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.

Why Nervous System Health Matters

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.

Understanding Your Stress Bucket

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.

Nervous System States: Polyvagal Theory

To better understand our autonomic nervous system, the 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. 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.

Daily Practices to Support Your Nervous System

We can incorporate various practices into our daily routines to enhance 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.

Tools to Move Back to Regulation

Moving Through Activation to Regulation

• Cold exposure: to lower stress hormones, e.g., cold shower, holding ice cubes, or placing an ice pack wrapped in a thin cloth on your chest and cheeks.
• Somatic shaking: to discharge activated stress energy and down-regulate. 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.

Moving Through Shutdown to Regulation

• Warm Epsom salt bath: to reduce the fight-or-flight response.
• Sensory awareness practice: bring yourself 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.

Building Your Nervous System Toolkit

The ultimate goal is to create a lifestyle plus 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.

Seeking Support

If your nervous system is out of balance and your current load exceeds your capacity, help is available.

[Photo by Liv Bruce on Unsplash]