Frequency
Regulated vs. Dysregulated ANS Frequency
Regulated autonomic nervous system (ANS) frequency displays relatively balanced elevation and depression levels. Maintaining a steady state change.
Dysregulated ANS frequency displays asymmetrical elevation and depression levels. Displays time spent ‘trapped’ in the sympathetic and parasympathetic state.
Things that help regulate the nervous system →
Consistent sleep and wake times.
Consistent meal times.
Appropriate levels of sunlight, adequate time spent outside.
Limited reliance on external chemicals to regulate your system (ie, caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, etc).
Providing a structure to your biological system for your nervous system to replicate. AKA supporting your circadian rhythm.
Balanced ratio of movement and rest.
Things that dysregulate the nervous system →
More time spent digitally vs biologically. Humans don’t move, function, operate or live at the same pace of machines and technology. Without establishing biological equivalent time spent to digital time spent, a nervous system may attempt to mimic the “nervous system” of the digital world. AKA on 24/7 with no regard for the circadian rhythm.
Overuse or misuse of prescription medication.
Lack of structure in our biological tasks of living (sleeping, eating, moving).
Excessive stress levels
Increase in cortisol levels, disruptions to our hormone cycles, nonfunctional stress relief practices, isolation & limited physical interaction with others.
Excessive activation of dopaminergic pathways without promoting other neurotransmitter production, for example GABA (via meditation) vs. inhibiting production (drinking coffee). Resulting in a “trapped” nervous system in a heightened state of arousal.
Dopamine is a useful and essential chemical but it is not the only one we need to maintain balance and function in our nervous system
How do you regulate an dysregulated nervous system?
Especially if your attempts to regulate it have primarily been through means of external forces, chemicals or inputs? The first thing you do is assess where you are and what you do to regulate each day. Look at your sleep patterns, eating habits, movement to rest ratio. Lifestyle as a whole, and anything you consume in an attempt to alter or adjust the state of your body. This can mean writing down all the supplements, medicines and other drugs you consume daily. For some people this means beginning a food log and sleep tracking. Whoever you are and wherever you are arriving from, you first develop intention around every area of your life. This can be one of the most challenging parts of regulating your nervous system. Taking an unflinching look at your behaviors, habits and daily activities and honestly tracking them for a week. Minimum. The way to do this most effectively is to allow yourself the space to observe without judgement, without attachment and without reaction. For one week you track your life. You write it down with a pen on a piece of paper, everything you put into your body you take note of. You don’t spend time trying to analyze, adjust or understand, you simply live the way you have been, but you start paying attention.
When we live through chemistry from an external source, we are limiting our body and mind from experiencing what it can do with its own chemistry. Food as thy medicine is an exceptionally important concept when we talk about living through chemistry. Typically we eat every day, three times a day. That means each day we have three intervention points to work with our chemistry. We either improve it or challenge it. Understanding what our chemistry is, what is should be to provide optimal quality of life, and how to get there is what we will focus on. To regulate your own nervous system without the aid of pills, powders, potions or plants is a challenging task in a digital age. However it is an incredibly important one, and one I believe we are responsible to learn. By doing so we may teach others and establish a more resilient nervous system through our global community as a whole.
Our body is chemistry and chemical reactions happen within all the time, whether we add more chemicals to it or not. What we tend to forget, is we have a say in the chemicals to a certain degree. It isn’t some mysterious super power that tells our body how to chemically react through our day. It is our lifestyle, our food, our own choices that impact our internal chemistry.
A dysregulated nervous system feels like having no control over your body, mind or breath. It feels like you are lost in your own body and the map you have been given is inaccurate for finding balance. Your elevations are incredibly high, and the depressions are incredibly low. Alternatively, your elevations are incredibly high and the depressions are not symmetrically low. You remain stuck in an over activated state unable to fully release the nervous system back to a low level of arousal. Unable to rest and digest, you find yourself exhausted and depleted constantly.
After a week of tracking your consumption habits, you look at patterns or trends. An example might look like…
Less than 7-8 hours of sleep —> excessive snacking the next day
Excessive snacking —> lower quality of food consumed
Lower food quality —> increased hunger cues
Increased hunger cues —> disruption in focus
The constant up and down of our blood sugar when we consume less than nutritionally optimal foods is a common source of nervous system dysregulation. Each human is unique, but in general humans don’t need to eat as excessively as we do in America. From an Ayurvedic perspective, all we need is three meals a day, with the option for one to two snacks depending on the person. While there are other patterns that may be identified, and other causes of a dysregulated nervous system, in my practice I find nutrition to be a primary cause. In particular, lack of structure around nutrition.
What does it mean to have a regulated nervous system? It means you are able to use your own breath, body and mind to bring your nervous system into a state of higher arousal or lower arousal depending on what you need. Ideally, the system remains in balanced frequency through most of the day and night. Expressing controlled and symmetrical elevations and depressions along the frequency it moves through.
