Regulation is all the rage. It makes sense, right? Expand the body’s ability to hold pressure and stress so you can create, perform or present under pressure! Sounds ideal. How do I start? Well, ironically, this is where it gets a little overwhelming.
Nervous System Basics
The intent behind the concept of regulation is to soothe your nervous system so that it’s no longer in an extreme state of fight or flight – there are broader discussions that also include the states of freeze and fawn. Ultimately, your nervous system is primal and responds to everyday stressors and internalized unprocessed trauma as a threat. Whether it’s an obvious alarm-inducing moment, like a car coming full speed as you cross the street, or a subtle one, like sitting in high suspense during a white lotus episode, your body interprets it all as concerning. We are in danger, the brain says. This is actually normal and healthy. The issues arise when your body is not able to fully physically express its need to “run” or if your nervous system is too burdened to initiate a healthy stress-response and stress-recovery cycle. Regulating your nervous system simply means completing the stress-response and stress-recovery cycle by communicating to your body that it is in fact safe and can relax.
Most modern bodies, yours included, are in a state of continual stress, continual danger, according to the body. Meaning that since you and I were small, our bodies have been navigating the stress-response and recovery cycle. By the time most millennials reached their mid-20s their bodies were starting to show signs of overwhelm and burden. Don’t even get me started on the intensity of modern life for Gen Zs and younger. The information load, the technological stimuli, the financial hits, and most of all the toxin exposures are at an all-time high. Our bodies are evolving and attempting to catch up, but it's not fast enough. To put it bleakly, we are drowning.
High Sensitivity Nervous System Impact
Now, add in your unique sensory processing sensitivity, otherwise known as being an HSP, and this gets a bit more involved. Your body’s alarm-mode is highly-tuned to the world and operates at a heightened level. A potent Anthropology candle your aunt had burning all day in your guest room, the slight furrow of your partner’s forehead, the emotionally tender neighbor that looks to you hopefully for a listening ear, the bright LED office lights just installed, the energetic load of walking through a busy mall, the tag on your new jeans you can’t change out of… it all adds up to create additional layers of stress that the average human is not navigating. I strongly feel that your sensitivity is a calling, a gift and a large portion of why you are here – your purpose, if I may. Your ability to take in far more information than the humans around you makes you a strategic player. If we agree with the concept of survival of the fittest, you are here because your gifting is an advantage to the human race. You are like a well-trained scout, able to see the tracks and the warnings before danger arrives.
You are the classic example of the canary in the coal mine. What you notice and take in is often a reflection of what needs to shift for the betterment of all humanity. That toxic candle? It bothers you for a reason. It’s impacting your liver and brain, and your body is supercharged to recognize that instantly. Those less sensitive than you will not register this. If you courageously requested it be snuffed out and the windows opened and fresh air to once again rebalance the environment, you just lifted a huge weight off of your body, and your aunt’s. She may never realize, understand, or appreciate your impact, but her body will. You are a leader, a change maker, a catalyst, whether you realize it or not. Your needs are the needs of everyone, you’re just a few steps ahead. The resulting effect of your heightened abilities is that your stress-response is quickly and easily activated, and your stress-recovery is challenging to diffuse. The long-term ramifications of this lead us back to the discussion of nervous system regulation.
Nervous System Regulation – Trend or Transformative?
Nervous system regulation is being touted as the solution to everything these days, from money blocks to childhood tantrums to relationship conflict. The safer your body feels the freer it thinks, acts, and emotes. So simple. So bite-size. So sellable…
What if there’s more to it? There is. The body is very layered, intricate, and complex. Our current scientific community is nowhere close to fully mapping out all that it holds, yet we love to believe it is containable, labelable. It makes life feel more stable. We want to be in control, especially of our bodies. No one wants to be trapped in a car without access to the brakes or steering. The trouble is that in our rush to simplify, we often miss the fullness of the body. The obsession with shortcutting the nervous system is no exception.
Your nervous system is guided by your brain. Your brain is an organ that is deeply impacted by the state of your entire body – your immune system, your hormone production, your metabolism – and in turn all these functions are guided by the managers that live in your brain, the hypothalamus and pituitary. It’s a beautiful feedback circle. A regulating cycle.
The actual meaning of regulation is to adjust, to bring to order, to balance the highs and lows in the body, responding appropriately to the situation. This is exactly what we need, but do the current and commonly proposed solutions provide this?
The common go-tos at the moment include tapping, sensation tracking, breathwork, affirmation statements, movement, and if you get deeper it can also start to include frequency work and bio-hacking technology. What’s interesting is that most of these tools assume the body has the ability to complete the first part of the cycle – the stress-response. In other words, the cortisol release, the activation, the flight or fight is assumed, and all that’s needed is the ability to calm it down and prevent the continuation of this heightened state.
Regulation Pre-Requisitions
Interestingly, what I’ve found in my clinical practice is that many HSPs are no longer able to activate their danger reaction. They are burnt out. The organs that initiate the stress-response cycle – adrenals and brain – are kaput. They have lost capacity.
Regulation needs more than just calming and soothing supports. It requires full recovery followed by rejuvenation that ultimately leads to the dream state for us HSPs - resilience. This is what is missing from the nervous system discussion. This also explains why the standard nervous system tools may not have been successful for you. There’s an answer, hope, and robust solutions available for recovery.
Okay, so great, Jess, how do I recover and build resilience?
A deep body reset, at the organ and cellular level. Let me explain.
Your body is working for you. It’s doing its utmost to keep you alive, but this means it has had to put many stressors on the back burner. To be very direct, you are likely a complex collection of digestive distress, organ dysfunction, cellular malfunction, internalized emotional and physical pain, high toxin presence, and multiple unresolved, potentially chronic infections.
This is a lot to hear and consider, but it’s the present result of our modern era and the consistent truth I see over and over again in my health consulting with HSPs. I believe power comes from awareness, then honest and efficient support.
Understanding Your Health Story
How did you get here? Well, your body is brilliant. Over the years as you took on more work, supported your community above and beyond, chose to care for others over your own rest and recovery, took another pill to quick-fix an infection to avoid being sick and disappointing anyone, prioritized weight loss over your need for nourishment, hoped the air, water and construction around you was safe, accepted what the trendsetters and cultural experts said was best for you without honoring what your sensitive heart and body requested, tried your best to believe that you were “fine” and that it was all in your head, just as they said… your body had to adjust and adjust it did, continually compensating left and right, throwing off your natural digestive, detoxifying, and regenerative cycles till they couldn’t hold up the fort any longer.
If you are at the point of zero capacity, dealing with chronic symptoms and still being told you are normal or just need to learn how to manage your emotions and regulate your nervous system, then it’s quite possible that even though externally you appear “fine”, internally your body is vulnerable and tender, inflamed and swollen, slow and sluggish, malnourished and starving, scared and frozen, weary and struggling...if only your body could talk…
It does. Symptoms are messages from your body. It’s not in your head. What you feel is real and it needs to be honored and addressed. We have normalized sickness to the extent that most of your messages go unnoticed or labeled as acceptable by experts. The truth is – anything less than robust vitality is a state of imbalance, a lack of full health, and you deserve to be heard, respected, and supported accordingly.
Wow. I’m the bearer of good news today! I am a very optimistic soul, but what I often see lacking when it comes to health is truth-telling. We sensitives are seen as delicate and as a result healthcare experts tend to walk delicately around us or sugarcoat. I believe we can handle direct honesty when given with care, and actually I feel we need it. I know you are strong enough to consider that this may be your story today. Perhaps not, everyone has their own healthy journey and range, but I am here to support those who have been through the ringer and want to know, really know, what’s going on inside their bodies. If this is you, I see you and I understand what you’ve been through. This was and is my story too.
Resetting a Highly Sensitive Body
Resetting your body is an involved process, but it does not need to happen all at once. In fact, it can’t be. Your sensitive body moves and heals like an onion – layer by layer. This is actually a gift. It means that you simply address what the body presents, and then when that resolves, you wait for the next layer to appear, which could be instant, if you pursue it, or a few years down the road, if you let it build up and get loud. I recommend you get started by working with a highly trained practitioner who understands your innate sensitivity and its implications on body function and, in my humble opinion, even more importantly, knows how to listen to your unique body’s requests. If you’re a self-healing extraordinaire, then educating yourself on the foundational functions of your body, learning how to interpret your body’s messages, observing and honoring the nuanced ebb and flow of detoxing a sensitive body, and creating a daily rhythm to support the rebuilding of your body’s reserves, alongside the standard nervous system regulation tools, are key.
To turn our present human collective around, we, the scouts, the sensitive canaries in the coalmine, need to acknowledge that our bodies come first and live according to what enlivens, not depletes us. This starts with ownership. Ownership first of the beauty and power of sensitivity and, secondly, ownership over the health of our bodies. Though we are in a very challenging time and our traditional health structures and culture are in many ways unsupportive, we must take responsibility for our bodies and gently and consciously start to peel back our onion layers. Nervous system regulation is the answer to many of our blocks, but it can only serve us if the body has the juice to produce the energy required to regulate.
Reset your body’s function, at the organ and cellular levels, and watch yourself open up and transform in every area of your life. A sensitive phoenix, you will be reborn.