Dr. Rose Bricker
Are you feeling sad, dissatisfied, irritable, stressed, frustrated, and just “stuck” in life? We may not even know why we’re having these feelings. One thing that may be helpful to consider is the health of your nervous system. Are you trapped in the sympathetic nervous system (survival mode) that keeps you in the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn mode? Did you know you can shift out of the survival mode and activate the part of the nervous system called the parasympathetic? The parasympathetic nervous symptom is responsible for restoring calm, relaxation, and rest in our body. It is essential to finding balance, peace, joy, and contentment.
Tools to Activate Your Parasympathetic Nervous System
* Get a Massage: Massage can retrain your body to move from the sympathetic (fight and flight) to the parasympathetic (calm and relax) nervous system. The more often you get massages, the more quickly your body is able to move into the state of relaxation.
* Meditate/Yoga: Meditation allows you to manage the external stressors in your life by calming your mind, reducing your heart rate, and lowering your blood pressure. This is an opportunity to ground and center yourself, which is very calming.
* Exercise: Movement is extremely beneficial! Walking and hiking are the best way to trigger a sense of calmness and activate the parasympathetic nervous system. Being out in nature gives us an added sense of calmness.
* Increase Your Sleep Time: It really is important to aim for 7 to 9 hours of sleep. This amount allows our brain to repair itself. When our brain is deprived of sleep we can experience more flight and flight symptoms.
* Deep Breathing: Use box breathing, which is inhaling for 4 seconds, holding for 4 seconds, and exhaling for 4 seconds, and repeating this 10 times. Deep breathing three times a day can calm your nervous system and lower blood pressure, stress, and anxiety.
Are you struggling? Would you like to learn more ways to activate the parasympathetic nervous system? You can have much more calmness, peace, and joy in your life? You have the power to increase the quality of your life.
For more information, please call Dr. Rose Bricker for a 30-minute complimentary meet and greet appointment at 520-820-4079. I’m located at Blue Lemon Therapy, 2252 W Magee Rd.