The Nervous System: Your Pathway to Mind-Body Connection

We hear a lot about the mind-body connection, and how it’s generally a good thing to foster. But we hear less about the system that actually connects the mind and body. This is your nervous system. Understanding it and properly regulating it can help help both the body and mind. So let’s get into it.

The nervous system is a network that takes in information and directs action within your body. Your nerves are like highways between different locations in your body, sending and receiving signals. Your brain is the command center. It processes information and gives commands in response. The brain’s goal is to maintain homeostasis and it reacts to the environment’s changing conditions in order to do this.

The nervous system is made up of the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system (cranial nerves, spinal nerves, and sensory organs like the eyes and nose).

Within the peripheral nervous system is the autonomic nervous system (ANS). This is the system that most influences the mind-body connection and responds to active regulation. The ANS has a sympathetic division (SNS), which is your “ fight or flight or freeze” response, and a parasympathetic division (PNS), which is the calming “rest and digest” response.

The “fight/flight/freeze” response (ANS) is generated to assist in survival. It’s triggered by stress or the perception of threat. This was more useful to us when we were actually evading predators, but these days it is often less adaptive. Emotional threats work stress or family conflict can trigger it, but the resolution isn’t as simple as when we escaped a predator. We can be in a more or less constant state of “fight/flight/freeze” in our modern lives. When the ANS is highly active this increases our heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, and muscle tension. It decreases our digestion, gut motility, and our sex drive.

The “rest and digest” response (PNS) is the opposite type of reaction. It is designed to bring us back down from the activation of the ANS and return us to homeostasis. It is facilitated by a feeling of safety and calm. This is a place that is harder for many of us to access, and the world around us doesn’t make much space for this. But it is essential to balance out “ fight/flight/freeze” with “rest and digest”. The PNS increases digestion, gut motility, muscle relaxation, and allows for sexual arousal. It decreases our heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate.

By understanding these different nervous system states, we can try to manage and change them to help our body and mind. The nervous system is a two way street, which we can use to our advantage. Our mental states can affect our physical states, like how anxiety can cause muscle tension and depression can slow our physical movement. And physical stimuli can affect our mental state, like how deep/slow breathing can calm a racing mind. Because of this, we can use techniques in the mind and body to affect each other.

Generally we are going to be trying to increase PNS (rest and digest) activation to balance out an overactive ANS. A specific nerve called the Vagus nerve can help us do this. It’s often called the “wandering nerve” because it runs down our neck into our torso and affects many body systems. The Vagus nerve increases PNS activation and can help modulate pain and inflammation. By using techniques to activate the Vagus nerve we can bring ourselves to the calmer side of the nervous system, in turn improving both mental and physical states.

Below are suggestions for how to use this understanding of the nervous system to regulate both the body and mind.

Reduce SNS Activation (Fight/Flight/Freeze)

• Stress management

• Mental health therapy

• Recognize the signs of persistent SNS activity

  • High blood pressure

  • Fast, shallow breathing

  • Impaired digestion

  • Constant muscle tension

Increase PNS Activation (Rest + Digest)

• Deep diaphragmatic breathing

• Increase physical activity/movement

• Meditation and/or body scanning

Increase Vagus Nerve Activity

• Humming or singing

• Deep breathing to mobilize the vagus nerve

• Splashing cold water on your face

• Massage and stretching the neck

Start by observing what state you may be in. If you are unnecessarily in “fight/flight/freeze”, try some of the techniques to bring you closer to “rest and digest”. These states don’t operate on an on/off switch, so these shifts may not be automatic. And a system that has learned to be in constant “fight/flight/freeze” may take time to relearn calm. However, repetition and practice with modulating your nervous system states will build new habits and allow you to use it to help your body and mind.