The Importance of our Rest, Digest, Repair State plus our Favorite Tips on How to Heal - Part 1

Listen up! Learning a bit about the nervous system and how and why it matters when it comes to healing from any chronic illness will get you started on the right path to sustainable healing.

We don’t often associate our nervous system with our overall health. It’s likely because we are taught to focus on addressing the external symptoms of illness in isolation. Who can blame us? It’s the story we’ve been told in our conventional lives and it’s alluring – pop a pill or rub on an ointment - minimal effort with maximum results. But what if we told you that it’s simply not that easy when it comes to healing. 

We know that chronic illness crescendos and by the time we start experiencing signs and symptoms it’s been brewing for a while. What usually perpetuates this chronic illness? An issue within our nervous system and how we respond is usually one of the root causes. Just because it’s not easy doesn’t mean it’s impossible or insurmountable. 

Here is a brief introduction to our nervous system - its parts and what it does. 

Our nervous system is the command center of our body. It is, at its very essence, our “beingness” - everything, the whole kit and caboodle. This is because the nervous system serves as our control hub. It acts in a key role by regulating and communicating all the processes in our bodies. Its function culminates in electrical and chemical activity based on stimuli. That may sound simple but it is a complex and intricate system for each and every one of us.

Historically, our culture has virtually ignored the nervous system’s pivotal role. Sure, many scientists expanded their study and learning about it through the years but it always seemed to be a separate entity from the rest of our body. We now know just how interconnected it is to the rest of our body.

Whether this is occurring between our brains and our muscles and organs or glands or vice versa, it’s safe to say that our overall health and well-being is dependent on the health and wellbeing of our nervous system. It’s as if there is no beginning and no end. If we don't have a healthy nervous system, we cannot enjoy optimal health in any network system. To say its role in our health and well-being is crucial is an understatement. 

Most of us left any info about the human nervous system in their high school biology class. So here is a brief summary.

Here are 5 main processes the Nervous System is involved in:

• Sensation - stimuli from both from our external and internal worlds
• Perception - our attention to these sensations
• Feelings/Emotions - electrically active but involves neuromodulators such as serotonin, dopamine, acetylcholine and epinephrine also known as adrenaline. They influence neurons more than others and are specific. They are somewhat reflexive but under more of our control than we realize.
• Thoughts - like our perceptions but are heavily influenced by our past and our anticipation of the future. They can be reflexive or deliberate and more importantly they can be controlled!
• Actions/Behaviors - this is where the rubber meets the road! If our thoughts are the penultimate then our actions and behaviors are the ultimate common pathway of our nervous system. 

Contrary to popular belief, you actually can change your nervous system. To do so requires being deliberate for a set time, on a path with an outcome. This is neural plasticity.

A great example of this type of change might be that you want to be more accepting and loving of yourself. Many of us struggle with not being self accepting or loving. It’s a great place to start as the rest of the path to healing and wellness will actually be easier if you develop these feelings for yourself. It will allow you to make mistakes, even fail, but achieving these core self feelings will allow you to get back up and back at it.

It does take effort and there will be frustration as your neural circuitry and brain chemistry begin to shift - this stems from the friction between our frontal brain or, as we like to call it, the adult in the room and our limbic system which prioritizes survival. If you’ve reacted this way for a set amount of time, your body views this as your norm. Oftentimes, it gets worse before it gets better. The mistakes and failures are where the magic happens in any type of sustainable personal development. But this ability to change is dependent upon how rested you are. Rest begets focus and is when neural plasticity actually occurs. We can all understand this. When we sleep well, we are able to focus and have much more reserve and resilience. When we don’t, the world seems like a very different place.

Here are the basic parts:

• Brain
• Spinal cord
• Nerves 

There are 2 main systems:

• Central Nervous System (CNS) which includes our brain and spinal cord
• Peripheral Nervous System (ANS) which is made up of nerves and lies outside of our brain and spinal cord. The Peripheral Nervous System is separated into two separate but related systems:
• Voluntary or Somatic nervous system
• Autonomic Nervous System

The somatic or “voluntary” system contains nerves that carry sensory signals from the body to the CNS and nerves that send motor signals from the CNS to the skeletal system. It is where our conscious actions arise from.

The second part of the Peripheral Nervous System, the Autonomic Nervous System, can be further broken down into: 

• Sympathetic Nervous System - associated with fight/flight/freeze or fawn which are our alert or vigilant modes. This can be thought of as the gas pedal being applied.
• Parasympathetic Nervous System - associated with rest/digest/repair/reproduce mode. It can be likened to the brake when engaged.
• Enteric Nervous System - an extensive weblike structure that is independent and is largely responsible for digestion. Signaling is bidirectional with a large majority of gut signaling going from the gut to the brain - meaning your gut is informing your brain, mostly.

The Autonomic Nervous System is associated with “automatic” processes that we do not have control over. Some of these functions are:

• Heart rate
• Breathing
• Digestion
• Sweating
• Sexual arousal

The key to a healthy nervous system, and ultimately sustainable health, is having the ability to toggle in between sympathetic and parasympathetic responses.

Many of us cannot do this. Reasons abound for this, such as infectious or non infectious stressors like processed foods, toxins or hormonal imbalances. Surgery or other physical trauma as well as emotional trauma can also damage these pathways. All involve the vagus nerve, which is our bidirectional superhighway. If that corridor isn’t functioning then we cannot engage our rest/digest/repair and reproduce functions. That is the mode we SHOULD be in most of the time unless of course you are fighting for your life. The trouble is we spend most of our time being in a sympathetic dominant state with a damaged vagus nerve that cannot assist us. This leads to chronic illness and the inability to sustainably heal.

BUT there is hope. 

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this blog which we’ll put out next week!