Nurturing the nervous system. How well do you know and sense and feel from your inner world. Your sacred interiority. Breath is the pillar of life. And the pillar of our yoga practise. We all breathe. Nothing is more universal.
Today, as I map out a new podcast series on the nervous system, wanted to shine out a few foundations with you. Let it be a mini balm for your own nervous system as you read.
When studying nutrition at the College of Naturopathic Medicine in London, I always used PNS and SNS as abbreviations in my notes. Finding little ways to simplify things, is really useful isn’t it? Here are a trio of acronyms to get you going - to dance a bit more into understanding your own neurobiology.
ANS, SNS, PNS. There they are. In capitals.
ANS - autonomic nervous system. The great orchestra that is happening in you right now. As you bring a cup of tea to your lips, as you breathe, as you read this. So much is happening. Your cellular conversations are busy chatting and coordinating. The ANS is that which is voluntary. It would be pretty taxing, nigh on impossible, if we had to actively think out our every breath, our every digestive action, every lifting of a cup…perhaps you or someone close to you had a stroke and required many months of rehabilitation. This is all at the intricate level of the nervous system. It’s vast, wonderfully layered, richly complex.
SNS - sympathetic nervous system. The activating tone. Stimulated by the inhale. When we breathe in. Here’s where the wisdom of the breath slides in. Exploring the inhale can be a gateway into understanding a bit more about this mode of our nervous system. The inhale is warming, expanding, opening, the energy of the sun. Activating and solarising. Tiny increments of increase in heart rate, blood pressure and switching off of digestive processes, happens in SNS mode. We need balance in this mode to get things done. Otherwise we’d all be in sloth mode all the time!
PNS - para-sympathetic nervous system. The cooling, passive tone. Because as great as it is to warm, vivify, expand and open, so too must we decompress, draw inwards, set healthier boundaries, take a sacred pause. The energy of the moon. The exhale gifts us this. Balance. We breathe in. We must breathe out. The ocean wave rises, it must naturally cascade back down again. Time in nature, gardening, healthy breath patterns, good nourishing food, a sense of belonging, community, relaxing baths…all this helps switch on the PNS. Basically, allow whatever self soothes. That reminds the bodymind system to relax.
The SNS and PNS are branches of the ANS. There is also a third branch - the ENS…the enteric nervous system, that resides in the gut. It’s so useful though to simplify so the foundations can land. (PNS can also be used an abbreviation for the peripheral nervous system….just in case of confusion. The neural networks that branch into our limbs.)
For now, let a gentle awareness open into the current quality of your inhale and exhale. One of the reasons balance in the breath is so key, is so we continue to harness balance in our incredible layered, complex nervous systems. All of it dances in a dynamic equilibrium. We’re never just either in SNS or PNS mode. It’s like a song with many notes and tones. What does happen though, say in burn out, is the PNS activity has been kinda lost. Over-ridden. We need daily reminders to connect back in. To reach those touch stones and safe harbour within.
Drink in the above image. Pictures can open up another realm of awareness. We might begin to understand more why it doesn’t feel good to eat in a rush - we need to eat in a calm state, chew our food, so are in PNS mode, to aid healthy digestion. Or why our sleep is fitful and disturbed. What are the messages in the nervous system. Is there hyper-vigilance stemming from an unresolved trauma. We are always sensing and feeling our way through the world, via the information pulsing in our nervous system. If we feel unsafe, threatened, at risk - how is this showing up in our breath. The body is always communicating. We learn to attune. To truly and kindly listen. Always an ongoing evolving process.
Keep launching your own research assignments. Follow what peaks your curiosity. There are so many ways to explore this work. It’s vast.
A reminder: Those 3 key initial levers of breath for health… 1. Breathe through the nose 2. even rate and rhythm 3. Take the breath down - belly breathing.
Do also avail of this resource - the 20 minutes guided coherent breathing.
Can you believe it’s had over a 1,000 downloads already….we all need these reminders to breathe. And please be gentle and compassionate in your exploration. How we breathe tells us so much about our inner state. Our neurobiology. So of course we meet difficulty, challenge, frustration along the way. Practise…and all is coming…
Ciara Jean Roberts
Writer, Yoga Teacher & Naturopathic Nutritional Therapist