Neuroception allows the autonomic nervous system to scan for cues of safety and danger.

Through the ongoing neuroception process the ANS scans for cues of safety and danger, initiating actions in service of safety and survival. While we do not always recognize the cues of safety and danger, we feel the physiological response. And, because humans are meaning-making beings, what begins as the autonomic experience of neuroception travels to the brain and becomes the story that directs daily life. From a dorsal vagal or sympathetic state, danger rules and the story is one of survival. It is only from a ventral vagal state of safety and connection that the story can be one of hope and possibility.