Energy is the juice of life, Rasa in Sanskrit. When our energy current is unreliable it can make us feel as if we have no control over our lives. That’s just not true.
WE ACTUALLY HAVE A VERY BIG SAY OVER OUR LIVES, ONCE WE UNDERSTAND OUR HORMONES, EMOTIONS AND ASSOCIATED ENERGY DIRECTIONS AS A CURRENCY WE CAN INFLUENCE.
Seeing relationships are built on emotions, and our energy levels influence how we feel and therefore emote, working with our energy states according to our needs, abilities and the time of day, and changing its direction when necessary, will change how we feel and relate.
Health is returning to wholeness. Burnout recovery and prevention is small steps to wholeness, starting with last weeks blog on self-knowledge. Knowing our Ayurvedic type and personality type, as well as our fears, needs, and emotional repetoire, begin the journey back to wholeness..
ENKINDLE SELF-ESTEEM THROUGH NURTURING DEEP RELAXATION
Knowing our self better, we also know what help us feel safe and nourished enabling deep relaxation. That’s when we start enjoying life again. Enjoyment and nourishment are the basis of self-esteem and leads to self-confidence. Just as it’s vital for a business to know their clients wants and needs to thrive, we need to know what we want and need to flourish ourselves.
Relaxation occurs when our vagus nerve moves into Prarsympathetic Nervous System activity, PNS. PNS activity positively affects our hormones, mood, energy, immunity and all the rest that we associate with health and wellbeing. Because it moves the blood from the muscles and brain back to digestion and restoration of tissues, organs and our entire system, it rebalances the chemistry caused by changes.
So vagal tone and the ability to switch well between PNS and sympathetic SNS, is key. Yoga therapy being especially very effective.
Three things are essential for deep relaxation to occur;
- Switching from fight/flight sympathetic vagal activation to parasympathetic activity, rest and digest/tend and befriend
- Social interaction, connection and activity
- Rebuilding our wiring for pleasure and enjoyment through self-care
3 WAYS TO ENGAGE REST AND DIGEST VAGAL ACTIVITY
Rest and digest activation of our vagus nerve enables digestion, restoration and socialisation. Chronic stress creates breakdown of cell juncture cohesion leading to digestive, immune and blood-brain barrier issues, further resulting in brain fog and hormonal imbalance
SENSES Seeing facial muscles, hearing a familiar or gentle voice, and sweet smells and tastes all promote vagal tone and PNS activation.The speed of neural connectivity of physical contact and emotional connection is the same, 60-70m per second. So we also allow the emotions of contentment, pleasure and joy to arise.
PHSYICAL Physical contact, touch, massage and hugs or hand holding is another very effective and sure way to increase the hormones of oxytocin, vasopressin and relaxin in small amounts. Which naturally reduces the effects of adrenalin and cortisol.[i]
SOCIAL When we interact socially, we activate the vagus nerv, sending messages of safety to the brain. Connecting with others, seeing another persons facial expressions as we interact, mirroring ours send visceral cues of safety and allows our nervous system to relax.
Supportive social engagement, being present in the moment by being embodied, sensing and feeling bodily sensations as we move, breathe and intergarte our body with mind and emotions. And our spine, that magnificent house of our nerves, also thrives when we move it in its full capacity, translated into our full capacity of being and therefore living well. Setting off a cascade of pleasant hormones.
EMOTIONS & HORMONES
As the quality of your rest is key to you reclaiming wellbeing, doing less and enjoying being more is the essence of restoration and enjoyment. Enjoyment is essential because it allows us to rest deeply and therefore truly relax. Which is when the body and mind can and will restore and heal.
Rest is not buildt in or considered worthy in our culture. Either we are go getters or people pleasers. On the treadmill long enough makes relaxation a hard art to come by because we’re wired, neurologically and hormonally to do, act and do some more.
Why? Guilt makes others comply and an excellent motivator for doing more.
Guilt and enjoyment are opposites of the emotional and chemical spectrum. Chronic guilt makes us rigid, emotionally, mentally and socially. Less adaptable to stressors prevents relaxation and our ability to restore so we keep doing, going and hoping to find what we seek through external approval.
Restoration happens when our vagal activation moves from fight/flight to rest/diges, and the hormones of adrenalin and cortisol are reduced by serotonin, GABA, DHEA, oxytocin and dopamine flowing through our system, enabled by mindful, breath centred, yoga practice to the sound of a gentle voice.
SHIFTING FROM FIGHT/FLIGHT TO REST/DIGEST
Stress moves blood and nutrients to the muscles and brain for quick action, away from mouth, digestion and metabolism; healing. A good way to know if you’re in SNS or PNS is to notice if you have a dry mouth. If so it signifies SNS activation; fight/flight.
What you can do right now is breathe in for the count of 4, exhaling for the count of 8 while humming. Do that up to 5 rounds or more until you notice more saliva in your mouth. Now you have switched to rest and digest. Now choose another activity – bath, foot massage, walk in nature, yoga, yoga nidra or meditation to take that relaxation a little deeper and make it last longer.
Yoga therapy works directly with vagal activation of PNS. Gentle touch, speech, extended exhale, spinal movement, all activate the vagus nerve toning it, leading to improved stress resiliency, emotional and relational adaptability
So we can self-regulate your nervous system! Feeling safe; week 1, is the first step to encouraging vagal PNS activation. Rest and relaxation are the second steps. Benefitting digestion, restoration, healing and growth, relaxation can half recovery time, improving psychological wellbeing through self-agency.
Reclaiming ourwellbeing and self-esteem as we start to enjoy the smaller things in life for a while.
Much Love,
Shira.
[i] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15834840/
