Beginning to understand your nervous system

What is your nervous system? Why is it important?

Your nervous system is your inner sensing mechanism that is constantly monitoring for safety, threats and opportunities. The sympathetic arm is what mobilises us to get our needs met, set boundaries and respond to threats with aggression (fight) or moving away (flight). The parasympathetic arm slows us down to rest, digest and respond to threats by shrinking (freeze) or appeasing (fawn). 

Nervous system health is the foundation of all health - mental, emotional, physical and spiritual. It regulates how much energy we have, what feels possible for us, our digestion, immune system, cognition and ability to live our deep purpose. 

A healthy nervous system is symmetrical which means we have access to all the responses listed above. However most of us have either a sympathetic dominance or parasympathetic dominance which means we either have trouble relaxing (sympathetic dominance) or mobilising (parasympathetic dominance). 

Personal experiences, intergenerational trauma and epigenetic inheritance, as well as the culture we live in influence our nervous systems. When we address these influences and restore greater symmetry, we gain so much freedom to create lives of our own choosing.