How to regulate your nervous system
It's easy to get caught up in the busy-ness and feel like your body is falling apart.
Stress, anxiety and trauma take a serious toll on the nervous system, affecting everything from your hormones to your digestion. When our bodies are taxed, we tend to reach for external solutions rather than turn inward. We look for ways to ease the ache of chronic pain or remedy sleep issues with medications that suppress symptoms instead of treating the underlying issue. But drugs aren't solving our health problem; they're just masking it. The real solution lies in tuning in to what your body is telling you -- or rather, signaling you through physical sensations -- so that you can learn how to calm yourself down at a cellular level.
What happens when you’re dysegulated?
The autonomic nervous system has two parts: the sympathetic and parasympathetic, and when you nervous system is dysregulated, it becomes out of wack. “The sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for managing stressful incidents and emergencies, becomes overly dominant,” and in turn your parasympathetic nervous system, which helps you calm down, relax, and rest, is “unable to exert any significant control over how you are feeling, thinking, or behaving,”
And your body’s “fight or flight” response becomes overly active, putting your body in a very stressful, high-alert state.
You will know you’re experiencing this if you have difficulty focusing and regulating emotions, sleep disturbances, digestive problems, physical expressions of emotional symptoms like headaches or unexplained body pains, and physiological responses such as heart racing, dizziness, and feeling out of control.
The body is doing exactly what it needs to do to maintain homeostasis and safety.
The body is a self-regulating system, and it does what it needs to do in order to maintain its homeostasis. The heart beats to pump blood; lungs breathe air into the system; muscles contract and relax to move the body around. All of these functions are regulated by the nervous system, which constantly monitors how things are going in order to keep everything working properly.
The nervous system has many different ways of keeping everything running smoothly: if your core temperature gets too high (for example, from being exposed to sunlight), then you get chills or start sweating. If your core temperature gets too low (such as when you go out in winter without enough clothes on), then you begin shivering as a way of raising your body temperature back up again.
If there's an imbalance between oxygen supply and demand—such as during exercise—your breathing rate will increase so that more oxygen can be delivered throughout the body via blood vessels that have expanded due to increased activity levels. And if there's too much carbon dioxide circulating through those same pathways after heavy exertion stops—as well as elsewhere around town via traffic emissions from cars driving back home from work every day—then respiration rates decrease accordingly so that less CO2 builds up over time instead.*
The more you can leverage the power of your body, the more you can integrate your mind and emotions and improve your overall health.
The nervous system is a complex system. It regulates everything you do, from the beating of your heart to the movements of your arms and legs. It’s also responsible for regulating your emotions and thoughts, which in turn affect the body’s response to stress. So it makes sense that when something goes wrong with this regulatory system, you can experience trouble in other areas of life as well—in other words, a breakdown in communication between body and mind has powerful effects on both mental health and physical wellbeing.
The more you can leverage the power of your body, the more you can integrate your mind and emotions and improve your overall health
Your nervous system is responsible for regulating everything you do -- from digestion to instinctual fight-or-flight reactions.
Your nervous system is responsible for regulating everything you do -- from digestion to instinctual fight-or-flight reactions.
When you're able to regulate your nervous system, the result is a calm mind and body that can focus on tasks at hand without being distracted by stress or anxiety.
Stress and trauma tax the body.
How to regulate your nervous system
When we’re stressed and traumatized, it may feel like there are no options for calming our bodies. But the truth is that there are lots of ways to help reduce our stress levels and calm our nervous systems. The first step is to identify which coping strategies work best for you—for example, maybe deep breathing or stretching helps you relax, or maybe going for a run or yoga class helps you clear your mind and feel better after a stressful day. Once you figure out what works best for you, try incorporating that into your daily routine as often as possible!
The best way to heal is through movement -- like the breath, stretching or walking
The best way to regulate your nervous system is through movement. Movement is a great way to reduce stress, depression, anxiety and pain. The postures in yoga are specifically designed to move the body with precision and support -- this allows the nervous system to loosen up and relax.
If you've never done yoga before or are an experienced yogi looking for some new ideas on how to practice at home without going as hard as in class (which I recommend), here's some guidance:
For beginners who need more restorative poses in their lives: try Child's Pose (Balasana) after sitting for long periods of time like working at a desk; or Resting Pose (Savasana) when you're tired from working out!
If you have knee issues or lower back problems: modify Downward Facing Dog by bringing your knees closer together than usual so there isn't pressure on them!
If you want something more challenging/fun but not too intense like Tree Pose because it requires balance: try Plank instead since it also challenges balance but gives more support than elbow plank!
Food
Food matters, but it is not the only thing that matters.
If you are trying to regulate your nervous system, don't get hung up on food. You may have heard that eating certain foods can help you manage stress or improve sleep, but these claims can be misleading if they make you think that food is all there is to regulating your nervous system. While food does impact our gut microbiome and thus our ability to deal with stressors in our environment and regulate our emotions, there are other factors at play as well: genetics; lifestyle habits like exercise and meditation; epigenetics (how genes express themselves based on past experiences); social relationships; etc.
You have to identify what stressors live in your environment and make a plan to change them, or otherwise remove yourself physically from them
Identify the stressors in your environment.
With this it’s important that you pay attention to spaces, sounds and even people that may be activating to you. When you begin to notice a pattern it’s important that you make a plan to change them, or otherwise remove yourself physically from them.
A somatic wise practice toolkit can help you regulate your nervous system.
Build a somatic wise practice toolkit to use on a daily basis so you can calm your nervous system and cultivate inner regulation.
Some tools I love include…..
Butterfly tapping- Cross your hands across your chest, with your middle fingers resting on your collarbones. You then raise your elbows to create your butterfly wing. From there you begin to Slowly tap hands on your chest, alternating left and right. While tapping, breathe in through your nose and exhale through your nose until you start to feel some relief. With this tapping you’re activating both sides of the brain. Some well-regarded brain researchers believe that bilateral stimulation activates both hemispheres of the brain in the same way that REM sleep does.
Deep breathing- Deep breathing is a simple strategy to regulate your nervous system. “Deep breaths help to restore control to the parasympathetic nervous system and send signals to your brain and body that no emergency is happening
Visualization- you can do this is by recalling a beautiful image of something that brought you joy, such as scenery, artwork, or a meal. Then, close your eyes and let your mind wander in the imagery. Relive the happy experience for a couple of minutes or until you feel calm.
Journaling-Your mind and body are in constant communication, so journaling benefits your overall emotional health because it helps regulate and process your emotions. In addition to emotional regulation, journaling can help you prioritize your concerns, so you can recognize your triggers and identify negative thought patterns.
Rest and sleep- it’s so important that you’re aiming for at least 7-8 hours of sleep over single night. I learned recently that you can not bank , save or catch up on sleep . So be sure to sleep when you can. Sleep plays an important role in your brain health. There are some theories that sleep helps clear abnormal proteins in your brain and consolidates memories, which boosts your overall memory and brain health.
Taking an electronic break-recently I started to take a break from my phone and especially social media on Sundays! I did this as a challenge, but it served to be extremely helpful and supportive for regulating my nervous system. the truth is that you’re nervous system becomes overstimulated from notifications and multitasking. So I challenge you to set a goal to put your phone away at least an hour before bedtime, and perhaps for 2-3 hours during the day. If you want to take it a step further try to detox once a week. It’s life changing. If you’re wondering how to get started check out my article I did on that here: https://www.elephantjournal.com/2022/06/how-to-do-a-digital-detox/
You can't rely on the quick fix of medication or a one-off therapy session to regulate your nervous system. Instead, make building a somatic wise practice toolkit to use on a daily basis part of your self-care routine.
Your somatic wise practice could be anything from yoga or tai chi to meditation, but it should have some basic elements:
It should be something you enjoy and can do regularly—even if that means just five minutes in the morning or evening to start off with
It should help you develop inner awareness of what's going on inside yourself so that when you're stressed out, or anxious before bedtime, you know how best to calm down and relax instead of resorting straightaway back into old habits such as drinking alcohol or self medicating
Conclusion
I trust that you found these tools supportive. Remember: your nervous system exists to help you live a healthy life, so don’t be afraid of it, instead learn to leverage these tools to fully support your nervous system!Ultimately taking care of yourself is the most important thing.
