Heal the Global Nervous System: How to Bridge the Gap

Hey there, I'm Brooke Richey. Thanks for tuning in to my channel where I talk all things trauma recovery and the blend of voice work and music and psychology. So I'm here, I'm an indie rock artist, a vocalist, and multi-trauma survivor. I am also a film composer. So what I'm doing here is looking at the intersectionality of story, memory, mental cognitive behaviors and how to boost those things with music and with this instrument that's in our body, which is your voice. And your voice is designed to regulate, communicate, navigate in life. The better that you have control and authority over your voice, the more you're going to have that clear direction and authority in your life and in your walk. So I'm wrapping up this series, and I know it's been a minute, so thanks for hanging in there, uh, while I've been doing some deep reflection the last couple months. But we're gonna wrap up this series on communication with and from trauma survivors. And when I say trauma survivors, I mean people who have a severe brain injury. They've— they have severe disorganization in their mind going on from past repeated traumas, uh, recurring traumas. So we're looking at complex post-traumatic stress disorder. We get a lot of misdiagnoses in this realm of people being categorized as bipolar or schizophrenic when really it's just complex post-traumatic stress disorder that is manifesting in these diagnoses. And you can reverse engineer your CPTSD is what I'm getting to with all of these talks. Um, so today I'm talking on how to bridge the gap and heal the global nervous system. Like we have a global consciousness, we also have a global nervous system. We are all interconnected. And I want you to just think of it like this: what would happen if we just forgot that Edison figured out how to wire a light bulb and create light? If that memory just vanished from history? What would happen if we just up and forgot that Teddy Roosevelt was shot, that Kennedy was assassinated? If we just up and forgot, if that memory was just gone from the face of the earth, what do you think that would do then to the connections of those people directly connected to those people, people who worked with these individuals, and the legacies and The businesses, all the stuff that came from these people. What do you think that would do? So that is a wide-scale perspective, right? It's a bird's-eye view on what's going on for individual trauma survivors, folks dealing with suppressed traumatic memories, CPTSD, and why this is so important to help these people remember the facts of their timeline. Because it's impacting everyone around them. And we're only as strong as our weakest players, right? And this isn't to buy— to say at all in any way that people who have faced traumas are weak. They're actually very strong people. They're very strong people and resilient to keep going and showing up after these experiences. It's to say that when someone's down on the field You got to take a knee and you gotta help them get off the field so they can recover. You got to nurture their recovery, and this is better done in community with a wide array of witnesses than it is by isolation, by just strict therapy and prescription drugs and never sharing it with anyone. Getting vocal is very wise. When you know what you're doing. So, um, number one thing that we can do, the number one thing, is to stop tolerating it as you wouldn't tolerate it for yourself. So I'm thinking back to an experience I had when I lived in this old apartment building and there was paper-thin floor-to-ceiling, so I could hear audibly. Everything that was going on below me with that, uh, resident and her boyfriend and her son. And I ended up calling CPS because the 5-year-old boy was getting verbally harassed and abused by the boyfriend. And not only that, but I also confronted my neighbor about it, saying, hey, I've been hearing a lot of yelling going on towards your son, and I just want to say, like, I'm concerned, and is there anything I can do to maybe help you in this area? And she went on to go, and of course no one likes that kind of confrontation, but the reason I did this was for the kid. It wasn't for me. As annoying as it was to hear it, and triggering even, To be hearing that, um, going on, um, living above it. I called for that kid because I know that that kid, at a vulnerable age of 5 years old, was being programmed and shown how to abuse others when one day he would be older. He was being shown what neglect was. He was being shown how to be scapegoated and that One day when he was a big man, he could do the same to others. And that's the kind of protection and toleration I'm saying that we shouldn't tolerate for others. And we know it's going on day in and day out. And the reason why about this is because the more you tolerate something that's harmful, the more resilience you build toward it. The more resilience you build in saying, yeah, it's okay because it's been going on and I've survived. That's how we're wired. So if you don't intervene, then you're allowing it to manifest more in your community, in your society. And the thing is, with this place, I saw a lot of improvements after— like, not just after that, like, she ended up kicking the guy out. Just in the area alone, I saw a lot of improvements with this apartment building, uh, because I spoke up about it, about things. Uh, people wouldn't care about parking spots. And sometimes people would get blocked in in our parking lot. And so I spoke up about this and said, hey, like, there's never spots for me and people are abusing that they only get one spot and they're letting friends and family and whomever come and park. And because I spoke up about that, management stepped in and then they even like went as far to like repaint the lines. In the lot and other things too. Like, we got, you know, now I'm kind of just going on. We got improved stairwells that had like, um, like traction on them so no one would slip when it was raining or snowing. And, uh, things around like, uh, garbage control too improved. But anyways, so this is what I mean, like, you can't Like, you can, is the thing. We can all tolerate it. But the thing is, if you don't intervene when the opportunity arises, you are allowing that to go on in your life even though it's not impacting you. You're allowing it to continue in your world. That's what I'm getting at. Um, so all you have to do— this is really all you have to do— you just have to address it. And that's all I did with my neighbor was I addressed it. Um, I did call CPS. I don't know if they ever showed up or anything like that, or if she got confronted by them or anything, but, uh, everything was fine. Like, she kicked the guy out. She ended up moving, meeting someone much calmer and much kinder of a person, and ended up later moving in with him to a better place. And so, um, that's— this is why you do this. you know, in a non— confrontation's confrontation, but in a non-judgmental, non-condemning way by saying, hey, I, I see what's going on. And while that makes someone vulnerable and feel maybe embarrassed or ashamed, it also says this: it says, I care about your human experience, and I know I wouldn't tolerate this for myself, so why should I tolerate it for you? It's mirroring going on, and that's why this is So important in healing our global nervous system is because when you just look on by when you know their life situation could be improved, you're tolerating it in your world. Does that make sense? I really hope this makes sense. You're tolerating the thing to continue in your world because you're seeing it happen and you're not saying anything. Okay, number 2. Learn how to collaborate. Collaboration is the key to growth and really to life because we are interconnected. And if you can't learn how to collaborate, um, just because your life looks different or just because you're used to how you're expecting life to look for everyone, right? That is just causing disconnect. With the nervous system, the global nervous system, right? It's a whole network. It's a whole network. Literally think of it like your body. If you've been in situations and places like me where it's like you have blockages going on in the body, and, um, you know, there's that thing with the fingers where your fingers turn white, um, it's a circulation problem. Those are blockages in the body. It's the same thing. With society. It's the exact same thing. And refusing to collaborate with those people, any, any person who's different from you, is creating a blockage. So what does this look like for someone who they're doing really well, they don't have any blockages, they, they don't have any issues with trauma, they've never had to deal with trauma in their life? In any sort of way. The way you're collaborating with individuals who are fighting, right? Fighting. They're striving to get— and maybe I shouldn't say fighting because it's different at some, at some point in the healing journey. It switches from fighting to survive to striving to get better. And sometimes it's like this, you know, like a A seesaw going back and forth. Like, sometimes you're surviving, sometimes you're striving, and it's going back and forth until you can finally kind of just level out and get off the seesaw altogether, and then you're thriving. So that's kind of what's going on for these folks. You want to do— kind of going back to the last point— is collaborating with them and drawing them ahead, like pulling them forward and and beckoning, right? Like, you're not forcing— there's no leash on this person or anything. Like, you are just beckoning them forward with focusing on their— on the good that they bring, on the gifts that they do have, on the qualities that they can bring to the table. Like, think— like, I wrote a blog post about this. Um, if you read my blog, uh, Get Vocal blog, Uh, I share about a homeless man who I passed by, and he was with a shovel landscaping the side of the road in the mud, these stairways to then lead up to his tent away off of the street. And I saw that and I was like, this guy can landscape. This guy needs a job. Like, someone give him a job. I couldn't give him a job, but I was like, someone needs to give this guy a job. Like, he's talented. And to be able to measure out, even with just like the height of the shovel itself, the stairs so that they're even, right, in the mud on the side of the road— it's focusing on that, irregardless of their life situation. of what you— what's very easy to judge. Focus on that and like focus on the good things that these people do have. And you know, like there's just a positive way to approach any situation. I feel like I, I could— I feel like this is probably really poignant just in the respect of homelessness, um, because it is a huge problem in America. And also a huge problem that we keep tolerating is gun violence. It's gone up a lot. That's no secret. And that means with our nervous system going on in America, we've increased our tolerance and our resilience for it. Why is that okay? Really, why is that okay? Um, so I'm just thinking of 2 more scenarios with Homeless individuals that I've encountered, uh, over the years. And one was a woman who I offered her a bag of chips after I left, like, at Chipotle or something. And she kind of frowned. She frowned at me and was just like, uh, no. But there was this sense, like, even though she didn't want the chips, the point was she knew her autonomy. She knew that she could say no. See what I mean? Like, focusing on those things, not the, you should take this just because it's free and I'm giving it to you, I'm blessing you. Like, no, that's actually really disgusting behavior, and it's borderline rape culture, to be honest, that kind of attitude. And but for her to be like, no, I don't want it, um, and not even say thank you— like, there was no thanks, there was nothing. It was just like a no. She knew her autonomy. And another situation was, uh, giving a box of pizza to a homeless guy, and it was pouring rain out. And I had like boxes of pizza from a birthday party. We had way too much, and so I took some home and I was like, I'll give some to a homeless person. And found the perfect person. He's walking by my car, and then he walks around and it's raining, and I roll down my window. I'm like, hey, do you want some pizza? And it's this giant box, right? Like, it's, it's a massive box. And I was like, great, now you can use this. Like, because he didn't have a hood or anything, I was like, cover your head with this and go take it, you know, to some of your friends and go eat some food. And he was so grateful. He was just so, so grateful. And he was like, yes, I'm starving, it's freezing out here. And he said it with like gratitude and joy. And so focusing on that, right? Like, you've got to focus on the good in every person and beckon them forward. If the— if you're dealing with a situation— and I'm about to get on to my next point— if you're dealing with a situation of like narcissism and that sort of deal, still meet them with grace, still uphold your boundaries, um, be kind, but There's good in everyone. We're not wired evil. We get sucked into, uh, addiction and being ruled by evil. We're not wired that way. We're not born that way, you know. And like, I won't get into it, like, um, if, you know, if you're religious and Christian particularly, where it's like we're born sinners. I'm not going to get into all of that, but a child, an infant, is not born evil. You gotta, you gotta return back to that point when you're dealing with someone who, um, is maybe really struggling with letting the good in them flow forward and flow out of them and manifest. I hope that makes sense. Okay, and then if you are the individual where I've been a lot of the time— not all the time, but, uh, dealing with CPTSD, working to overcome it— if you're this person, if you're there, then you have to be willing to think outside of Beyond. You have to think beyond what's your current situation. Um, it's a matter of trust. It's a matter of letting ease come into play, flow come into play. So thinking of like the blockages in the body and that sort of thing, focus on one, not the whole picture. Just focus on one minuscule thing, a 1% improvement. in your body, in your life, so that you can collaborate with others. We're not perfect. You're not gonna be perfect. If you're idolizing perfection, you are a slave to independence. I just heard this from a speaker today, and I was like, that's it, that's it. Being a slave to independence means you think you have to do everything on your own. And life will just pass you by. It's not fun. The last thing on this in learning to collaborate: trauma comes with a very high-impact energy, which is why we want to let that energy dissolve, dissipate in a safe way. So when you collaborate with others, right, when you don't isolate yourself, what you're doing instead of harboring that energy and letting it ruminate, ball up, brew in your system. You're instead letting it be seen, letting it be known, as uncomfortable as it might be, I know, and all the feelings that come with that. It is much quicker, it is much more efficient to just be around other people. That's it. Like, it's just a better way of overcoming trauma and healing your nervous system and the global nervous system, right? The 3rd thing we can do to help heal the global nervous system and bridge this gap is understanding how to speak the other's language without harm. And by language, I don't mean English, Spanish, German, any of those. While those do apply to this, what I'm talking more of is communication styles and methods That a person knew as safe and was expected. And this is especially something that you can help people who are trying to heal their complex post-traumatic stress disorder come out of. So a perfect example of this is growing up under covert narcissism and being gaslit for your reality and your experience. And I want you to think of it like this. So if you have a funnel, right, and you have all this stuff going into the funnel, that's what this person gets stuck into, right? That's being fed into like their, their water glass, their bottle, or whatever. So if they're being gaslit for their reality over and over and over, like, that's for 20 years and it's going straight into that bottle of water. That's what they know. That's how they know how to communicate. If passive-aggressive communication comes up, nonverbal communication, whether it's harmful or not, these are communication styles that were taught to these individuals That were acceptable. Okay, so thinking of that funnel, right? If you want to help someone get out of the funnel, out of that stuck space, um, you kind of want to now envision 2 funnels. So let's say we have a funnel here and we have a funnel here, and this is where the person gets stuck. So we had the funnel like this and we turn it on its side, and now we're moving the bottle, right? Basically getting rid of the bottle because you don't want to put more into this funnel. What you want to do is do the reverse. It's a whole reversing going on so that instead of an infinity loop continuing on in this person's life, they are actually getting set free from that gaslighting. So what would this look like? It means you actually could help someone undo all of this damage by gaslighting them in a way that's actually helping them. And I know that sounds wild, but it actually does work. And the, the thing about this though is you can never force healing. You can give extensions, invitations for people to Join in this. It's their intuition, right, that they ultimately need to be able to tap into so that they can feel those choices of autonomy, um, the freedom of autonomy, okay, uh, to be able to change their life. But this is something, because it's really big, it's a real big issue All I, you know, I don't know all the stats, but it's a really big issue of— I even just like, I even had a phone conversation today where I'm— they're like, well, you did this to save money, right? I'm like, actually, no, this is not why I did this. And like, that's very, very subtle, but it's a like, it's an insertion of like, this is why you did this. This, you know, this— it's an insertion of what I'm expecting your reality to be when it's like, no, actually that's not it at all. Um, and so anyways, learning how to speak the other's language without harm. And if you're on the other side of this, if you're someone who— complex post-traumatic stress disorder— and you're trying to collaborate with people who aren't dealing with any of these issues, Even if they have in the past. Your task and your challenge here is to really regulate yourself so that you can collaborate with them, to maybe challenge yourself with being a little bit more direct, because these people are used to direct language. You might be used to indirect language, to covert language communication. Right? Because of the gaslighting and all that stuff. But they might be used to only direct. So if you can't verbalize, right? If you can't verbalize, it's it's up to you to like really just stay on top of communication with people, and it might be really exhausting. It might drain you a little bit, but. It's definitely worth the effort. And that's my last point for all of this, is we aren't perfect. We are all very different. We all interpret and process information differently. So what you're looking for in all of this— are people continuing to show up? Are they showing up with effort? Are they putting effort out there to improve maybe their life to collaborate with you to create something. So on that note, it's almost 2026, and I just want to say thank you so much for tuning in to this channel and hear me talk. If there's anything you want to hear me address, I would love for you to drop that in the comment— comments. You're also welcome to reach out to me via brookerichey.music. And if you are someone that is trying to find some clarity in life, you feel really stuck, like you have vocal blockages, you have emotional blockages going on, I invite you to join Amplify Your Voice. This is my 6-week reset program. Most participants get on their way and get unstuck before the 6 weeks is up. The way the program is designed is to fit into your life. So it doesn't feel overwhelming, like an overwhelming commitment. I'm not sure if I'm gonna have enough time sort of deal. It is all built around your pace and your ability to tune in to your voice. Like I said at the start of this video, your voice is your regulator, communicator, navigator. The better that you can exercise and utilize your voice, the better your life is is going to be, because it really does drive where you go. The language is the fuel for your destination. So thank you so much for being here. I'd love to see you in the program. Links for that and a few other things below, and I'll see you in the new year. Happy New Year!