I ended yesterday discussing the idea that we need body awareness to recognize when we are in a dysregulated state.  There is a slight misconception that those with anxiety are constantly high energy and unable to focus or that they wander aimlessly.  The truth is there is an entire array of behaviors that accompany anxiety.  Sometimes anxiety looks like hyperfixation on a task or it looks like laying on the couch.  It has nothing to do with focus—it’s making sure we get it perfect.  It has nothing to do with laziness—it’s that we are afraid to move or unsure what to do next.  Sometimes overwhelm manifests in being unable to respond instead of an exaggerated response.  As we address our body’s responses to this type of stimuli, it’s important to know what side we fall on and what our tendencies are.  The bottom line is that nervous system regulation is not a cognitive process.  It isn’t something we can think ourselves into.  That isn’t to say that our thought process isn’t vital to it, but it is to say that we can’t simply force ourselves to think better if we don’t actually feel better.

The beautiful thing about these exercises is that it does start with a thought/feeling that something isn’t quite right or that we want to feel different much like everything we’ve discussed about self-improvement.  They body tells us all the information we need to know about what we really feel.  We can say we are fine all we want to but the body feels and displays what we truly feel inside.  With that being said, when we see the disconnect between thought and feeling, that’s when we can begin the work of regulating the nervous system.  There are different ways we can address this: is there a physical component where we need to move our body more?  Is there a nutritional component where we need to nourish our body properly?  Is it a physical environmental thing with exposure to something we are sensitive to?  Or is it an environmental thing with the type of people around us?  Again, our body tells us exactly what we feel—we often feel the energy in an environment before we even engage with it.  I can’t emphasize enough the importance of being in touch with our bodies for that reason alone.  We have a biological computer/barometer that truly tells us everything we need to know about our health, healing, relationships, purpose, function, etc.  Taking care of that is the single most important thing we can do. Learning to tap into what it’s telling us is the next.

I don’t want people to walk away with the misconception that this is all about control.  Nervous system regulation is about understanding what we feel and how we want to feel so we are better able to function—and hopefully function at the optimal level.  Life is about joy, expression, purpose, and expansion and in order to all of those things we need to be at our best.  Being at our best requires honesty and awareness.  If we aren’t where we need to be, then we need to know how to adjust it.  And we can apply that to anything in our lives.  As I said earlier, we can’t simply force ourselves to feel better if we don’t actually feel better.  The fact that all of our systems are dependent on each other is a greater indicator of why we need to be in touch with ourselves physically.  We need to know our limits, when to push them, when to develop them, and when to respect them.  Managing anxiety isn’t about pretending it doesn’t exist, it’s about understanding how we respond to the world and if any of those responses are necessary.  Allow the work of regulating ourselves to come naturally.  Follow what the body is saying it needs—quite literally get out of the mind and into the body.  That’s when things start to change.