First up, a bit of not-so-scary brain fundamentals to help you understand why what comes next is all about slowing you down to help you feel in control:
Anxiety has a lot to do with your Central Nervous System (CNS). This includes the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) and the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS). The PNS is activated when you rest and digest, and the SNS is activated when you sense a perceived threat or danger (physically and psychologically) in your internal or external world.
PNS abnormalities have been linked to depression and other mood disruptions like anxiety. Your PNS system exerts its superpowers on the heart via the vagus nerve. It helps slow down the heart rate and your “fight or flight” response. This is good. As anxious types, we love more of the “slow down” to counterbalance the “speed up” parts of life.
The fight or flight response is when your body gets physiologically and cognitively ready to deal with the stress you believe you are facing. I’ll keep taking you back to your CNS throughout our conversations as we understand how the body uses this push and pull relationship of the CNS to help you and your body find a healthy balance in life.
What is one thing you can do today to help remind yourself that you are not losing it, even when you feel like you are? That feeling like you are losing it, is simply a sign from your central nervous system that you need to take things down a notch. Listen to your body and do one thing that will help.
