Our nervous systems were developed to keep us safe from danger and they do an amazing job of it, but sometimes they do this too well. Millions of years ago, the first ancestors of who we are today had a very different lifestyle. Their main threats were predator animals. If a Saber Tooth Tiger ran at someone, their nervous system would act to stop digestion and body repair and instead put all its energy towards running away (flight) or fighting. If the person was caught and could not fight or flee anymore, their nervous system would prepare for death by bringing the body into a state of freeze or collapse. Alternatively, if they were able to get away or kill the tiger instead, the nervous system would regulate itself back to a rest and relaxed state.

          We still see this today with wild animals. A herd of antelope may be grazing in the African plains, at this point they would be relaxed and casually munching away. If a lion pack started to circle them, the antelope’s whole body posture would change due to an activation of their sympathetic nervous system. Their heads would shoot up and their mouths would be sealed shut, no longer chewing. They may be in a slight freeze state to assess the situation, but as soon as a lioness charges them, the flight would be on. All the antelope’s energy would be used to flee. Same as with the human ancestor, if the antelope is caught and cannot fight or flee anymore it will just give up and prepare for death. If it does manage to escape, they will go back to grazing as if nothing ever happened. For a moment let’s take the example of a cat and mouse. A mouse will go into a shut down, giving-up state if the cat catches it in its mouth. If, at that moment, the cat’s owner comes along and makes it drop the mouse the mouse might wake up out of this state and realize it can get away. It will have a big shake to release energy and then run to get away to safety.

         This is how the nervous system was developed to keep us safe, and it makes a lot of sense right? The issue with today’s society is we don’t have Saber Tooth Tigers hunting us, but our nervous systems still get triggered constantly. Right from birth, our nervous systems are triggered due to feelings of lack of safety or connection. If the birthing process is complicated, skin to skin contact between newborn and mother might be prolonged. Many mothers choose not to breastfeed due to difficulties early on. In western society, parents are encouraged to sleep train and may use a method called crying it out. If a baby is left to cry for long periods of time, they will eventually stop. This is due to a learned helplessness and resembles the caught antelope giving up and preparing for death. This usually doesn’t result in death, but instead in a perpetually dysregulated nervous system. Developmental trauma doesn’t need to be from one big event but is much more prevalent due to small losses of connection.

         Unfortunately, we have changed so much from what we once were due to our ‘domestication.’ People are just too busy these days that they have a hard time staying present. Another major issue that leads to these losses of connection are the phones we carry with us all the time now. Many children grow up competing with cell phones for their parents’ attention. Even though I try to be conscious of this and rarely use my phone in front of my toddler, I still succumb to one of life’s greatest addictions of the new age from time to time. The ding of a notification or a text message sends a jolt to my nervous system and causes me to flicker into a more activated state. If I don’t check it right away, I can feel a nervous energy start to build until I finally check what the ding was all about. My brain starts to rapid fire all the different scenarios it could be, maybe someone left a negative comment on one of my posts, maybe I forgot a meeting I had scheduled, maybe someone I know has been hurt or it could be one of a million other things. Something so small as this can have detrimental effects on our nervous systems and lives unless we have the tools to self regulate our nervous systems.

        Most people these days are living with a dysregulated nervous system. Trauma, whether its big or small, sudden (acute) or long lasting (chronic) is when an event was so threatening to the nervous system that the energy of it becomes stored in the body. Going back to the mouse we spoke of before, when it comes back from that traumatic event of being caught in the cat’s mouth, it gave a big shake first then ran to safety. This act of shaking and running helped to process the trapped energy and regulate the mouse’s nervous system. In people, trauma might be stored from being told not to cry as kids, maybe their parents would get angry if they cry or ignore them, so when the kid becomes an adult and something sad happens their nervous system tries to protect them from having this feeling because it’s not safe to express. Instead, they repress the emotion and go numb or shut down. Similar things happen with creativity, maybe the parents discourage their children from telling stories or being too hyper. The lists go on and on and it’s important to note that something that might end up being traumatic and have long lasting affects to one person might not be to another person.  

         The nervous system can keep getting triggered repeatedly and if these energies aren’t allowed to be processed and instead stay stuck it can lead to trigger stacking. This means a lot of small things stacked up and up can lead to a big nervous system explosion. This can be seen when someone who always seems kind and calm finally snaps and has a huge release of anger. This is very common and in extreme cases can lead to psychosis or even people committing assault and murder. Many people who study trauma have stated that everyone in prison and everyone who is addicted to drugs have suffered from various traumas. This all leads to the importance of nervous system regulation and increasing your capacity to deal with triggers.

         A healthy nervous system will be able to easily move between an activated and a relaxed state. All our emotions are necessary and need to be able to be felt and moved through the body. Emotions can be explained as energy in motion; they tell us how our body is relating to a stimulus. It has been discovered that for an emotion to be fully processed it only needs to be felt in a present state of awareness for around 90 seconds. I work with people to help them increase their capacity to sit with their emotions and process old, stuck energies. Many times, stuck energies can affect the body in the form of chronic pain or flareups. People find that working with their bodies on an energetic level can help lesson health problems. Talking about past traumas can be helpful to some extent but can also cause further trauma if the stuck energies in the body aren’t addressed as well. This is why people can be seeing a therapist for years and only have little amounts of progress. We need to work within the body, not the mind, to help regulate our nervous system. Please reach out if you would like to work with me and become more in tune to your body and increase your capacity to regulate your nervous system.

Written by

Athina Weiss