Feeling sleepy? Mouth salivating ever so slightly?
The big picture from the Symmetry newsletter - LV’s Midweek Memo:
Rest + digest! This may be the dial turning up on the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS).
(Last week we talked about the Sympathetic Nervous System SNS - if you missed it, go back and check it out!)
So What?
Understand what calms you down: If you understand how your body works and what helps turn the dial down on stress and up on recovery + relaxation, you’ll be better able to put it into practice when needed!
Avoid chronic stress (when the SNS is on overdrive) by practicing slow, controlled breathing, promoting recovery and a healthy life: Studies show that “voluntary slow breathing…leads to an increase in the parasympathetic nervous control of the heart… By considering the importance of the PNS for health-related issues, [one can stimulate] non-invasively the vagus nerve.”
Improve digestion with the PNS: If you’re in a stressed state, digestion isn’t the body’s top priority. By calming down the body and mind before eating, you’ll be better able to digest because you’ll be in the proper state to do so!
Keep reading to dig deeper! (A ~1 ½ minute read.)
Now that you’ve read up on the SNS, let’s talk about the PNS and how they interact.
Here’s the first thing to know:
1️⃣ The SNS vs PNS isn’t on or off, but rather they act as a dial, one turns up and the other turns down.
The next thing to know?
2️⃣ We NEED the SNS - it’s not bad, though “stress” gets a bad rap. It’s how we perceive and handle stress and if/how we let it take over (or not) that will make the difference.
You see:
3️⃣ We run into trouble when the SNS is on for too much of the time - it’s a threat detection device, and once the threat has been detected and dealt with, we need the PNS to kick back in as the primary driver.
What happens when the dial turns up on the PNS?
From Symmetry worksheets. Reach out to learn more about learning from us!
Here are two of our favorite graphs at Symmetry that help explain:
See the difference?
In the first graph, you get the “parasympathetic rebound” after the sympathetic response to a mild stressor.
In the second graph the sympathetic response is much bigger and because this person is in a state of chronic stressed (with a reduction in vagal tone = lowered ability to get that parasympathetic rebound) they don’t have the ability to recover in the same way as the person with a balanced nervous system in the first graph.
All this to say:
We need stress and the sympathetic nervous system - it helps us stay alive, stay active and alert and get stronger when paired with adequate rest and recovery.
Working towards a balanced and well-functioning nervous system in which the parasympathetic nervous system can properly turn the dial down on stress is imperative for our longevity and overall health.
