This article is dedicated to all the women holding it all together for everyone; it’s for those of you who work long hours, juggle children, maintain a household, and are there to support friends, family members in need.
It can be difficult to stop, pause, and take time out for yourself, let alone think about what your autonomic nervous system is doing. The autonomic nervous system is the body’s control centre for regulating body functions like heart rate, respiratory rate, sexual arousal, and our survival responses.
When we spend our time running all day from work, texting, driving, managing children, having a disagreement with someone, and squeezing exercise into our day, our sympathetic (fight or flight) nervous system gets activated. Sometimes our body becomes stuck in fight or flight and we have difficulty returning to a safe, calm and all is well in the world feeling. As our stress levels increase our adrenal glands can become overworked and we have excess stress hormone cortisol and adrenaline running around our body.
When our sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) is activated this can lead to:
- Lower immunity
- Feeling ‘tired but wired’ where we are unable to get adequate or good quality sleep and are lethargic during the day
- Digestive issues such as constipation and bloating despite efforts to eat healthily
- Increased blood pressure, elevated blood sugar levels, weight gain
- Feeling unable to slow down mentally or physically
- Feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and anxious
If you notice you are constantly stressed or habitually running throughout your day, here are some simple recommendations to help regulate your autonomic nervous system:
Breathwork, meditation, and mindfulness
I know we hear about deep breathing all the time to calm ourselves down and manage anxiety and stress, but the benefit of deep breathing is that it activates your parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest). When you notice your stress or anxiety levels rising try the 4-7-8 approach. Inhale through the nose to the count of 4, hold for a count of seven and then exhale through the nose for a count of 8.
Meditating and practising mindfulness can also place your body in a space of safety and calm. If you enjoy meditating and notice yourself feeling stressed and triggered, making it part of your daily routine can have huge benefits over time as you retrain your nervous system. Making sure you practise mindful eating each time you have a meal is also nourishing for your body. When we eat on the go and are rushing, our body has less of an opportunity to properly digest food. As our sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) is activated and our digestion inhibited.
Put yourself to bed
Often when we have rushed all day long, it’s hard to calm ourselves down and put ourselves to bed. How frequently do you get stuck on your phone at bed time just wanting a few moments to yourself to rest and unwind but fall into the black hole of the internet? Going to bed late perpetuates the cycle of stress and poor sleep, wreaking havoc on our nervous system.
Most people need 8-9 hours of sleep a night yet quite often we are functioning on much less. Find a bedtime ritual that suits you and helps you settle into bed. Spray lavender on your pillow or turn screens off an hour before bed. Learn to reset your sleep wake cycle naturally.
Watch feel good shows or movies
When we are constantly overwhelmed by negative news in the media it’s important to balance that out with some feel good stuff. We can get stuck in survival mode reading articles or viewing other people’s thoughts and comments on social media.
When we watch something lighthearted and fun, our body experiences that too. We feel relaxed, calm and safe when we are able to find humour in what we are watching. When you are activated and stressed you lose your ability to appreciate humour.
To be fair, in the cavemen era, I’m sure we didn’t have time to stop and tell jokes when we were getting chased by saber tooth tigers.
You might like this: 8 unapologetically funny TV shows
Hold back on the coffee
Unfortunately coffee is very stimulating for the nervous system. If you find yourself in the habit of drinking more than one cup a day or feel jittery after you’ve had a cup, maybe it’s time to hold back. Coffee can spur us on and make us feel ready for action while we are rushing around our busy day trying to accomplish everything. However, if we pay attention to our body, sometimes we need the opposite of what we are craving. Try choosing lower caffeine options or mix up your day with caffeine-free teas.
Try a cold shower
When we notice our stress response rising it might be a good time to have a cold shower – which is not an easy thing if you are a wuss like me and hate the cold! But what a cold shower actually does is stimulate your nervous system in a good way. Think of it as a system reset where you are rebooting your body when your nervous system has been glitching and you have been stuck in fight or flight.
Listen to your body
Our body communicates with us throughout the day. It’s important to listen to our body and give it what it needs. It’s so easy to put our body right down the bottom of the priority list when we are focusing on work, children, family, and other people. Do you notice when you start to have tension in your muscles, when your breathing changes or when you feel extra energy in your body? Is there a specific cue in your body where you recognise your stress response? These are perfect opportunities to give your body what it needs, by slowing down and taking time to nourish your nervous system.
If you recognise you’re suffering from an over-stimulated nervous system or your adrenal glands have been taking a hit, try a few of these recommendations. We can give our body some tender loving care by listening to cues and training our nervous system to come back down to safety and calm.
It can be hard to find time for ourselves but looking after our bodies is really important to be able to keep doing all the things we love. This not only benefits us from being able to digest our food and improve our immunity, it also can improve our overall vitality, emotional experiences and wellbeing.
