What does my nervous system actually do?
Why should I care about my Nervous System (NS)?
Well, it plays into nearly every aspect of our lives. Here are a few things our NS does:
Helps us in stressful or potentially dangerous situations
Helps us communicate
Tells our heart to beat and our lungs to breathe
Controls movement and balance
Controls your Senses, including how your brain interprets what you see, hear, taste, touch and feel
Influences digestion, as well as how hungry and thirsty you feel.
Influences body processes, such as puberty.
Influences your thought processes and making memories
Sleep, healing and aging
And yes, it even influences sex and orgasm!
Dang. That's a lot. How does it work?
Our Nervous Systems
Let's start with the basics. Everyone has little fibers that look like tree roots that go out into our muscles, organs, and skin and carry important messages back and forth between your brain and body.
Your brain and spinal cord make up your central nervous system
All the little nerves everywhere else make up your peripheral nervous system
These nerve cells are called neurons and take in information through the body’s senses: touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound. The brain interprets these sensory cues to understand what’s going on outside and inside the body and helps us communicate our experience.
How does this actually relate to your everyday life?
Ever wonder why you get a pit in your stomach when you see an email from your boss? Or a rush of energy before you step onto the soccer field for a game? What about when you kiss someone and get turned on? Or have an orgasm? Even our reactions to cute puppies are dictated by our nervous system. Knowing how they work can give us a better understanding about how to manage our stress, have more fulfilling sex lives, and keep our cool if someone cuts us off in traffic. Let's talk a little about the important part of how they work.
Our Two Branches
Our nervous systems are intricate and sophisticated. Our Autonomic (think automatic) Nervous Systems (NS) are responsible for regulating involuntary body function, meaning, we don’t have to think about it. Who wants to have to think about keeping their heart pumping, their blood flowing, breathing, or pooping? No thanks. We have other things to worry about. Our nervous systems are actually things that we can see (if we were dissected). They aren’t like the more mysterious energy meridians in Chinese medicine or Ayurvedic medicine, which trained practitioners can learn to track and sense, but can’t be “seen”. In general, you can think of the Autonomic NS splitting into two branches.
The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) helps us mobilize the body’s fight-or-flight response to keep us safe and alive, as well as engage in everyday activities that require more energy output. It's akin to stepping on the gas and accelerating. Ever been stressed? (Yes, that's a rhetorical question). The SNS typically increases heart rate and blood pressure, dilates pupils to see more, increases bronchi to inhale more oxygen, and pumps more blood toward the peripheral blood vessels for the muscles.
Basically, the same thing happens in your body if your hot crush walks up to you and asks your name and you break out in a sweat. Scary stuff right there...phew! Your nervous system also triggers all those lovely stress hormones we always hear about, like adrenaline and cortisol, which are incredibly useful but not intended to be flooding your system all the time.
Typically it's taught that the Parasympathetic NS (PNS) is responsible for the body’s homeostasis and “rest and digest” phase, which allows the heart rate and muscles to relax, promotes digestion, and allows for absorption of nutrients. It's akin to stepping on the brakes and slowing down. It also helps us stay socially engaged with others and have a good time. We are chillin with our homies. Yes, call up some friends!!
The PNS is also responsible for the less talked about freeze response, which is also a survival response and works similar to a possum playing dead. When fight or flight don't seem to be options anymore, the PNS instantaneously slams on the brake pedal and we come skidding to a halt. The idea is, “time to shut down and close shop until that threat disappears.” Once we “thaw out” after freezing, we typically have a ton of energetic charge underneath our “cool” demeanor, which is residue from the SNS.
An example of freeze for survival would be a mouse that has been caught by a cat. It may go into freeze until the cat gets bored or thinks it's dead and leaves it alone, at which point the mouse will slowly come “back to life”, and scurry away. Freeze can also look like a teacher calling on us in class and we get so nervous our energy spikes and then our mind goes blank, we get tongue tied, and everything gets really slow...until we come back online a few seconds later and notice some of our classmates are staring at us or giggling. This is just a minder version of freeze.
Both branches of our nervous system are constantly coordinating with each other and used many times throughout one's day in cycles of activity and rest. Neither one should be stuck on for long periods of time. Just think, balance. We need our SNS to get out of bed and get shit done, and our PSN to chill out and relax. These days, (pandemic times/all the time) most of us are stuck on high, and tend to get overwhelmed “easily”. We have a lot of things on our plate. The good news is there are many ways to hack into our Nervous Systems to de-stress, have fulfilling sex, and communicate better with loved ones. It all requires getting in touch with our bodies and learning some somatic (body-based) practices. Somatic Experiencing and TRE (Trauma and Tension Releasing Exercises) are awesome methods to get a real world sense of your reactions and not only understand your unique nervous system better, but to make big shifts our stress responses and healing.
Somatic Experiencing
Getting underneath your stress and your habitual Nervous System response can be really hard. Learning to live comfortably in our bodies can dramatically change the way we relate to our partners, children, jobs, sex, and how we move through the world.
Somatic Experiencing works with a bottom up approach, allowing the wisdom of the body to speak and complete thwarted survival responses. Your rational mind is not in charge of your nervous system, and your nervous system is the part of you that controls your behaviors, thoughts, and emotional responses. With SE, we slowly digest and integrate overwhelming experiences through the body. The story is not the main focus. In fact, story often follows state. If our nervous system state changes, often our interpretation of our story completely changes.
Whats important to note is that the intensity that a threat registers in the nervous system is not necessarily proportional to the actual threat. What can be no big deal for one person, like going to the
doctor, can make someone else’s blood pressure spike. SE can work as a great adjunct to traditional psychotherapy, by welcoming the “body’s voice” to be a part of the therapeutic process.
Dr. Peter Levine has worked in the field of stress and trauma for over 40 years and is the developer of the Somatic Experiencing® method and 3 year training program for professionals, including myself.
As a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, I help people overcome trauma, awaken to their bodies innate ability to heal, and feel at home in their bodies to start living a life they love.
I serve both Black Mountain, NC and Asheville, NC offering in person sessions. I am able to do online sessions for both Somatic Experiencing and TRE. Although I always prefer in person sessions myself, both these methods translate exceptionally well via online video calls. This allows people to work from the comfort of their own home, which has its own perks, as well as offer options for those who may need to limit their time seeing others due to Covid. Or you may not live in the area but feel like these modalities would benefit you. Book an online session here.