Your body & depression
Your mind slows down & you struggle to have clear thoughts.
Your body feels heavier, movements become slow.
You might feel low, or even emotionally numb.
Maybe you feel like retreating from the world.
Welcome to your stress system, specifically, the dorsal vagal response.
The dorsal vagal response comes from the parasympathetic nervous system.
When you hear about the parasympathetic nervous system, you often hear about it as the oh-so-lovely rest, restore & digest system & while this is definitely one of its functions, there is more.
When you think of depression, many will think of its effects on the mind, the sadness, the numbness & difficulty in getting things done.
One thing people don’t often think of, is its function.
However, when you look at the nervous system, you can start to see depression from a new perspective.
Rather than a problem, or a symptom of malfunction, you can see it as a protection mechanism & coping strategy.
To understand this, we need to get back to the nervous system.
The vagus nerve forms the majority of the parasympathetic nervous system, you could say where the sympathetic nervous system activates (increasing heart rate, breathing & getting you ready to run or fight), the parasympathetic deactivates.
Now this is where it gets a little more complicated.
The vagus nerve controls two different responses: dorsal vagal & ventral vagal.
Today, we’ll be looking at the dorsal vagal response.
While the ventral vagal response is associated with relaxation, bonding & social interaction, you enter a dorsal vagal response not through relaxation but through the fight or flight system.
This is where you go when your system feels overwhelmed, perceives that you cannot run or fight your way out, so instead, out of protection, you move into a state of withdrawal or shutdown.
In this moment, your body perceives this to be the safest coping strategy.
Ever found overwhelm made you sleepy or want to switch off?
This will be your dorsal vagal response kicking in.
You might feel sleepy, like you want to switch off, you might feel very low on energy & your emotions become a little more numb.
For some, this feels like a helpless place.
So once you’re here, what do you do?
GO SLOW.
Find a way to work with your body, very slowly introducing gentle activity to your system.
Initially, you may need a lot of deep rest to allow your body to feel safe.
Eventually you might want to start to re-energise your system, starting slowly, simply taking deeper breaths & moving into gentle stretches & breath practices as you feel more energy moving through your body.
Do you want to learn more about mental health + how you can create a tailored practice to support your unique mental health & bring balance to your nervous system?
Join the waitlist for The Holistic Reset.
In The Holistic Reset you’ll follow my three P’s system of philosophy, physiology & practice so you can learn to rebalance & reset your nervous system.
You’ll learn about the mind-body effects of anxiety & depression and how you can tailor your practice to support your unique mental health as well as befriend your mind & emotions.
By joining the waitlist you’ll not only be the first to know when I officially open the doors to the course but also have access to an exclusive discount & other bonuses.
