We have learnt about the nervous system in our school butthen we started forgetting about it thinking that we don’t need to really remember it as it doesn’t have any significance in our life. But you need to understand that your body has its own intelligence and it also creates its own body clock where the body knows when to sleep, when to wake up, when to eat etc and this intelligence also works for us to heal the body from certain issues or diseases. The nervous system that is the command centre for our body which gives you the signal, for instance, to remove your hand when you suddenly touch a hot
substance.
There are two types of nervous systems in our body. One is the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the other one is the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). The SNS is the one which activates the fight and flight response that means all functions in the body slow down and the body goes into survival mode. It activates when there is a kind of threat which could be any physical threat, fear of anything or even a negative thought. We can run away from all the physical threats and deactivate the SNS, but what about fear, anger, hatred, all the negativity that lies within us? Such kind of emotional and mental stress constantly keeps us in the SNS where the body is in fight and flight response.
I’ve seen many people who are stressed and eat a large meal or lots of sweets under stress to satisfy their cravings, but what happens internally no one knows. The meal that one eats under stress is not even absorbed properly. When our body is in the SNS, the adrenaline and cortisol levels are high. Our body cannot digest and absorb the food properly. The blood pressure goes up and all the hormones stop working like they would work to maintain the normal homeostasis. This leads to further miscommunication in the body and gives arise to various health conditions. Therefore, we should not be keeping our body in the sympathetic state for a very long time and should work on bringing it back to the para sympathetic nervous system ie PNS.
When the body is in PNS, adrenaline and cortisol levels are low, as there is no stress. The food we eat is
digested and absorbed better. Our blood pressure is in control and our body is in harmony.
Even our cognitive abilities and decision making is improved. Activating PNS is not that difficult and the easiest ways to make this shift is to take long deep breaths, focus on pranayama, calming yoga, light exercise, a light walk or even sleep. When we sleep, our body is in the PNS state that’s when most of the healing, recovery, repair, detoxification etc happens in the body.
Chronic stress keeps our mind and body constantly in the SNS which is not good for our health, gut, hormones, skin, hair and even internal organs like heart, liver, lungs etc. Once our body shifts to the PNS, everything comes into harmony and homeostasis (balance) is maintained and our body can only heal if it stays in the parasympathetic state more than it stays in the sympathetic state. It doesn’t matter what kind of disease you have, whether cancer or a normal cough , cold or fever — your body needs to heal from within first, and only then external therapy can help. We have everything available at our fingertips in abundance, but still the number of sick people and suffering of people is increasing everyday. It is only due to constant chronic emotional or mental stress.
To overcome this, and allow your body to heal, focus more on deep breathing because the oxygen you put in your body works on shifting from the SNS to PNS which further enhances the healing process. Happy healing everyone!