Don’t let your quest for ‘nervous system regulation’ become another outlet for perfectionism or control. Another movement towards the ever illusive idealized or better self.
‘Nervous system’ is simply the term we use to describe how the body- your body- understands its place in the world. How we relate to things; our experiences, each other, the universe as a whole. And because we acknowledge that all these thoughts and feelings we’re having from moment to moment exist within this human animal skin, we know that there are some things we must take care of in order to operate in a way that is true to our basic design.
In truth, considering how our nervous system is functioning- which is just a fancy way of saying how WE are functioning- shouldn’t be something we have to think about or do anything special for. But it is, for the simple reason that we aren’t living in a world we are designed for- and neither are our horses.
What we are designed for is collaborative, communal living, not just with our human friends, but with the non-human and the animal. Where life is a reciprocal arrangement with the land, and where movement is an expected and intrinsic part of our day. In this way, the nervous system takes care of itself.
And because this is no longer the case; because the modern world has separated us from ways of being for which we are designed we now have to choose and act our way into wellbeing, an onus of responsibility that we’ve never previously had to carry.
And a paradox of burden in that we are essentially asking the same body, the same system that is experiencing the dysfunction to also find their way back to a state of health, which is a tricky thing to do.
But outlining the difficulties does not make it any less true.
What learning about your nervous system should provide you with in a remembering and reclaiming of your intuitive, sensual self. Not in a stereotypical way, but one that allows you to recognize your inherent creativity; where you become more adaptable, less controlling of your circumstances and surroundings; where you are able to maintain a sense of rootedness in what’s important to you without being swayed or buffeted with each opposing thought; where you allow other people to have their experience without the need to convince or coerce them into agreeing with what you understand to be true.
It is not a call without- to another bio hack, another step-by-step process but a call within. And not in isolation but in collaboration. In recognition of your wider place within the world and the relationships that form a part of it.
It is the reclamation of choice, that you are the change agent, instead of waiting or insisting that the world around you adjust to fall in line with your desires.
We will feel more, sense more, act more. A handing back of agency, of potency, of understanding the wider web in which we live.
If you are looking to be perfectly balanced or calm with your nervous system work, then what you’re moving towards is not regulation. It’s another loosely disguised box that really just control.
Onwards
Jane
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