How to Regulate Your Nervous System to Support Healing
What Is Nervous System Dysregulation?
Your nervous system is constantly scanning your environment to determine if you’re safe. When it senses safety, your body can digest food, balance hormones, and repair itself. But when it perceives a threat and even if that threat is just an overflowing inbox or a blood sugar crash, your body shifts into a fight, flight, or freeze response.
This is incredibly helpful in short bursts. But when your nervous system gets stuck in overdrive or shutdown, it becomes harder for your body to heal. You might feel anxious, wired but tired, inflamed, bloated, or disconnected and not fully know why.
Signs Your Nervous System May Be Dysregulated
Trouble falling or staying asleep
Constant bloating or digestive issues
Feeling anxious, hypervigilant, or easily overwhelmed
Emotional numbness or feeling checked out
Hormonal imbalances or irregular cycles
Difficulty focusing or making decisions
Chronic pain or tension in your neck, shoulders, or jaw
How Nervous System Regulation Supports Gut and Hormone Health
Your gut and brain are deeply connected. If your nervous system is stuck in fight-or-flight, digestion slows down, motility is impaired, and inflammation rises. Over time, this can lead to imbalances in your microbiome, leaky gut, or hormone dysregulation.
When we regulate the nervous system, we send the signal to the body that it’s safe to rest, digest, and repair. This creates the foundation for deeper healing.
Simple Ways to Start Regulating Your Nervous System Daily
1. Grounding and Breathwork
Place your bare feet on the earth or sit with your back supported. Try box breathing: inhale for four counts, hold for four, exhale for four, hold for four. Repeat for 2 to 3 minutes.
2. Vagus Nerve Stimulation
Humming, gargling, singing, or even a splash of cold water on your face in the morning can help activate the vagus nerve and shift you into a more regulated state.
3. Eat in a Calm Environment
Avoid eating on the go, while scrolling your phone, or in a stressed state. Take a few deep breaths before meals to help activate your parasympathetic (rest and digest) response.
4. Morning and Evening Rituals
Create gentle bookends to your day. This might look like five minutes of stretching, stepping outside for morning light, or drinking a calming herbal tea before bed.
5. Balance Blood Sugar
Big spikes and crashes in blood sugar can trigger a stress response in the body. Start your day with protein, fiber, and healthy fat to help regulate your energy and mood.
The Bottom Line
You cannot heal in a body that doesn’t feel safe.
Nervous system regulation is the foundation for any gut, hormone, or immune protocol. It doesn’t require perfection, just small, consistent moments of checking in with your body and reminding it that it’s safe to heal.
If you’re looking for more support on your healing journey, I’d love to help. Book a consult to get started.
