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Deactivating your sympathetic nervous system

What are the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems?

Your autonomic nervous system (ANS) has two branches, the sympathetic and parasympathetic. Most people know of the sympathetic nervous system as the "fight or flight" response, although we now know that people deal with stressors in different ways, which has led it to be called the "flee, fight or freeze" response.

The parasympathetic nervous system is referred to as the "rest and digest" state. Our "fight or flight" response is not just activated when we encounter legitimate danger, it is also activated any time we experience stress, such as running late for an important meeting or living in chronic fear of losing your job or having the parts of yourself you keep hidden suddenly exposed to the world.

gray concrete bridge and waterfalls during daytime

silhouette of trees near body of water during sunset

What is now referred to as the autonomic nervous system (ANS), was once referred to as the central nervous system. Your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system are supposed to work together, in concert with each other. Most people will move in and out of sympathetic and parasympathetic activation thoughout the course of a day.

A condition known as chronic CNS activation is what happens when your sympathetic nervous system becomes so chronically activated, that you become "stuck" in that state. Chronic CNS activation can cause a host of issues, ranging from physical conditions to cognitive and even emotional issues, often resulting in a heightened sensitivity to pain, light, and stress. So, the more stress you are under, the more sensitive you become to stress.

Chronic stress (aka chronic CNS activation) significantly disrupts immune regulation, and acts as a major trigger for the onset and flare-ups of autoimmune diseases. This is particularly alarming for women, as approximately 80% of all autoimmune disease cases occur in females, who are up to four times more likely to develop conditions like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis than men. In short, women are under more stress than at any time in history, and that stress is literally killing us. This makes understanding how to deactivate you parasympathetic nervous system a literal matter of life or death.

Rest and digest

Perhaps one of the biggest challenges of modern life is to learn to deactivate the parasympathetic nervous system, so that you can move into a "rest and digest" state. There are many ways to do this, but perhaps one of the most effective is getting out in nature. The natural world offers a wide range of health and therapeutic benefits. From microorganisms in soil that help boost the immune system to the phytoncides released released by trees that also (you guessed it) help boost the immune system.

One of the many reasons we find it so hard to achieve a "rest and digest" state is that capitalism thrives on keeping us in a chronic state of activation. When we are overwhelmed, stressed and busy, we don't have time to think, which means we are more prone to just buy, buy, buy - particularly when products promise us relief from our anxieties, insecurities or overwhelm. In nature, there are no advertisements, no alerts chronically going off or billboards reminding us of what we are "supposed" to want, do or look like.

A deer walks through wildflowers near a snowy mountain.

shallow focus photography of pink flowers

sun light passing through green leafed tree

shallow focus photography of white shih tzu puppy running on the grass

Although actually being in nature has been proven to offer a host of benefits, it turns out you don't actually have to go out in the woods to reap at least some of the many benefits that nature has to offer. New research shows that merely looking at images of nature or even just imagining them in your own mind can have a beneficial impact on lowering stress levels.

While I don't know that there has been any research into this, it is my personal belief that just as interacting with animals has a powerful impact on stress levels, so can just looking at images or videos of animals. While just looking at images of nature or animals is not going to cure your autoimmune disease, every minute that we spend in "rest & digest" rather than "fight or flight" is going to help, so do your nervous system a favor and enjoy these images.