Notice your breath to gain insight into your autonomic nervous system. Intentionally alter your breath to communicate to your unconscious body and your autonomic nervous system.

Your autonomic nervous system controls your breathing pattern, your heart rate, your digestion, your hormones, your state of arousal, and your body’s involuntary actions that keep you alive. Your autonomic nervous system is amazing and deserves many kudos and awards for supporting and serving you. Your autonomic nervous system contains three different anatomical systems of nerve pathways: the (1) parasympathetic, (2) sympathetic, and (3) enteric nervous systems. For this article let’s focus on the parasympathetic or rest and digest nervous system and the sympathetic or alert and ready (run or fight) nervous system. These two work together to determine how safe, relaxed, alert, and energized you feel. Your sympathetic nervous system (alert & ready) is focused on keeping you alive for the short term and helping you get stuff done. Your parasympathetic nervous system (rest & digest) is focused on keeping you alive for the long term and helping you recover and heal.

These two systems worked really well in our ancestor’s hunting and gathering past. You would need to be focused, spend lots of energy getting food or supplies (sympathetic dominant), and then you would return home, where you were safe and could relax, digest, and snuggle up with your family (parasympathetic dominant). In today’s world, our alert and ready activities often aren’t that different from our rest and digest time, particularly if during our down time we check the news and learn about disasters happening around us. As a result, our bodies may a little confused sometimes. By learning how your nervous system works, listening to your body, and intentionally doing some activities to shift our dominant nervous system, you can help aid your body to relax and recover.

The majority of you parasympathetic nerves originate in your head and are cranial nerves, one of which is the 10th cranial nerve or vagus nerve. The sympathetic nerves originate in your middle (thoracic) and lower (lumber) vertebrae. The picture below outlines the various nerves, where they originate, and where they go.

In general the sympathetic nervous system increases focus and your sensory awareness, for example your pupils dilate. At the same time, blood flow and metabolic resources are shifted away from digestion to your muscles so that you are ready for action. The parasympathetic nervous system does the opposite, your senses are dulled, you are less concerned by that random noise you hear , and your pupils get smaller. Your blood flow and metabolic resources are shifted away from your muscles towards your stomach and intestinal digestion. When you’re relaxed, you may drool as your saliva production increases.

Your respiratory rate is controlled by your autonomic nervous system. When you’re sympathetic (alert & ready) nervous system is dominant, your breathing and heart rate increase. When your parasympathetic nervous system is dominant, your breathing and heart rate decrease. The more relaxed you are, the slower your respiration and heart beat will be.

It can be helpful to take a few moments to check in with your body and simply notice what’s happening. How is your breathing? How is the saliva in your mouth? How is your heart rate? As you develop skills to listen to your body, you may pick up clues that may help you better connect to and understand yourself overtime.

It can also be helpful to understand how your nervous system works, your conscious self could try to communicate with your autonomic nervous system. If you’re lying awake with a racing mind, faster heart rate, and quicker breathing pattern. Could you thank your body for trying to keep you alive and then encourage it to slow down and chill out? You could try any or all of the following:

• Look around the room with your eyes while not moving your head, realizing you don’t need to be laser focused with your senses
• Recall a time when you felt safe, at ease, and at peace
• Intentionally slow your breath as you breathe in and out through your nose, sending your breath into your lower ribs
• Notice your heart rate and encourage or imagine it to slow down

I’d love to hear about your explorations connecting to your body’s internal happenings, nervous system, and physiological state. Take a moment and try to increase your connection to what’s happening inside your body and just notice whatever you notice. Be kind to yourself and take care.