What Is Nervous System Work, and Why Is It Important?

I didn’t realize nervous system work would make such an impact for my husband’s health until he started doing it regularly! Here’s why it’s important and how he incorporates it into his day.

The last few weeks, I’ve been in awe.

I absolutely marvel at the changes we’re seeing in my husband’s health.

In fact, I have a hunch that someday I’ll look back on the whole “toilet leaked and wrecked two bathrooms and caused mold” situation as a blessing! It’s uncovered some potential health problems in a few family members that we might not have addressed otherwise.

As we tried to figure out what to do, I decided to test one of us for mycotoxins. My husband was the lucky volunteer, and lo and behold, he was high in four types of mycotoxin (poison from mold).

He started working with a practitioner, and one of his early confessions was this: because he’s tried an awful lot of things in the name of health, we are both a little cynical because it feels like none of them quite work. He might be more than a little cynical.

She explained that sometimes it’s like a combination lock–maybe you have five of the six numbers right, but if you don’t get the sixth, you don’t get to open the safe and get the prize of good health.

This was her way of saying, “Yes, you have to do it all, and it might be hard.”

Before Christmas, my husband started just a few of the “hard things” that he would have to do:

1. He stopped caffeine. This was something he has never tried before. He was a 1-3 cup of coffee a day guy with some afternoon green tea mixed in, especially in the summer (cold).
2. He started doing nervous system work every day (something I’ve mentioned he should do for his high blood pressure, but he never has).

Then, on January 1, he ditched gluten, dairy, and alcohol–all of which he’s done before, and even at the same time.

Just 10 days later, with less than 30 days of the two new changes, he’d already seen the following health improvements:

• Lost 10 pounds.
• Blood pressure dropped from high 150s and even into the 160s all the way down to the 130s (and now he’s in the 120s most days for the top number).
• His resting heart rate used to be over 100 BPM, and in the 80s and 90s even during sleep. That immediately changed to a healthy resting rate of 55 to 65 at night! 😮
• His exercise intolerance lifted. (That means he felt like absolute crud after a good workout, and that went away.)

His energy is rebuilding, and although we are still anticipating some more changes, I absolutely marvel at how quickly these simple, cost-free interventions made a massive impact!

He literally went from some dangerous cardiovascular numbers to normal in less than 30 days. 

He has also been taking some supplements, which are not cost-free, but they seem secondary to all these changes.

I’m hoping and praying we can continue to see success, and I share our story to encourage you that sometimes you just need to get that whole combination lock of health correct. So keep trying to make positive improvements!

When I shared about this in my weekend email with my regular community, we started to get questions. After the first person asked for more information about the nervous system work and what my husband was doing, my very wise and astute executive assistant put a note on the email: Everyone is going to want to know this, Katie, she said–and she was right. We received a remarkable number of queries about what nervous system work meant in general and specifically what my husband had undertaken for the last month.

Keep in mind that I’m not a doctor, nurse, or health practitioner of any kind, just someone sharing my knowledge and my experience.

Let’s start by defining the term “nervous system” as best I can.

What Is the Nervous System?

In elementary and middle school, we learned that the nervous system is one of the systems of the body that includes the brain and the nerves. Its job is to help us think and feel sensations, right?

Simplistically, that’s the answer, but we can dig deeper now that we are no longer 12 years old.

The nervous system goes beyond just the sense of touch and also includes other felt sensations. Imagine real, physiological sensations such as butterflies in your stomach or a racing heart. What do we mean when we say, “My heart fell into my toes,” or “She’s so high-strung”?

All of these idioms or euphemisms describe some of what the nervous system is doing in our body.

The central nervous system is divided into two parts, the parasympathetic and the sympathetic nervous systems. When we feel stress, whether that’s good stress or bad stress, the sympathetic nervous system initiates. In a small way, this happens every time we inhale.

The sympathetic nervous system is often referred to as “fight or flight“, but don’t let that make you think that it’s all negative. We need our sympathetic nervous system to be initiated in order for us to get up and go and do actions of daily living.

The parasympathetic nervous system, on the other hand, is often referred to as “rest and digest.” It is initiated in a small way on every exhale. In a parasympathetic state, your body is calm, generally clear-headed, and able to accomplish important tasks, such as digestion.

Why Is Nervous System Work Important?

Generally, when someone says they need to work on their nervous system or they’re doing nervous system work, the idea is to regulate the nervous system. Many of us in modern society run a little “high,” so to speak. We live in our sympathetic nervous system for too long. This is often caused by a state of chronic stress and causes physiological issues like chronic disease.

The practitioner my husband is working with said that people can be doing all the right things nutritionally, with movement, sunlight, etc, and every lifestyle change that they need. But if their nervous system is dysregulated, i.e., not in parasympathetic enough, it can all be for naught.

(Parasympathetic blend oil might help support you in your nervous system work, too.)

Why Is the Nervous System Necessary for Health?

The nervous system is almost like a gatekeeper to health. If it’s out of whack, chances are your health cannot get back into balance.

For my husband, this meant that even though he had tried all sorts of elimination diets, like the Whole30, Paleo, AIP, Keto, you name it, it seemed that he was unable to lose more than 10 pounds. There could be many reasons for this weight loss resistance, including genetics, toxins, or mold.

But even if mold was at the root, his body might not be able to detoxify the mold if the nervous system wasn’t playing along.

What Does Nervous System Work Look Like?

At its core, nervous system work needs to include some sort of breath work.

We know that our breath controls our heart rate, and our heart rate tells our brain whether we are safe or not. The nervous system will only go into a parasympathetic state when the brain feels it is safe.

I had told my husband for years that he should do some sort of breath work because it would likely improve his high heart rate and high blood pressure; but because he didn’t have a system, he never attempted it.

The practitioner taught nervous system work in three parts.

1. Breath work – 5 minutes
2. Meditation – 15 minutes
3. Visualization – 5 minutes

If my husband has less time on a particular day, he can shorten it by doing breath work and visualization for just three minutes each and a very short meditation in between. The breath work is most important.

Is Nervous System Work the Same as Meditation?

Yes and no.

All meditation done well should regulate the nervous system. In fact, there are studies done on people who meditate regularly, showing that they actually spend more time in a theta brain state, which is indicative of a very regulated nervous system.

In fact, spending three days out in nature with very little input from modern technology and ideally no screens may also put a human into the theta brain state, and definitely creates a sort of neural reboot that increases focus.¹ So go camping, people!

This total reboot doesn’t happen on day one or two, but short times out in nature can be very healing to the nervous system as well, even as short as 20 minutes in a green space.²

All nervous system work is not necessarily meditation, however, or at least you don’t have to call it that. Simply taking conscious breaths is nervous system work. Extending your exhale longer than your inhale will help your body get into the parasympathetic mode. That’s nervous system work.

Doing somatic (i.e., bodily) exercises designed to work with the nervous system is not necessarily meditation but can definitely help you regulate. My husband chose to incorporate prayer during the meditation, so he is receiving spiritual benefits as well.

Step 1: How to Get Started With Breath Work

If you’re thinking you’d like to try using your breath to regulate your nervous system, there are many styles of breath work you can learn, including:

• extended exhale breathing
• ujjayi breath (like Darth Vader)
• box breathing
• fire breathing
• hmm-saw breathing
• physiological sigh
• and dozens, if not hundreds more

The great thing is, you don’t have to know a ton of different kinds of breathing just to begin making an impact.

I recommend you start with two very simple adjustments to your breath.

First, when you’re attempting breath work, it is important to focus on your breath intentionally. That’s part of the system.

A second important factor is to breathe into your belly. When we breathe into our chest – do it to see how it feels – we generally lift our shoulders a bit, which is more a sign of stress to our body than anything. When you breathe, let your belly completely fill up with air and then let it out.

Counselors teach this to children by having them lie down on their backs and put a stuffed animal on their bellies. If you can see the stuffy going up and down, you’re doing belly breathing correctly.

Now that you’re breathing through your belly, all you need to do is count. Figure out your natural inhale. You might inhale three, four, or five seconds.

(By the way, scientists tell us that the “perfect, normal” breath rate is six per minute, which is a five-second inhale and a five-second exhale. But start wherever you’re comfortable.)

Let’s say a three-second inhale is comfortable for you. Attempt to extend your exhale to twice that number: inhale for three seconds, exhale for six seconds. Do this more than once, in fact, for a few minutes, and you can hopefully feel your system going into parasympathetic.

Your heart rate will slow. Your body and mind will feel more calm.

That’s it. That’s the simplest form of breath work.

If you want to level up a little, try box breathing. You can draw an imaginary box with your finger, and as you go up one side, inhale for four or five seconds. As you trace the top edge of the box, you hold that breath in for the same four to five seconds. Trace down the edge of the next side, and exhale for four to five seconds. And then — the hard part. As you draw the bottom line on your imaginary square in the air, you’ll hold your exhale for four to five seconds.

If that part stresses you out, reduce the length of your exhale hold. Holding your exhale, with the lungs fairly empty, is pretty difficult, but as my husband has attested, you get better at it with practice. That’s why a lot of people call this breath work, or meditation practice.

Another benefit of practicing breath work like this is that you can call upon it in a time of stress when perhaps you really need it. If you only know about extending your exhale through head knowledge, you won’t be able to implement it when you’re super stressed.

Wish you could control your stress instead of feeling like it’s controlling your life, your sleep, and your temper?

Women react to stress differently than men and need special strategies!

I was certified as a Stress Mastery Educator for this very reason – so I could bring HOPE to moms like me feeling like life is getting the better of them (and in my case, getting very angry about it).

Join me in my free stress mastery challenge for 4 quick daily trainings that are full of support to make it work in your busy life!

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Step 2: How Meditation Helps the Nervous System

The nervous system connects your mind and your body, which is why part of meditation includes bringing awareness to your physical body and your felt sensations. There are probably hundreds of ways that experts describe meditation, and I’m not going to attempt to share them all. This is how we were taught by the practitioner with whom we’re working.

Meditation is simply the practice of focusing your mind completely on the present moment, allowing yourself to pay attention to different parts of your body and what you feel there, being curious about each sensation, and attempting to retain a sense of calm and focus.

Many people say that when your mind wanders or tries to get busy during meditation, you just bring it back to whatever simple thing you’re trying to focus on.

What should you focus on during meditation? Again, hundreds of right answers exist.

You can choose a phrase, words that are sometimes called a mantra. This can be prayerful, such as, “Come Holy Spirit,” or “Lord have mercy,” or more general, such as, “I am good, I am loved.” You can even focus on one word, like peace, love, or joy.

The Rosary is a meditative prayer because your mouth or mind are saying words of a prayer in a repetitive fashion while your imagination is supposed to be meditating on the stories and actions of Jesus. Your fingers are moving on the beads, and your whole body and brain are engaged in a focused way. It’s almost like God knew what we would need. 😉

I’m impressed that my husband is able to sustain 15 minutes of meditation. Experts often recommend that you start with just two minutes. Get practice doing something without letting a long time overwhelm you.

He is using a Catholic prayer app called Hallow, which includes some guided meditations and meditative prayers. Often those meditations include lots of silence. The voice will ask you to focus on something, perhaps an attribute of God, a prayer, or an event in Scripture; then you’ll hear two or three minutes of silence where you’re supposed to try to keep that focus and gently and curiously bring yourself back if your mind wanders.

You can also find guided meditations that are much more full of words to listen to. In fact, I’ve led high-school youth groups in guided meditations where the teens imagine themselves walking with Jesus in a garden and sitting down with Him. I give very short moments of silence as I ask them to imagine what they might say to Jesus and then what He might say back to them.

If you’re new to the idea of meditation, searching for guided meditations online or on YouTube can be a great way to start. You’ll find them ranging from a few minutes to an hour, and remember that some will be very full of words to guide you the whole time, and others will give you small bits of guidance and long periods of silence. You can figure out what works for you — and variety might in itself be the answer.

Remember that one important factor in meditation as nervous system work is to bring in an awareness of the body. I told my husband that if he’s focusing on the mantra “Come, Holy Spirit,” he could focus on a different part of his body each time his brain says those words.

Often, people will start with one foot, go to another foot, then the lower leg, and so on and so forth, all the way up the body (SJ explained it in her post on the body scan meditation). You could do the same thing meditating on the crucifixion of Christ. Think about His feet and your feet, etc. The idea is, in a way, to connect your brain and body, which allows your nervous system to be more balanced and regulated throughout the entire day.

Step 3: How to Do Visualization as Part of Nervous System Work

The idea behind visualization is both fascinating and based on science.

When humans imagine an event, provided we use our deep imagination, we actually feel the emotions of that event in our bodies. The feelings are real, yet typically at a slightly lower intensity than if we were in the situation.

This is the physiological response that might happen with someone suffering from PTSD. The traumatic event is brought back to mind, and all of the physical sensations come rushing back with it. The same chain reaction is at play with what I teach about stress mastery. When you think of something about which you’re very truly grateful and allow your body to feel that gratitude deep in your heart, you’re actually calming your brain at a physiological level.

With visualization as part of nervous system work, in a way, we’re flipping on its head the mechanisms of PTSD. Rather than thinking about negative events in the past, we are imagining or visualizing positive events in the future. We want to train the brain and thus the body that these events are not only possible but inevitable.

My husband was a little unsure about this part, so when I first coached him, I told him to start with something very small and simple. I said:

“Imagine you’re waking up in the morning. Your alarm goes off, and you are excited to greet the day. You get out of bed, and all your joints work great with no aches and pains. Imagine yourself doing a few stretches and then bounding down the stairs with the energy of a teenager. Heck, if you want to go big, picture yourself doing a ninja roll into the living room!” (This is how our 19-year-old son often locomotes, so it was sort of a family joke.)

I’m revealing here some of my husband’s struggles: waking up with no energy, wishing he could just stay in bed, and being fearful to meet each new day.

I figured if he just started by imagining every detail of the perfect morning after he healed himself up, it would be easier to think of other situations he could visualize. One can use visualization to imagine a meeting at work going perfectly, getting a raise, or diffusing a tough conversation with a frenemy.

You name it, you can visualize it.

Are You Ready for the Work?

Committing to 25 minutes a day for nervous system work doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I know as well as you do that any time for yourself can be difficult to find.

In my husband’s case, though, it’s proved itself to be well worth the time investment. Combining it with something else you normally do – maybe getting your morning sunlight or even drinking a cup of tea – is probably the easiest way to start and stay committed to the practice.

Looking forward to hearing in the comments if you try this or have previously!

Sources:

1. Atchley RA, Strayer DL, Atchley P (2012) Creativity in the Wild: Improving Creative Reasoning through Immersion in Natural Settings. PLoS ONE 7(12): e51474. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0051474
2. A 20-minute nature break relieves stress. (2019) Harvard Health Publishing. https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/a-20-minute-nature-break-relieves-stress