How You Can Benefit from Nervous System Healing (Even If You Don't Have Trauma)
Health and wellness approaches that don’t address nervous system healing are incomplete. You’re much more than your thoughts and feelings, which is why traditional therapy is often only one piece of the puzzle for many who suffer from stress, trauma, or dysregulation without a clear cause.
You may be dealing with chronic stress that’s sucked the joy out of daily tasks and activities. Maybe you have big goals and you’re worried that’s all they’ll ever be because you can’t seem to make any progress. Whenever you think about getting started, your body and mind seem to be working against you.
You might not experience anything like that, but you feel like there’s a disconnect somewhere. And it’s stopping you from living the life you want to live, day in and day out.
These are all signs that you might need to focus your health efforts on nervous system healing.
As a somatic healing practitioner, I work with my clients to introduce safety to their nervous systems. Sometimes we know the origin of their dysregulation, but for others, figuring it out is an ongoing process. The goal is to help you reduce your triggers, spend less time in these heightened states, and have more control over your life.
When Do You Need Nervous System Healing?
You might need to increase your nervous system’s resiliency if you notice you’re in survival mode. The circumstances above are common signs of this, but it can look different from one person to the next.
You might lash out or shut down. Your symptoms might not be that extreme. Emotional reactivity isn’t always how the need for nervous system healing manifests. You might experience physical discomfort, such as fatigue or digestive issues, with no obvious cause. Sometimes you simply feel a lack of connection and fulfillment at home and at work.
All these responses typically stem from a lack of felt safety.
In situations where you’re safe and not under a lot of stress, your parasympathetic and sympathetic systems work together to regulate your body’s state and related responses¹. But when your nervous system detects danger or is under stressful conditions, these systems go into defensive mode.
Our brains are constantly assessing for danger. The part of our brain that detects threats is the amygdala. When you have a dysregulated nervous system, the amygdala often perceives threats when they don’t exist. This can result from past trauma or highly stressful events. When these haven’t been adequately processed, the amygdala might disproportionately react to small stressors. It thinks these minor stressors are the same as traumatic or highly stressful events. This defense mechanism sends messages to the brain stem instructing it to go into fight, flight, freeze, or collapse.
What Does Your Autonomic Nervous System Do?
The two main divisions of your autonomic nervous system (ANS) are:
The sympathetic nervous system (SNS)
The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS)
Your SNS:
Controls your fight or flight responses.
Prepares your body for physical activity that requires higher levels of energy and strength⁴.
Your PNS:
Commands your rest and digest functions.
Should be dominant when you’re performing low-stress activities (This isn't always the case– we'll talk about why later).
While the PNS is typically associated with rest and digest, it's more complicated than that.
A highly reactive nervous system will likely experience higher SNS activity, even when there’s little to no threat. However, higher PNS activity can also occur, which isn’t necessarily helpful. Let’s go over the different SNS and PNS responses. You might be surprised to learn why your body and mind react the way they do, even when no real threat exists.
The Nervous System Stress Responses
Unfortunately, we don’t get to decide which of these stress responses happen. And they typically happen faster than we can stop them. Your brain is attempting to keep you safe. Your amygdala doesn't register time or space, so it doesn't realize that the past event isn't occurring again (assuming it's not).
Now, you're left with a response that isn't needed in most situations. You may not have control over these reactions and symptoms now, but that doesn't mean you have to accept them as a part of your life forever.
The different nervous system states are normal reactions, but you might experience them to a severe extent. Chronic stress can suppress immune system function². The dysregulation that results can lead to disease and debilitating physical and emotional symptoms, including chronic pain, fatigue, anxiety, and mood disorders³. If this is the case for you, you might need nervous system healing through somatic practices.
Let’s look at the nervous system states and how to tell when there’s an imbalance.
Let’s look at the nervous system states and how to tell when there’s an imbalance.
Fight
Fight is a sympathetic nervous system response to a real or perceived threat. It involves a surge of adrenaline and oxygen to the organs. This kicks up your whole system for energy and strength, so you may feel an urge to hit or push as a way to physically fight the threat. You might also feel a strong urge to yell or speak harshly.
The fight response can have varying degrees of activation, starting with frustration or irritation, to anger, and all the way to rage. As the activation gets greater, you’ll feel less in control.
As with the other stress responses, we sometimes need our fight response. When there’s a serious threat, and fighting is appropriate, this response is healthy and important. The threat might not be to your physical safety. This response can be triggered when your emotional boundaries are threatened.
However, when you’re stuck in a pattern of fight responses, it starts to adversely affect your health and life. Lacking control over your emotions can make it difficult to get along with people, have fulfilling relationships, and achieve your personal and professional goals.
Nervous system healing can help you decrease the frequency, strength, and duration of your responses. You can regain control over your body and mind.
Nervous system healing can help you decrease the frequency, strength, and duration of your responses. You can regain control over your body and mind.
2. Flight
Flight is also a sympathetic nervous system response. Similar to the fight response, adrenaline and oxygen are sent to your organs to prepare your body. With this response, there’s often an increase in energy in the lower body, so that fleeing the threat becomes possible. There are varying degrees of activation, starting with worry to anxiety to fear, and to panic. The greater the activation, the more difficult it is for you to think clearly about the situation.
The flight response is important and something we want to keep intact. Just like the fight response, there are times when we need it. When there’s an actual threat and we can escape, we need to have this instinct available.
If you’re constantly stuck in a pattern of worry or panic, nervous system healing is necessary.
Getting stuck in flight mode can take a toll. If it gets in the way of finishing tasks, having important conversations, and taking appropriate risks, you can likely benefit from somatic healing strategies. When my clients are stuck in this pattern, we tune into their flight response and figure out what they need to get to a place of felt safety.
3. Collapse
Collapse is a parasympathetic nervous system state. There’s a collapse state in the ventral branch of the vagus nerve, which is a pleasant feeling. But that’s not the one we’re talking about here.
Collapse is when the dorsal branch of the vagus nerve is activated. Its purpose is energy conservation because the brain’s assessment of the situation is that there’s no room for fighting or fleeing the threat. It’s a place of overwhelm.
If you’re in this state often, you probably dissociate from stressful situations. You might shut down. Being in this response is often associated with feeling hopeless, numb, helpless, and even depressed. Physically, your systems slow down. Your heart rate and blood pressure decrease.
Collapse is an essential nervous system state that can be helpful when you need to preserve energy. But being in a constant dissociative and overwhelmed state makes it nearly impossible to carry out normal tasks both at home and in the workplace.
4. Freeze
Freeze is a combination state of fight/flight (sympathetic) and collapse (dorsal vagal parasympathetic). It’s like you have the gas and brake on at the same time. Your engine (nervous system) is all revved up, but the vehicle isn’t moving.
This state can feel confusing and difficult. There’s a lot of activation throughout your entire body. Your heart rate and blood pressure increase. At the same time, there’s little to no movement going on. it's possible that your body and brain are stuck trying to assess whether it's safer to fight, flee, or collapse. It’s also possible to struggle with speaking.
The collapse and freeze states are often talked about as the same thing. I like to separate them because they feel very different in the body. Historically, freeze was the response that kept us still as an attempt to get the threat to go away when fight or flee wasn’t an option.
It’s possible to frequently cycle through all these stress responses. Some people get stuck in one. Other times, people oscillate between one or more of them. Getting to know your particular patterns is essential for your nervous system healing.
Experience These Responses More Often with Nervous System Healing
Not all nervous system states are stress responses. Let’s talk about the states that are much more enjoyable to experience.
Ventral Vagal
Ventral vagal is a parasympathetic nervous system state. In this state, you feel safe and secure. All your systems work smoothly and there’s no need for them to spring into action for defense. Another way of thinking about it is safe and social.
You feel:
Comfortable with others.
Grounded and mindful.
Able to think clearly, creatively, and with curiosity.
2. Ventral/Sympathetic
The ventral vagal state doesn’t exist by itself. You need enough of a sympathetic charge to get your blood flowing for whatever activity you’re doing.
Sympathetic isn’t always all fight or flight. You need it to play, walk, do chores, meet work deadlines, and complete other tasks. Ideally, when you’re doing any of these things, you aren’t perceiving high levels of threat. But when you’re suffering from dysregulation and need nervous system healing, you might feel threatened in these situations.
In some activities, like playing a competitive sport, you know you're technically safe because your competitors aren't trying to harm you. At the same time, you feel that there's a risk and you have to give it your all. The same goes for work. You need more of a charge to push through getting a project done or meeting a deadline. Certain levels of stress are healthy, but you also need to be capable of returning to felt safety to get through your daily activities and perform well.
3. Ventral/Dorsal
When ventral and dorsal are combined, you’re able to be quite still without fear or discomfort.
This stillness is needed for cuddling a baby or breastfeeding. It’s ideal when you cuddle your partner or another loved one. An inability to reach or remain in this state when you’re physically safe signals the need for nervous system healing. Dysregulation often causes sleep issues because you’re unable to enter this state and rest.
In my work with my clients, we try to identify what helps them get to these positive nervous system states. We call this resourcing. I include a lot of space for this in client sessions. We also work in a way that allows the nervous system to move from a stress response to a resourced place, over and over again. This contributes to gaining flexibility in the nervous system.
How Does Nervous System Healing Work?
There are many different ways you can aid your nervous system in its healing. Keep in mind that your nervous system is unique and what works for others might not do much for you.
Some techniques that might work for less severe nervous system issues include:
Yoga.
Meditation.
Breathwork.
Exercise.
Acupuncture.
Limiting caffeine intake.
These methods alone aren’t usually enough to heal your nervous system if your dysregulation is affecting your daily life. This is when working with skilled practitioners can help you figure out what you need to heal.
If you’ve experienced trauma, you might need more than one type of nervous system healing. Some of my clients choose to see a traditional therapist while coming to me for somatic work.
There are many methods for nervous system healing that can improve your physical, mental, and emotional wellness. Different somatic practitioners use different approaches. I use Somatic Experiencing, Safe and Sound Protocol, and Applied Polyvagal Theory. Learn more about how I help my clients bring balance to their nervous systems and lives here.