WELLNESS WEDNESDAY – Understanding Your Nervous System

How’s your nervous sytem?

We all have one and most of us are walking around with activated, overwhelmed nervous systems. And it might be affecting you in so many different ways that you may not even realize.

Join our conversation with Jenny and Tina from Life’s Seasons Care & Support as we talk about our nervous system and how we can regulate ourselves in a way that helps not only ourselves, but others as well.

What IS the nervous sytem? It’s basically our bodys control system. It sends messages between our brain and our body. It’s the bodys way to protect us from danger and it’s always working to protect us.

We are affected individually and collectively.

It can show up with physical symptoms – tension, headaches, tight chest, fast heart rate, shallow breathing; in our minds – racing thoughts, difficulty focusing; emotionally – irritability or anxiety, feeling overwhelmed, or even going numb – shutting down, and behaviourly -we may avoid tasks, withdraw from others, shrink back, trying to be really little and unnoticed.

“We are in constant information overload… we’ve all got uncertainty about our future… we are in fast paced lifestyles… we have high expectations.. we get little TRUE rest…all of that is weighing heavily on our nervous systems and throwing it into an active mode and not giving us a chance to actually balance and come back down to a state of calm for any length of time that lets us recharge and recover”

What can you do about it? Get present. Name it. “This is what I’m feeling, this is where I’m feeling it. Because that can take some of the power of the unknown away.”

Focusing on your breathing CAN help. Slowing your breathing can help the body to understand that the perceived danger is gone and you are safe. Finding a safe person to connect with can help as well as grounding ourselves using our five senses can offer comfort.

“Our reactions AREN’T weakness. It IS our nervous system and it’s just trying to protect us in a really demanding world. The goal ISN’T to never feel stress, but to notice it with kindness. So we can gently return to this calm. And then, when we’re looking at other people, it’s to realize their reactions are often signs of their nervous system just trying to cope. And with them we need to try and respond with understanding instead of judgement, because that’s where we create safety, really. And we need to meet ourselves with compassion but meet others with curiosity… because maybe they’ve got something stuff going on.”

Categorised in: Afternoons

This post was written by Carrie Buchanan