Maxine to add / edit intro…
Welcome to Nervous System Notes; Norwich Yoga Festival Part Four.
We're almost there with this series and here is Part Four of what I shared at my Norwich Yoga Festival August talk
‘What I Wish Everyone Knew about their Nervous System’
First a little recap of where we left off in Part Three:
You can think of your Nervous System as having three steps:
Inputs - Interpretations - Outputs
If an input is interpreted as a threat = survival pattern output.
If an input is interpreted as safe = ease, connection, ability to deal with stress, more capacity for joyful living.
In my last email I outlined some of the ways your nervous system collects the inputs. So now I want to talk about:
Why signalling safety to your nervous system, via the inputs, matters so very much.
Your nervous system health sits at the centre of the health and vitality of ALL the other systems of your body.
When we are experiencing chronic stress, this creates bracing in our body, hyper-vigilance, an inability to rest and so on.
Imagine how much energy it takes for your body and your brain to be constantly on high alert for a threat (real or perceived, your nervous system does not know the difference), bracing and staying ‘ready’ for that threat comes at a huge cost. No wonder so many of us are exhausted, burned out, just existing and trying getting through each day.
Here's the kicker - a nervous system stuck in chronic survival, deprioritises all the other systems of the body, because it is just trying to survive. It is not concerned with reproduction, it is not concerned with your plans to build your dream life, it does not care about your joy. All your life force energy is directed to survival.
Your immune system, your respiratory system, your digestive system, your endocrine system, all systems of your body get deprioritised because all your energy is being used to survive.
In day to day life this may manifest as; a tight muscle that does not respond to stretching, no matter how much yoga you do. A gut health issue that just won't heal, even though you're doing all the ‘right’ things. Cycle symptoms, perimenopause symptoms. Unexplained mysterious pain. Sleep issues. Overthinking, replaying that conversation over and over again.
This is the important sentence I wish every person understood: Your nervous system health impacts every single other system of your body. No part of your physiology can operate optimally when your nervous system is stuck in survival. This is why signalling safety to your nervous system, via all the different inputs, matters so very much!
A nervous system that feels safe has capacity for living, for embracing change, for building dreams, for connection, for deeply nourishing and beautiful relationships. For living fully.
Building nervous system capacity so we can orient to safety EVEN WHEN difficult things happen (because life is gonna keep lifing) is the biggest gift we can offer to ourselves and all the people in our life.
Nervous system capacity is not about feeling calm all the time, that does not serve us. Nervous system capacity is the ability to feel your grief, your anger, your fear - all the emotions of the human experience - without overwhelm, without anxiety, without burn out, without dissociation.
A resourced nervous system can feel and be with all the emotions of the human experience. When we have more capacity to feel and be with our grief, we also have more capacity to feel joy, more capacity to feel ease, more capacity to connect with our loved ones.
Nervous system capacity to feel your emotions, and the emotions of others, is the subject of the fifth and final email in this series, coming to you next week.
Maxine to add end and sign off here
