with these children.  I call these drugs psychostimulants. That is, they stimulate the central nervous system and basically speed us up.

I will discuss the effects of these on:

• Dopamine
• Serotonin
• Norepinephrine

I will recommend 3 supplements instead of using the drug therapy.

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