Self-Care Sunday with Allison: Nourishing The Nervous System

Hello friends,

Welcome back to Self-Care Sunday! I took a little break in August for my family vacation (and, honestly, the recovery from that vacation took just as long). I'm here today to wish you all a happy September and to offer some practices that I find helpful and crucial in helping me come back to balance after the overstimulation and lack of routine of the summer months.

I don't know about you, but this summer felt like it went fast for me. Those of us in the northern hemisphere won't complain about the shortness of summers. Still, this one felt like the energy was moving particularly quickly, to the point where I could barely settle into the joy of not having homework to help with or daily lunchboxes to rinse out (for some reason, this is my least favourite part of picking up my kids from school) and then just like that, it was the end of August.

While I definitely will miss the freedom and the carefree days of summer, especially the ones spent on the lake at our family cottage, I am also incredibly relieved to be in September for many reasons. For one, as a perimenopausal woman, I find I can no longer bear the heat. That's not to say that I don't still love to lay out in the sun (I did grow up in the 90s, after all, when it was commonplace to lather oneself in tanning oil).

Still, the heat and the humidity, especially at certain times in my cycle, tend to make me feel like I'm unravelling at the seams. Then there's the pressure of time passing, where you feel like there's so much to do, so many memories to make, so many people to make them with, and yet it's impossible to fit it all in. And finally, for me in particular, it's the lack of routine. I found ways this summer to ensure that I had some semblance of rhythm (as I wrote about for Finding Your Practice in July), but it's quite different. I am a creature who thrives on structure.

So, with that being said, the slightly cooler temperatures, the return to routine, and the coming of sweater weather are all balm to my soul, but my nervous system is definitely still in need of nourishing and balancing. So that's what I am focusing on this month, and I would encourage you to do the same if you're feeling untethered, ungrounded, and a little frazzled from the shift of high-intensity summer activity to back-to-school energy.

Many factors lead to parasympathetic nervous system dysregulation (chronic stress, sleep deprivation, poor diet and lifestyle habits, trauma, and medical conditions, to name a few). This occurs when the body's "rest-and-digest" responses are not functioning properly, leading to issues in regulating functions like heart rate, digestion, and relaxation. Dysregulation of the parasympathetic nervous system can lead to symptoms like anxiety, digestive problems, poor heart rate variability, high blood pressure, and difficulty relaxing or sleeping.

And this is where working with the vagus nerve comes in.

If you haven't yet heard of the vagus nerve, I learned about it in my own healing and self-care journey, and it has been, simply put, a game-changer for me. In layman's terms, the vagus nerve is a long nerve that runs from your brain down through your neck and into your chest and abdomen. It is part of the parasympathetic nervous system.

As I have come to understand it, the vagus nerve acts like a "brake" on the body's stress responses. It also acts as a communication pathway between the brain and various organs, helping to regulate the body's rest-and-digest activities. It plays a crucial role in calming the body, reducing stress responses, lowering heart rate, and stimulating digestion.

I came across an account on Instagram a few years ago by Jessica Maguire (@repairing.the.nervous.system), and it made a significant impression on me when I realized that I had been living in a state of long-term nervous system dysregulation that had probably been initiated in my childhood and then continued with the onslaught of adulthood stressors. I learned that I was living in a pattern of being either stuck on "high" or "low" or constantly oscillating between the two, so I was never entirely in a state of ease.

After doing a lot of self-taught learning and trial and error work with the vagus nerve to see what worked to help regulate my own nervous system, I'm here today to share with you some very simple and easy practices you can do if this sounds like a familiar state of being to you. I find these especially helpful during times of transition, such as summer break to back-to-school and work life, and they only take a short amount of time to implement.

Wash/plunge your face with cold water every morning

This can be done as often as you like, but I usually do it at least seven times. This is a wonderful way to start your day, especially if you're prone to jumping out of bed and feeling like you're already behind schedule. It's a gentle, simple, and easy reminder for your system to slow down so you don't burn out before noon. Putting cold water on your face stimulates the vagus nerve by activating something called the mammalian diving reflex.

This reflex is a natural response seen in mammals when their face is submerged in cold water, which helps conserve oxygen by slowing the heart rate and redirecting blood flow to vital organs. It helps to reduce acute stress and anxiety and is a quick and efficient calm-down tool. This ritual finds its roots in yoga and Ayurveda as part of a broader "kriya" cleansing ritual practice intended to promote mental clarity and a sense of calm at the start of the day.

Breathwork and Guided Meditation

I often work with balancing the nervous system when I feel like I need it (as I have this week) through specific guided meditation techniques to access the vagus nerve and initiate the parasympathetic nervous system. Some of these include really basic functions like yawning or humming, which activate the vagus nerve and signal to the body that it's okay to rest. These two meditations by Mindful in Minutes are short and very effective. If you're feeling overstimulated or dysregulated, I highly recommend giving them a try.

Mindful in Minutes: 5-minute Nervous System Reset Meditation

Mindful in Minutes: Vagus Nerve Meditation

Legs Up The Wall Pose

Anyone who has done a Healing Through Writing & Yoga workshop with me knows that if I were to recommend only one yoga pose for the rest of time, it would be this pose. It is so effective in bringing the body and the mind into a state of calm and can be helpful if done for even one minute, but preferably anywhere from 5 to 15. It improves circulation and lymphatic drainage, encourages diaphragmatic breathing (which stimulates the vagus nerve!) and is a really great stretch for the posterior chain and lower back. It can be modified in so many different ways depending on anatomy or injuries.

I do it every night while my husband and I are unwinding in front of the TV after putting our kids to bed, and I find that it signals to my body that it's time to rest. Nothing says "Time to chill!" more than legs up the wall and Love Island on the screen:).

I sincerely hope that if you need to get back to a state of groundedness and balance, you will give these tried and true practices a chance. I promise they will support you this month and leave you feeling at least 10% better.

Until next time, be well.

Allison