Awareness and understanding of what’s happening in our autonomic nervous system as well as learning ways to manage it so that we are mostly regulated is extremely empowering and the key to living well.
So many of us are stuck in survival states, completely distracted and unaware of what’s happening in our system. We’re not present, we’re disconnected from ourselves and others, we struggle to relax and enjoy life as we’re constantly doing rather than being, or we can’t do much at all because we’re in a state of shutdown.
When we’re dysregulated and experiencing things like anxiety, depression, low motivation and feelings of being lost or stuck, we can often think that there’s something wrong with us, but actually it’s just our nervous system’s beautiful way of trying to protect us and keep us safe.
The good news is, that while we might be currently stuck in these patterns of dysregulation, it is within our control to reshape our autonomic nervous system to be more resilient and flexible, so that when we face challenges in life and become dysregulated, we’re able to come back to regulation and safety in our system more easily.
When we are resilient and mostly anchored in our ventral vagal complex (the safe branch of our parasympathetic nervous system), we are naturally present, grounded, embodied, connected to ourselves and others, confident, compassionate, curious, creative, at ease, in our flow, we have energy and know what we want and where we want to go. We are less identified with the narrative/stories and more in touch with what is real and true…more in touch with who we really are. We’re able to enjoy life more fully and freely.
Practices like yoga, mindfulness, meditation and pranayama (yogic breath work), are all excellent ways to improve vagal tone (shape of your nervous system) and develop interoceptive skills so that we can notice and name what is happening internally for us – bringing implicit experience into explicit awareness in order to change our state from survival to safety. It’s rarely possible to talk ourselves into safety, we really need to show our system that is safe, and yoga can be a beautiful way to do this.
Other ways we can regulate our ANS is by simply being in nature, walking, swimming or sitting by a body of water, exercise, connecting with friends, family, community and pets, deep rest, play, dancing, listening to uplifting or calming music, eating a well balanced nutrient dense diet, somatics, touch, neural exercises and good sleep hygiene/routines.
Our ANS creates every thought, feeling, beliefe and behaviour, so it’s worth investing the time and energy in understanding and taking good care of it.
