The Central Nervous System
An effective strategy in body sensing (or somatic sensing) is being able to visualize our internal systems. Let’s break the Central Nervous System down into ‘roads’. The main highway is the brain and the spinal cord. Many roads branch out of this main highway. The road system is called the periphery nervous system (PNS). The PNS has 2 sets of roads of it’s own:
- The somatic system that manages senses and motor pathways
- The autonomic system that manages 2 more pathways – the sympathetic and the parasympathetic.
- The sympathetic system steps in to manage us when we are in danger.
- The parasympathetic system comes in after the danger has passed, to bring us back to homeostasis and calm.
Here is a simple image of the CNS and all it’s pathways. It is no wonder that we can have unpleasant sensations anywhere in the body when we sense danger. And in contrast, feel a total sense of calm throughout the entire body when we intentionally practice self regulation.
Watch this 4 minute teaching video explaining the central nervous system. It will be so helpful when you practice self regulation.
The Vagus Nerve
The longest cranial nerve is the vagus nerve. It runs from the brain to the large intestine. “I feel it in my gut.” “A gut response”. “Nervous stomach”. Almost everyone who suffers from anxiety also has gut issues. See my post here…
AND read this from Mass General Hospital…a key player in our health and well-being
Self Regulation
The nervous system can get over-worked, responding to the cues we intentionally and unintentionally give it, and in turn, it gets over-reactive, numb, or just tired. It needs rest. It needs training to be appropriately responsive which means we need to be very attuned to the cues we are giving it. It needs regulation and it needs us to do it.
Brain Awareness
Being able to envision your brain when you are trying to communicate with it is so helpful. It is beige, pink, and cream colored and it the consistency of room temperature butter. It’s delicate and needs protecting.
Your brain is constantly managing all of your body systems PLUS all of the thousands of thoughts and associated emotions you give it all day long (sometimes into the night). Give it regular breaks by simply taking a short walk or moments of meditation. It doesn’t have to be a big planned session. It only needs little ‘snack breaks’.
This video from Neuroscientist Wendy Suzuki explains the power of the simple walk PERFECTLY.
How Traumatic Events Affect the CNS
Sometimes when we experience a traumatic event, our sympathetic system might keep responding to the world as if the trauma is still happening even when it is in the past, stuck on high. We want it to respond when there is true danger. It helps us to fight or escape a danger. But we don’t want it to respond to every anxious or fearful thought or smell or sight or sound when there is no danger in sight. You can imagine how tired the CNS would be from responding all day and into the night, day after day.
Trauma and it’s affects on child development and adult outcomes is my area of specialty but there are so many highly respected experts on the topic of trauma so we aren’t going too deep right now. I will sight a brief watch here from one of the experts I respect the most. Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk is my hero.
