NS Regulation Strategies for Modern Humans

As our external realities continue to hasten and demands on us exceed our capacity to adapt, the key to our adaptation and thriving is in our Nervous System.

I believe these external pressures are a call to action, asking us to improve our processing capacities beyond where they have ever been before in history! Whoa.

In order to bring our Nervous Systems into such high coherence as to respond to a rapidly evolving technological landscape, we need tools.

Here are some easy tools that you can use on-the-fly in times of need! That’s how this works. We need to recognize our Nervous System states with such acuity and coordinate responses with such finesse, that we can keep up with the technological revolution with ease! We are equipped for these times. These 4 tools will help support us from the inside out!

1.  Long Deep Breathing or 4-7-8 breathing

   • Develop a practice around observing your breath throughout the day (ex: at different times of day, while doing different activities, etc.) to understand the rhythms of your body and establish a baseline.

   • Breath is the only downstream effect of the Autonomic Nervous System that we have conscious control over (meaning we can decide to deepen our breath even if we can’t decide to lower our heart rate). Take advantage of this!

   • Breath holds and long exhales help to regulate the Nervous System. The 4-7-8 breath pattern involves both (4 sec inhale followed by a 7 sec hold with breath retained followed by an 8 sec exhale). This particular breathing pattern has been highly studied to show benefits in regulating the Nervous System! You can also make it your own…

2. Oculocardiac Reflex

   • Have you ever had your doctor strike your patellar tendon (below your kneecap) and your leg kicks out automatically? That’s a reflex. It’s so automatic that it bypasses the parts of your brain that have to determine what action to take. It’s automatic and rapid – or reflexive!

   • Utilizing the oculocardiac reflex will reflexively lower your heart rate when you apply gentle pressure over your closed eyelids with the base of your palms.

3. Vocalizing

   • To stimulate your Vagus Nerve (which travels from your brain along the front of your neck to your heart and digestive organs), use vocalizations.

   • Examples include humming, chanting, singing, etc.

   • Stimulating the Vagus Nerve promotes feelings of openness, safety, and connection.

4. Getting Adjusted

   • Maybe I’m a little biased, but studies have shown the positive effect of chiropractic adjustments on the prefrontal cortex as well as the capacity for neck adjustments to stimulate the Vagus Nerve.

   • Each adjustment integrates bound tension in the body. This tension relates to modern stressors (whether they be chemical, physical, or emotional) that overcome our body’s ability to adapt in the moments when they occur.

   • By learning to integrate tension through the adjustment, your body is less likely to resort survival mode.

We’re all doing this together in community!
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