Nervous system 101 🧠 If you struggle to feel into your body, read this

I recently shared a video over on Insta where I talked about how the biggest point of impact in my journey towards healing (i.e. disordered eating → perfectionism at work → people pleasing → anxiety → depression → using substances to cope...) was the point at which I learned how to recognize, work with & honor the needs of my nervous system.

So today's email is a deeper dive into nervous system work.

Because let's be real, "nervous system regulation" is something that's beginning to be tossed around the interwebs somewhat regularly nowadays, but the reality is there's only so much information (let alone integration & healing) that can happen when we're getting mental health education from 10 second reels.

💡Consider this your crash course on nervous system function!
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But first, if you've been following on Insta, working to apply this stuff IRL, and feel like you could use some extra support & guidance along the way, consider booking a free coaching intro session. No strings, just information & space to explore what it might be like to deepen your healing efforts with the support of a somatic coach.

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Okay, here we go!

First off, what is the nervous system, really?

👉The nervous system is your body's ultimate communication network 🧠. In a nutshell, it's like your body's own high-speed internet, ensuring messages get where they need to go (to and from the brain & body, in both directions).

The portion of the nervous system I'm referring to when I talk about nervous system regulation is formally called the autonomic nervous system, and is made up of 2 key parts:

• The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS): This is your "fight or flight" buddy. When danger lurks, it revs you up by releasing a series of survival hormones that are at the ready to keep you safe.

• The Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS): The "rest and digest" sidekick. This is where you're your most chill Self. Feeling connected, calm, present & responsive.

The nervous system is hard at work on our behalf 24/7, automatically regulating itself as we move through the world and navigate daily life.

If your nervous system is automatically regulating for you, why would you need to consciously learn to regulate it?

Life has no shortage of challenges; from minor stressors like getting cutting off in traffic, to major tragedies like losing a spouse to disease. Over time, if not processed at a body level, these stressors stack up and start to actually change the wiring in our nervous systems to become more hyper-vigilant, on high alert for threats that may be coming our way. It can also happen that when the stressors are too high for our fight/flight response to handle, we shut down and freeze (hypo-vigilance).

✨When you're in fight, flight or freeze it's virtually impossible to feel the good stuff: the joy, ease, pleasure, fulfillment, contentment, excitement, playfulness, love, belongingness, safety that make life worth living.

And when you spend a lot of time in fight/flight/freeze because perhaps you've lived through many stressful situations, tragedies and traumas, the nervous system becomes hardwired to stay in those states. It actually can start to feel scary and difficult to feel the good stuff. This becomes a loop you get stuck in if gone unchecked & unconscious, and can lead to ongoing depression, anxiety & other mood disorders.

🔄 When we're struggling with these things ^^ and don't have the skills to recognize what's happening inside of ourselves and tend to that at a nervous system level, that's when we turn to what I call, chronic coping skills.

• Chronic coping skills: Coping skills are just the necessary behaviors and tools you turn to for safety and comfort in the midst of stress or pain. Chronic coping skills are those behaviors and tools that we use to feel better in the short term, but long term are causing more harm or bringing us out of alignment with our values. You know they're not what you want to be using to feel better, but they do the trick short term.

🤸‍♀️The exciting thing is, we can learn to rewire these patterns, and work with the body to bring ourselves back into regulation when stressors are knocking at our door. But even more exciting than that, with time and embodied practice, we can also expand our capacity for feeling the good stuff again.

... but how?

Well, that's a whole 'nother newsletter... stay tuned for part 2 where we'll talk through some more in depth foundational steps for working with your body & nervous system.

📌 What I can tell you is this: nervous system work can't be done by thinking your way through it... It's gotta happen at a body level 🙃

In the interim, I invite you to consider:

1. what part(s) of this do you see yourself and your story in most?!

2. which chronic coping skills you're currently navigating & trying to shift?

3. what might it feel like to make more space for your own nervous system work? (go ahead, close your eyes, see if you can actually feel into the possibility of making this space for yourself!!)