Stop Regulating Your Nervous System

Do THIS instead.

Well now that I got your attention with the most provocative title I could think of for this piece, let me clarify what I actually mean … I don’t really want you to stop regulating your nervous system- but before you engage in practices to regulate your nervous system, there is something I want you to do FIRST- and that’s what this piece is about.

Let’s start with a little background:

In recent years, the nervous System has become the hottest organ system in the human body. Conceptually I think this is a good sign. It means all kinds of practitioners are waking up to the interconnected nature of the body and mind, the seen and unseen, as well as our inner and outer worlds. One of the things that’s so special about the nervous system is that it’s a super connector- so the fact that it’s so en vogue means that people are waking up to the interconnected tapestry that we both are, and are a part of. I love the nervous system. I taught stress and anxiety management courses based on the nervous system to thousands of patients and providers as early as 2012- before the phrase “regulate your nervous system” was the answer to everything- so my intent here is not to minimize the importance and power of the nervous system.

However, the nervous system does not act alone. And in fact, its profound capacity to heal such a broad range of issues is based on it’s intimate relationship with every organ system in the body. So when a practitioner tells you that the key to your healing is to “regulate your nervous system”, without any acknowledgement of the other organ systems involved in whatever kind of healing you’re pursuing, they are missing a critical step.

Three Things I Want Everyone To Know … When It Comes to Nervous System Work:

My intention with this piece is to share three things that are very important to me- and should be foundational to any kind of holistic work.

The first is that every single organ system in the body is equally important, and over the course of a healthy life, you will need to consciously engage with every one of them. The path to wellbeing does not involve singling out one system as more important than the rest.

In fact, when we overemphasize the nervous system as the solution to everything, we are not in service of holism at all. We are perpetuating a broken paradigm that insists on breaking us into parts to fuel a chronic state of not being enough. When one system is more valuable than the rest, we support a healthcare system that values specialization over wholeness, and forces us to settle for fragmented care. The nervous system regulation movement has had some very positive effects on peoples’ health, but many cannot see its limitations- and the ways in which it perpetuates an outdated, inadequate approach to health.

The second is that communication through the nervous system is not unidirectional. Information (about whether you are safe or in danger) travels from the brain to the various organ systems in the body AND from those organ systems in the body to the brain. And from a holistic perspective, we must also think about how information is moving between the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual quadrants of our experience. Because of this, it’s essential to approach nervous system regulation from multiple directions.

The third is that nervous system regulation can take many forms. There are an infinite number of practices, behaviors and interventions you can use to regulate your nervous system- so telling someone who’s suffering from a health issue to “regulate their nervous system” is like a medical doctor telling a patient to “take a medication” without telling them the name of the medication, the dose, or how to take it. There is an art to nervous system regulation and that art involves an understanding the role the other organ systems in the body are playing. The question of how you should go about regulating your nervous system to get the results you want is absolutely critical, and in this piece I’m going to walk you through how to answer that question.

So if I’m being really honest with you, a more appropriate title for this piece would be “If you’re going to regulate your nervous system, do this first!” Because without this step, any nervous system regulation work you do will be less effective. Furthermore, when you do this first, you step out of the paradigm that’s keeping us all sick and fragmented. The step I’m going to share below will help you reclaim your wholeness and cultivate the awareness to adapt your nervous system work to the uniqueness of you.

Here’s The First Step