For people to relax and feel comfortable and ultimately to perform at their best, spaces, cultures, and experiences need to feel safe. But, in our hustle culture and its addiction to stimulation, we are missing an important element.
First, let’s look at what we have been aiming for. The pandemic reminded us of the value of physiological safety and the need for clean air, surfaces, and sometimes physical separation.
Psychological safety, first explored in the 1960s and with renewed vigour in the 1990s, is defined by Professor Amy C. Edmonson as “perceptions of the consequences of taking interpersonal risks in a particular context such as a workplace”. (Edmonson, 1999) With psychological safety present, employees experience less stress and greater well-being.
Yet, there is another type of safety that is much-needed, has not widely been considered, and is under threat that I refer to as “neurological safety”.
What is Neurological Safety?
Neurological safety refers to the calming effect of conditions in an environment – a space, culture, or experience, on the nervous system. The nervous system includes the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), and the peripheral nervous system, a complex network of nerves guiding both voluntary (somatic) and involuntary (autonomic) movements. Stresses can take a variety of forms including but not limited to sensory over-stimulation, cognitive overwhelm, emotional pressure, and pain.
When your nervous system perceives a threat, it moves toward one of three stress responses – changes in the body to prepare you to fight, take flight, or freeze. The amygdala in your brain sends signals to the hypothalamus stimulating the autonomic (involuntary) nervous system and triggering the sympathetic nervous system whose primary process is to stimulate this fight or flight response.
As you many know, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis over ten years ago, and more recently discovered that I’m autistic. I think that a sensitive nervous system is related to both and as a result have spent time building skills to regulate my own nervous system. Given the increasing sensory toxicity of our world, though, it’s not enough. I am compelled to invite the creation of more hospitable containers. In exploring this topic on the Happy Space Podcast, I realized that there is a lack of awareness about the impact on the nervous system.
As co-author of Andre Sólo and I discussed in episode 15 of the podcast, sensitivity appears in people following a traditional Bell curve – 30, 40, 30 percent high, average, and low sensitivity. There is a good chance what the highly sensitive people notice, others miss. I also have a theory that the highly sensitive are the proverbial canaries in coal mine, and we notice hazards that are generally not good for humanity.
This is why I am focusing on developing and sharing this concept. We deserve a kinder, healthier, more hospitable world.
Three Key Elements for Neurological Safety
A neurologically safe environmen will offer:
Sensory Support
– an appropriate amount of sensory stimulation or the ability to adjust it.
Cognitive Kindness
– the ability to move forward using intuition or with support from appropriate information, at the right time, at the right pace, and in an easy-to-work-with format.
Emotional Engagement
– positive posture, prosody (rhythm and intonation), and language
The lack of any one of these elements can cause disengagement, stop forward motion, and perhaps encourage a participant to leave.
I look at this lack as opportunity – to learn about the impact of unhealthy environments, and to design more hospitable spaces, cultures, and experiences. After coaching productivity for over 20 years and working with health challenges, I’m bringing my understanding of personal performance and well-being to work as a neuroinclusive design strategist.
I welcome your questions and opportunities to share this message. Join the Happy Space Pod online community (so far on Facebook) to see examples of spaces getting it right and those with opportunity for improvement.
