Your Nervous System Has a Bouncer
The senses are the way the nervous system communicates with the outside world. We take in tons of information through our senses, and the nervous system needs to decide what is important and what isn’t relevant.
All the information our senses collect is carried by sensory nerves to the spinal cord where it is reviewed by interneurons, who act kind of like a bouncer at a bar. These interneurons decide which information is important enough to send up to the brain for processing. They play a really important role. Imagine if you had to consciously process everything you perceive? It would be way too much information all the time.
When we have chronic pain, the nervous system is attuned to look for danger, so the bouncers allow more information to pass up to the brain. Chronic pain makes the nervous system more sensitive, and when it gets bombarded by more information than usual, it is going to feel threatened by things that may not actually be dangerous. This is why sensations that aren’t typically painful, like light touch, can feel painful to those who are living with chronic pain.
In the Ayurvedic tradition, one of the three main causes of disease is sensory overload, which makes so much sense to me. I wrote last week about the nervous system, immune system, and endocrine system working together as a supersystem to respond to stress and threat. The more information the nervous system has to process, the harder the supersystem will have to work to maintain balance.
Since pain is the nervous system's reaction to threat, one way we can work to prevent or reduce stress and pain is to give our senses a break. It is my sincere hope that we make time to practice proactively rather than reactively! Here are a few simple ways to relax your nervous system by calming your senses:
Take screen breaks every 20 minutes. Either go outside and connect with nature, look out a window, or close your eyes.
Spend time in silence to give space to digest your experiences.
Your skin is your largest organ, and is a main sensory organ. Give yourself an oil massage to keep your skin and nerve endings happy. Nerves need fat for insulation and conduction, and when they don't have enough, that can actually lead to pain.
Eat when you are hungry and then allow yourself time to digest rather than grazing and snacking throughout the day.
Use flowers or essential oils to calm your nervous system. My favorites are cedarwood, lavender, clary sage, and rose.
We live in a stressful world, and these are not panacea, but I do think that it makes a difference to our overall wellbeing when we are intentional about regulating the nervous system, especially when we are under a lot of stress, and extra-especially when we have pain.
This is one of the gazillion reasons why I focus on healing the nervous system in my practice. If your nervous system is stressed or overwhelmed, I’d love to help. Schedule a free discovery call so we can talk about your needs and goals and come up with a plan to help heal your nervous system.
I want to heal my nervous system
