If you have chronic illness or symptoms you are stuck living in the sympathetic nervous system. If you require ongoing “tools” to manage or suppress symptoms, the same is true.
It’s easy to conceptually get this, but we are not taught a proper understanding of how illness develops and persists, and so it takes experiential learning to really see how this plays out in our own lives.
That is why receiving the answer to solve your health problems permanently does not cause you to feel excited, but rather confused and in a state of cognitive dissonance.
So, let’s break this down to simple and review some experiential signs of sympathetic dominance!
It was a pretty big shift for me when I learned the concept of “Living in the Parasympathetic” from a mentor. I had never heard it said that way before.
It was a “DUH!” moment for me.
“If I could turn my Parasympathetic on and KEEP it on, then I would have all the benefits of it all the time! That’s better than any supplement, remedy, diet, or modality I could ever use! That’s self-repair and healing-mode 24-7! All I get so far by “stimulating the parasympathetic” is a couple hours of relief at most, before I’m back in stress-mode.”
The paradigm of “Living in the Parasympathetic” broke down every idea I had learned about health in all my years of training. It meant that everything I had tried, learned, and taught up to that point came from the paradigm of “Living in the Sympathetic”. And while I was an expert in my field of Functional Medicine and holistic healing modalities, I was completely uninformed on what it meant and how to Live in the Parasympathetic.
Everything I had learned was for people that were in the Sympathetic, researched by people in the Sympathetic, prescribed by practitioners in the Sympathetic.
And most of those healers, if not all, were not healthy themselves – because THEY TOO either had chronic illness and symptoms or they required ongoing “tools” to manage and mask their symptoms.
What are the signs of being in the Sympathetic Nervous System – SNS – Stress Nervous System?
Let’s look at some common behavior patterns that every client, when they are brutally honest can see in themselves when they uncover their patterns.
Fight response:
- Anger outbursts
- Explosive behavior
- Controlling behaviors
- Impulsive decision making
- Pursues power and control
- Demands perfection from others
Flight response:
- Perfectionism
- Panic and anxiety
- Inability to sit still
- Obsessive and/or compulsive tendencies
- Workaholic tendencies
- Constant feelings of fear
Freeze response:
- Isolation
- Dissociation
- Frequent zoning out
- Difficulting taking actions
- Difficulty making decisions
- Fear of achieving or trying new things
Fawn response:
- Lack of identity
- People-pleasing
- Little or no boundaries
- Codependent relationships
- Feeling taken advantage of
- Prioritizing people’s needs over your own
What are the signs of being in the Parasympathetic Nervous System – PNS – Peace Nervous System?
- For starters, none of the above responses of fight, flight, freeze or fawn are present.
- There are no chronic illnesses or chronic symptoms. You read that right.
- You can think of how you feel after acupuncture, meditation, or vacation-mode and map that onto your whole life.
- There is a sense of being and knowing I will be ok, clear thinking, responding not reacting, being at peace with myself, feeling safe and trusting of myself, having a full cup and never running on empty or burn-out, and happiness.
- It does not mean everything in my life is problem-free. It DOES mean that how I approach those challenges is from a calm and grounded perspective, doing my best, and living and FEELING my value system.
- It doesn’t mean I’m perfect. It DOES mean I am proud of myself and accept myself fully – I don’t want to be anyone else or have anyone else’s life.
- I am at peace.
How often can you honestly say this is the place you live from?
We KNOW a lot of things.
We BELIEVE in a lot of things.
But do we FEEL in our emotions and in our bodies the EXPERIENCE of those things?
If you have chronic symptoms, the answer is no.
You’re in fight or flight – survival – and you do not have the EXPERIENCE of your values and ideals, because that only exists in the centers of your brain that are NOT survival.
I could write much more about the physiology and neuroscience behind these principals, but I will keep it here for now and invite you to schedule yourself a complimentary 90 minute breakthrough call with our team, where you will go much deeper in your experiential understanding of these concepts in your own life.
You will learn how the nervous system and brain controls the body, uncover the specific triggers and patterns that are keeping your sympathetic nervous system activated, and have a clear roadmap to resolving these and turning on your Parasympathetic for good.
If we are a good fit and know we can help you become fully healthy, we will custom craft a program based on your individual needs. If we are not a good fit, we will provide you with a referral or resources to help you on your journey. It is a win-win, either way. Book below.
