How presence can transform your relationship to stress, rest, and regulation
By Maria Strömberg
Most of us have learned that the autonomic nervous system has three states: safety (ventral vagus), stress (sympathetic nervous system), and shutdown (dorsal vagus). This model has helped many people understand how the body responds to trauma or threat.
But what if that isn’t the whole truth? What if the nervous system doesn’t function like a switchboard between fixed modes, but instead acts like a dynamic spectrum, where everything depends on presence?
The Conventional Model: Three Systems, Three States
The polyvagal theory, developed by Stephen W. Porges, PhD, describes three main branches of the autonomic nervous system:
• Ventral vagus: safety, social engagement, curiosity
• Sympathetic: fight/flight, mobilization, stress
• Dorsal vagus: freeze, collapse, dissociation
According to the model, these systems operate hierarchically. When we feel safe, we’re in a ventral state. When stressed, we activate the sympathetic system. And when overwhelmed, we shut down via the dorsal vagus. The model also describes hybrid states, (see Polyvagal Institute, n.d.) where different branches may be co-activated. For example, the playful intensity between friends or the intimacy of shared laughter involves both sympathetic arousal and ventral safety. Similarly, lying still in silent connection can involve dorsal withdrawal with a ventral holding – as seen in deep rest or intimacy (Dana & Rolfe, 2024; Porges, 2021).
Hybrid States Revisited – From Blended Activation to Modulated Presence
Polyvagal theory acknowledges these hybrid states, and my model aligns with this recognition. But it also reframes how they become adaptive.
I see ventral presence not merely as one branch in a neural blend, but as the modulating force that determines how any sympathetic or dorsal activity is experienced.
Without this presence, sympathetic energy often manifests as hypervigilance, and dorsal withdrawal as collapse. But when held within ventral awareness, the same neural activations can instead express as creative flow or restorative stillness.
In other words, the nervous system is less like a hierarchical ladder and more like a relational spectrum, whose colours shift depending on the light of presence.
This shift from hierarchy to relational integration does not contradict polyvagal theory; it simply expands its implications – zooming in on how ventral influence operates moment-to-moment, not as a fixed state, but as a conscious, embodied capacity to hold experience.
While this framework has been key in understanding trauma responses, it also has limitations.
A Different Movement: Presence as Portal, Not a State
In my work with the nervous system, the body, and lived human experience, I’ve come to see something not yet described in literature. A different rhythm. A different dynamic.
I see it this way:
• The ventral system is not a state – it is a portal. Not something to reach, but something that opens.
When present, it allows sympathetic activation to become focused with a flow-like action, and dorsal withdrawal to become deep rest. It holds space for all other states to move, integrate, and be felt, without taking over.
• Ventral presence is the living gateway between intensity and safety.
• The sympathetic and dorsal branches are not negative in themselves. Their effects depend on context and whether they’re integrated with ventral presence.
• What determines whether these systems are functional or dysregulated is whether presence – the holding quality of ventral awareness – is available. And this presence is not passive. It is an active, embodied form of relating to ourselves, to sensation, and to the world. The seer and what is seen are in relationship.
By ventral presence, I don’t mean a specific nerve branch, but a quality of conscious, embodied awareness – a relational capacity to stay in contact with what is.
This often manifests as inner softness, a connection to the body, breath, and surroundings, and the ability to both feel and observe. True presence arises not only from bodily anchoring, but also from a spacious relational awareness—one that includes the external world without identifying it as a threat, even when discomfort or unease is present. It can be cultivated through mindful breathing, body scans, relational safety-based practices, or simply through open awareness. In this receptive state, all sensory input is allowed without filtering, analyzing, or processing.
Flow, Not Hierarchy
With this perspective, we suddenly see:
• Sympathetic + ventral = flow, creative focus, embodied drive
• Dorsal + ventral = rest, stillness, deep connection
• Without ventral: sympathetic = stress/hypervigilance, dorsal = shutdown/collapse
It’s not about which branch is active – it’s about how the experience is held.
Is there awareness in the body? Is there inner contact? Then even the deepest dorsal state can become a profound form of rest, sometimes felt as sacred or timeless.
To read the complete article, please click here
photo credits: Gordon Johnson (Pixabay), Gordon Johnson (Pixabay), and Fotis Fotopoulos (Unsplash)
