Rooted Mama Podcast
Episode 13: Nervous System
Today I wanted to do another episode on the nervous system because I think it is that important. A few episodes back I did an interview with my friend Erin on this topic so if you haven’t listened to that one you definitely should.
Introduction to the Nervous System [00:00:19]
The nervous system acts as our body’s home security system. It is constantly monitoring for danger whether you are aware of it or not and so if you struggle with autism, anxiety, depression, or just getting overstimulated really easily I really want you to listen up and pay close attention to this episode.
Three Bodily States [00:00:40]
So as Erin and I discussed in that previous episode there are three primary states that our bodies hang out in. You have ventral vagel, sympathetic, and dorsal. Each of these have a necessary role and function when it comes to our nervous system. So if you’re having a hard time keeping yourself safe, problems occur when we hang out in a state other than ventral vagel for a long period of time. So to review in your ventral vagel, that is your at peace state, That’s when you feel connected, loved, cared for, relaxed, like everything is good, everything is chill, you’re you’re ready to go.
Next is sympathetic. That is your fight or flight response and that’s very necessary for stressful situations. None of these are good or bad. Keep that in mind. If a bear is chasing you in the woods you don’t want to be in ventral vagel. You don’t want to be happy and at peace. You want your sympathetic system to kick in and kick into gear and get you away from the bear and keep you alive. It’s very necessary and very helpful.
Next is dorsal. This is your shutdown state and this is where your body really fundamentally feels trapped and like it can’t do anything so it just shuts down. This is very similar to what we’re used to. If you’re in a situation where you’re in a mental state of anxiety, anxiety is the environment. If you’re in a state of anxiety, anxiety is when an animal is caught by a predator and plays dead because ideally what will happen is the predator will walk off for whatever reason and then the animal can wake back up and escape and get away. Again, none of these are problematic. The problem occurs when you hang out in a state other than ventral vagel for a long period of time and if you understand how the brain operates this actually makes a lot of sense because the brain’s primary goal is to keep us safe.
So if our body and our mental health are in a state of anxiety, then we encounters a threat and goes into one of those alternative states, it’s okay. But if the threat is a chronic problem that it’s not necessarily something we can readily address, that’s when our body gets used to being in that alternative state, whether that’s shut down or sympathetic, And then your body gets addicted to being in that state and it’s really hard for your body to come out of it.
When you Can’t be Safe [00:02:46]
I’ll give you an example of this. So say that the chronic threat is childhood sexual abuse. This state would typically lead to a shutdown response because often, not always, but often there’s not a lot that the child can do about the abuse that’s happening. And so that child feels powerless and so they shut down so they can get through it and survive. Now if that child stays in that state, eventually the body is going to get addicted to what that feels like and it’s going to go to that shutdown response for every stressor that pops up in life. It’s going to become your body’s default pattern.
And so what can happen is this person will probably struggle speaking up for themselves and setting boundaries and saying no. They will also probably struggle with depression and fatigue on a very physical level because essentially what’s happening is the nervous system is going to be able to do what it’s supposed to do. And so what’s happening is the nervous system is hitting the shutdown button and saying no. Like we can’t do this. We can’t function. Shut it down.
And so this is an example where in this instance what’s actually going to probably be most healing for that person is speaking up for themselves and feeling empowered and supported and encouraged to actually fight back and stand up for themselves. If you think about the nervous system like a ladder, if dorsal is the very bottom, you have to go sympathetic before you can then go to ventral vagel. And so if you’re at the bottom, you have to climb all the way back up to the top.
And that’s okay, but there definitely is healing that has to take place in order for the body to be okay with that. So if you pattern on the other hand to more sympathetic, you will probably be more prone to anxiety and irritability. Someone who is sympathetic will be more prone to do something about their problems, whereas the person in dorsal will just tend to shut down and just hide from their problems. So if you pattern on the other hand to more sympathetic, you will probably be more prone to do something about their problems.
Again, this is not a shame or guilt thing. This is just what is happening on a energetic and biological level when we’re handling these stressors. So sympathetic is generally ready to fight or run away. It’s kind of like keeping your foot constantly on the gas pedal and you’re always ready to go. But what can happen is you press on the gas pedal for so long, eventually you run out of gas. And so I see this pretty often with my clients who struggle with both anxiety and depression. They can’t regulate and their body gets addicted to the adrenaline of the anxiety.
And then over time they burn out and that’s when they find themselves in a depression. This is very much so tied to the physical body too, because your adrenals are responsible for your stress hormones. And so if they get overtaxed, you’re not going to be able to continue to support that system. And so your body by default will have to go into shutdown. This is where I think clients struggle sometimes because anxiety can actually be rather addicting because when you have that adrenaline pumping through your body, it gives you energy and it helps you be productive. And so they can get addicted to the energy that the anxiety gives them.
Even though they don’t enjoy the experience of the anxiety, they can still get addicted to the energy that that anxiety is giving them. So a key point I want you to take away from this episode is that once you identify what nervous system state you are in, you want to bring opposing energy to that state to help move yourself through the process. So if you’re in shutdown, doing a really intense workout, provided your adrenals are doing well, can actually help you gather energy and pull you out of shutdown. However, if you’re sympathetic, a really intense workout is actually just going to ramp you up more and continue the problem. So it’s really important to keep in mind that a huge part of learning to regulate your nervous system is healing the part of your nervous system that’s not working.
So if you’re in a state of indigestion, or having tried the exercise right away and it’s open inside, or just leaving your body in power in some sort of two-view, where they apply pressure to the heart and do some sort of Break to0, and a lot of vertebra are fearful to respond to what you’re saying. In doing so, you’re going to have to act with caution. As a part of your meditative thinking, you’re actually not ready to try this anymore. This is what you’re training is asking you. Of course, we’ve learned a lot in our exercise, and back to when we had first excited ourselves in reading, and then thinking about these earlier sessions of thoughts, this is where we’re getting the best results, regulate and actually be in a good place.
Finding the Source of the Problem [00:07:15]
I’m excited to dive more into that topic in future episodes. We’re not going to touch on that today, but I think that’s a key point of if you want to heal, you have to go beneath the surface and find the wound that’s actually causing the problem. So here are some general guidelines that can help you regulate regardless of what nervous system state you are in. A hug from a loved one, time in nature, time with animals, laughter or humming, prayer, conversation with a friend, organizing or cleaning your space, splashing cold water on your face. All of those are so helpful for helping get your nervous system regulated. So my goal is that by the time this episode airs, my goal is to get all the worksheets done by the end of September. And so by the time this episode airs, all of them should be available on the website at shelbyleppin.com.
I really want you to walk away from these episodes having tangible tools to help work on your health and not feel overwhelmed or discouraged or even bombarded by too much information all at once. In review, our nervous system has three states, ventral vagal, which is our safe and connected state, sympathetic, which is our fight or flight state, and dorsal, which is the shutdown state.
Thinking about how you tend to operate on a daily basis and kind of your go-to, if you tend to avoid things and kind of shut down and withdraw, you probably pattern to dorsal. If you’re very anxious and you have a lot of energy and are always go, go, go, go, go, you probably pattern to sympathetic. So there’s a lot of factors that go into figuring out what state you’re in. Additionally, there’s also certain mental health conditions that have you alternate and fluctuate between states. And so that can make it a little trickier to identify.
But kind of think through the process and the type of things that you’re going to have to do to help you. So those are some of the tips that I gave you to figure out which one you pattern to, and then how can you bring some opposing energy to that so you can regulate your nervous system better.
I will have more tips on and tricks on this in the show notes as well.
Click Here for the Nervous System Worksheet.
As always, if you have any questions, send me an email info@shelbyleppin.com. And this concludes our five-part series on improving your physical health. Thank you.