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Do you know how your Autonomic Nervous System is impacting your body and mind at any given point in time?​

Do you know how even minor stresses affect your heart rate? your breathing rate? your digestive system?

Do you know how being in 'fight, flight, freeze state affects your mental clarity and focus?

Do you ever try to meditate but find it hard to quiet your mind?

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Consider how chronic stress impacts you every day:

  • Your physical health

  • Your immunity

  • Your mental and emotional health, 

  • Your hormone balance

  • Your risk of chronic conditions and illness

Understanding which state your Autonomic Nervous System is in at any given point in time is an invaluable tool to creating the type of life you want.

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The Autonomic Nervous System

The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) is part of your nervous system that controls the involuntary functions of your body—things that happen automatically without you having to think about them.

 

This includes things like:

  • Heartbeat: The ANS controls how fast or slow your heart beats depending on your body's needs.

  • Breathing: It regulates how your lungs expand and contract for you to breathe without conscious effort.

  • Digestion: It manages how food moves through your digestive system, ensuring nutrients are absorbed and waste is eliminated.

  • Pupils: It controls how your pupils dilate or constrict based on light conditions.

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The Autonomic Nervous system has two main divisions: 

​​​The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) part of the autonomic nervous system and is responsible for the body’s "rest and digest" functions.

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It helps calm the body after stress by lowering heart rate, reducing blood pressure, and promoting digestion.

 

Essentially, the PNS counteracts the effects of the sympathetic nervous system, helping the body return to a relaxed state after a stressful event, allowing energy conservation and recovery.

The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) part of the autonomic nervous system that controls the body's "fight or flight" response.

 

When you're faced with stress or danger, the SNS prepares your body to react by increasing your heart rate, dilating your pupils, and redirecting blood flow to muscles,

among other changes.

 

These reactions help you respond quickly to threats.

 

It works in balance with the parasympathetic nervous system, which calms the body down after the threat passes, helping to restore a state of rest.

So, what are the stresses in your life?

While we often think of things like busy schedules, work or relationship pressures, financial or health concerns as stressful, we often don't consider some common worries as 'stressful'.

For example:

  • Physical stressors, such as pain, discomfort, lack of sleep, illness, allergic reactions, digestive issues, what and when you eat or drink

  • Environmental stressors, such as noise, weather, cleaning products, allergic reactions

  • Our choices, such as procrastination, lack of time, running late or 'juggling' too many things, how we react to things

  • ​Social pressure, such social expectations or pressures, social media, feeling judged 

  • Fears and worries that play on our mind

 

Finding ways to regularly relax and calm your body and mind ​​​can change your life. 

Find something that works for you and make it a daily practice - even a minute of diaphragmatic breathing during a meeting, when you have drink or each time you get into and before you get out of the car can make a big difference

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