Understanding Your Nervous System

Our nervous system is always shifting to help us navigate the world—it’s impossible (and unnecessary) to stay in a parasympathetic state all the time. but when stress becomes chronic, it can be harder to return to a balanced baseline. In this talk, we’ll use breathwork to explore levels of breathing and how they influence the body and mind. The goal isn’t to force relaxation but to create space for ease to become more accessible.

Transcript

This is nervous system nourishment and what we do here is we tend to our body and we tend to our mind.

There is a lot of discussion about regulating our nervous system and I believe that that's not something that we need to do.

Our nervous systems need to be cared for,

Need to be supported and nourished but there is not a need to add another level of control or regulation or manipulation in our bodies because it already is doing what it needs to do and it's trying so very hard to take care of us,

Take care of mind,

Our body,

Our spirit even though sometimes we may feel like why are you doing this to me?

Okay so all we're doing today is setting aside a designated time to be with our body and our mind which are essentially the same thing.

We talk a lot about the disconnection or rather the connection of body and mind in our day and age and they're part of this one whole being that we exist in.

So what we'll be doing today is learning a little bit about the nervous system and then we'll do an exercise and then you can carry on with your day.

If you have joined us here before you've definitely heard about the central nervous system which runs through our spine and to our brain and our peripheral nervous system which is everything that is not our spine or our brain and these two nervous systems each have voluntary or somatic nervous systems so that is the body and involuntary which is our autonomic or unconscious nervous system right and within our involuntary nervous systems we can then break it down to more nervous systems that you all might be familiar with.

One of them being the sympathetic nervous system which is commonly known as our fight,

Flight,

Fall,

Or freeze and our parasympathetic nervous system which is our body's state of rest and digestion,

Relaxation.

We would like to be in this state more often.

Now is that realistic or possible all the time?

No it's not.

That doesn't mean that we need to constantly be in a state of like we need to get to this state of relaxation that would be lovely but that is also not realistic.

So we're building our way to withstand the discomfort of our environment and hopefully you know still find these moments of ease and relaxation because we absolutely need them and they feel good right.

Another part of the involuntary nervous system that is often discussed as the mind-gut connection is the enteric nervous system and that is within our intestines,

Within our bowels,

Within our digestion.

It starts in our mouth,

Goes down our esophagus,

Into our belly,

And down into our intestines.

So that's we're not going to touch on that today but so you have a full knowledge of the involuntary nervous systems right.

So what we're going to do today is find a way to work with the discomfort and how we can do that.

There's so many ways.

Our body is so incredibly capable,

Powerful,

And has so many different ways of nourishing our body and mind.

I personally like meditation and movement.

Those are the things that I love to share but it can be anything.

It can be anything for you.

If you like to cook,

It can be cooking,

It can be journaling,

It can be singing,

It can be dancing,

It can be rollerblading,

It can be riding a bike,

Or it can be looking at flowers.

It can be so many different things that help you feel more connected and feel more at a state of ease,

At a state of relaxation,

Or just at a state of joy right.

It doesn't really have to even be that complicated.

It can just be the joy that we feel of drinking our tea in the morning or having our coffee with our little cookies right.

It does not have to be this very complicated experience.

It's more so how can I tend to my body in the way that feels good,

Feels nourishing,

And is ultimately unique to me.

For example,

There is a lot of discussion about self-care in our culture and that is really beautiful but self-care does not have to be about that.

It might be and that might be really beautiful and you might really enjoy it but it doesn't have to be that.

So aside from the breathwork that we're going to be doing today,

I really encourage you to find the thing that makes you feel good and use that as a tool to connect with your body and mind,

To connect with the nervous systems that we all have and it's all really up to us to find the ones that feel good for us.

Not in a way to find a hobby per se that is going to make you more productive,

For example with work,

Or to be constantly on this edge of I need to be better,

I need to be better.

Although that is really lovely and I'm not saying to kind of give up on life but there is so many different ways to connect with your body and mind and we're just going to cover one which is our breath.

So I'll invite you now to get into a comfortable,

Ideally seated,

If that is not accessible to you today you're welcome to lay down.

This is also something that you can do walking which is not really common for the nervous system nourishment exercises that I do so if that's something that you're interested in definitely take advantage of that.

Be mindful of your space if you're walking,

Please don't close your eyes.

If you're laying down you can close your eyes but you do risk falling asleep.

If you are seated I guess you do risk falling asleep but it's a little less likely if that is not necessary.

So with that I'll give you a few more minutes to get into this comfortable position whatever that position is for you and please know that if at any point throughout this process you want to adjust your body or if you need to sneeze or you have a scratch you're welcome to do that.

Meditation is a mental gym is what some people like to call it.

Also a way to be very much connected with our body and mind.

That does not mean that it's going to be easy though,

Right?

There's to-do lists,

There's ideas,

There's bodily sensations that may come up,

There may even be emotions that arise that you are unfamiliar with.

At that point if that does happen first take care of your body and your mind and do what you need to do to feel comfortable.

If you would like to send a message in this circumstance in this context it is a group message but if you can send me a private message you're welcome to do that as well and you have that information in my bio.

All right y'all we are going to take deep breaths and we have two options.

We can breathe in through our nose out through our nose or we can breathe in through our nose and out through our mouth.

Pros of breathing in and out through our nose is that we are really focused in our mental space.

Pros of breathing out through your mouth is that it really relaxes your body.

So that's something to explore.

What is it that your body needs right now?

What is it that your body is looking for right now?

And of course that can change throughout this exercise.

So if you start breathing in and out through your nose and you're like actually I want to breathe out through my mouth.

I want to exhale out through my mouth.

You can do that and you can flip-flop as long as your body is willing and able to participate with you and show you those signals which it always will.

It's just hard to kind of decipher them sometimes and this practice is about building that trust and building that confidence in your body to listen to the messages that it's sending you.

All right whatever breath style you have chosen and keep doing that at your own pace finding a natural rhythm.

There is no need to force it.

There's no need to set an expectation.

There's really no wrong way to connect with your body and mind.

Just by showing up and listening to your to these sensations in your body you are doing everything perfectly fine.

It may help to do a quick body scan and so we'll join that together.

Taking note of the top of your head.

Any sensation,

Temperatures,

Maybe the pressure of your hair on your skin or if you're wearing a hat or scarf.

Noticing what that feels like at the top of your head.

Moving your attention down your face,

Down your neck,

Your shoulders.

Taking note of where your shoulders are in this certain context,

This position,

This time and space.

Are they high by your ears?

Is one higher than the other?

Without any judgment try to see if they are high up.

If we can lower them down a little bit.

If one is higher than the other maybe invite in some curiosity.

Don't get too wrapped up in what is going on.

Our bodies are moving and get kind of stuck especially in our shoulders that hold a lot of tension.

Breathing in again and on exhale focus your attention now towards your chest.

Expanding out to your arms until you reach your fingertips.

Returning back to your breath.

Focusing your attention now on your belly.

Taking note of the rise and fall as you breathe in and out through your nose or out through your mouth.

Moving now towards your hips.

Your hips hold a lot of tension,

Hold a lot of emotion.

Creativity,

Sensuality.

So get that area a little bit more of your breath.

Moving down your legs,

Your quads,

Your hamstrings,

Your knees,

Your calves,

Shins.

Down through your ankles,

Top of your feet,

Bottom of your feet,

The space in between your toes.

And allow this breath now to flow naturally throughout your body.

You can go up,

Down,

You can go left and right.

Moving from the back of your body to the front of your body and vice versa.

In the next few minutes we'll try out three different types of breathing patterns.

So in all of them they're all going to be a profound inhale as deep as you can.

And as we continue on with this exercise you might find that it gets deeper and deeper and you can play with it a little bit more.

But again,

Never force your breath.

This is not the point of it.

The point is not to get a reward or a star or any sort of level of perfection.

The idea is to practice being with our breath.

Practice being with a little bit of discomfort.

So we'll start with our first breathing pattern.

And in this pattern what we're going to do is breathe in,

Take a deep breath,

And our exhale is going to be halfway.

Pause and then release the rest of your exhale.

And again this can be out through your nose or out through your mouth.

You may be even enticed to experiment with both.

And if that's the case I am happy for your curiosity.

That is very exciting.

I encourage you to explore it.

So at your own pace breathe in through your nose.

Slight pause.

Exhale halfway.

Pause again.

Exhale the rest of your breath.

Another pause for your inhale once more.

We'll do this for the next minute or so.

Breathing in through our nose.

Slight pause.

Exhale halfway.

Slight pause.

Exhale.

Complete.

If you're breathing out,

If you're exhaling out through your nose,

You're welcome to experiment with your exhale out through your mouth and vice versa.

And if that's not what you want to do today you don't have to.

That's okay.

For our next breathing pattern we're now going to exhale out in thirds.

So I'm going to breathe in through the nose.

Slight pause.

Exhale out one third.

Pause.

Another third.

Pause.

And finish out your exhale.

Now this one can feel a little tricky as we're starting to get in this rhythm.

At least it is for me.

That may not be the case for you and that's okay too.

And we'll continue this minute of this type of breathing.

So we're inhaling in through our nose.

Exhale out through our mouth or our nose,

Whatever we feel comfortable.

At the third mark.

Pause.

Another third.

Pause.

Finish out our breath.

And our third and final breathing exercise is going to be breathing out a quarter of our breath.

So breathing in and deep and profound as we can.

What is accessible for us today.

Slight pause.

Exhale a quarter.

Pause.

Another quarter.

Pause.

Another quarter.

Pause and fully release that exhale.

This can be an exhale through your nose or through your mouth.

If you have experimented with your exhale differing how that feels in your body,

I encourage you to explore it a little bit more.

If that's not something that you feel comfortable doing today nor did your body feel like it wanted to,

That's perfectly fine as well.

After your next complete round of the quarter breaths,

You can then return back to a natural in and out through your nose or through your mouth.

Noticing the rise and fall of your belly.

Maybe becoming more in tune with the sensations in your body.

If your eyes were closed and start to slowly open up.

If you want to invite some movement in your body,

You're welcome to do so.

Some wiggling of our fingers,

Of our toes,

Our ankles.

Maybe giving yourself a hug.