Our autonomic nervous system – the part of the nervous system which operates silently, almost completely underneath conscious awareness – connects the brain with all our essential organs. In very simple terms, its understood to have two modes/ branches – sympathetic and parasympathetic. They’re both essential and ideally we move freely and easily as required from one to the other.
There’s literally NO HACK for repairing and restoring a tired mind-body. Not one single substitute for rest. And if you’re having a harder time than usual, your need for rest will increase in order to balance out the additional energy you use via an activated nervous system.
I vividly remember a conversation with my Mum at a really early age about something I didn’t understand in school, and she encouraged me to ask more questions “If you don’t get it, it’s likely that others won’t too”.
If you haven’t been taught, or you’ve spent a long time disconnected, how would you know what “being in your body” actually means? What does it look like?
These ideas can be a bit abstract and mystical.
Here are 5 simple steps which might allow you to gently and gradually notice and inhabit your physical body.
The three R’s
These three steps come from Bruce Perry, a neuroscientist working in the field of trauma, and are offered as a guide for how adults can best support vulnerable children to learn, think and reflect. But I see absolutely no reason why these steps should be saved for children only.
Over recent years, a growing number of therapists are offering an alternative to the conventional ‘one-hour weekly’ model of psychological therapy. Intensive therapy involves seeing a therapist for a longer block of time, ranging from 90 minute appointments to extended sessions covering 3 hours, whole days or even several days or weeks. This means that while the time investment as therapy begins is much greater, the total length of time in therapy (from start to finish) is often much shorter.
PEOPLE AND RELATIONSHIPS
Your brain, the body budget keeper, keeps careful watch of vital resources: oxygen, water, salt, glucose, and other ingredients that keep you alive and well.
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.