regulating…regulation

the healing hack

As adults, we have learned many ways to demonstrate that the external demands of our world are pushing us just a little (or a lot) beyond what we know to be comfortable or true about ourselves, internally. 

We use our words, or not, to express unmet needs, desires, wants, and wishes. 

We intentionally choose a physical environment in which we can place ourselves in our best attempts to diffuse the pressures of our worlds, both externally and internally. 

We seek compassion from our loved ones, perhaps by initiating a physical connection through a hand, a hug, or simply a calming presence. 

All of these actions are an attempt to do what we, in the nervous-system attuned world (welcome!!), call regulation.

Regulation pertains to our ability to maintain a sense of homeostasis, or harmony, within ourselves. Specifically, in the nervous system. Our ability to regulate directly correlates to our ability to self soothe. In a world where we are mentally and physically rather inflamed, this is more important than ever. 

The miraculous thing is that our capacity to regulate ourselves and our nervous systems can be drastically impacted by what I am so passionate about serving out to the world: chiropractic. 

What I care about most as a chiropractor is none other than the nervous system— the very system that controls everything in our entire body, and, perhaps equally as importantly, perceives our entire world. Well, both worlds: our external world and our internal world. 

When our nervous system is functioning optimally, our brain and body are in good communication, meaning that our perception of our worlds, both within and without, is clearer, we feel more at home within ourselves, we have bandwidth to adapt to the (constant) bombardment of stimuli that simply IS 2022, we can express health and vitality, and perhaps most critically, we can heal. 

Healing cannot happen when our brain perceives our world (remember, both our internal and external world) as threatening. In those moments, or seasons of life, our primitive brain remains on high alert in the off chance that a bear, a lion, or a saber tooth tiger is going to begin a game of chase at any moment. Our brain is priming, oh you know, just everything that sits below our hat, to be ready to gather the most important goods, prized possessions, and, oh yes, the kids, and run for dear life. 

Does that sound like a place in which we can rest? Digest? Sleep? Heal? Thrive in life? Regulate ourselves and our children? 

I didn’t think so. 

So what we absolutely must do in order to regulate ourselves and heal, is kindly tell that bear to hibernate for a long, long time. We must get that thing to go to sleep or take a hike or a swim or ANYTHING that will allow our brains to switch out of a state of alert and defense and into one of “ahhhh, my body is a good home to be in”. 

How does that sound?

It is in these moments of calm, of peace, of parasympathetic and vagal takeover that we can begin to breathe, to heal, to come home to ourselves.

If we do not give our brains and bodies a moment to return to safety, the cycle keeps going. We stay damn near threshold, we get mad easily, our hearts will continue to race, our minds will continue to wander, and eventually, we may damn well just…freeze. 

When we freeze, it can be incredibly challenging to thaw just enough to be able to vocalize what we need, to ask for that hug, or to simply call for help and grace. 

We want to support you and your nervous system far before the bear catches up with you. We want to guide you into a state of appreciating who you are and what you’ve been through, not labeling yourself as a result of them. We want to support you in loving every bit of you, even those parts of you that you never thought you could. 

We promise you, you can. 

We do.

We want to help you love who you are, what has led you here, and where you will go. 

We want to help you to adapt more gently to this ever-stimulating, ever-growth-inspiring, ever-guiding world and universe in which we find ourselves. 

We cannot take the stressors away. But what we can do is help your body, heart, and mind adjust a little more benevolently.

We want to see you breakthrough the stories that have been stored in your nervous system and body, surprising yourself and achieving so much more than those stories permitted to be possible. 

All of this can be yours. It always has been. It’s just a matter of freeing all that resides within. 

It has always been, well, you.