Deb Dana on the Wonder of Glimmers and Positive Living

Sunlit waves gently kiss the shore as sparkling glimmers reflect moments of peace, inspiring a journey towards positive living and inner tranquility.

We're talking with Deb Dana about Glimmers. These fleeting moments in everyday life often go unnoticed. Yet, recognising them can help us find balance, peace, and a path to a positive life. And she's on a mission to change the world, one Glimmer at a time.

While humans are naturally inclined to focus on the negative to survive, experts suggest there's also an innate positive aspect within us. But did you know that while there are triggers—those small events that subconsciously trigger memories of past negative experiences and influence our current behaviour—there are also Glimmers? This positive aspect, which our bodies and nervous systems are already programmed for, can lead to a sense of peace and tranquillity. All we need to do is recognise them and practice this skill.

Deb Dana, who coined the term, speaks to us from a rainy Maine, emphasising how Glimmers—personal to each individual, like the way rain drips down a window—have the power to change our perspective on life. Click below to hear her story or read the transcript.

Listen to our interview with Deb Dana here

Click here for interview transcript

(Music fades in)

Hi, Deb. Welcome to Perspective Living magazine. I was wondering first, can you tell us a little bit about who you are and what your background is?

Sure. It's nice to be here, nice to meet you. I am a licensed clinical social worker specialising in trauma. In recent years, I have transitioned into writing, presenting, and conducting workshops, which I believe is where my true passion now resides.

I'm a specialist in polyvagal theory, which is a theory of the autonomic nervous system, and I take Steve Porges's brilliant science of, I think, okayness or goodness as the easiest way to think about it—a tiny moment of joy or happiness.

It begins in your biology. Your biology moves into feeling that tiny micro-moment of being regulated, balanced, safe: many of those words we might use to describe a Glimmer. In the way that we bring it to life. Now, when we turn our attention toward it, it is a moment that we can watch for. We can track it, we can feel it, we can notice it, we can share it with others. But it emerges from your biology; from your nervous system, finding that moment where it feels drawn into a bit of regulation.

We often think of Glimmers as the opposite of triggers, the things that activate our sense of unease or distress. And that's an okay way to think about them. But Glimmers and triggers are from a totally separate category, they don't impact each other.

What Glimmers do is invite us to feel a bit of happiness of joy, of magic, of safety, of connection. And we can do that in the midst of all of the trauma and distress and suffering that may be going on in our everyday lives as well. And that's the beauty of the nervous system: it is created to be able to hold both, right? Both the suffering and the sweetness.

And so, you know, now we pay much more attention to our trauma, to our suffering, to the ways that we feel not okay in the world. And that is true for all humans because we have what's called a negativity bias built into our brains and our bodies, where we pay attention to the things that are a bit dangerous or distressing in order to survive.

But, you know, our nervous system is also exquisitely able to define the moments of goodness. Not as a way to ignore our suffering, but as a way to build the capacity to have enough sense of regulation in our nervous system, so we could turn toward our trauma and actually work with it.

That's been the joy of really understanding Glimmers: for me, bringing Glimmers first to clients and then to the world. Also, every time we find a Glimmer, it builds on the Glimmer we found just a bit ago. And then the next one, and the next one. This increases our capacity to navigate the world from a place of feeling safe, feeling connected, feeling some joy.

Thank you for explaining that. Can you give us some samples of Glimmers and how they might vary between people?

Yeah, sure. You know, today is a beautiful, gentle, rainy day here in Maine. And I woke up this morning to the sound of that gentle rain through an open window. So, I started my day with that Glimmer. It was a lovely moment and that's often what happens for me. I hear something or I see something. I put my hand on my heart and I go, 'oh, that for me is a way to work today.'

There's no end to the moments that can bring a Glimmer. In fact, Glimmer moments exist all around us. But if we're not looking for them, we most often miss them right? So what can we do, or not do, to become more aware of them?

There's actually a really simple practice, which you know, I love for its simplicity, because it it encourages me to keep that feeling that I've bumped into a Glimmer.

So what are the ways to recognise that? For me, it often starts with how my attention gets caught. I look towards something and I find myself putting my hand on my heart. And the first step is to sask myself, how do I notice I've bumped into a Glimmer?

So you can do that by looking back on a day and thinking, oh, was that a Glimmer? You can, by bringing it back to life and then jot down your Glimmer experiences, keep a running list. Because we want to remember and then also share the Glimmer experience, because we humans are always longing to be in connection with other safe humans.

And so, I invite people to find a Glimmer buddy or create a Glimmer group. We see, stop, appreciate, and then, in some way, we remember and share.

So those are the basics to bring Glimmers into your world.

Would you say glimmers have the power to help change our perspective on life?

I do. I think what's lovely about Glimmers, and what I did learn from my clinical practice, was that they are gentle yet powerful ways to reshape your nervous system. So that you have more access to the pathways of connection, the pathways of safety.

And so every time we notice this micro moment that we've named a Glimmer, and bring it into our active awareness, it then comes into our brain -body experience, and rests somewhere. And then the next Glimmer we find comes in and rests along with the first one.

And they begin to accumulate, from which it's easier to move into connection. It's easier to move into safety. It's easier to be regulated into feeling balanced and to bring that regulation into our daily living.

So, what I often think is that these tiny moments are shaping our experience in a new way, in a way that is easy to reach for and yet powerful in the ways that it affects our lives.

And then we could imagine every human finding Glimmers, every nervous system beginning to shape towards safety, and the ripple effect of that. That's where I like to go when I dream.

To create a cascade and change the world together. That's my curiosity.

Okay. That's beautiful. I think that's amazing. And I just would like to thank you for sharing your perspective with us. And I wish you a great day.

Thank you. And I'm going to wish you a day that brings you Glimmers.

Thank you so much. Bye. Bye.

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About Deb Dana

Deb Dana, a licensed clinical social worker and expert in complex trauma, coined the term "Glimmers" for brief, positive experiences that foster safety and calmness. She is a clinician, consultant, author, and international lecturer on polyvagal theory and trauma. As a founding member of the Polyvagal Institute, she adapts Polyvagal Theory for trauma treatment and created the Rhythm of Regulation® to help resolve trauma's impact. By understanding and learning about the nervous system, the Rhythm of Regulation® can help humans resolve the impact of trauma in our lives so we "may fall in love with life," says Deb. Deb serves as a clinical advisor to Khiron Clinics and Unyte-ILS, advocating for understanding the nervous system to improve well-being.