How Resilient Is Your Nervous System?
We’ve all experienced those moments when we feel we’ve literally left our body, or gone into shut down mode.
When we’ve been confronted with some horrific news or when our emotions are overwhelmed and we feel like whatever is going on is just too much to handle and we numb out.
That’s your Nervous System trying to protect you.
Your Nervous System can perceive a threat or alarming experience and automatically takes action.
Contrary to what most people believe stress plays an important role in the nervous system. Stress allows the Nervous System to take action, and do what it’s meant to do, keep us feeling safe.
A Nervous System that is functioning from a state of Homeostasis flows effortlessly. Producing all the hormones needed to have the strength to FIGHT, run and take FLIGHT, or switch off and FREEZE depending on what is happening in the world around us. The normal duration for this response, in a resilient Nervous System, should last around 20 to 30 minutes and then return to homeostasis.
Unfortunately, in the world we live in, many of us are living in a heightened state continuously due to the stress of the roles we play in society.
We take on all these roles thinking that we’re superhuman and it’s simply impossible to keep up.
This is a pattern I know all too well. When your body is responding from this place, your endocrine system is quite literally running on adrenaline.
DO YOU FEEL ENERGISED BUT EXHAUSTED AT THE SAME TIME?
Do you wake up feeling full of energy and able to do anything, but the moment you give yourself the chance to stop and breathe you feel physically exhausted and depleted?
Do you go to bed at the end of the day, drained and in need of rest, but unable to fall asleep? Or do you wake often during the night to your heart racing?
This is actually a typical response to your body adapting to life with adrenal fatigue, your body starts to adjust by flooding your system with adrenaline even when you don’t need it and your body is trying to rest.
Unfortunately, a long term result of your body continually using adrenaline as fuel, is your body starts to produce higher levels of cortisol.
Once you start living with high cortisol levels [something anyone under severe stress knows all too well] you may start noticing these type of symptoms:
weight gain
high blood pressure.
osteoporosis
muscle weakness
mood swings [which can show as anxiety, depression or irritability]
At this point, you can function successfully in the world but your body is screaming out for help. Emotions and senses become dulled and you don’t have a true sense of how you really feel or who you really are. This was my experience and what led me to my Journey to meet my Soul and change my life.
SO WHAT IS THE FIGHT-FLIGHT-FREEZE RESPONSE?
“The fight, flight, freeze response, or stress response, is triggered by a release of hormones either prompting us to stay and fight or run away and flee or freeze, depending on the situation,” explains psychologist Carolyn Fisher, PhD. “During the response, all bodily systems are working to keep us alive in what we’ve perceived as a dangerous situation.”
Your autonomic nervous system is a delicate balancing act between your sympathetic nervous system and your parasympathetic nervous system. Both networks involuntarily react to the environment around you.
Your sympathetic nervous system is responsible for how your body reacts to danger and is responsible for the fight or flight response.
While your parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for maintaining homeostasis, which is your body’s built-in stability monitor.
Your parasympathetic nervous system makes sure things are balanced. It works to relax you and helps conserve and restore energy.
You need both systems to run properly.
“Think of your sympathetic nervous system and your parasympathetic nervous system like your car’s gas and brakes,” explains Dr Fisher. “You need to use both effectively for your car to run properly.”
You need your sympathetic nervous system to keep you alive when true danger is detected and you need your parasympathetic nervous system to restore and relax you so that your body can run in a ‘business as usual’ state.
So, if you find that your body is constantly reacting to everyday stress with the fight or flight response, it should be a warning sign that your sympathetic and parasympathetic systems aren’t working together in harmony.
HOW CAN WE HELP OUR NERVOUS SYSTEM BECOME MORE RESILIENT?
Quite simply, there’s significant work involved in this, there’s no quick fix.
You need to be prepared to do the work. To commit to clearing out all the history and trauma and past experiences that you have locked away hoping never to see again.
Every past experience that is left unresolved gets trapped in your body. It takes up space and fills your cells with heaviness.
It takes dedication to unpack each experience. Each experience must be approached with compassion and appreciation for what it has shown you, and the lessons you’ve learnt from it.
This can be very hard to do on our own, you may find you get caught up in the cycle of the story and don’t seem to get anywhere.
When talking about these kinds of deep traumas, it’s best to seek the help of a professional who is trained to assist your journey.
Approaching this in a co-created space allows you to be held and supported while you allow the residual energy of the trauma to be witnessed and released.
THE KEY TO UNLOCKING YOUR TRANSFORMATION
The key is embodiment - Allowing all your feelings, visions, sensations and tensions to be seen, felt and released.
Re-connect with your soul - Your soul has a way of tugging at you, trying to get you to listen, but the more we ignore those signs and niggles the quieter our soul becomes and the more lost we feel. To reignite this connection we must still our mind and go within.
Devotion to self - An unwavering knowing that with each energetic piece you release brings space for transformation to occur.
Unconditional Love - Hold yourself close, give yourself the tender love and support you would give to your dearest loved one. You are the most important soul in your life, you’re not being selfish, you’re caring enough about yourself and the world, that you’re only prepared to show up as your best so your vibrancy can overflow to everyone.
No Judgement simply Compassion - One of the hardest part of going within is forgiving yourself for the things you’ve always felt were unforgivable, but we must. We are our own worst enemy, we judge ourselves more harshly than we would anyone else and we are also less forgiving. However, if you are committed to a resilient Nervous System and a body that contains enough space to hold your wildest dreams and deepest possibilities, this is essential.
Once you have fully devoted yourself to these 5 practices your body and energy field will be humming at such a unique vibration that your Nervous System will be in harmony with your soul and it will reside in a state of homeostasis. Your body will operate at its optimum and your hormones, organs, digestion, literally your entire body will function at its highest level.
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