Why moving your body can be one of the fastest ways to regulate your nervous system

If we view the physical manifestations of stress, fear and anxiety with an evolutionary lens (i.e that our nervous systems are preparing us to fight or flee in response to a perceived threat) then naturally the clever human system has an effective process of discharging these physiological changes (using up stress hormones etc).

The whole point of the threat state is the system preparing you to fight for your rights or run for your life); so the body anticipates movement.

But often in our modern lives, a threat state is not followed by any movement, so there is no opportunity for the system to discharge or ‘reset’ in the way it requires.

Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a therapy based on observations of wild animals post stress behaviour, who appear to be incredibly resilient to extremely stressful situations. SE says this is because these animals sprint and shake after these events that they are able to quickly settle and continue apparently without any problems.

This partly explains why movement is so good at helping us to manage stress, and even more so why it can be really effective to consciously move following periods of increased stress to allow the body to “discharge” it effectively.

This reminds me too of how following an accident or a shock (children or adults) we can jump in too quickly to shhh, distract or sooth. If we are to honor the bodies’ incredible abilities, actually perhaps we should be allowing, ‘being with’ distress, and all of its physical manifestations (crying, shaking, rocking, pacing) to support a natural recovery and build resilience.