Working With Your Nervous System to Ease Making a Change

Our brains and nervous systems have patterns and habits that have been learned and engrained over our lifetimes. Our bodies hold the memories of what has worked and what hasn’t. Our brains are especially good at experiencing something now, and seeing that it’s like something that happened in the past and then our nervous system responds as if the current situation is the same experience of the past.

This is primarily a way that our brain and nervous system tries to keep us safe, and it’s great that our nervous system is always there to protect us. It is also limiting. If our response is a pattern we want to change, or something that feels reactive or feels like it is more habit and less thoughtful response, this can limit how we respond to something and how we make (or don’t make) changes.

A couple of months ago, I shared a primer about how the nervous system works and how understanding nervous system states is helpful to supporting your health. When working toward a goal and trying to make changes, being aware of your nervous system is key and will help make changes easier.

If you’re someone who spends more time in a dysregulated nervous system state (which is very common, by the way!), it’s going to be harder to make sustainable positive changes because your nervous system isn’t in the best state to support you in trying something new. This nervous system state could help explain if you’ve tried to make changes, but they haven’t lasted; if you want to do something different, but you can’t seem to take the first step; or if you start something new and yet you end up “falling off the wagon” and returning to familiar behaviors or patterns,. Once you determine if your nervous system is in a dysregulated state, you can learn how to support your nervous system to be in a more regulated state, thus creating a stable foundation on which to build the changes you want in your life.

Simple ways to start to bring yourself into a more regulated nervous system state can be as easy as feeling your feet on the ground, really noticing your hips as you’re sitting in your chair, placing a hand on your belly and noticing the rise and fall of your breath.

Spend time in nature, looking at flowers or trees or things that are pleasant and enjoyable to look at. And notice how you feel. You are looking for ways to notice being more settled. A deeper breath. A yawn. A feeling on your body in a different way. This aspect of noticing is a start and a foundation for change.