Four Ways You Can Regulate Your Own Nervous System

Understanding our nervous system is the key to unlocking our capacity to experience peace, joy, calm, and connection with ourselves and other people. When we are experiencing a stress or trauma response, our bodies begin employing survival strategies (this is our fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses). 

There are two different brain structures that I want to highlight: the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for all of our executive functioning (rational thinking, decision making, logic, etc). The amygdala is where our stress responses originate. The challenge with these two parts of the brain is that they don’t communicate using the same language. This is why we can’t outthink our trauma responses or talk ourselves out of panic attacks, depression, or other trauma related symptoms. It would be like the prefrontal cortex speaking English and the amygdala speaking Spanish–it’s impossible to have a productive conversation that way!

In order to regulate our nervous system, we need to communicate with the amygdala in a way that it can hear us, and that is by using our body. 

Breathing

Our breath is the key to accessing our parasympathetic nervous system. There are several different breathing techniques that can be used, and when the exhale is longer than the inhale we stimulate the vagus nerve. When the vagus nerve is stimulated, we are communicating with our body that we are safe and we can turn off any fight, flight, freeze, or fawn responses. I like to use a 4-2-8 breathing rhythm; breathe in for 4 counts, hold for 2 counts, and exhale for 8 counts. 

Tapping

Emotional Freedom Technique is a method that helps to reduce the intensity of symptoms related to emotional and physical distress (anxiety, depression, PTSD, perfectionism, self-doubt, stress, sleep difficulties, trauma, chronic pain, obsessions/overthinking, etc). EFT tapping uses different acupressure points on the body that are associated with the body’s energy meridian points. When using this technique, you are restoring the balance of energy in your body, which helps to alleviate both emotional and physical pain felt in the body. My favorite way to use EFT is to use an app called The Tapping Solution and follow along with the guided tapping meditations in the app. 

You can learn more about tapping here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRfLTQjJhp0

Grounding skills using the 5 senses

Another way to communicate with the amygdala is to use grounding techniques that help to reorientate us to the present moment. Using our sense of touch, sight, smell, taste, and hearing enhances the connection we have between our mind and body, which allows us to have more control over our thoughts and feelings. When our mind and body are connected, we can slow our processes down and respond to our environment, rather than react from a dysregulated state. 

Guided Imagery Meditation

When we practice meditation, we focus on our breath and connect to our bodies through noticing and becoming aware of the sensations that are present in the body. For example, right now as I write this, I am aware that my back and neck muscles are sore, my feet are cold, I have a dull ache in my head, and I am holding my stomach muscles tight. With guided imagery meditation, I can use my breath and imagery to relax my body and bring about a sense of peace, calm, and safety, and this will send a message to my amygdala that it can switch from a sympathetic state to a parasympathetic state. 

I recommend using these skills daily, even if you aren’t feeling high levels of stress or dysregulation. The more practice you have with using these techniques, the more likely you will be able to use them when you need them. This makes sense, because when our nervous system is dysregulated, our prefrontal cortex turns off, and it’s this part of the brain that would help us to remember and access these skills. When we practice these skills, we are making the connection in the body that the regulation skill=safety. The stronger we can make that connection in our body, the more helpful it will be for our nervous system. 

If you would like to learn more about your own trauma/stress responses and/or learn how you can feel safer in your body, please reach out to schedule an appointment!

With love, 

Chelsie Ciminelli