Dial down Your nervous system

For a significant change in a matter of minutes, here are three things you can do to shift your nervous system out of the stress response (the sympathetic aspect of the autonomic nervous system) and into the rest, digest, growth and repair response (the parasympathetic aspect of the autonomic nervous system).

#1: Touch

Kickstart your strategy for dialing down your nervous system with a Massage. Touch is a balm for stress. Touch stimulates your vagus nerve through pressure detectors in the skin. Factors like speed, pressure, and vibration exert physiological and biochemical changes that enhance well-being, sharpen focus, and enhance pain resilience, among other profound effects. Soothing, relaxing touch switches on the ventral vagal or parasympathetic aspect of our nervous system which can counter the secretion of stress hormones like cortisol. You can give yourself a foot or scalp massage or even pet your dog or cat to soothe your nervous system.

#2: Controlled breathing

Breathing is one of the most rapid ways to shift your system to experience greater ease and calm. Breathing is also incredibly effective for making lasting changes in your physiology—the way your body-mind functions at the cellular level.

When you change the dynamics of the breath, you intervene in feedback loops that might otherwise intensify stress. During the inhalation phase of breathing, the heart rate accelerates. When you exhale, the vagus nerve stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system slowing heart rate.

Studies suggest that even brief changes in breathing dynamics can reduce the impacts of stress on the body, changing the way we respond to challenges.

A simple and powerful breathing exercise:

Preparation:
Sit comfortably with your back erect.
Inhale through your nose.
On exhale, make an aspirated “Haaaa” sound as if you were fogging up your sunglasses to clean them.
Repeat several times focusing on the sensations in your throat and the sound of the air moving through.
On your next exhale, close your lips half way through exhale. Repeat this several times until it feels comfortable.

Now, keep your lips closed throughout each phase of the breath cycle while continuing to gently make the aspirated sound in your throat on inhale and exhale. This is the Ujjayi breathing technique. Once this feels comfortable for you, you may begin the sequence below using this breath technique.

The Practice:
On one hand, use the tip of your thumb to slowly slide up the first finger from the base to the tip as you inhale. Pause the movement and the breath slightly at the end of inhale.

As you exhale, slide the tip of your thumb down the first finger to its base pausing the movement and the breath slightly at the end of exhale.

Continue in the same way on the remaining fingers of this hand while comfortably lengthening your exhale. This is the first pass.

On the second pass, you’ll gently lengthen your inhale by 1-2 seconds while you slide the thumb up each of the fingers from the littlest finger to your index finger. Always keep your breath very comfortable and lengthen the breath only as it is truly comfortable for you. This cannot be over emphasized!

On the third and fourth pass try to have your exhale be about twice as long as your inhale.

This is a minimum starting place to experience a shift in your nervous system. As you gain comfort and experience with the practice you may increase the practice duration with additional passes.

#3: Singing, humming, and chanting

The vagus nerve controls the muscles in the larynx (voice box) that allows you to produce sound. Mechanically, the very act of singing requires your exhale to become longer than your inhale. As a result, when you sing, hum, or chant, you create vibrations that automatically stimulate muscles in the throat that stimulate the vagus nerve.

These practices can help you change the state of your nervous system within minutes, empowering you to influence your state of being, create a felt sense of safety and grounding in many situations. When practiced consistently over a long time, your nervous system can function with greater ease and resilience.