Nervous System Regulation Tips That Work!
Have you ever experienced a racing heart beat, sweaty palms, cold feet, or butterflies in your stomach during stressful experiences? Someone cut you off in traffic? Your boss calls you to come in to the office to talk? Have you noticed that you are still feeling worked up, heart still racing, tense muscles, or an inability to relax long after the experience is over? Have you ever felt stuck in the same loop of problems in your life? Feeling like you just cannot make change?
These are usually signs that your nervous system is having trouble coming back down into a relaxed and present state.
Our nervous system is the control system for everything we experience, process and feel. We take in 11 million bits of information per second, but our conscious mind can only process about 50 bits per second! That means that our nervous system is filtering out millions of bits per second, so that we can make sense of the world.
So how does it know what to filter out for us? The short answer is our past. Our past experiences, our current state of being tells the nervous system what is important for us to know. If we are stuck in “fight or flight” or sympathetic dominance, it will focus on information about our safety, our surroundings, what is going to keep us alive and safe. If we are in a more “restful and digestive” state, which is driven by our parasympathetic nervous system, we are going to process information for connection, joy, creativity, and peace.
Let’s break down the nervous system just a little. The Sympathetic Branch is a branch of our Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) that controls survival. When we are experiencing a threat, our eyes focus, our blood goes away from our digestion and into our heart and muscles, our heart rate increases, our breathing increases, and we are ready to run or fight. Unfortunately, our bodies can’t tell the difference between a physical threat or emotional stress. It responds the same. When we have stress often, chronic stress, then we can get stuck in “Sympathetic Dominance”. We experience overstimulation, poor sleep, digestive issues, chronic inflammation, anxiety, and nutritional deficiencies to name a few. In this state, it is challenging to be creative, experience joy, rest deeply, or be present. The Parasympathetic Branch is the “rest and digest” branch of our ANS. It brings blood back into the digestive system, relaxes the gaze, slows and deepens breathing, and relaxes the muscles. It is where our body repairs, experiences peace and joy, and can be creative.
Polyvagal Theory breaks down the ANS one step further. There is a large nerve with two branches called the Vagus nerve, that runs from the brain and has connection at all of our organs in our body. The dorsal branch is responsible for our freeze and fawn responses from stress and trauma in our lives. The ventral branch is in charge of our social connection.
When looking at how to shift the state of our nervous system from “Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn” into “Rest, Digest, and Love” it is important to look at the big picture. One of the problems I have found on my nervous system healing journey and when supporting other’s through their journey was that a lot of the techniques were causing a state change in the moment, but it was not sustainable. The state change didn’t last.
So the big question is, how to we create sustainable change? How do we change our baseline from surviving to thriving? How do we create a healthy nervous system that doesn’t get stuck in a certain emotional or stress response? Remember, the goal isn’t to always be calm. The goal is to create a nervous system that can flow with what life brings in the moment. Have
you ever watched a toddler? One minute they are angry because their sandwich was cut wrong, the next minute they are giggling and laughing, and then a minute later the stubbed their toe and are having an all out cry. That is a healthy and adaptable nervous system.
So here they are, 5 Ways we can start to make sustainable change in our nervous system. So you can always look as happy and be as adaptable as this guy:
SLOW DOWN
There are two rules in healing that I address with every client and patient at the beginning. 1. We can not change anything we aren’t aware of. 2. We also can not be in survival and healing/growing at the same time. We must slow down in order to come out of overwhelm and to see what is really going on. First, practice better boundaries through saying no. Before making commitments, take a moment, sit down, take 3 deep breaths. Check in if you need anything like food or water. If the thing you have been invited to isn’t a full yes and it isn’t going to change your life substantially by going, SAY NO! Start to lighten your schedule. This may feel scary I have even heard from patients, that slowing down causing anxiety, they feel like something is wrong, almost like rest is unsafe. This is a sign that you are headed in the right direction.
TAKE RADICAL RESPONSIBILITY
Radical Responsibility is the next step in healing your nervous system and rewiring for thriving. The bottom line is WE are in charge of our own wellbeing ad health. We must take Radical Responsibility for how we have participated in supporting our health or challenging it! Some questions I like to ask myself and patients/clients are, Are you playing victim in your life (blaming other’s for where you are?) Do I make excuses for why I can’t eat better, work out, or ____(Fill in the blank)? What do I have control over? What needs to shift (a behavior, a belief, a pattern)?
LIMITING BELIEFS/PATTERNS
Once we slow down, get real with ourselves, we can start to see what if there is a certain belief or pattern in control of our thoughts, decisions and reactions. Some examples are, “I am not worthy”, “I’m not enough”, “I have to do XYZ to be lovable”. Then as the questions, Where did I learn this from? How old was I? Is there a part of me that doesn’t believe this to be true? Once we can separate this out, we can start to bring safety to this young part of us that believes this story. Find a mantra or practice that helps shift that belief. This could look like this…Every time you feel guilty about saying No to someone, stop and put your hand on your heart. Take 3 deep breath and say to the part of you that feels you can’t disappoint anyone and you have to do it all to receive love, “You are Safe, You are Loved, You are enough.” Or “It’s ok to need a break, it’s ok to say no, it’s ok to choose rest.”
Interrupt the Pattern/Belief
Interrupting the patterns we get stuck in as often as possible helps to begin rewiring our nervous system to operate in ways that support our wellbeing. Start to ask yourself, What are some ways I can start to shift these patterns? Some example exercises are taking a walk in the morning to get morning sunlight, taking a 5 minute walk every hour during work days, jump/shake your body when feeling tense or stuck, change your posture (lifting your collar bones 2 inches actually changes the hormones/neurotransmitters being released), touch your heart and breath in your nose and out your mouth, and talk to yourself (I like to do this during walks- “I love you, You are doing an amazing job, I am safe, I am so sorry you have felt this way, I know this change is scary)
Daily Nervous System Health
Integration is the final step! Things you are doing on a daily basis to maintain and practice healthy nervous system hygiene, just as your brush your teeth and shower for mouth/body hygiene. Shaking, Grounding (feet on the earth), sing/hum/gargle, cold exposure (30 second cold shower), Dance, Laugh, Play, Meditate, Focused Deep Breathing are all a great place to start. These practices help to stimulate your vagus nerve we talked about at the beginning. These practices help stimulate your parasympathetic nervous system, bringing you into a calm, present, and connected state.
Our modern world has created a lot of stress and busyness, but we haven’t fully adapted to the changes in our lifestyle. The human nervous system requires slowness, introspection, and play. The more we can implement and integrate practices into our daily life, the more we can thrive, instead of just survive life! Of course, if you have experienced trauma, tried these exercises and are still struggling, please seek out a practitioner who can help! Network Spinal is the modality that I use with my patients here in Colorado. It is a very gentle technique that teaches the body self-regulation strategies and helps the nervous system rewire to a more flexible and adaptable state! Check out the directory of amazing practitioners! https://www.drscherina.com/directory I truly hope this helps you on your healing journey from surviving to thriving!!
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