How to Identity The State of Your Nervous System
Nervous System Imbalance
In somatic therapy, we believe that our bodies hold so much wisdom. They are wired to keep us safe, help us connect to the world, build relationships with others, and access inner wisdom.
As a somatic and yoga therapist, I am particularly interested in understanding the nervous system and helping my clients understand their nervous systems.
Building nervous system literacy can help us understand our reactions as biological reactions designed to keep us safe and remove the shame we may hold around our triggers and habitual patterns that arise from experiences of trauma.
The nervous system does its job when it protects us in moments of danger.
The nervous system can get out of balance when you experience trauma and stress. In a culture that thrives on overdoing, toxic stress levels are rampant, and it has been normalized to live in a state of nervous system imbalance.
Our society is also set up to have marginalized groups hold more stress due to the material realities and psychological stress due to racism, sexism, transphobia, ableism, and fatphobia.
Signs of Nervous System Imbalance
When our nervous systems are out of balance, it can show up in a variety of ways, from physical symptoms (digestive distress, pain, heart disease, sleep disturbances) to mental symptoms (inability to focus, memory issues, blackouts) and to emotional symptoms(emotional overwhelm, anxiety, depression, other mental health disorders).
Anxiety
Mood dysregulation (depression/mania)
Psychosomatic (Stomach issues, headaches, nerve pain, numbness, etc)
High blood pressure
Breathing problems
Sleeping issues
Eating Issues
Poor posture
Low energy/motivation
Relationship Problems
Attention Problems
When our nervous systems are out of balance, it can be hard to connect with others because our resources are being used to keep us alive, and we become defensive and detect threats that are not there. If you want more of the neuroscience of it, Stephen Porges explains more in this short video.
Somatic trauma therapy uses this frame to help clients to understand their responses to the world better.
The reality is that we can’t talk our way back to balance in our nervous system because, often, it is happening outside of our conscious awareness.
When we learn how to work with the nervous system, we can begin to identify what state our nervous system is in and identify specific tools to help bring us back into balance.
Applied Polyvagal Theory in Therapy
Using the polyvagal theory developed by Stephen Porges to understand better how our nervous systems function can give us a framework to work with to find tangible ways to balance our nervous system.
According to polyvagal theory, there are three primary states of the autonomic nervous system:
Ventral Vagal/Parasympathetic: This is our state of social engagement. In this state, we can be present with what is happening internally and externally without feeling overwhelmed. This is the state where we can be present with others in the present moment. We can be empathic and connect with others.
Sympathetic: This is the fight or flight response. In this state, we are on edge, anxious, irritable, angry, and overwhelmed. We scan for threats and struggle to be present with ourselves and others because our system is in survival mode.
Dorsal Vagal: This is our shutdown and collapse response. Our system will drop into this state when we stay in sympathetic for too long. This state is where we experience feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, dissociation, depression, and disconnection. We may feel stuck and have difficulty connecting with others.
An important note about how our autonomic nervous system works is that it works like a ladder, meaning that going through the sympathetic state is required to get to a ventral state from the dorsal state and vice versa.
This means that some level of activation is required to get out of the shutdown or immobilization state, so having space to connect to that state in a more balanced way can be helpful. Somatic trauma therapy provides both the framework and tools to learn how to navigate the nervous system skillfully.
Like most things in life, this is not always a linear process. You can be in two states simultaneously, with blended states looking different depending on many factors.
Balancing the Nervous System
When we bring nervous system awareness into healing work, we can tap into the wisdom of the body to identify what we need to find balance.
Identifying how these states show up in your unique nervous system can give you essential information about what you need in the moment to bring you back to balance.
Connecting your emotional and mental state to your nervous system state gives you essential information on ways to bring in more ventral activation into your experience.
When we are in a sympathetic state, we will need tools that create safety in the system by grounding and centering practice.
If we are in a shutdown state, those tools may take us further out of balance. When we are in a state of shutdown, we need to move and activate to find balance.
Often, this is why people don’t get the desired results when they try things like deep breathing, relaxation practices, or even talk therapy alone.
Practices that Support Healthy Nervous System Functioning
There is no one practice that works for every person. The most important part of learning about how to befriend your nervous system is to be able to find what works for you. This requires slowing the process down to tune in after trying a practice to see how it impacts you.
Yoga therapy offers simple practices that can help balance the nervous system. While many practices are helpful, simple stretching and shifting how we breathe can have profound effects. It can be beneficial to combine the two by linking stretching movements to the breath.
Simple stretching can improve the nervous system function. The benefits include:
Massages nerves
Stimulates the nerves when there is stretching or compression
Tension around nerves reduces their capacity to fire
Tension irritates nerves
Restores natural communication pathways
Breath practices can also be used to help regulate the nervous system. The benefits include:
Diaphragmatic Breathing can be activated by breathing into the belly. This helps to lower heart rate, increase relaxation, lower blood pressure, & preserve energy.
You can change the ratio of your breath to regulate the nervous system
The inhale of our breath has an activating impact on our system (sympathetic activation). Lengthening your inhales or using quick breaths can help bring you out of a Dorsal Vagal state.
The exhale of our breath has a relaxing impact on our system (parasympathetic activation). Using a 1:2 ratio breath, where you lengthen your exhales to double the count of your inhales, can help to bring you back to a Ventral vagal state from a Sympathetic state.
