What Is the Nervous System & How Do We Use It to Heal? How to Use the Mind-Body Connection in Healing
What is the nervous system?
Our nervous system is what connects our brain signals to the rest of our body, from our organs to our muscles and joints. The nervous system is involved in the regulation of several involuntary physiological and psychological processes, including heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, and emotional and behavioral regulation.
The reason why it’s so important in understanding chronic physical and emotional processing is because it’s the pathway that our brain communicates to our body, and vice versa.
For example: when we eat something that we judge ourselves for and believe we shouldn’t be eating, the food actually does not digest as well. Our body hears our thoughts and belief systems, and responds accordingly. So, we must learn how to create a safer connection between the mind and body so they can communicate with care and how we need them to.
How does it get dysregulated?
Nervous system dysregulation can happen for multiple reasons. There isn’t usually just one exact reason. Our genes, environment, experiences, and how we treat ourselves all contribute to the health of our nervous system and mind-body connection.
When we’ve been through difficult experiences in life – such as Big T trauma, a toxic relationship, or a tough transition – our nervous system builds up defenses to keep us safe. Defenses can create wear and tear on our mind and body, and eventually lead to chronic mental and physical disease.
For example, if you’ve been through a difficult breakup, your mind will start to make sense of it and build defenses against future pain. Your body might start to develop more signs of anxiety to keep you from getting into the same situation you did before. After a while, we can get stuck in this place of nervous system dysregulation. Staying stuck is what our nervous system perceives to be safe, however, in reality, this can make us feel miserable because we might be keeping ourselves from being open to new relationships, or we might be going from relationship to relationship trying to find the best fit when what we really need to do is slow down and figure out what’s best for us.
How do we use the nervous system to heal mental health?
A dysregulated nervous system is one of the main factors contributing to mental illness, but this is not common knowledge or spoken about often enough. Since our body affects our mind, when our body is in a state of stress, our thoughts are as well. If our body isn’t getting enough rest, or is constantly on guard, or fearful of getting triggered, those signals go straight to the mind, and end up creating harmful thoughts, ruminating anxiety, and feelings of hopelessness.
A few tips to help you work with your nervous system and improve your mental health:
1) Start to notice how you’re talking to yourself
If you hate yourself, how can you expect yourself to feel better? We have to start with how we treat ourselves.
2) In order to change the thoughts in our mind, we have to start paying attention to how our judgments of ourselves and the world affect our health
How much are you criticizing yourself for what you’re doing or not doing? How much does this impact your physical health? When you keep berating your body for not ‘working’ or ‘looking correctly’ your body internalizes this, and continues to not ‘work well’.
3) Start to focus on one physical action for your health
Choose 2 days a week where you move your body in a way that feels fun! Head out for a walk, dance, or go to an exercise class. Anything to get your body moving. Once you do that, your mind will follow.
How do we use the nervous system to heal chronic physical pain?
When our nervous system is dysregulated, this takes a toll on our body. Cortisol levels rise, hormones become imbalanced, and our body becomes super sensitive, leaving it vulnerable to pain and disease.
So, along with the main components of health (nourishing and moving our bodies), we also have to recognize that our mind sends signals of danger to the body if it doesn’t feel safe. When our nervous system is in a state of stress, our mind (hypothetically) says “okay, well let’s focus on something internal to fix so we can feel better; here’s some back pain”
Once we understand that the culprit of our physical pain is a stressed out nervous system, we can start to send signals of safety to our body.
The butterfly hug
One tool I use with my clients is the Butterfly Hug, along with the affirmation “I am safe”.
I know, this might seem odd or feel forced at first, but don’t knock it ‘til you try it.
Cross your arms over your chest and start to gently tap one hand then the other on opposite shoulders. Breathe deeply into your abdomen, and relax your jaw and shoulders. Whilst doing this, repeat the phrase “I am safe”.
How to get support with a dysregulated nervous system
I’m Grace, a holistic psychotherapist, nervous system coach and pain specialist. I have healed multiple mental and physical health conditions through mind-body healing and retraining my nervous system. I absolutely love what I do and really hope to help as many people as possible regulate their nervous system, and get to a more calm and safe place in their mind and body.
More on what I do
If you’re not looking to invest in therapy or nervous system coaching, but you’d like an intro to regulating your nervous system, my Nervous System Reset course is designed for you. You’ll learn how to understand your triggers, and how to work with them from a mind-body perspective. I give you tools, and lead you through mind and body-based exercises, including journaling, breathing practices, meditations, and physical yoga therapy.
I am honored to help people along their healing journey. Specifically, I help people address chronic pain and illness, anxiety, trauma, disordered eating, and nervous system dysregulation. I help by combining nervous system training, holistic psychotherapy, and yoga therapy. If you want to grow in your healing journey and make exponential changes, I would love to be your guiding support. Check out my other blogs to learn more about my practice.
