What is the Nervous System
The Nervous System
The Nervous System is your brain, spine and nerves - without it, we couldn’t do anything. It regulates organs, muscles, breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, hormones, glands, reproduction, digestion, emotions, choices and actions.
How does the Nervous System work?
It surveillances, processes information, recognizes threats/danger and sends messages. It does whatever it can do to keep you safe.
Information comes in from the senses
Five senses, tone of voice, light, movement, sensations, intuition, thoughts, etc.
Sends information to the brain for processing
Processing happens according to your past experiences and perceptions. What you think is safe is your baseline
Sends message back down to the body
Either safe or unsafe, no in-between.
The body responds
Safe (Regulated) - The body will stay in homeostasis, and feel calm and grounded, known as the Parasympathetic Branch.
Unsafe (Dysregulated)
Sympathetic (hyperarousal) is what people know as a fight-or-flight response.
Dorsal (hypoarousal) is what's known as freeze, shutdown, dissociate, and fawn response.
How does it feel when my nervous system is regulated and dysregulated?
Most people know about the parasympathetic (rest/ digest) and sympathetic (fight/flight) but in 1994 Dr. Stephen Porges founded the Polyvagal Theory which identifies three whole-body states our nervous system continually moves between, depending on activation of the vagus nerve. They are below:
Regulated
Ventral Vagal Activation (Parasympathetic)
Flow, relaxed, curious, willing to be intimate, feeling safe, interdependent, feel capable, able to digest, feel empathy, and access to joy and love.
Dysregulated
Sympathetic Activation (Hyperarousal)
Stress response, ready to get up and run or fight, chaotic, frenzy, feel out of control, confused, overwhelmed, anger, fearful, worried, irritated, agitation, avoidant, I’m crazy, this is crazy, this world is unsafe.
Dorsal Vagal Activation (Hypoarousal - part of the Parasympathetic branch)
Collapse, lethargic, freeze, unable to move, dissociation, things feel fuzzy, trouble focusing, sedated, invisible, lonely, floating away, shame, hopelessness, and I’m unlovable, I’m stuck, I don’t know what to do.
What does a “healthy” nervous system look like?
The ultimate goal when it comes to nervous system regulation is to widen your window of tolerance. To feel like you can deal with whatever’s happening in your life. Stress and pressure can be a reality but they don’t have to be a lifestyle. You don’t want to get stuck in hyper or hypo arousal without awareness.
This doesn't mean you won’t have emotions and won’t react (and sometimes immaturely). It just means you are more aware, recover more quickly and reconnect with your own body as well as the connections around you. Connection after conflict in every way.
I share with you my easy 4-step process for Nervous System regulation in my blog “How to regulate the Nervous System.”
Final thoughts
The nervous system is the most important system in your body - made up of the brain, spinal cord and nerves.
It controls many aspects of what you think, how you feel and what your body does. It allows you to do things such as walk, speak, swallow, breathe and learn. It also controls how the body reacts in stressful situations. The nervous system interprets and responds to information gathered through the senses.
The NS is responsible for:
intelligence, learning and memory: your thoughts and feelings
physical movement
basic body functions such as the beating of your heart, breathing, digestion, sweating and shivering
the senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell
This is why the health of your nervous system is so important and a topic I will forever talk about! The health of your nervous system is dependent on your capacity to regulate your nervous system or your ability to move flexibly between different states of arousal in response to stressors.
It’s how you manage stress.
Contrary to most information you’ll find, there are actually three (not just two) states of arousal according to The Polyvagal Theory (which I find to be the most accurate):
Ventral Vagal Activation (Parasympathetic)
Homeostasis and relaxation.
Sympathetic Activation (Hyperarousal)
Fight or flight.
Dorsal Vagal Activation (Hypoarousal - part of the Parasympathetic branch)
Shut down or freeze.
The goal is not to be relaxed all the time but to be able to come back to a pre-crisis baseline of homeostasis as quickly as you can after any stressor. It’s what we call widening the window of tolerance or building your capacity to manage stress.
Check out my blog “How to Regulate the Nervous System” for calming tips!