Your nervous system is designed for a world that doesn't exist
On health, healing, our current world, and what could be
I have many ideas of things that I want to write about on here, but today I want to focus on a more collective issue. An issue that impacts all of us to varying levels in today’s modern world whether we think about it often or not.
A while back I saw a post that read:
Your nervous system is designed for world that doesn’t exist anymore.
This really struck me. It resonated so deeply that I could feel it in my bones.
In my 10+ years of learning about and practicing somatic forms of therapy, the one thing that I’ve been uncovering from these practices is that: Modern life and our modern world as it currently exists for most Americans, does not support our health and well-being.
In fact, I actually want to go so far with this as to say: Our bodies are designed for a world that doesn’t exist anymore. Our physiology is designed for a world that doesn’t exist anymore.
So how does it not support?
We’re plugged into technology so much that it can easily trigger a continuous state of fight or flight. We have 24 hour news cycles that are constantly trying to get and maintain our attention. We have social media platforms that are also trying to get our attention and keep it in hopes to increase profits, with some certainly worse in this regard than others. We have both of these things on our phones that we carry around with us all the time along with many other apps that are also constantly trying to get and keep our attention.
In 2000 — 25 years ago (which is wild to say now, isn’t it?) — the only way we could connect to the internet was through a computer. And most of us had a desktop computer, so we had to sit down and complete the tasks that we went on there for and then get off and do other things. We also used regular phones during that time that was only used for calling — no texting, no “doom scrolling”, no news notifications, no random apps notifying us to get our attention anytime anywhere. We used to have a lot more control over what earned the right to our attention and when.
We’re outside less than we used to be. We’re mostly disconnected from nature. At least in the US, we spend far more time driving our vehicles than we do walking and getting fresh air and exercise. So we rarely get enough sunlight. As a result, most of us are Vitamin D deficient, which was somehow not discussed and addressed very much until around 2020.
We are designed to be in nature and feel some connection to it because we, in reality, we are one with nature. This is an awareness that has always been there in some other cultures, but in our modern American, English-speaking culture we rarely think of or discuss that connection.
Many of us don’t feel a sense of community. Many of us want more or new friends but simply don’t have the time or energy for it because we’re working so much, too tired, or just don’t know where to find new friends because of the way we live our day to day lives. This is a common problem that I’ve discussed with clients over many years at this point. This is of course not to say that everyone struggles all the time, but it’s a common concern and area of discontent.
The truth is that we are biologically designed for socialization. We are designed for community.
In addition, families don’t have a lot of time to spend with one another. Kids are in school many hours of the day and, for toddlers and babies, many are in daycare because both parents need to work in order to survive financially. Children receiving limited to little quality time with their parents has all kinds of social-emotional impacts on their psychological development, but that’s a deep discussion for another post.
Additionally, I don’t want to forget to mention that for many of us our workplaces aren’t exactly conductive to great mental and physical health. The demands and expectations of our work can wear down our health and well-being for all kinds of reasons.
And, finally, the overall busy-ness that so many of us experience that isn’t conducive to our own health and well-being. We sit in commute traffic for 1-4 hours a day and work 40+ hours a week, but still need to somehow find time to go to the store, cook, run errands, etc.
This lifestyle inevitably propels many of us into flight or fight despite the best of our efforts. It’s not healthy. It’s not supportive. And it’s most definitely not sustainable.
No wonder so many of us are unwell. No wonder our quality of sleep has diminished over time. No wonder rates of anxiety and depression have been increasing. No wonder autoimmune conditions keep rising. We’re not taking care of ourselves. We’re not nourished. We’re not fulfilled.
If we think back on the entire history of humanity, how many years have the majority of us spent this much time being this busy?
If we’re running around busy all the time, it’s harder for our bodies to get into a state of homeostasis, which “is a self-regulating process by which biological systems maintain stability while adjusting to changing external conditions”1. And when we’re not in homeostasis, our brains and bodies are now out of balance. We can’t recover in the way our physiology is trying to and that’s when we experience “disease”.
Regulating our nervous system isn’t the only thing that helps the body get into and maintain homeostasis. Eating unprocessed, whole foods, consuming little to no sugar, getting adequate exercise every day, getting 7-9 hours of sleep per night. etc. also definitely have an impact.
I could spend an entire article writing about homeostasis and all the factors that influence it. For the sake of this article, I’m exclusively going to focus on the impact of the nervous system specifically.
Brainspotting is a tool to support the nervous system. It works by helping us get into a state of homeostasis by down regulating the amygdala. (Brainspotting is a psychotherapy modality that I use in my practice to help clients process trauma). Acupuncture also helps us get back into homeostasis, which is why it can work so well for people.
The positive aspect of all of this is that our bodies are designed to be in homeostasis. Our bodies want to be in that state. We just need to eliminate the barriers from being able to get there.
So how can we get there? Obviously there are many tools and modalities that can help on an individual level. These can include but are not limited to: mindfulness, breath work, emotional awareness, meditation, progressive muscle relaxation (PMR), grounding techniques, etc. At least, these are the default answers someone would receive upon asking google or ChatGPT.
But the thing that always kinda sticks in my craw is this: Someone can do all of these things, but if our environment doesn’t support us in being regulated, happy and healthy then it’s still going to be hard to get there.
Mindfulness alone isn’t going to take away the economic anxiety that creeps up every time you find yourself needing to pay for your groceries and rent/mortgage.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation alone isn’t going to take away the physical, mental and emotional stress of having to work 60+ hours a week.
Brainspotting isn’t going to take away the fear of getting pregnant because you live in a state where you know that your reproductive rights as a woman are compromised.
Sometimes that anxiety, that stress, and that fear is legitimate. In those moments it’s not appropriate to even try to shift it or take away those emotions because those emotions are giving you insight. They’re messages to guide you that inform you that something is seriously wrong and it’s time to try to make changes.
The other day on social media I saw a discussion where someone pointed out how the message is always “regulate your nervous system” and not “this environment is messed up”. This was criticism of many social media posts that have a “you gotta regulate!” type messaging. This was speaking to the abusive relationships, abusive family dynamics and abusive work environments where one’s emotions and nervous system response is extremely appropriate and that in those situations it’s about learning how f’ed up it all really is and to leave in order to heal.
Of course, the issue in these particular cases are twofold: Sometimes it’s about learning to trust yourself (your own emotions and somatic responses) and coming to the reality is that it is time to leave and make changes. On the flip side, sometimes the unfortunate reality is that sometimes a person knows but they can’t find an exit for safety reasons.
It appears to me that many of us are having a similar experience but on a more societal, systemic level in this country.
There’s only so much individual work you can do to regulate yourself before you get to the point of:
“My employer really doesn’t appreciate and value my unique contributions”
“Working this many hours a week is damaging my health and well-being”
“Being this busy doesn’t give me much opportunity to connect with others and just enjoy living”
“The stress of not having social safety nets for when I experience moments of crisis is providing me with so much unnecessary stress”
“The stress of having to deal with my health insurance company creates so much unnecessary stress”
And all of those — and more — are incredibly valid. Nobody is going to “regulate” all of these systemic problems away. And, in a way, we shouldn’t, because it speaks to the underlying issue here that needs to be addressed rather than avoided: The systems that make up our current society isn’t designed to support your nervous system.
So what do we do?
I don’t think there’s one, easy answer to that. Obviously, we’re going through a lot of collective changes right now. Systems that we’ve been relying on for generations are breaking down. Despite so many people (particularly in the US) being divided on issues, I think we can all safely agree that we cannot continue to have our systems in place run the way they’ve been running. Change is inevitable at this point and change is scary. Hence, the extremely heightened emotions that we’ve been seeing collectively.
However, I do think that there are several things that each and every one of us can do during this time of upheaval.
#1 - Pause to evaluate what you have control over and what you don’t
For example, you don’t have control over what your employer does but you do have control over whether or not you take your breaks and where you take them.
Another example could be, you don’t have control over how many hours your employer demands of you, but you do have control over being able to look for another job if you know that this current level of work isn’t working for you. And then the question becomes: What level of risk am I most comfortable with right now? And does that level of risk matter more than my emotional and mental health right now? Everyone is going to have differing capacities with this.
#2 - Get somatic trauma therapy when and if you can
If you have the sense that you have some kind of early childhood trauma or trauma from an experience you had in adulthood, it is important to receive trauma therapy. I think it’s important to do body and brain-based trauma work through tools like Brainspotting, EMDR, and Somatic Experiencing when and if you can with a certified practitioner. I know not everyone can have the time and resources for it at all times. However, I mention it because these modalities are incredibly useful in processing and releasing old traumas that your brain and body continues to play out in your day to day.
As I tell my clients, the goal in doing this work is to help your nervous system work more efficiently. When you’ve experienced trauma, your nervous system is more likely to be delayed in responding in moments when there is a true crisis and you need to respond in a fight or flight state quickly. For example, if you experienced a bad accident in the past that was somehow related to a car or vehicle, you may actually be delayed in responding to a new car accident because of the past trauma that hasn’t been fully processed. I’ve had numerous sessions with people who got into car accidents because their nervous system was delayed due to old unprocessed trauma. It became clear what had happened when we would do Brainspotting on the more recent accident and what came up was all this material from an old trauma that they hadn’t fully processed and released.
#3 - Set up your lifestyle in a way that is regulating for your nervous system
I think it’s incredibly important to try to set up your lifestyle in a way that is regulating for your nervous system. This is why I write so much about slowing down, being gentle and easy on yourself. Because I can provide someone all the trauma therapy for years, but if the person’s lifestyle and environment continues to be extremely dysregulating, because maybe they never set boundaries and they never take time to care for themselves, then that nervous system healing keeps getting delayed. It’s so incredibly important to make changes to your day to day life to support your whole body health.
You need to find ways to slow down. You need to find environments that regulate your nervous system. You need to know how to set boundaries when it is necessary for your own health and well-being. You need to have daily practices that help you feel grounded. You need to create a lifestyle for yourself that supports you so you can feel moments of calm.
The world as it currently operates isn’t sustainable. It isn’t sustainable for ourselves or the earth itself. Deep down on some level, we all collectively know this. In this regard, change is not only necessary, it is actually for the betterment of humanity and the earth itself.
Change is hard and sometimes it’s just downright scary. However, we cannot get caught up in the fear and anxiety over what certain people in power are doing, because the moment we move into a place of fear is also the moment when we give those people more power than what they truly have. When we move into fear, that is also the moment when we forget the power that we truly have, as individuals and as a collective.
The truth is that though our systems are changing because certain people in power are changing them, we can still have a say. We are all collectively co-creating our future and we are not at the mercy of a handful of people with money. If we don’t like something, we can resist. We can say “no”. We can make decisions that support the health and well-being of ourselves and others in our community, rather than a handful of corporations.
So take care of yourself, rest, rejuvenate, and make conscious choices, because when we work on this together, we can recreate a world that truly supports our health and well-being and the health and well-being of future generations.
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Billman, George E. Homeostasis: The Underappreciated and Far Too Often Ignored Central Organizing Principle of Physiology. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7076167/
Great post and very well written. I think for me a sense of community as poor as important.
However, I have dipped my toe in different ones that haven’t found a fit yet. I’m confident that the right community will present itself if I remain open and trust the process of my own becoming.
Informative and interesting post.
I think we’re wired for wellbeing and trauma healing. I think we inherently have this inner wisdom. You describe and I agree that the way we are forced to live our lives isn’t set up for well-being it’s set up for doing and production.
There’s a simple remedy to tap into our innate wisdom for wellbeing and healing and that’s to slow down. We need to connect to release and ease emotions with another human, pet, nature, art, writing etc and that needs time and space.
When we consider health as wealth a shift is made and space and time feels more valuable than other stuff.
However when you’re stuck in poverty you’re just surviving and there’s no chance to slow down so addressing this is paramount.