How Our Environment Affects Our Nervous System

We are living in a moment of unprecedented pace. The amount of information we’re expected to absorb, the speed at which things shift around us, the pressure to keep up with our work, our relationships, our feeds, our finances, all of it has created an environment where switching off is often not considered as an option. And when we do try to step back, slow down, and switch off, it seems like we just can’t seem to do it, like we’re stuck feeling anxious, eager, and activated.

What most people don’t realize, though, is that this experience of being always switched on isn’t just a mindset problem. It isn’t simply a matter of needing better habits or a stronger morning routine. What’s actually happening is in our bodies — it’s physiological. The environment we live in is directly shaping the state of our nervous system, often in ways we’re not even aware of. And until we understand that, the cycle is very difficult to break. Without a better understanding of what’s going on, it’s hard to find relief.

The Autonomic Nervous System

To understand what’s happening, it helps to start with some basic anatomy. The nervous system as a whole encompasses the brain, the spinal cord, and the network of nerves that reach throughout the rest of the body. Within that larger system is a critical subsystem called the autonomic nervous system. It’s called “autonomic” for a reason: it governs the body’s automatic functions, the things your body does without you having to consciously direct them.

The autonomic nervous system has two branches, and they work in opposition to each other. The first is the sympathetic nervous system, which most people know by its more common name: fight or flight. When you perceive danger, when you feel threatened, when you need to be alert and ready to act, the sympathetic branch activates. It floods the body with stress hormones that sharpen your senses, elevate your heart rate, and prepare you to either confront the threat or escape it. This is a profoundly useful system. It has kept human beings alive for thousands of years. The problem arises when it never gets to turn off.

The second branch is the parasympathetic nervous system, and its function is essentially the opposite: rest and digest. When the parasympathetic branch is active, the body slows down. It turns its attention inward, digesting food, absorbing nutrients, repairing tissue, restoring energy. These are the functions that heal us, that regenerate us, that allow us to actually recover from the demands placed on us by daily life.

The Problem with Sympathetic Dominance

Here is the critical detail: these two branches are mutually inhibitory. That means they cannot both be fully active at the same time. When one is on, it suppresses the other. When your sympathetic nervous system is in high gear, your parasympathetic system is being actively held back. And when you think about the kind of environment most of us are living in, the constant demands, the relentless stimulation, the pressure to keep up, it becomes clear that many people are spending the vast majority of their lives in a state of sympathetic dominance.

The consequences of this are significant. Chronic activation of the fight-or-flight response, over weeks and months and years, gradually hurts your wellbeing. It contributes to severe anxiety. It is a major driver of depression. It damages relationships. It robs people of the ability to enjoy the moments of rest they do manage to carve out, because even in those moments, the nervous system hasn’t actually shifted. The body is still running on a high level of activation. The mind is still racing. It hasn’t shifted to a mode that operates slower.

People begin to wonder why, even on vacation, even on a quiet Sunday, they can’t seem to truly relax. The answer, in many cases, is that the sympathetic branch is dominant, so the natural restful and self-healing functions of the nervous system are actively being suppressed and under-utilized.

The Possibility of Change

What’s important to understand, though, is that this is not a permanent or fixed state. The capacity for balance is already built into the body. The parasympathetic nervous system doesn’t disappear under chronic stress. It gets suppressed, and suppression can be reversed.

Most people do find ways to try to access that rest state. A massage, a glass of wine, comfort food, an evening on the couch. These can all be viable attempts to shift the nervous system toward parasympathetic activation. The problem is that many of the things we do to activate the parasympathetic nervous system either don’t produce a deep or lasting shift, or they come with their own costs to health. Substances, in particular, can create the sensation of relief while actually deepening the underlying dysregulation over time. Here we notice a cycle of addiction setting in.

So, one of the goals of therapy is learning how to shift the way in which the nervous system is activated, and finding a new normal for your nervous system. There are healthy and sustainable ways to do it, and there are ways that are less so. The goal of therapy is to teach you healthy and sustainable ways to self-regulate, through tools, skills, and a new form of awareness.

These include:

• Breath awareness
• Mindfulness
• Meditation
• Active emotional interpretation, versus neglect
• Self-care
• Building a life that respects fundamental needs
• Reducing internal (e.g. damaging self-criticism) and external (e.g. harmful people or habits) causes
• Developing a healthier relationship with yourself

Teaching you these approaches, to help you find a more stable and healthy pattern of nervous system activation, is the purpose of Aligned Self Therapy.