Unlocking the Power of Your Nervous System Through Mindfulness

One of my key focuses this year is exploring the profound healing nature of mindfulness. There’s a reason I named my business “Find That Pause – because taking a moment to observe your inner world is the first step in regulating your nervous system, and that is essential for overall well-being.

In today’s fast-paced, non-stop culture, stress levels are soaring. Many people are drawn to mindfulness as a tool to relax and calm down. But to truly harness its benefits, we must dive deeper. We need to understand why we feel the way we do and how to work with our nervous system, not against it. By learning how our nervous system functions and how mindfulness supports it, we unlock tools for sustaining physical health, mental clarity, and emotional balance. This understanding is crucial, especially as stress plays a pivotal role in countless health conditions today.

Many of my one-on-one clients come to me dealing with chronic illnesses, seeking mindfulness to support their physical health. Why? Because the journey to healing begins with a simple pause.

Why it can be challenging to find your pause

Let’s start with a truth: stress isn’t always bad. In fact, to cultivate a resilient and healthy nervous system, we need to experience stress, adversity, and challenge. Pushing beyond our comfort zones helps our nervous system adapt and grow stronger, allowing us to handle life’s inevitable demands more effectively.

Think back to high school. Remember studying for a big exam? The stress likely fueled your focus and helped you perform better. After the exam, your natural inclination might have been to rest, relax, or hang out with friends – giving your nervous system the pause it needed to reset.

Unfortunately, in our modern hustle culture, recovery is often overlooked. The constant pull of work, family, and social obligations leaves little room for rest. This can drive our nervous system into overdrive, and can lock us into a perpetual state of fight-or-flight.

When this happens, even during moments of quiet, our bodies may remain on high alert, interpreting the world as a constant threat. This dysregulation can manifest in numerous ways:

• Emotional Symptoms: frustration, rage, hopelessness, avoidance.  
• Physical Symptoms: chronic pain, fatigue, migraines, IBS, autoimmune disorders.

Understanding Autoimmune Diseases and Stress

Autoimmune diseases – such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, IBS, psoriasis, and Lyme disease – are rising worldwide*. Research suggests environmental factors and stress play a major role in triggering these conditions. Alarmingly, up to 80% of patients report experiencing significant emotional stress prior to disease onset.**

Stress hormones can disrupt immune function, setting off a vicious cycle: stress contributes to disease, which in turn amplifies stress. Women bear the brunt of this, representing up to 80% of the 24 to 50 million Americans with autoimmune diseases.

The good news? Mindfulness and meditation can break this cycle. By providing the nervous system with the pause it craves, these practices encourage recovery and balance. Unlike simply relaxing on the couch or scrolling social media, meditation taps into deep layers of restoration, rewiring our responses to life’s inevitable stressors.

A Practice - Tuning Into Your Nervous System

To nurture your nervous system, the first step is learning to listen. What is your body telling you? Let’s pause and check-in:

1. Pause. Take a breath. What physical sensations are present? Tightness, warmth, tingling?

2. Notice.Are you slouching? Where do you feel tension?

3. Move. Stretch your body as if you were a cat preparing for a nap. Roll your shoulders, unclench your jaw, stretch your arms, fingers, and toes.

4. Reset. Sit or stand in an upright, relaxed posture. Observe how your mood shifts.

Even this brief check-in, practiced regularly, can initiate profound shifts over time. I see it daily in my students – greater resilience, deeper contentment, and a newfound capacity to navigate life with ease.

Ready to Go Deeper?

Healing and resilience begin with small, intentional moments. If this resonates with you, I invite you to explore more through my workshops and retreats.

Together, let’s harness the wisdom of our nervous system and build a more peaceful, balanced, and loving life.

*The Increasing Prevalence of Autoimmunity and Autoimmune Diseases: An Urgent Call to Action for Improved Understanding, Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention Frederick W Miller ¹ Volume 80, February 2023, 102266 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9918670/#:~:text=Both autoimmunity and autoimmune diseases,our exposures to environmental factors.

**Stress as a trigger of autoimmune disease Ljudmila Stojanovich  1 , Dragomir Marisavljevich https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18190880/#:~:text=Physical and psychological stress has,trauma, and other common triggers.