January 21, 2025 • 21 mins
Listen in to this episode as I dive into the fascinating world of nervous system regulation. Discover how understanding and managing your autonomic nervous system can transform your health and well-being.
Learn the essential roles of the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems and how they influence everything from your hormones to your digestion. I break down the signs of a dysregulated nervous system and shares six powerful tools to help you achieve balance and inner calm.
From mindfulness practices and breath work to the magic of nature and somatic exercises, this episode is packed with practical tips and insights. Whether you're dealing with stress, anxiety, or just looking to improve your overall health, this episode provides the guidance you need.
Tune in and give your nervous system the TLC it deserves. This episode promises to be an invaluable resource for anyone seeking a more balanced and serene life. Don't miss out – your journey to better health and happiness starts here!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
>> Jolene (00:00):
The nervous system, fight or
flight? Parasympathetic, sympathetic. What
the heck is all of this? Why do you
even need to know or care?
Let's dive in.
Hey there. Feeling lost in the sea of confusing health
tips? Think nothing works for you? Well,
don't sweat it. You're not broken, and there are better days
(00:23):
ahead. I'm Jolene, nutritional therapy
practitioner and BFF on this wild
ride. Welcome to Holistic Health Made simple,
where we embrace empowered eating and reclaimed
control. Let's feed our body, mind, and soul
to unlock true health. So grab your water
bottle, pop in those earbuds, and let's get this party
started. Hey. Hey,
(00:44):
there. So often we focus solely
on what we eat, how we exercise, if we're getting
enough sleep, and how to reduce stress.
But those of us, myself
included, who struggle
with yo yo dieting over the years, who have
struggled with other things in their life,
(01:05):
need to take a little bit more
interest in their nervous system. Because your nervous
system is your command
center. Think of it like a
puppeteer. It's pulling all these strings, and
it's influencing everything from your
hormones, your immune system, your digestion,
mood, and sleep. And the list goes on
(01:26):
and on. And that's why so many are
turning to what we call nervous system
regulation to improve our health.
It'll also improve our happiness. And we know when we're
happier, it's easier to stay with those healthy
habits. So what exactly is this
autonomic nervous system? It's often
abbreviated as ans, but think of it like your
(01:48):
body's autopilot. It's controlling the things you don't
need to think about, like breathing, your heart rate, your
digestion. We don't actually think about those things. They just
kind of happen, but they happen
within our nervous system. So there's two
main players in. In our
autonomic nervous system. They are
the sympathetic nervous system and the
(02:10):
parasympathetic nervous system.
The sympathetic nervous system
is basically your fight or flight response.
It's the one that mobilizes all your resources to
respond to stress. It acts like your gas
pedal, revving you up for action. You know, makes
you go, go, go, and then your
parasympathetic nervous system, which is
(02:32):
basically the opposite. It's your rest and digest
mode. This one promotes relaxation
and kind of helps you chill out. Think of it like a
brake pedal bringing you back to calm. So we've
got, you know, the gas pedal and the brake pedal. Both
of these systems are crucial. The
sympathetic system helps you jump into action when you're
stressed out. And the parasympathetic system helps
(02:55):
you recover and recharge. It brings you
back to that calm. So the problem arises
when the system gets dysregulated.
It happens when these systems kind of get
out of whack, out of balance. You know that whole body
imbalance thing. And it's caused
by numerous things like stress, trauma,
overwork, poor sleep, or even eating too many
(03:18):
tacos. Okay, I know just
kidding about the tacos, but not really. You get my
point. Eating overeating will cause
dysregulations. So if the sympathetic system takes
over, stress hormones
skyrocket, turning you into a bundle
of nerves. But the opposite,
if the parasympathetic system goes on overdrive,
(03:39):
you might feel like a sloth on a lazy Sunday. That
means you just don't want to get out of bed. You might be thinking having that
parasympathetic thing out of whack isn't such
a bad thing. But you don't really want to live your life
not having the energy to do anything
at all. So some signs of
a dysregulated nervous system would be things like
(04:00):
anxiety, panic attacks, mood
swings, irritability, agitation,
digestion problems, poor sleep,
persistent fatigue, trouble concentrating,
chronic pain, headaches, migraines, you
get the drift. It's not pleasant. We really
want a healthy nervous system and that's more
like a finely tuned orchestra. It seamlessly
(04:23):
shifts from survival mode to
safety, back and forth. With all the bills, traffic
and over packed schedules. Modern life throws
us curveballs. All foam the time. It's
no wonder our nervous system is so disregulated
and it's so common to be this way. We
just want to find our Zen.
(04:43):
You know, that's a regulated nervous
system is when we're at calm, even when life is
throwing us all these things. And there
are tons of tools to help you to do this. Many
we are going to share in a few minutes.
Each one sends that chill out signal to
your brain to bring your nervous spine system back into
(05:03):
balance.
But first, let's touch base on what the vagus
nerve is. It's also known as the
vasovagal nerve. There's lots of names for it,
but it's really important because we often
ignore it. Most people don't even know it
exists. So what exactly is
the vagus nerve? It's the
(05:24):
VIP of nerves. It is the
nerve that connects your brain, heart and
gut playing that crucial role
in the parasympathetic nervous system. When
it's stimulated, it helps you Feel like you're lounging
in a hammock on a tropical beach.
That's why many nervous system tools target
(05:45):
the vagus nerve. It's important we
talked about it in the last episode, a little bit of how important
it is to get that gut and brain connection. Well,
the vagus nerve is what connects that and helps us
stay regulate it. So we've gone over the
basics of the autonomic nervous
system. We don't need to go into depth about
all the science and all the neurons and all
(06:07):
that stuff. What we need to know is the basics.
And what we really, really need to know
are parasympathetic. You need to remember that's the
calm and sympathetic, that's your fight or
flight. And then we need to know
ways to, we can address a,
dysregulated system. Now we
(06:27):
know that life
triggers our
sympathetic nervous system, our fight or flight
system. Just normal everyday stress and
not dealing with that normal overday stress has put
us in kind of a
problem area in our whole body. That's where those of us
who have yo yo dieted our entire life, we've never
(06:50):
dealt with bringing ourselves back to the
calm. And so every time we get
and we do very well at something, at a diet
specifically, we lose weight, we feel healthier,
life starts ganging up on us
and we get into that permanent
sympathetic mode again where we
can't get out of it because we're not addressing it. It's just building.
(07:12):
The stress is just building and building and building. Now there's good stress and bad
stress, but it's just building. So we need to start
using tools to bring ourselves back
down into that parasympathetic mode. The
more we can have both sides
balanced out, the healthier we're going to be
and the more successful we're going to be on our health and
(07:33):
weight loss journey.
So now it's time to dive into these tools, because that's
the meat of this episode, is the tools to
get our body back to normal. And some
of these I've talked about before. But, but
like life, we often have to hear things over and over
and over again before they stick. So if you know you're
struggling with a dysregulated nervous system,
(07:54):
come back and listen to this episode over and over again so you
can keep learning and reinforcing these tools that
I'm talking about today. Our first tool is
mindfulness. Yes, we've talked about it before, but
it's important that we talk about it again.
Awareness is the first step to
changing anything at all,
including your nervous system. Your thoughts,
(08:16):
emotions, physical sensations, and
responses to stimuli all
trigger stress. So the more you stay present
in the moment, be present being,
the more you catch those stress signals
early. So how do you bring
this present moment awareness? How do
you do it? That's mindfulness. By
(08:39):
practicing mindfulness, it helps you become
aware of your thoughts and your emotions and
sensations and the surroundings in the present
moment without any judgment. You just
have to be aware of your
surroundings. So some of the steps to practice
mindfulness is observe your
thoughts. Notice anytime you
(09:00):
are ruminating about the past or worrying about the
future, bring yourself back to the
present moment. Those
thoughts about the past and the future don't help you right
now in the situation you're in right now. Be
where you're at. Live
where you're at right now. Another
mindfulness practice is to engage all
(09:23):
five senses. Tune into what you're
seeing, what you're hearing, what you're feeling, what you're smelling, what
you're tasting at each moment.
Again, that's part of being present. But engage them.
Feel it. Taste your food, Smell
your food. Smell the air around you,
Enjoy the birds singing, and just
(09:43):
be present in the moment. Engage
your senses. And another practice
is mindful eating. Again, put all
of your attention on your food,
appreciating the subtle nuances of all the
flavors. And another practice would be
single tax spring. Tasking.
That's a hard word. We like to multitask.
(10:05):
But resist that urge and do one
task at a time. Whether that's driving,
doing the dishes, or sipping a cup of
tea. Science has actually
shown that people think they're good at
multitasking. They're actually not. So if you do
one task at a time, you'll get it done with
less stress, and it will
(10:27):
be, more efficient, more
accurate, depending on what the task is, and it will get
done faster. Tool number two is breath
work. And I've talked about it before,
but in regards to your nervous
system, your nervous system controls your
breath. So when you're stressed, your breathing becomes
shallow and fast. But when you're relaxed, breathing is
(10:49):
slow and deep. The good news is, is you
can consciously change your breath to
influence your nervous system. That's what
breath work is. Taking slow, deep
breaths is like sending a chill pill to your brain.
So if you're sitting in a meeting or your boss is saying some
nasty things. Now I'm going to get into some deep breathing
exercises, but this one's simple. Just take a
(11:12):
deep breath, don't sigh. Because then they're going to side
eye. Ah, you. But just go take a deep breath in through
your nose and out, and try to keep it as
mellow as possible. But that'll help calm you
down. Even though that's not an official deep breathing
exercise, it will help. And some of the
official deep breathing exercises are things like
box breathing. Basically, you inhale slowly through
(11:35):
your nose for four counts, you hold it for four
counts, you exhale through your nose for four counts and
then hold again for four counts, and then you can repeat it
for 10 or more rounds. That's not going to work in a
meeting, but it will work if you step
into the bathroom and get away from the situation.
A physiological sigh.
(11:56):
Okay, that's kind of what I was talking about. But with what I was
talking about was no noise. So you take two deep
inhales through your nose, followed by one
long, slow exhale through the mouth.
And it's like a double shot of calm. Now, if you can master that
without any noise or without anyone really noticing you, you can do
that in front of your boss. Next, we have
(12:16):
alternate nostril breathing.
Basically, you breathe through one nostril at a
time and out through the opposite. It's said to balance
your right and left hemispheres of your brain. So
basically, you put your finger over one side
and breathe in, then put your finger over the other side
and breathe out. You also can breathe in and out
(12:36):
of one side and then in and out of the other. But I've
always been taught to breathe in through one side and out through the other, and then
repeat it the opposite way. Then
lastly, we've got belly breathing. It's
also known as diaphragmatic
breathing. This breathing pattern
stimulates the vagus nerve, so it helps trigger that
relaxation response. And basically, you're going to breathe
(12:58):
slowly through your nose, inhaling through your nose and
letting the air go deep into your belly. Rather than
filling up your lungs and making your chest expand, you want to make your
belly expand, and then you just breathe it out
slowly. So those are our deep
breathing tools.
And now we're going to move on to tool number three, which
is movement. Move that body.
(13:20):
Move that body. We know
exercise has endless benefits for
your physical and mental health. It burns off stress,
it relieves muscle tension, it boosts your moves, and it
improves sleep quality, all of which benefit
your nervous system. Just don't go
overboard. You see, intense
exercise without enough recovery in
(13:41):
between causes more stress. So
we gotta find that fine balance, you know, that whole thing.
if You've ever listened to my story. I was working out
six to seven days a week, two to three hours a day.
That wasn't helping balance my nervous system. If
anything, that was putting me more often into that fight
or flight mode. So we want to make sure that we're not
(14:02):
overdoing it. The best
exercises to help, regulate your nervous system come pretty much
into two categories. One would
be mindful exercise, which are things like yoga,
tai chi, qigong. They all
help calm the nervous system because
they help you slow your breath down, tune into your
body and release tension all at the same time as you're doing
(14:25):
these practices. The other category
is light to moderate exercise.
Now these are things like walking and
dancing, biking, swimming, jogging or
hiking. They all help you tune into your body and then
let go of stress. They trigger a release of
endorphins, which is your body's natural feel good
chemicals. So that's why we like these
(14:47):
exercises. You can also do light
weights or as long as you're not doing hiit and heavy
stuff all the time. Because we're trying to regulate our
nervous system so we don't want to put a lot of excessive stress and weight.
Sometimes can do that. So if you're going to do light weights,
that's okay. Heavy weights, hard.
Leave that to once or twice a week for now until
your system is in a more regulated stage
(15:09):
or balance it out. Do two to three days
of hard and heavy weights and then take
two to three days and do all of something like
yoga or Tai chi dancing. Things that will help bring
you back down in calm your nervous system.
Tool four is nature.
Why? Because nature is like a spa
day for your nervous system. Forest bathing,
(15:32):
which is basically just spending time in
nature, can lower your blood
pressure, lower your heart rate,
lower your stress hormones.
Nature free, outside
trees, ground. It's pretty easy.
Try to squeeze in outdoor time whenever
(15:52):
you can. Play in the garden,
hike, go to a park, or simply
sip on some tea on your porch and listen to the
birds. Another thing we like to do in
nature is called grounding. It's also
known as earthing. It is basically making
contact with the earth. It
connects you with the earth's electrical charge. And I
(16:15):
know it sounds woo, but but there's a lot of science behind
this. It will help you ground your
nervous system. Ways to practice grounding
are pretty simple. Walk barefoot in the
grass, lie on the ground, play in
the garden, take a walk on the beach, or play in the
sand. Submerge your body in a
natural Body of water, like an ocean, a
(16:38):
stream, a lake, a river, whatever. Try a
grounding tool. Now, I've not tried these yet, but there are
earthing shoes, earthing mats. Especially if you live
someplace where it gets a lot of snow and, being outside
isn't going to be very helpful to the grounding experience in
the winter. You can try a grounding tool. Tool.
5. Vagal toning. When the vagus
(16:58):
nerve is stimulated. Yes, we've already talked about this. It helps
you feel calm and relaxed. The good news
is there are simple practices that
can help stimulate the vagus nerve and, and help you
build vagal tone. So when it's toned, it helps bring
you back to that calm and relaxed phase a lot
easier. So ways we stimulate the vagus
nerve. Singing, humming and
(17:21):
gargling. Anytime your
vocal cords vibrate, it activates your
vagal nerve. So go ahead, belt out your
favorite tune. If you don't sing very well, don't worry
about it. Just sing in private. Trust
me, it will make you feel a lot
better. Laughter. A good
laugh activates your diaphragm and stimulates
(17:43):
your vagus nerve. Laughter m also
reduces anxiety, boosts your mood and
strengthens your immune system. So
look for opportunities to laugh whenever you can.
You know, oftentimes we say things like, I gotta laugh,
otherwise I'll cry. Because laughter is bringing
your body back down to a calm state.
(18:03):
And then lastly, cold water therapy.
Not my favorite thing. I'm going to tell you. I don't
like the cold. Exposing your body to cold
water stimulates the vagus nerve.
But you don't have to do a cold
plunge. And this is why I can actually do some of
these cold therapy practices. Splash some
(18:23):
cold water on your face. Submerge your face
in a bowl of cold ice water. Place an
ice pack on the back of your neck, or switch to cold
water for the last 30 seconds of your shower.
And ladies, if you rinse your hair in this
cold water for the last 30 seconds of your shower,
it closes the cuticles and helps keep it
(18:44):
looking healthy and shiny. But if you're
afraid of a cold shower, let me just explain.
You don't have to start with the 30 seconds. You
could start with five and build up from there.
I also usually suggest only doing it
in the morning because your body will do
the opposite. So if you put cold on your body,
(19:05):
you actually will warm up faster in the morning. And
we want to get our body temperature up in the morning,
but at night we want our body temperature to cool down
to sleep we don't really want it to raise to go
to sleep. So be mindful of when you're doing this
cold therapy. So sometimes an ice pack on the back of the neck is
the simplest way of doing it. And the less
(19:25):
offensive if you're not a biggest fan of the cold.
The last tool, tool number six is
somatics. Now I know somatics might be new
to many of you. When our system
is dysregulated, it's easy to get
stuck in our head. Somatic practices help you
pull back into your body. so we really want
to get out of our head and overthinking everything
(19:47):
and, and back into our body to start
relaxing. Some of these somatic tools are
things like physical touch, things like skin to
skin contact, hugging, cuddling, holding
hands, enjoying a massage. They all trigger the
release of oxytocin,
which promotes feelings of health and well
being and happiness. So physical touch is
(20:09):
a great one. Emotional freedom
technique, known as eft,
also known as tapping. This involves
tapping on certain acupoints while
focusing on a negative thought or belief causing the
distress. Research suggests it actually
reduces stress and anxiety. So we're kind of like tapping in
these points, thinking of that negative thought and releasing
(20:32):
it. It's kind of how it works, or at least how it works in my
brain. And lastly, we have things like
somatic exercises. These are movements that are
designed to help you release physical and emotional
tension. you can find them online for free.
There's plenty of YouTube channels out there. But
somatic M exercises have been shown
to help you release that stress and
(20:53):
tension from that negative event.
There you go. Six simple, easy,
fun tools to help you regulate your nervous
system. And you got a little on the basics of what the
nervous system does. But we need to
make sure that we are searching and
working on our inner Zen master. So
go and give your nervous system the TLC it
(21:15):
deserves. And on that note, friends, I'll see you next
time. Bye. Thanks for
tuning in. I hope you snagged some great tips for your health
journey. Remember, this podcast is all about
education and fun. No medical advice here.
Check out the full disclaimer in the show Notes. Stay in
the loop by joining our
newsletter@holistichealthmadesimple.com for
(21:36):
weekly tips and tricks. Thanks for being part of our tribe.
Until next time, have a fabulous day.
The nervous system, fight or
flight? Parasympathetic, sympathetic. What
the heck is all of this? Why do you
even need to know or care?
Let's dive in.
Hey there. Feeling lost in the sea of confusing health
tips? Think nothing works for you? Well,
don't sweat it. You're not broken, and there are better days
(00:23):
ahead. I'm Jolene, nutritional therapy
practitioner and BFF on this wild
ride. Welcome to Holistic Health Made simple,
where we embrace empowered eating and reclaimed
control. Let's feed our body, mind, and soul
to unlock true health. So grab your water
bottle, pop in those earbuds, and let's get this party
started. Hey. Hey,
(00:44):
there. So often we focus solely
on what we eat, how we exercise, if we're getting
enough sleep, and how to reduce stress.
But those of us, myself
included, who struggle
with yo yo dieting over the years, who have
struggled with other things in their life,
(01:05):
need to take a little bit more
interest in their nervous system. Because your nervous
system is your command
center. Think of it like a
puppeteer. It's pulling all these strings, and
it's influencing everything from your
hormones, your immune system, your digestion,
mood, and sleep. And the list goes on
(01:26):
and on. And that's why so many are
turning to what we call nervous system
regulation to improve our health.
It'll also improve our happiness. And we know when we're
happier, it's easier to stay with those healthy
habits. So what exactly is this
autonomic nervous system? It's often
abbreviated as ans, but think of it like your
(01:48):
body's autopilot. It's controlling the things you don't
need to think about, like breathing, your heart rate, your
digestion. We don't actually think about those things. They just
kind of happen, but they happen
within our nervous system. So there's two
main players in. In our
autonomic nervous system. They are
the sympathetic nervous system and the
(02:10):
parasympathetic nervous system.
The sympathetic nervous system
is basically your fight or flight response.
It's the one that mobilizes all your resources to
respond to stress. It acts like your gas
pedal, revving you up for action. You know, makes
you go, go, go, and then your
parasympathetic nervous system, which is
(02:32):
basically the opposite. It's your rest and digest
mode. This one promotes relaxation
and kind of helps you chill out. Think of it like a
brake pedal bringing you back to calm. So we've
got, you know, the gas pedal and the brake pedal. Both
of these systems are crucial. The
sympathetic system helps you jump into action when you're
stressed out. And the parasympathetic system helps
(02:55):
you recover and recharge. It brings you
back to that calm. So the problem arises
when the system gets dysregulated.
It happens when these systems kind of get
out of whack, out of balance. You know that whole body
imbalance thing. And it's caused
by numerous things like stress, trauma,
overwork, poor sleep, or even eating too many
(03:18):
tacos. Okay, I know just
kidding about the tacos, but not really. You get my
point. Eating overeating will cause
dysregulations. So if the sympathetic system takes
over, stress hormones
skyrocket, turning you into a bundle
of nerves. But the opposite,
if the parasympathetic system goes on overdrive,
(03:39):
you might feel like a sloth on a lazy Sunday. That
means you just don't want to get out of bed. You might be thinking having that
parasympathetic thing out of whack isn't such
a bad thing. But you don't really want to live your life
not having the energy to do anything
at all. So some signs of
a dysregulated nervous system would be things like
(04:00):
anxiety, panic attacks, mood
swings, irritability, agitation,
digestion problems, poor sleep,
persistent fatigue, trouble concentrating,
chronic pain, headaches, migraines, you
get the drift. It's not pleasant. We really
want a healthy nervous system and that's more
like a finely tuned orchestra. It seamlessly
(04:23):
shifts from survival mode to
safety, back and forth. With all the bills, traffic
and over packed schedules. Modern life throws
us curveballs. All foam the time. It's
no wonder our nervous system is so disregulated
and it's so common to be this way. We
just want to find our Zen.
(04:43):
You know, that's a regulated nervous
system is when we're at calm, even when life is
throwing us all these things. And there
are tons of tools to help you to do this. Many
we are going to share in a few minutes.
Each one sends that chill out signal to
your brain to bring your nervous spine system back into
(05:03):
balance.
But first, let's touch base on what the vagus
nerve is. It's also known as the
vasovagal nerve. There's lots of names for it,
but it's really important because we often
ignore it. Most people don't even know it
exists. So what exactly is
the vagus nerve? It's the
(05:24):
VIP of nerves. It is the
nerve that connects your brain, heart and
gut playing that crucial role
in the parasympathetic nervous system. When
it's stimulated, it helps you Feel like you're lounging
in a hammock on a tropical beach.
That's why many nervous system tools target
(05:45):
the vagus nerve. It's important we
talked about it in the last episode, a little bit of how important
it is to get that gut and brain connection. Well,
the vagus nerve is what connects that and helps us
stay regulate it. So we've gone over the
basics of the autonomic nervous
system. We don't need to go into depth about
all the science and all the neurons and all
(06:07):
that stuff. What we need to know is the basics.
And what we really, really need to know
are parasympathetic. You need to remember that's the
calm and sympathetic, that's your fight or
flight. And then we need to know
ways to, we can address a,
dysregulated system. Now we
(06:27):
know that life
triggers our
sympathetic nervous system, our fight or flight
system. Just normal everyday stress and
not dealing with that normal overday stress has put
us in kind of a
problem area in our whole body. That's where those of us
who have yo yo dieted our entire life, we've never
(06:50):
dealt with bringing ourselves back to the
calm. And so every time we get
and we do very well at something, at a diet
specifically, we lose weight, we feel healthier,
life starts ganging up on us
and we get into that permanent
sympathetic mode again where we
can't get out of it because we're not addressing it. It's just building.
(07:12):
The stress is just building and building and building. Now there's good stress and bad
stress, but it's just building. So we need to start
using tools to bring ourselves back
down into that parasympathetic mode. The
more we can have both sides
balanced out, the healthier we're going to be
and the more successful we're going to be on our health and
(07:33):
weight loss journey.
So now it's time to dive into these tools, because that's
the meat of this episode, is the tools to
get our body back to normal. And some
of these I've talked about before. But, but
like life, we often have to hear things over and over
and over again before they stick. So if you know you're
struggling with a dysregulated nervous system,
(07:54):
come back and listen to this episode over and over again so you
can keep learning and reinforcing these tools that
I'm talking about today. Our first tool is
mindfulness. Yes, we've talked about it before, but
it's important that we talk about it again.
Awareness is the first step to
changing anything at all,
including your nervous system. Your thoughts,
(08:16):
emotions, physical sensations, and
responses to stimuli all
trigger stress. So the more you stay present
in the moment, be present being,
the more you catch those stress signals
early. So how do you bring
this present moment awareness? How do
you do it? That's mindfulness. By
(08:39):
practicing mindfulness, it helps you become
aware of your thoughts and your emotions and
sensations and the surroundings in the present
moment without any judgment. You just
have to be aware of your
surroundings. So some of the steps to practice
mindfulness is observe your
thoughts. Notice anytime you
(09:00):
are ruminating about the past or worrying about the
future, bring yourself back to the
present moment. Those
thoughts about the past and the future don't help you right
now in the situation you're in right now. Be
where you're at. Live
where you're at right now. Another
mindfulness practice is to engage all
(09:23):
five senses. Tune into what you're
seeing, what you're hearing, what you're feeling, what you're smelling, what
you're tasting at each moment.
Again, that's part of being present. But engage them.
Feel it. Taste your food, Smell
your food. Smell the air around you,
Enjoy the birds singing, and just
(09:43):
be present in the moment. Engage
your senses. And another practice
is mindful eating. Again, put all
of your attention on your food,
appreciating the subtle nuances of all the
flavors. And another practice would be
single tax spring. Tasking.
That's a hard word. We like to multitask.
(10:05):
But resist that urge and do one
task at a time. Whether that's driving,
doing the dishes, or sipping a cup of
tea. Science has actually
shown that people think they're good at
multitasking. They're actually not. So if you do
one task at a time, you'll get it done with
less stress, and it will
(10:27):
be, more efficient, more
accurate, depending on what the task is, and it will get
done faster. Tool number two is breath
work. And I've talked about it before,
but in regards to your nervous
system, your nervous system controls your
breath. So when you're stressed, your breathing becomes
shallow and fast. But when you're relaxed, breathing is
(10:49):
slow and deep. The good news is, is you
can consciously change your breath to
influence your nervous system. That's what
breath work is. Taking slow, deep
breaths is like sending a chill pill to your brain.
So if you're sitting in a meeting or your boss is saying some
nasty things. Now I'm going to get into some deep breathing
exercises, but this one's simple. Just take a
(11:12):
deep breath, don't sigh. Because then they're going to side
eye. Ah, you. But just go take a deep breath in through
your nose and out, and try to keep it as
mellow as possible. But that'll help calm you
down. Even though that's not an official deep breathing
exercise, it will help. And some of the
official deep breathing exercises are things like
box breathing. Basically, you inhale slowly through
(11:35):
your nose for four counts, you hold it for four
counts, you exhale through your nose for four counts and
then hold again for four counts, and then you can repeat it
for 10 or more rounds. That's not going to work in a
meeting, but it will work if you step
into the bathroom and get away from the situation.
A physiological sigh.
(11:56):
Okay, that's kind of what I was talking about. But with what I was
talking about was no noise. So you take two deep
inhales through your nose, followed by one
long, slow exhale through the mouth.
And it's like a double shot of calm. Now, if you can master that
without any noise or without anyone really noticing you, you can do
that in front of your boss. Next, we have
(12:16):
alternate nostril breathing.
Basically, you breathe through one nostril at a
time and out through the opposite. It's said to balance
your right and left hemispheres of your brain. So
basically, you put your finger over one side
and breathe in, then put your finger over the other side
and breathe out. You also can breathe in and out
(12:36):
of one side and then in and out of the other. But I've
always been taught to breathe in through one side and out through the other, and then
repeat it the opposite way. Then
lastly, we've got belly breathing. It's
also known as diaphragmatic
breathing. This breathing pattern
stimulates the vagus nerve, so it helps trigger that
relaxation response. And basically, you're going to breathe
(12:58):
slowly through your nose, inhaling through your nose and
letting the air go deep into your belly. Rather than
filling up your lungs and making your chest expand, you want to make your
belly expand, and then you just breathe it out
slowly. So those are our deep
breathing tools.
And now we're going to move on to tool number three, which
is movement. Move that body.
(13:20):
Move that body. We know
exercise has endless benefits for
your physical and mental health. It burns off stress,
it relieves muscle tension, it boosts your moves, and it
improves sleep quality, all of which benefit
your nervous system. Just don't go
overboard. You see, intense
exercise without enough recovery in
(13:41):
between causes more stress. So
we gotta find that fine balance, you know, that whole thing.
if You've ever listened to my story. I was working out
six to seven days a week, two to three hours a day.
That wasn't helping balance my nervous system. If
anything, that was putting me more often into that fight
or flight mode. So we want to make sure that we're not
(14:02):
overdoing it. The best
exercises to help, regulate your nervous system come pretty much
into two categories. One would
be mindful exercise, which are things like yoga,
tai chi, qigong. They all
help calm the nervous system because
they help you slow your breath down, tune into your
body and release tension all at the same time as you're doing
(14:25):
these practices. The other category
is light to moderate exercise.
Now these are things like walking and
dancing, biking, swimming, jogging or
hiking. They all help you tune into your body and then
let go of stress. They trigger a release of
endorphins, which is your body's natural feel good
chemicals. So that's why we like these
(14:47):
exercises. You can also do light
weights or as long as you're not doing hiit and heavy
stuff all the time. Because we're trying to regulate our
nervous system so we don't want to put a lot of excessive stress and weight.
Sometimes can do that. So if you're going to do light weights,
that's okay. Heavy weights, hard.
Leave that to once or twice a week for now until
your system is in a more regulated stage
(15:09):
or balance it out. Do two to three days
of hard and heavy weights and then take
two to three days and do all of something like
yoga or Tai chi dancing. Things that will help bring
you back down in calm your nervous system.
Tool four is nature.
Why? Because nature is like a spa
day for your nervous system. Forest bathing,
(15:32):
which is basically just spending time in
nature, can lower your blood
pressure, lower your heart rate,
lower your stress hormones.
Nature free, outside
trees, ground. It's pretty easy.
Try to squeeze in outdoor time whenever
(15:52):
you can. Play in the garden,
hike, go to a park, or simply
sip on some tea on your porch and listen to the
birds. Another thing we like to do in
nature is called grounding. It's also
known as earthing. It is basically making
contact with the earth. It
connects you with the earth's electrical charge. And I
(16:15):
know it sounds woo, but but there's a lot of science behind
this. It will help you ground your
nervous system. Ways to practice grounding
are pretty simple. Walk barefoot in the
grass, lie on the ground, play in
the garden, take a walk on the beach, or play in the
sand. Submerge your body in a
natural Body of water, like an ocean, a
(16:38):
stream, a lake, a river, whatever. Try a
grounding tool. Now, I've not tried these yet, but there are
earthing shoes, earthing mats. Especially if you live
someplace where it gets a lot of snow and, being outside
isn't going to be very helpful to the grounding experience in
the winter. You can try a grounding tool. Tool.
5. Vagal toning. When the vagus
(16:58):
nerve is stimulated. Yes, we've already talked about this. It helps
you feel calm and relaxed. The good news
is there are simple practices that
can help stimulate the vagus nerve and, and help you
build vagal tone. So when it's toned, it helps bring
you back to that calm and relaxed phase a lot
easier. So ways we stimulate the vagus
nerve. Singing, humming and
(17:21):
gargling. Anytime your
vocal cords vibrate, it activates your
vagal nerve. So go ahead, belt out your
favorite tune. If you don't sing very well, don't worry
about it. Just sing in private. Trust
me, it will make you feel a lot
better. Laughter. A good
laugh activates your diaphragm and stimulates
(17:43):
your vagus nerve. Laughter m also
reduces anxiety, boosts your mood and
strengthens your immune system. So
look for opportunities to laugh whenever you can.
You know, oftentimes we say things like, I gotta laugh,
otherwise I'll cry. Because laughter is bringing
your body back down to a calm state.
(18:03):
And then lastly, cold water therapy.
Not my favorite thing. I'm going to tell you. I don't
like the cold. Exposing your body to cold
water stimulates the vagus nerve.
But you don't have to do a cold
plunge. And this is why I can actually do some of
these cold therapy practices. Splash some
(18:23):
cold water on your face. Submerge your face
in a bowl of cold ice water. Place an
ice pack on the back of your neck, or switch to cold
water for the last 30 seconds of your shower.
And ladies, if you rinse your hair in this
cold water for the last 30 seconds of your shower,
it closes the cuticles and helps keep it
(18:44):
looking healthy and shiny. But if you're
afraid of a cold shower, let me just explain.
You don't have to start with the 30 seconds. You
could start with five and build up from there.
I also usually suggest only doing it
in the morning because your body will do
the opposite. So if you put cold on your body,
(19:05):
you actually will warm up faster in the morning. And
we want to get our body temperature up in the morning,
but at night we want our body temperature to cool down
to sleep we don't really want it to raise to go
to sleep. So be mindful of when you're doing this
cold therapy. So sometimes an ice pack on the back of the neck is
the simplest way of doing it. And the less
(19:25):
offensive if you're not a biggest fan of the cold.
The last tool, tool number six is
somatics. Now I know somatics might be new
to many of you. When our system
is dysregulated, it's easy to get
stuck in our head. Somatic practices help you
pull back into your body. so we really want
to get out of our head and overthinking everything
(19:47):
and, and back into our body to start
relaxing. Some of these somatic tools are
things like physical touch, things like skin to
skin contact, hugging, cuddling, holding
hands, enjoying a massage. They all trigger the
release of oxytocin,
which promotes feelings of health and well
being and happiness. So physical touch is
(20:09):
a great one. Emotional freedom
technique, known as eft,
also known as tapping. This involves
tapping on certain acupoints while
focusing on a negative thought or belief causing the
distress. Research suggests it actually
reduces stress and anxiety. So we're kind of like tapping in
these points, thinking of that negative thought and releasing
(20:32):
it. It's kind of how it works, or at least how it works in my
brain. And lastly, we have things like
somatic exercises. These are movements that are
designed to help you release physical and emotional
tension. you can find them online for free.
There's plenty of YouTube channels out there. But
somatic M exercises have been shown
to help you release that stress and
(20:53):
tension from that negative event.
There you go. Six simple, easy,
fun tools to help you regulate your nervous
system. And you got a little on the basics of what the
nervous system does. But we need to
make sure that we are searching and
working on our inner Zen master. So
go and give your nervous system the TLC it
(21:15):
deserves. And on that note, friends, I'll see you next
time. Bye. Thanks for
tuning in. I hope you snagged some great tips for your health
journey. Remember, this podcast is all about
education and fun. No medical advice here.
Check out the full disclaimer in the show Notes. Stay in
the loop by joining our
newsletter@holistichealthmadesimple.com for
(21:36):
weekly tips and tricks. Thanks for being part of our tribe.
Until next time, have a fabulous day.
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