Meetings, deadlines, overflowing inbox, phone notifications, pick-ups/drop offs, work commitments, social commitments, house chores… oh, have I had any water today?
If your nervous system is feeling taxed, you are not alone.
Let this be your sign to take a deep belly breath in through your nose and let it all out.
The impact of a dysregulated nervous system is wide-ranging, including gastrointestinal symptoms, poor-quality sleep, muscle tension, immune dysregulation, reproductive-related concerns, cardiovascular issues, mood fluctuations, breathing difficulties, and more.
Conversely, learning about, attending to, and consistently supporting your nervous system can positively impact every facet of your health.
The health of our nervous system reflects our ‘stress bucket’ versus our capacity. Our ‘stress bucket’ accumulates our load of various daily responsibilities, while our capacity reflects our nervous system’s ability to effectively manage this load—essentially our resilience to move through stressors.
To better understand our autonomic nervous system Polyvagal Theory framework has been created. Within this framework, the three nervous system states include:
- Regulation: a state of safety, presence and connection.
- Activation: a state of sympathetic fight or flight.
- Shutdown: a state of hypo-arousal, immobilisation, numbness.
Inherently no state is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ as they each play an important role. Further to this the ideal is not necessarily feeling calm, happy and capable all the time.. but rather your ability to readily move through the states back to balance – ultimately spending most of our time in a state of regulation.
We can incorporate various practices into our daily routines to enhance our nervous system resilience. Some of the very best ways to do this include: getting sunshine, moving your body, opting for nourishing meals, getting plenty of rest and making time for the people you love.
Outside of this, if you find yourself spending an unproductive amount of time in either a state of ‘Activation’ or ‘Shutdown’, here as some specific tools to move back to a state of regulation:
Move through activation to regulation –
- Cold exposure: to lower stress hormones i.e. cold shower, holding some ice cubes, or place ice pack wrapped in a thin cloth on your chest and cheeks.
- Somatic shaking: to discharge activated stress energy, completing a stress cycle and down-regulating. 1. Stand up and slowly begin to shake your hands, arms and shoulders 2. Allow the shake to spread throughout your entire body 3. Shake for approximately 1 minute.
Move through shutdown to regulation –
- Take a warm Epsom salt bath to reduce the fight or flight response.
- Complete a sensory awareness practices to bring you back to your body. Observe 5 things you can see, 4 things you can feel, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, 1 thing you can taste.
The ultimate goal is to create a lifestyle + specific tools in your nervous system toolkit to support your resilience through life’s highs and lows; helping you embrace life more fully, spending less time feeling tired, frustrated, anxious, or as if life is simply passing you by.
If your nervous system is out of balance and your current load exceeds your capacity, help is available.