I often talk about moving from the sympathetic part of our nervous system (flight, fight, freeze) to the calmer part of our parasympathetic nervous (relax, renew, restore) because as a society we tend to spend way too much time in over-stimulated states which can wreak havoc on our health. This past week I had a first hand experience of being fully present on the sympathetic end of the spectrum.
It was during my morning commute and I was driving along the local freeway. I was in the #3 lane and noticed two cars to my right, in the #4 lane, with one of the cars seemingly too close the other. I just noticed it for a moment and continued on. In the next moment, I notice that the tailgating car began to drift to their right. I’m thinking, “uh oh” as they move onto the shoulder and I think, “holy cow, they’re going off the freeway into the ditch!” But instead of dropping into the sand pit they realize in a moment of panic they’ve drifted and over-correct making a dramatic hard turn to the left and slam on their brakes. This causes them to skid back into the #4 lane and come to a complete stop at a 45 degree angle, straight in the line of on-coming traffic. Thankfully, no other vehicles were close behind and no accident occurred.
I was lucky to have seen this unfolding and moved further to my left, hence avoiding the potential for a major accident. Within seconds I was past the scene only to see in my rear view mirror that the car stayed stopped in the lane. Now I’m thinking, “GET OFF THE FREEWAY! GET OFF THE FREEWAY!” As I get off the freeway at the next exit, I notice that my heart is pounding in my chest and continues to pound for the next 10 minutes until my arrival at the yoga studio.
Fortunately, I was able to off-load the story to someone, take a deep breath, thank the forces that helped guide me and keep my cool. The interesting thing was nothing happened to me yet I still had a physical reaction as though something had happened to me. I knew I had a surge of adrenalin and that my heart rate elevated and pounded in my chest. And I knew that I had the tools to calm myself down and offer a restorative class within minutes of the incident.
This happens to all of us every day. We perceive threats from our world through thoughts, interactions and watching the news. Deadlines, financial obligations and difficult relationships are mini incidents that fire off throughout the day and guess what? We still have the same stress reaction on a physical level even though something doesn’t actually happen to us. We perceive a threat and want to either run away, fight it or freeze in our tracks.
My thought of the week is how are you managing these daily alarms that fire off in your body? Do you give yourself dedicated space and time to shift from that sympathetic response into the healing end of the nervous system? Do you release tension from your body? Find your breath? Disengage?
We wonder how stress in our lives has become so prevalent that it becomes our new normal insofar as we no longer recognize the cues of when we are out of balance and stressed. Did you know that being relaxed is a natural state? Did you know that it’s part of our survival instinct as much as having the need to flee?
One way to spend more time in the healing aspect of your nervous system is to do so intentionally. One of the main reasons I always offer a long savasana (final relaxation) in all classes that I teach is to give some dedicated time to support people in chilling out.
Thankfully, I was lucky on the freeway this past week and thankfully, I have been able to drop the immediate stress of the event and turn it into a teachable moment. What lesson is your nervous system teaching you? Are you listening?
