Nervous System Regulation

Nervous system regulation is the process by which our body maintains balance and responds to stress or stimulation. It involves the brain and nerves working together to help us stay calm, alert, or ready for action, depending on what’s needed. This regulation helps us manage emotions, focus, and respond appropriately to our environment. It is the ability to move between states quickly and fluidly.

There are two parts to the Autonomic Nervous System that help you respond to the world around you. These are called the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic systems.

The Sympathetic is responsible for reactions such as "Fight or Flight"it kicks in when you feel stressed or in danger and it speeds things up - like your heart rate and breathing - to help you take action quickly. It can also be our source of our motivation.

The Parasympathetic is responsible for what we call "Rest and Digest"it helps you calm down and feel safe and it slows things down - like your heart rate - so your body can relax, heal, and recover.

Think of them like a gas pedal (sympathetic) and a brake (parasympathetic) — your body needs both to function well depending on the situation.

Lots of things can throw our nervous system out of balance, this is called dysregulation. Some common causes of dysregulation, which is when we feel overwhelmed, shut down, or out of control emotionally or physically, are things such as stressful events - this could be an argument or conflict, perhaps work, school or home-life pressures. Even basic needs not being met such as a lack of sleep or dehydration can have an effect on how balanced we are.

Other things may be sensory overload - this can be from strong smells, loud noises or bright lights or perhaps crowded places. Things such as too much screen time and lack of movement can also throw us out of balance.

Then there is trauma (past or recent).

It’s not what happened [to you], but how your body and nervous system responded to it. That’s why two people can go through the same situation, and one might feel deeply affected while the other doesn't.

Traumatic Events can be:

Big events (like abuse, accidents, violence, natural disasters)
Ongoing stress like neglect, bullying, poverty, unstable home-life
Subtle or hidden experiences like emotional abandonment, rejection, medical trauma, or not being believed.

We can experience mental or emotional triggers straight after or way into the future that can leave us feeling unsafe or out of control or defensive.

Chronic issues and trauma can originate from different factors. For instance, your lifestyle can generate chronic issues without the need for any specific traumatic event. Trauma is what happens in the body when something overwhelms your ability to cope, leaving you feeling helpless, unsafe, or out of control - even after the event has passed. Perhaps social rejection or shame. Basically, anything that overwhelms our capacity to cope in the moment can lead to dysregulation.

When we learn self-regulation we can influence and often times choose, our physical, emotional and mental response to others.

By creating a steady, calm container where you feel seen, heard, and understood, basically - attuned to and felt. A practitioner such as myself ultimately helps your nervous system regulate by offering presence, this is known as co-regulation. Our social engagement system comes online and we are able to receive the support we have previously been given or unable to tolerate. Carefully designed movement sequences coupled with noticing, grounding, resourcing, journaling and conversational therapy protocols can generate calm, balance, clarity of mind, and even strength and compassion toward others.

When we develop a good level of somatic awareness it can help us awaken and integrate the conscious and hidden processes of your body, emotions, thoughts, and relationships. By addressing the physiological roots of many challenges we can become more self-aware of our physical presence and begin to unravel the holding patterns we have developed that are now stored in the body.

I aim to help you develop a regulation tool-kit that can be used on your own but also support you on your journey to regulation by lending my regulated nervous system along the way - to show you what safety really feels like.