“Trust me when I say that there are incredible, beautiful souls out there who are creating a new world. They do not live in fear. It does not even enter their mind. They are vibrant, magnetic humans that are creating magic in this world. When you meet one, you’ll know.

Picture the life you want, release fear, raise your vibration, elevate. Change starts within all of us.

Find the others” – Unknown

 

What is the Parasympathetic Nervous System?

You may have heard of the parasympathetic or the sympathetic nervous system mentioned before and have wondered exactly what they do? What exactly is the difference between the two and what does this mean for your body?!

The parasympathetic nervous system and the sympathetic nervous system are two parts of the autonomic nervous system (the third part is the enteric system). The autonomic nervous system operates largely unconsciously and controls things like our eyes; pupil response, breathing, heart rate, digestive system, urinary system and also arousal.

Your parasympathetic nervous system also be can described as your natural waking state (In Polyvagal Theory this is also known as the ‘central vagus’).

This is also known as the primary system behind our ability to ‘rest and digest’.

How we feel in a parasympathetic state:

• In tune with others
• Connected
• At peace
• Calm and relaxed
• Feel supported by the people around you
• See potential around you
• Feel a sense of safety

How your body looks in a parasympathetic state:

• Muscles relaxed
• Face muscles relaxed, eyelids relaxed
• Breathing is relaxed and effortless
• Body temperature is within the normal range
• Pupils look normal

Staying in a parasympathetic state also allows for the regions of your brain that deal with rationalisation, decision making, collaboration and creativity to really thrive!

What is the Sympathetic Nervous System?

This is also known as the ‘dorsal vagus’ in Polyvagal Theory (see the video linked at page end for more info.)

It is the Sympathetic nervous system is behind our ‘fight or flight’ response.

The sympathetic nervous system is always on – running behind the scenes. When we are asleep we are largely operating from our parasympathetic nervous system. We feel relaxed, safe and at-peace and are able to wind down to sleep.

During the day our sympathetic nervous system is useful to us only in short bursts. The heightened emotions that it provides us with serve an important function in enabling us to be ‘at the ready’ and alert for any potential risk or threat.

How we feel in a sympathetic state:

• Can feel terror
• Live in fear
• Extreme stress
• Anxious, racing thoughts
• Tendency to panic
• Overwhelmed

How your body looks in a sympathetic state:

• Increased heart rate
• Pupils dilate
• Blood pressure increases
• Sweating
• Intestines slow down, gut issues can arise
• Breathing rate increases

When the sympathetic nervous system is dominant the parts of your brain that deal with rationalisation and decision making are impacted and you will struggle to engage and connect with others on a deeper level.

If something unexpected happens that puts us into a state of shock or trauma then the parasympathetic nervous system will kick in to ensure our survival. When this happens our parasympathetic nervous system will shut down or ‘go offline’ and we will only be operating from the sympathetic nervous system.

When overwhelmed or triggered and operating solely from the sympathetic nervous system we can often deal with it by going into these different states:

Fight – react by fighting, being aggressive, or attacking (the Will Smith situation is a sad example, operating from his ‘fight’ trauma response)
Flight – react by fleeing the situation, escaping, detaching and avoiding any conflict
Freeze – react by being unable to move, speak, make any decisions
Fawn – react by pleasing others to keep themselves safe, ‘people pleasing’

I think understanding all of this is quite empowering and gives us the insight into best supporting our nervous system to deal with stress and trauma in much more productive ways. Due to the neuroplasticity of our own unique brains we can also retrain and rewire our brains to enable us to create more calm and stay in a parasympathetic state.

How does trauma relate to your nervous system and your unique responses:

When we have ongoing, unresolved trauma it can cause our nervous systems to become dysregulated.

Many things can cause trauma the list is endless. The issue is not the stress because there is no life without a certain amount of constant stress it is the way that the trauma is then dealt with and stored within the body.

Trauma is unique to the individual. Many people could go through the exact same life event and be affected by it in a variety of ways. When someone is triggered or struggling it is important for us to look to what may have happened to them rather than what may be wrong with them.

What can we do to keep our bodies in a parasympathetic state?

In our modern lives we give very little emphasis to resting, taking time out, unplugging and decompressing from all of the busyness but it really is so important!!

This is just a list of ideas, you may like to form your own for when you feel overwhelmed and need to take a break:

• Deep breathing (check out Wim Hof!). Many of us breathe in a very shallow way, plus the mask wearing doesn’t help!
• Yoga
• Meditation
• Dancing (make a fun playlist)
• Get a great nights sleep (this study shows that lack of sleep can trigger our parasympathetic nervous system to be more active during the following day)
• Journaling on your own unique trauma, potential triggers and overwhelm response
• Seek out expert guidance and support on unblocking and releasing any unresolved trauma from your past
• Ground yourself outside, preferably bare foot!
• Increase the negative irons around you (have a shower, visit a park, the beach, get a salt lamp)
• Don’t expose yourself to things that you know will trigger fear and anxiety (the news is largely banned in my house)
• Be incredibly mindful of media consumption (FB has been called out in the past few years for it’s negativity bias)
• Create your own at-home, happy bubble (I check out Dara Dubinet’s insta for happy fear-free inspo)
• Work on raising your own vibration, move into more love based states of living and being

Seek love not fear, in any situation think “Am I acting out of love or fear”, choose love ♡

(Photo by Ashley Inguanta)

Links:

This post was written with knowledge gained from the Yes Supply certification. I am currently working through their coaching programme 🙂

I only briefly mentioned the Polyvagal Theory in this post. Here is a fantastic video with Dr Stephen Porges discussing it.