Restoring your Nervous System
Our nervous system is our gateway to sensing and interacting with the world and ourselves. It keeps us safe and helps maintain our body, brain and emotions. It is also a part of us that is sensitive to change, can become overloaded by stress and dysregulated by trauma. If we can listen to its needs, attune to what rebalances it and heal it with restorative practices, then we can return to feeling resilient once again.
Throughout our day we can be in different states. At best we can feel connected, calm, purposeful, creative and able to find the deeper meaning of things, this is a restorative state. At worst we can feel upset, ruminative, unsocial, stuck and unable to find perspective, this is a dysregulated state. Most of the time we are in a modulated state, where we are managing our reactions and responses to daily life challenges and feeling a sense of control in our life. Here’s a key - the way to move out of a dysregulated state to a restorative state is through modulation. Most of us have a few good reliable ways to get out of or modulate our dysregulated states, like going for a walk to cool down or listening to music to lift our mood. But as life becomes more complex and demanding or we are facing the effects of past trauma, we need more powerful tools. Somatics can provide holistic tools that address the underlying issues behind nervous system dysregulation.
If we have experienced chronic stress, trauma or grief, our nervous system is already overloaded and we can get triggered and dysregulated more easily. If we understand our nervous system’s responses, we can restore balance to our nervous system. For instance if I’m able to see the signs of becoming ruminative then I am more able to break the cycle.
One of the most powerful ways to modulate and regulate the nervous system is through co-regulation (this is based on the work of Stephen Porges who developed the polyvagal theory). If we have a friend who helps us feel grounded and safe then we can gain instant benefit by just being in their presence. Because our nervous systems have the ability to communicate and ‘read’ each other then there’s a resonance between our nervous systems, if one of us is grounded and regulated we will feel the same way.
We can also use grounding and resourcing exercises and practices like using the breath but essentially we will need to address these underlying issues for a more stable and longer lasting benefit. This process involves two things - restoring a felt sense of safety and restoring the feedback loop between our body and mind. This generally requires us to slow down, reacquaint ourselves with our body-mind and regain a sense that our body is safe and belongs to us.
Giselle Lamberth
Embodiment Institute Somatic Healing Programs
Clinical Social Worker, Somatic Psychotherapist