The key to healing

Your nervous system’s ability to handle stress is THE key factor that determines your well-being and health. Each of us has a unique capacity to handle stress based on a few factors; which we won’t get into here (another topic for another day). 

Illness and dis-ease often manifests when your body is unable to self-regulate and complete the stress response, therefore leaving your body “stuck” in a state of fight, flight or freeze. Anything incomplete stays...meaning, it gets stored in your body. 

Imagine wanting to stand up to someone that is treating you unfairly, but being too afraid to. You have the impulse to lay a boundary and say something, but worry about the consequences. So you stay quiet, move onto the next thing and “let it go”.  While you tell yourself you “let it go”, your body says otherwise. The energy of that impulse to “fight” has nowhere to go and is held within your body. Imagine how much energy gets trapped when this is a repeat experience with a boss or maybe a family member. Then multiply it by all the other stressful situations in your life where you feel you have to suppress your authentic expression.

Over time, stored stress builds up leading to dis-ease (physical or mental) like digestive issues, chronic anxiety, poor immune health, headaches, chronic fatigue, heart disease and so on. 

In a highly overstimulating and triggering world full of stressors, this is everything. One of the first steps to regulation (and building capacity) is to connect with your body and be present to what you are experiencing, without judgment or story. You have to tune into your body in order to sense what your body needs in order to regulate.  

Is your body needing to rest and relax?  Or express and release? (ps - it’s not always about “calming down”)

Being with your experience is key. Become aware and present to your feelings, the sensations in your body, and your impulses. 

Vagus Nerve

Known as the wandering nerve, the vagus nerve is the 10th cranial nerve that runs all the way from the brain stem to part of the colon touching almost every major organ on its way.

It plays a major part of both sensory and visceral functions of the body such as breathing, circulation, digestion, speaking, emotional regulation, stress response, cognition and metabolism. It helps control and regulate blood pressure, heart rate, sweating, digestion, inflammation, detoxification and sensory input from the body to the brain.

The vagus nerve impacts in every chronic illness depending on its state and tone. Your vagus nerve is critical for overall health and well-being. It can become over and under-active therefore, affecting the function of your entire body.

The health and function of the vagus nerve is described as vagal tone.  High vagal tone means your vagus is working well.  High vagal tone is linked to good physical and mental well-being as well as resilience to stress. Low vagal tone means your vagus isn’t working well. Having low vagal tone is linked to being easily stressed out and having trouble calming down after stress.

Ways to support your vagus tone:

·       Singing and humming

·       Laughter

·       Gargling

·       Somatic tools such as basic exercise, self-hold, self-massage

·       Breathwork

·       Cold water showers/plunge

·       Massage, fascial bodywork and acupuncture

·       Hugging, co-regulation

·       Exercise

·       Prayer or meditation

·       Proper posture, chiropractor care if needed

·       Music, listening to a soothing voice

Your vagus nerve health is vital to your health and well-being as it is a main communicator throughout your body. What habits can you implement to support healthy vagal tone?

Neurosensory tools vs coping strategies

They are not the same thing.

Coping strategies are used to escape, numb and disconnect. They attempt to cover up one's dysregulation. They are unproductive and don't do anything to support states of safety and therefore better regulation.

A neurosensory or nervous system tool/exercise is used to be engaged, present. It is productive and releases stress. It discharges and resolves the dysregulation or activation caused by the perceive threat. Using such tools over time increases one's capacity for life's ups and downs. In other words, they expand the window of tolerance. They do this by signalling safety to the body and brain, and therefore lead one to spending more time in ventral vagal (aka social engagement, safe and engaged) and less time in fight-flight-freeze-shutdown.

The main difference is being present and embodied. The same activity can be either, depending on whether you are present and in your body or disengaged and disassociated. For example, running and being present in the body, feeling your muscles and breath, taking in the sun, air and enviroment is a nervous system tool to discharge sympathetic charge. Running can also be used to numb or escape emotions or stress which is unproductive and a coping strategy.