What's so Great About Nervous System Regulation?

I heard this great phrase recently “Our nervous system will choose chaos until we re-wire it for calm.”

Bingo. 

That’s pretty much the answer to this blog question.

Good night everybody!

Ok, I will give a little longer answer to this very good question.

So, not all of our nervous systems default to chaos. Some folks, due to a wide variety of reasons, are really calm under pressure, can handle the day’s stresses, sleep like a baby, and get up to take on the next day with gusto.

That didn’t describe me, unfortunately. Oh, I had lots of get-go, and accomplished a great deal day-to- day, but I was often dragging myself through it all, had horrible insomnia and digestive issues, felt increasingly unable to handle the pressures in my life, and felt a sense of dread about what else was going to be put on my plate when I already couldn’t “do” life.

Yes, I was dealing with depression and anxiety, but underneath all of this was a dysregulated nervous system.

Regulation is the ability to keep the nervous system in a state of health and balance.

A dysregulated nervous system is one that overcompensates – swinging a person from high stress and anxiety down to feeling collapsed and frozen, with not much room in between, or even feeling both extremes at once. It’s like having both the gas and brake on in your internal vehicle. Another great analogy I’ve heard is feeling like both Tigger and Eeyore.

An unhealthy nervous system can be connected to many health issues, chronic pains and illnesses, insomnia, bad habits, irritability, feeling numb to emotions, flooding thoughts and catastrophizing, despair, fatigue, struggles with focus, difficulties in relationships, and fears that keep you from making changes that you’d really like to make. Not such fun stuff…

But here is the really magnificent, beautiful part:

Unlike changing neuropathways in the brain (the process for creating new habits and thought patterns, where we ultimately want to go), which takes weeks, you can change the state of your nervous system in seconds.

Simple tools, even as simple as deep breaths, or touching or looking at an object that is calming to you, can shift your nervous system state. A trusted healing mentor can help you to take these powerful steps, in the moment. The more we can shift to a state of calm, the more we provide a solid foundation for deeper work, like updating our neuropathways in the brain, and thus changing our habits and ways of being.

And, as we learn more about ourselves, and the unique ways our nervous system responds to stress, we can see that our responses to certain situations are predictable. This is great news!  Because, once we create awareness, we can feel the disruption via signals from our body. This means…. get ready for it… this means… we can do something about it! Did you catch that? We have the power to change this!! We are no longer a victim to what is happening around us. This skill is even better than sliced bread!

By using tools like those mentioned above, and others that I teach (catered to your specific struggles and needs), with increasing consistency (no one is expected to change their ways all at once), we really can change our daily experience of life in a positive way.

Ultimately, this awareness – and cultivating a feeling of “calm aliveness” as nervous system educator and trauma healing expert Dr. Aimie Apigian explains – is what we are after. We want to feel peace, like when we are sitting at the beach, but we are also not looking to be in some sort of zen coma. We also want to feel alive. We want to feel that we have capacity and agency to do what we need to, and most importantly, what we want to, in life. We can live from that balanced middle ground, without the swings to extremes.

For me, working towards nervous system regulation has given me a strong foundation on which to heal from trauma, find more daily peace, and move towards what I want in life.

If you are looking for some nervous system regulation in your life, give me a holler. I’d love to help guide you to this sweet spot where we can really live life more fully.

If you have comments, deep thoughts, shallow thoughts, questions, anything you’d like to share in response to this blog, I would love to hear them. Please send a message to me, Deb, at honeycreekhealing@gmail.com.

Disclaimer: I, Debra (Deb) Moses, am not a licensed physician or therapist. The information on this website is intended for educational and informative purposes only and is not intended to substitute for professional medical or psychological advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this site. If you are currently experiencing a mental health crisis, this is outside the scope of my expertise. Please pursue immediate support from your primary mental health clinician or dial 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.