Welcome to my March Newsletter!
This month I’m focused on how my autonomic nervous system functions to support my abdominal healing after last year’s surgery. Following the surgery, I’d begun to have weakness in my lower body and a sense that my abdominal wall was “asleep”. This echoed the sensation I felt immediately after surgery that my legs were no longer connected into my body .
In the process of waking up my abdominal muscles, I’ve been exploring the Autonomic Fluid Rhythm (more on that in a future post) and wanted to share some of my thoughts on our Autonomic Nervous System.
The Autonomic Nervous System (or ANS) is the network of nerves that sends and receives information to and from our internal organs. The ANS is divided into the Parasympathetic and Sympathetic systems, and both receive input from the body and signal the body to respond accordingly.
The Parasympathetic system generally inhibits activity and the Sympathetic generally stimulates activity. Importantly, this is the system that regulates our involuntary body processes, the ones we don’t normally have to think about- like body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, breathing and digestion.
The ANS is responsible for maintaining homeostasis- or balance- in these body processes. As an example, the Sympathetic network signals metabolic processes to accelerate your heart rate while the parasympathetic sends signals to slow your heart down- the same with digestion, breathing, even your pupils will dilate when the Sympathetic system is activated and constrict when the Parasympathetic dominates.
Under stressful conditions, your Sympathetic network revs you up to fight or flee; when relaxed, safe, and feeling secure, your Parasympathetic network conserves energy and restores our involuntary processes to baseline, like a car idling in neutral.
When your ANS is working well, your body processes can return to resting baseline easily and quickly, your organ systems can do their jobs efficiently with less effort, and your body is able to rest and restore. When the ANS is not working optimally, these internal processes can’t manage and can impact our involuntary systems- like blood pressure and heart rate, or cause gastrointestinal problems, or make you feel dizzy and lightheaded- as implicated in cases of Long Covid- due to an imbalance in our orthostatic pressure (changes in blood pressure when standing up).
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Photo courtesy of https://www.thinkfirst.org/youth-lesson7
Based on my explorations, the ANS needs support to run smoothly- including being able to rev up the engine when needed and to idle and purr when not. In my experience there are far too many alerts coming at us and with them, the Sympathetic system is always dialed up unless I practice tools for toning our Parasympathetic systems to counter the Sympathetic. For instance, did you know that by extending your exhale so that it is longer than your inhale you activate the Parasympathetic portion of your ANS? Yes- it can be that simple!
And Biodynamic Craniosacral therapy supports the ANS’ well-being and equilibrium by also toning the Parasympathetic nervous system and dialing down the Sympathetic, inviting your internal organs to “rest and digest” while soothing and down-regulating our Autonomic Nervous System.
Namaste,
Dr. Ellyce DiPaola