This post discusses the novel co-creative self-healing modality I developed to help you rewire your brain for success.
The sacred self-healing method can be used for wiring your brain for success when you have MCAS. I mentioned in this post that limbic system health is key to healing Mast Cell Activation Syndrome or histamine intolerance. In this post, I share my method for limbic system retraining based on forgiveness.
Table of Contents
Who is Betsy Leighton?
I’m a writer, blogger, and healer dedicated to helping individuals reconnect with their innate peace and wholeness by healing nervous system dysregulation. My personal experience with chronic illness called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) shapes my work, and my content offers tools to empower those with chronic illness to improve their well-being and take charge of their health.
I created the Sacred Self-Healing Method and am a trained and certified Safe and Sound Protocol provider, an author, blogger, and A Course in Miracles Teacher. I hold a Master of Divinity in Spiritual Counseling and am a trained spiritual mentor, with certificates in sound healing, aromatherapy, nutrition, and Sacred Deathcare. I offer a self-study certificate program in the Sacred Self-Healing Method, provide spiritual counseling and coaching, courses, and supported subscriptions for the Safe and Sound Protocol.
What is MCAS?
Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) is a chronic condition that affects all organ systems. It can cause severe, disabling symptoms every day, including potentially fatal anaphylaxis. MCAS often occurs with other chronic conditions like Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). Managing MCAS is challenging because many healthcare providers are unaware of it, and diagnostic tests can be unreliable. Treatments include antihistamines and mast cell stabilizers, as well as avoiding triggers. Check out this post on managing MCAS.
What is Limbic System Dysfunction?
Limbic system dysfunction refers to impaired functioning of the limbic system, a complex set of brain structures that regulate emotions, memory, motivation, and responses to stress. When the limbic system is dysregulated, it can lead to a wide range of emotional, physical, and cognitive issues. This dysfunction is often linked to trauma, chronic stress, neurological conditions, or inflammatory processes.
Limbic system dysfunction contributes to anxiety, depression, OCD, and increased sensitivities. These sensitivities — from light and touch to foods and environmental triggers — are common in patients with MCAS. Having your limbic system regulated is part of the overall MCAS solution.
Causes of Limbic System Dysfunction
1. Trauma and Chronic Stress:
• Prolonged stress or trauma can overactivate the amygdala and impair the hippocampus, leading to heightened fear responses and difficulty regulating emotions.
2. Inflammation:
• Systemic or neuroinflammation can impair communication within the limbic system, affecting emotional and cognitive processing.
3. Toxic Exposures:
• Exposure to mold, chemicals, or other toxins can disrupt the limbic system’s ability to regulate sensory input and emotional responses.
4. Neurological Injuries:
• Brain injuries, such as concussions or strokes, can damage limbic structures.
5. Hormonal Imbalances:
• Dysfunction of the hypothalamus may contribute to hormonal dysregulation, exacerbating emotional and physical symptoms.
Symptoms of Limbic System Dysfunction
1. Emotional Dysregulation:
• Anxiety, depression, irritability, or emotional overwhelm.
2. Cognitive Impairments:
• Memory problems, brain fog, or difficulty concentrating.
3. Sensory Sensitivities:
• Heightened sensitivity to light, sound, smells, or touch.
4. Sleep Disturbances:
• Trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or experiencing restorative sleep.
5. Physical Symptoms:
• Chronic fatigue, pain, or autonomic dysfunction (e.g., rapid heart rate, gastrointestinal issues).
6. Hypervigilance:
• A heightened fight-or-flight response, even in safe situations.
Conditions Associated with Limbic System Dysfunction
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Anxiety disorders
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)
• Fibromyalgia
• Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS)
• Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)
• Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS)
How to heal limbic system dysfunction
There are many options for limbic system retraining available, including:
Cranio Sacral Treatment (CST)
Osteopathic treatment
Quantum Neuro Reset Therapy (QNRT)
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)
Dynamic Neuro Retraining System (DNRS)
Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP)*
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
I have tried all of these healing systems, and the one I found to be the easiest to use and the most effective was the Safe and Sound Protocol.
What is nervous system retraining?
Nervous system retaining is a process that uses neuroplasticity techniques to retrain the brain and nervous system to respond differently. There are two types of neural processing: top-down and bottom-up.
Top-down nervous system retraining
Top-down nervous system retraining is a healing approach that uses the mind (cognitive and emotional processes) to regulate the body’s autonomic nervous system (ANS). It involves conscious interventions, such as cognitive reframing, visualization, and mindfulness, to shift the body out of a chronic stress or threat response and promote nervous system regulation.
How Top-Down Nervous System Retraining Works:
• The Brain Leads the Body → The prefrontal cortex (thinking brain) sends signals to the limbic system (emotional brain) and autonomic nervous system (ANS) to shift out of dysregulation (fight/flight/freeze) into a regulated parasympathetic state.
• Retrains Perception of Safety → Many chronic conditions (e.g., MCAS, POTS, chronic pain, anxiety) stem from an overactive threat response. Top-down retraining teaches the brain to feel safe, reducing symptoms.
• Neuroplasticity & Rewiring → By practicing new thought patterns, emotions, and behaviors, the brain creates new neural pathways, making regulation easier over time.
Bottom-up nervous system retraining
Bottom-up nervous system retraining is a healing approach that focuses on using the body to influence and regulate the brain and the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Instead of relying on thoughts or conscious cognitive processing (as in top-down methods), bottom-up approaches engage the body directly to signal safety to the brain, helping shift out of chronic stress or dysregulation.
How Bottom-Up Nervous System Retraining Works
• The Body Leads the Brain → Engaging in sensory, movement-based, or breath-related practices shifts autonomic responses, helping the nervous system move from fight/flight (sympathetic) or freeze (dorsal vagal shutdown) into a more regulated state (parasympathetic/vagal tone).
• Targets the Vagus Nerve and Somatic Pathways → Many techniques directly stimulate the vagus nerve, regulate breathing, or involve movement, which helps reset autonomic function.
• Bypasses the Thinking Brain → This approach is beneficial when trauma or dysregulation is stored in the body and is not easily accessed through cognitive (top-down) methods alone.
A combination works best
If you’re dealing with a chronic illness, a history of concussions, or feel held back by trauma, I offer two powerful, complementary tools to guide your journey to peace and well-being: the Sacred Self-Healing Method and the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP).
These combined approaches can help you heal from chronic illness, emotional and physical pain, and a feeling of separation from your source, ultimately leading to trauma recovery and peace through forgiveness.
Sacred Self-Healing Method: This is a top-down mind retraining therapy focused on helping you come to peace with the circumstances of your life.
Safe and Sound Protocol: This is a bottom-up listening therapy designed to heal nervous system dysregulation, concussions, and trauma.
Re-wiring your brain with the Safe and Sound Protocol
The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP), developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, is a bottom-up healing strategy designed to help “rewire” the brain by calming the autonomic nervous system and improving its regulation. SSP achieves this by leveraging the principles of the Polyvagal Theory, which emphasizes the role of the vagus nerve and the social engagement system in emotional and physiological regulation.
Here’s how the SSP rewires the brain:
1. Engaging the Social Engagement System
• SSP uses specially filtered music that stimulates the middle ear muscles, improving sensitivity to human voice frequencies while dampening background noise.
• This enhanced auditory processing helps activate the ventral vagal complex (part of the parasympathetic nervous system), which regulates social engagement, safety perception, and calm states.
• Over time, this strengthens the brain’s ability to interpret cues of safety and reduces chronic fight-or-flight responses.
2. Calming the Autonomic Nervous System
• By shifting the autonomic nervous system toward a parasympathetic state, SSP helps reduce hypervigilance and reactivity commonly associated with trauma, anxiety, and stress.
• As the brain experiences repeated cues of safety, it begins to “rewire” its baseline responses, reducing overactivation of the sympathetic nervous system.
3. Improving Neural Regulation
• SSP stimulates the vagus nerve, which plays a critical role in regulating emotions, digestion, and heart rate.
• Regular activation of the vagus nerve through SSP helps the brain and body develop new patterns of self-regulation, improving resilience to stress and enhancing emotional balance.
The bucket theory
The bucket theory simplifies understanding symptom reactions with MCAS. Imagine your body as an empty bucket you don’t want to overflow. Reactions to various stimuli fill the histamine bucket at different rates, forming the total histamine level (how full your bucket is). More histamine means more symptoms. By managing triggers, reducing exposures, and taking medications and supplements, you can control your bucket’s level.
Know your typical symptom progression
Understanding your symptom progression during a flare is key to developing your rescue plan. This post discusses how to recognize symptom progression so you can be prepared to address them.
Get my free ebook, symptom log, and meal plan!
Want a tool to easily track your symptoms?
Forgiveness meditation: Using the sacred self-healing method for MCAS
The top-down tool I use for brain retraining is forgiveness.
The following how-to video is a guided meditation that walks you through the process of identifying an issue, like your health situation, and bringing it to the light for forgiveness. I have several free YouTube videos on my channel that assist with this process, but this one is a good place to start.
Why forgiveness: The root of the sacred self-healing method for MCAS
Forgiveness is one of the core principles of the Sacred Self-Healing Method. And by forgiveness, I mean as ACIM views it, as it is known in shorthand. When I talk about forgiveness, people aren’t thinking of the kind of forgiveness ACIM teaches. They might be thinking about pardoning an offender, no matter what happened, and in the process losing their power. They might be thinking about sexual abuse in the Catholic church, and the abhorrent practice of pretending that it did not happen. They might be thinking about a victim telling a rapist to their face that they are forgiven. But this is not how ACIM teaches forgiveness.
ACIM does not ask you to forgive the situation; it suggests that you only desire to see it differently. You still have MCAS, a chronic illness; it is a truth and real in this experience of embodiment. But when you decide with your right mind to see it differently, it means that you declare that, yes, it is happening, it is a truth, I honor my feelings about it, AND I am deciding not to have it define me anymore.
So, the Sacred Self-Healing Method is a powerful way of seeing your situation differently. It gives you tools to acknowledge the hard aspects of your illness or any problem, while teaching you to think differently about it. It doesn’t greenwash or offer toxic positivity. It is a helpful technique that meets you where you are and helps you get unstuck.
Check out these circadian health tools!
I’m an affiliate with Bon Charge, a company that makes tools for circadian health, and you can receive 15% off your order with my coupon code BETSYL.
Bon Charge offers tools such as yellow– and red-tone blue-blocking glasses, red light therapy devices, PEMF mats, infrared saunas, and EMF-blocking products.
Sign up for the SSP!
I’ve found the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) to be the most helpful bottom-up healing strategy if your nervous system has been overloaded with toxic exposures, including mold or non-native EMFs, chronic infections, concussions, stress, or trauma. The SSP is a passive listening therapy based on Polyvagal Theory that helps heal nervous system dysregulation. Many people with MCAS and other chronic conditions have nervous system dysregulation stemming from infections, toxic exposures, concussions, and trauma. The SSP is an easy-to-use app that lets you listen to specially filtered music for 30 minutes each day as part of a 5-hour cycle. Studies show the SSP has a profound effect on mental health and chronic conditions. Here’s a short podcast describing the Safe and Sound Protocol.
You can sign up for the SSP here!
Heal your mind!
While the SSP is a bottom-up, somatic therapy for healing the nervous system, the Sacred Self-Healing Method I offer is a top-down nervous system-healing modality that focuses on cognition, attention, perception, and emotion, using the mind’s higher functions. The SSP and the Sacred Self-Healing Method complement each other and together produce lasting results. Here’s a short podcast on my self-healing practice.
I provide one-on-one in-person and remote chronic illness and caregiver coaching, as well as Sacred Self-Healing Sessions based on the Sacred Self-Healing Method, a proven, novel co-creative healing modality detailed in my Books.
Order my books!
Here’s a short podcast highlighting my five books.
My latest book, Living In The Light: Healing with Forgiveness, Sound, and Light, is all about the tools that have been most helpful for me to heal: forgiveness, sound, through nervous system retraining using the Safe and Sound Protocol, and light, through entraining my circadian rhythm with the energy of the sun. Living In The Light is available here!
Rocks and Roots chronicles my solo backpacking journey on the Superior Hiking Trail and my efforts to overcome nervous system dysregulation, gut dysbiosis, and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome symptoms to complete the 328-mile hike successfully.
The Sacred Self-Healing Method ebook is available here and in most ebook retailers!
The Sacred Self-Healing Workbook is available for purchase here!
Betsy’s first book, Sacred Self-Healing: Finding Peace Through Forgiveness, is available here
Companion Recordings
The companion audio recordings of chants, guided meditations, and sound healing demonstrations that accompany the Sacred Self-Healing Method are available for free on my YouTube channel here
What do you think?
I’d love to have your reply below!
Disclaimer
The preceding material does not constitute medical advice. This information is for information purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, cure, or treatment.
