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All day long our nervous systems are regulating.  In fact they are master regulators.  

Continually taking in stimuli about our surroundings, our position, the environment, the people around us, what vibe they’re giving off, whether and how we should respond and interact to people, what’s happening in each of our organs, deciding how we should proceed based on our internal mileau. 

It’s got a lot on its plate.

So when we jump into personal development work with the hopes of clearing that plate a bit, it can potentially knock the whole plate’s contents over if we forget to approach it with respect for the intricate balancing act it’s been pulling off.

We can’t always rush in hoping to fix everything and fix it now (though I’ll admit, that still sounds aMAZing!).

This is super important when something nasty is buried under 22 other things on that plate. 

Trauma can hide itself very discreetly away from our conscious memory when we need it to. Say for instance, so we can go about living day-to-day without reliving this HUGE thing that happened.  

So that’s why I’m inviting you to continually shore up the resources of your nervous system, to approach that plate respectfully,  so no one ends up an emotional hot mess.

Tips to Regulate the Nervous System

There are many, many ways to regulate our nervous system AND not every way is right for every person.

Here are 5 easy ways to tone your nervous system during this summit:

1.Tapping

I know, I know. This is much too obvious and we ARE already tapping inside of the summit interviews but still...

Just tap. Mindlessly tap.

Choose 1-4 tapping points and tap away. If money is a trigger for you, tap right through the whole of each interview, not just the tapping parts.

Tap when you're watching tv or on your morning walk or even in the bathroom.

Find some time during the day to sneak in some mindless tapping. This will keep calming those parts of the brain all our EFT research has shown. (Check out Peta Stapleton's book for more detailed info on the studies.)

2. Your happy-zen triggers. 

Do you love the beach photo that’s your cell phone background?  Does the memory of your grandmother make you feel all warm and comfy?  Do you have a pet that helps you totally chill out?  

What are 3 places, people, pets or objects that help you chillax when you focus on them? 

If you can think of one right now, really let yourself have the experience of cuddling with your dog or looking out onto that beach.  How does your body feel?  What kind of scents or tastes come to mind? What do you hear?  

Just notice how your body relaxes.  

Letting yourself go there several times a day, even if it’s just for 20 seconds helps train your brain and body to enter that relaxed state.  

What’s even better is that you can use this imagery during the summit or any time you’re doing personal work that is triggering in any way. Just swing back to that zen space and grow that emotional container before heading back to respectfully approach that full plate.  

3. Slow and regular breathing.  

The effects of breathing have been researched for many years.

Taking slow and regular breaths helps your nervous system and heart come into a state of coherence, physiologically syncing up. 

To really amp up your breathing, the Heart Math Institute, which has done tonnes of research on the best ways to use breathing to create more coherence, suggests a breathing technique where you are not only breathing in and out in an even, and somewhat deeper and slower pattern than usual, but you are also focusing on your heart area and feeling regenerative feelings.  

Step-by-step this would look like:

 a) begin breathing in a regular and deep pattern (ex. 4 seconds inhale 4 seconds exhale),

 b) focus your attention on your heart or chest region, imagining your breath flowing in and out of this area, 

c) allow yourself to feel love or appreciation for a place or person/pet or experience.  It’s almost like combining  the  exercise above with deeper breathing, while focusing on your heart.

4. Feelin’ the Love

One of the really interesting parts of the research on meditation has been that different types of meditations have different effects on our nervous system. 

One of the best ways to bring ourselves into a coherent and regulated state is to feel loving-kindness toward something.  

So choosing a place, person, pet… anything meaningful and directing loving thoughts toward it will help to calm the automatic parts of our nervous system.

Hint: you’re already doing it in steps 2 and 3 above.

5. Singing, Humming , Chanting or … Gargling?

That’s right.  Any one of the above activities helps to trigger the vagus nerve tone.  

What is the vagus nerve you ask?

It’s the longest nerve in our body that sends and receives information from all of our organs, it helps control our ability to listen, speak, breathe and beat our hearts.

Pretty important stuff right?

Plenty of researchers and therapists have come up with myriad ways to support the healthy function of the vagus nerve.

But my favourite?

Singing.

Singing, humming, chanting and believe it or not, gargling, all use various parts of the vagus nerve and help to tone its function.

Be honest with me here, you’ve totally cheered yourself up by singing your heart out in the car or shower.  

And now you have an excuse!  It’s science! (Or polyvagal theory if you want to get all technical.)

So there you have it.  Five easy ways to keep your very full plate balanced and strong while you clean it on up by doing your personal work.

And helping your nervous system during this summit will be helping your nervous system in everything you do.

Keep up the beautiful transformative work.  The more you heal on the inside, the more you heal our entire world.  

So thank you.