We have two main aspects of our autonomic nervous system that both perform very different functions.
Sympathetic Nervous System
The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for the stress response. We commonly know it as fight, flight and freeze. It’s a survival mechanism. When you experience a threat, your body tells you to take action in one of these ways.
Some ways your body creates energy to deal with this perceived or real threat is:
Quickened breath and heart rate
Tensing muscles
Sweat
High blood pressure and more blood flow to your organs
Expanding blood vessels to allow you to get more blood flow and oxygen
Heightened senses
Release of blood sugar and fats from the body’s stores to be used for energy
Increased Cortisol levels (stress hormone)
If we remain in this sympathetic state longterm, we’re then in a chronic stress state, and this has longterm effects that we definitely want to avoid.
This is where the parasympathetic nervous system comes into play.
Parasympathetic Nervous System
The parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for the rest and digest response.
It tells your body to:
slow down
breathe and relax
the danger is over
cortisol levels falls back to normal
your body conserves energy
your heart rate slows
your digestion increases
You can literally “rest and digest” again.
One aspect of the autonomic nervous system is not better than the other — we want to be able to have access to the sympathetic nervous system when circumstances call for us to run or fight. But we’re designed to be able to go back and forth as needed–to take action and to recover.
Unfortunately many of us spend much more time in a sympathetic state than in a parasympathetic state and are chronically stressed.
And furthermore, some of us can’t feel we’re in an activated state because it’s become so “normal” to us, except we feel certain effects and aren’t sure why we have them.
For example, some of us are so used to chronically tense muscles or jaw, neck and shoulder tension or pain, but we don’t connect that chronic stress has caused this.
After a period of months or years, this chronically stressed state becomes “normal.” We sort of adjust and just live with the discomfort.
Some muscular tension patterns associated with a chronically stressed state are:
Contracted jaw
Small muscles in face are contracted
Eye tension
Neck and shoulder tension
Back tension and pain
Tension in hands or arms
Tension in pelvis, glutes, hips and thighs
Link here to learn more about what the physical symtoms of stress and anxiety look like in the body.
And our posture reflects this chronic muscle tension:
Head forward and down
Lack of mobility in our back, neck and shoulders
Contracted abdomen which restricts our breathing
Fortunately our brain and nervous system are capable of change.
They only need to be reminded of a healthier way. And not only can they change the unconscious muscular tension patterns, but the habitual patterns of reacting to the stress will also change through focusing on the body.
But we can’t over-ride the old, unhealthy habitual muscle patterns with force or muscular effort. We must use our brain, literally, to change our muscular patterns and relieve our own stress response.
The Feldenkrais Method® offers the way out of chronic stress-induced muscular tension patterns. In this method, either working one-on-one or in group classes, you’re guided into small, gentle movements while you pay attention to what you sense and feel in your body as you do these movements.
As you slowly move, you observe where you feel resistance or tension, or where you feel the quality of each movement go from easy and comfortable to resistance or forcing.
It’s through this focused attention, that you take in this sensory information, and your brain processes it, and then comes up with the most efficient, easy way to move.
And often, almost spontaneously, the tension is released.
This often happens within the first session or class. However because chronic tension has been reinforced for many months, and in some cases, years, it takes several sessions or a series of sessions or classes to maintain these new, healthier muscle patterns. But the end result is often lasting and provides people with tools to maintain this new healthier way of functioning comfortably on their own, without needed an “expert” to help them manage their pain forever.
So, in conclusion, when you’re chronically emotionally and mentally stressed, chances are you’re living mostly in a sympathetic nervous system state. In that state, muscle tension — skeletal muscles, smaller muscles of the face and eyes, muscles of the digestive system, and muscles of the neck that cause migraines as well, can contract. But fortunately, because your nervous system is always working on your behalf, these chronic habitual contraction patterns can be released. (Link here to learn more about how to improve chronic pain symptoms.)