How To Regulate Your Nervous System

As you’re sitting here, notice your breathing for a second. Inhale. And exhale. Inhale. And exhale. Stick out your leg. And bring it back. Stretch it out. And release it. It feels good when we breathe and stretch like that because there is tension and release.

Much of our body’s movement happens because of antagonistic pairs. Muscles that work in opposition to one another. So when one is flexed, the other relaxes. Your biceps flex to contract your arm and your triceps flex to extend your arm, releasing the tension in your biceps. Quadriceps flex to extend your leg. That tension is released when your hamstring contracts to bring your leg back. If one side of the pair is flexed for too long, it gets tired and strained. It leads to pain and injury.

Similarly, our nervous system works in an antagonistic pair too. Our sympathetic nervous system (SNS) triggers a hyper-awareness of our surroundings. It’s a primal system responsible for our survival– that fight, flight, or freeze response. And because we don’t really live in the jungle or run into bears on a daily basis, this reaction is triggered by other things: flashing lights, sudden movements, the color red, alert sounds… basically most of the way our phones and computer gets our attention.

Our heart rate goes up, we slow digestion, adrenaline is pumping, and our pupils dilate to take in more information. That response is the emergency mode that kicks in for survival. Except we're not escaping a bear, we're just checking our email. And that way of working is not sustainable.

But many of us keep that system flexed, without a rest. It's causing anxiety, insomnia, depression, and burnout. And just like we need to exhale after an inhale, or extend our arms after we’ve been flexing, we need a release for our sympathetic nervous system too. The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) relaxes us. It allows us to go into Flow and calms us. We’re able to focus on one thing without worry that we’re suddenly vulnerable to being attacked from behind.

We can regulate our nervous system by taking time in our day to rest, slow down, get calm. As a result, we can prevent our nervous system from getting overloaded. Doing things like short meditations, mindful breathing, just a long moment to daydream out the window, going for a walk outside, and just being around nature all activate our parasympathetic nervous system. It’s a release from the constant stress and survival instincts our bodies are in much of the day.

So when you feel that tension of your nervous system straining in emergency mode, stop for a minute.

Take a few breaths.

And regulate.

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Caveday is a company aimed at improving your relationship to work. We write regular posts on Medium and send out monthly newsletters with productivity tips, life hacks, and recommendations. Sign up for the mailing list here.

Jake Kahana is a cofounder of Caveday. Sign up for his personal emails, called “The Email Refrigerator” here.