Essential Medicine for Our Times…
Our bodies know they belong;
it is our minds that make
our lives so homeless.
~ John O’Donnohue
Often there’s a running joke that the best bit of a yoga class is the end part, where you get to lie down…
It’s true, it can feel so wonderful to finally receive full permission to rest…to let go and allow ourselves to be held with care and kindness.
This might seem like a luxury, but it is so incredibly important to have regular time to truly rest, and deeply relax.
It is essential for our health and overall sense of well-being, and is what allows us to feel our way back to connection, ease and love.
In our central nervous system we have the autonomic nervous system; this covers all the automatic processes in our body, like our rate of our breathing, our heart beat, sweating…
Within this there are two wings; sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. The former is to do with stimulation and the latter is to do with calm.
We of course need both, and ideally these aspects work in a balanced, fluid and responsive way.
This is when we experience true well-being.
However, many of us live in a kind of sympathetic overdrive…whilst our parasympathetic nervous system remains very under nourished.
And remember even if we have a fairly spacious, ‘quiet’ life, we may still experience this over stimulation just by nature of the mind’s habit of fixating on what’s wrong, worrying, relentless planning, anticipating and imagining worst case scenarios.
Such thoughts, although they are not real, have a very real effect on our body and mind. Think about how you felt the last time you were lying awake at 3am worrying!
I know for me during my teens and early adulthood, I lived in a near constant state of over stimulation.
I experienced this primarily as a sense of unease, internal sense of agitation, anxiety, a kind of speediness, and not being able to sit still for long.
I wasn’t aware of this at the time, in fact I just assumed that this was normal. The idea of soothing my nervous system, let alone dropping into a place of deep rest was alien to me at that time, and if I’m honest, not even very appealing.
Over the years, I have felt called to better understand and engage with my own nervous system in a way that really supports me to feel more ease, wellness and connection on a daily basis. And without doubt, it has felt some of the most valuable work I’ve done (and continue to do).
The wonderful thing is that when we begin to learn to respond kindly and wisely to our own nervous system, that connected energy then gets sent out into the world around us and into our relationships with our nearest and dearest.
Resting our nervous system has a profound effect on not just ourselves but our whole world, and I believe is essential medicine in the times we are living.
Wishing you many moments of ease and rest.