Feeling safe in your body to let spirit in.
Understanding how to ground and regulate your nervous system is the first step.
In last week’s Mystical Musing I discussed the difference between nervous system regulation and spiritual connection.
While daily spiritual connection can definitely create a steadier nervous system, it is really important to know the signs of your nervous system being triggered and how to regulate it because if something happens that triggers you, your daily spiritual connection practice may not fully plug you into the Universe.
(Just go with me for a bit. I’ll be sharing more about Spiritual Connection and Plugging into the Universe in future Mystical Musings)
Let’s look at both indicators and solutions for a triggered nervous system:
So a triggered nervous system can show up as a number of physical and mental symptoms.
Often these may be similar to symptoms of an unbalanced root chakra or solar plexus as they are all part of the same energetic “aspect” or “world” of yourself… namely your physical self.
Your root chakra is about feeling grounded in this physical reality.
It’s about stability and safety.
Hence a triggered nervous system will often resonate with the same symptoms.
For instance, if your voice starts to rise up to your head register or if you start to feel really jittery, then chances are your root chakra has become imbalanced and your nervous system is triggered.
Symptoms can also range from upset stomach, to racing thoughts, to perceiving that everything is going wrong and feeling panicked. Constipation, shallow breathing, or panic attacks also indicate a triggered nervous system, but I do find that listening to your thoughts and observing the stories you tell yourself will offer a lot of information.
When you are in a triggered state you shut down your peripheral vision and can only see problems or stresses in front of you.
Your brain wants to bring any danger to the forefront of your thoughts, so if you find yourself scrambled, foggy headed or easily stressed then look to regulate your nervous system as a solution.
There are tests that you can practice, such as placing a finger under your nose and breathing through each nostril separately to see which is the strongest exhale (left suggests a regulated nervous system while right indicates a triggered one.)
I find that observing myself when I ask the question “Do I feel safe?” offers me a lot of information.
(You can also take my quiz on Energy Alignment, and if you result comes up as needing more energy in your physical energy system, then that equals needing to regulate your nervous system!)
So, how do you regulate your nervous system?
As an energy alignment coach I obviously use energy work as my go to tool.
The key to all energy work is to remember this simple phrase: Where Attention Goes, Energy Flows.
When your nervous system is triggered it means your attention is on something that feels like a threat to your wellbeing or what’s not working. Likely your brain is really active and the energy is heightened by negative chatter.
If energy flows where your attention is focused, then shifting attention from your thoughts and head is the first step.
So, simply focus on your feet.
Yup. Even as you read this take a deep breath and imagine a wave of that breath flowing all the way down your legs and to your feet into the ground.
Feel your feet feel weighed down on the floor, feel the floor beneath them. Imagine roots growing deep into the ground from your soles.
And breathe.
That is simply grounding and the practice of breathing deeply here will help activate your vagus nerve regulating your nervous system.
Other tools for grounding can be going barefoot or standing on grass.
Meditations on the root chakra, eating root vegetables or focusing on the color red can also help.
But the sensation you are looking for are ones of safety, stability and presence.
Breath is often an important tool to help you shift from the perception of the world to becoming the observer of the world.
Breath is one of the few aspects of being a human where we intake something and offer something back.
Think about that for a second.
Oxygen is offered to us from the universe, from nature herself.
It is there to sustain your life and you naturally intake it from outside of yourself.
Then you offer part of yourself back, allowing the breath from within you to be released.
The practice of deep breathing reminds us of the simplicity of life.
How in each moment of breath we are in this sacred exchange.
Taking part in the innate, integral and intuitive practice of deep breathing allows you to slip back into wellbeing and as you do so, your nervous system will regulate.
I want you to remember that there’s nothing wrong with having a triggered nervous system, you aren’t failing if occasionally you get triggered and feel unsteady.
It’s human!
It can happen for so many reasons; from sudden shocks, underlying stress, a build up of pressure or situations that bring up childhood trauma or past heartache.
Your brain just jumps into safety mode as a way to keep you safe from something it sees as a danger.
But, with that in mind, spiritual connection finds its place in all of this when you remember to not be self generating of balance and alignment.
The saying “The Universe has your back” is more than a catch phrase.
Leaning into the knowing that there is a divine love that flows to you and around you, that it is guiding you and surrounding you, allows you to relax and develop faith which can also regulate your nervous system if you allow it to.
However, more on that… next week!
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