Why you need a relaxed nervous system
Your nervous system is one of the greatest assets you have. An always on-edge, triggered-by-everything nervous system is sure to contribute to anxiousness, imbalanced emotions, and even severe physical symptoms. You may have heard of the fight, flight, or freeze response? Well, it’s linked to that precious nervous system of yours.
The fight, flight, or freeze response
When we become threatened, we experience a surge of chemicals designed to allow us to survive through whatever the event is. The physiological effects are increased adrenaline, acceleration of heart and lung action, shaking, dilation of pupils and more. Cortisol, known as the “stress hormone,” is an integral part of our body’s fight, flight or freeze response. The fight, flight or freeze response is essentially a state of acute stress.
Instantly calm your nervous system
The bad news is that there is probably much you’re doing to totally trigger your fight, flight or freeze response for no good reason at all. The good news? That means you have the power to change it. Hooray!
Here are my 3 super easy “3 R” rules to instantly calm your nervous system:
- REMOVE yourself from unhappy online environments.This means unsubscribing emails that aren’t supportive to your journey or leave you feeling icky after you read them ; unfollowing FaceBook pages that post constant updates of things that are “out to get you” (viruses, bacteria, the government, etc.); stop reading or watching the news, especially before bed; disengaging from anything that says “if you do this, you’ll never…” and “unless you do this, you can’t….”; and unfollowing friends online that trigger jealousy or feelings of despair. One day, these things won’t bother you, but for now, remove yourself and save your energy for better things.
- REFRAIN from over-researching.Researching and analyzing is in my Virgo’ish nature! But it was one of the things that set me back health-wise, bigtime. I spend endless hours and energy I didn’t have finding new treatments, scary statistics, and other things that just made me fearful. Fear = no bueno for your immune system and nervous system. If you aren’t researching and finding positive things that make healing and happiness possible for you no matter what — refrain.
- REMEMBER that healing comes from within.This was the hardest thing for me to understand. With all these possible “cures” out there, I never considered that building ME up — both physically and emotionally — was more important than anything ‘out there.’ You can spend your whole life chasing the virus or bacteria or chemical/food allergies affecting you; but without looking deeply within, you’re sure to miss the biggest piece of your own healing puzzle – you. And trust me, that’s where the healing gold is. Remember that.
Whenever you find yourself fearful, overwhelmed, or in manic mode (all hugely stressful to your nervous system), check in on the 3 R’s. I promise that following these rules will help that overworked nervous system chill out.
Bonus: Use the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)
If you’re willing to spend a few more minutes …
Learning Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) was perhaps one of the most important things I did to consistently calm and support my nervous system.
You can learn more about it by clicking here. Cheers to chillin’ systems!
