The Autonomic Nervous System

Your body has two main gears like a car. One gear is for go which helps you run fast and play hard by making your heart pump. The other gear is for slow down which helps you rest, digest your food, and sleep. These gears work automatically without you even asking them to. Sometimes the go gear gets stuck if we are worried, and we have to help our body switch back to the slow down gear. Deep breaths are like the brake that helps you switch gears.

Deep breaths are the brake that helps you switch gears. You cannot think your way out of a panic attack. You cannot logic your way out of a racing heart. Because the alarm system is older than language. The fight-or-flight response is three hundred million years old. Language is one hundred thousand years old. You are trying to negotiate with a system that does not speak your language. But it speaks breath. A long slow exhale is the oldest password in the mammalian operating system. It tells the ancient brain: the lion is gone. We can rest. You do not calm down by thinking calm thoughts. You calm down by breathing calm breaths.

ANS divided into sympathetic (fight-or-flight: cortisol, adrenaline) and parasympathetic (rest-and-digest: vagus nerve). Heart rate variability measures the balance. Chronic sympathetic activation without recovery creates allostatic load. A long slow exhale is the oldest password in the mammalian operating system. You calm down by breathing calm breaths.

SOUND: The soft low hum of a purring cat: a mammal broadcasting its parasympathetic state to your nervous system.

SMELL: Lavender flowers that make your shoulders drop: a scent that speaks directly to the brake pedal.

TASTE: Warm honey tea — a hug for your throat: sweetness telling the body the danger is over.

TOUCH: A heavy weighted blanket pressing down: pressure convincing the nervous system it is held.

SIGHT: The blue ocean or a clear blue sky: the color of the slow-down gear made visible.

BODY: Muscles going floppy like a ragdoll: the body surrendering to safety.

Music: Unpack Your Heart by Phillip Phillips

Music: The Sound of Silence by Disturbed

Music: Rivers of Babylon by Boney M.

Part of Emotion & Feeling — CONSCIOUSNESS — Education Revelation