How to Calm the Nervous System to Tune Your Vibrations & Manifest Your Dreams ⋆ Earth and Water

Our bodies are intricately wired, and at the heart of this internal network lies the nervous system. Most of us are pretty familiar with it being a ring leader in our stress and anxiety problems. It acts as the body’s control center, constantly sending and receiving messages, orchestrating everything from our heartbeat to our emotional responses. It’s importance ‘touches’ every aspect of our animation and it’s health dictates not only our how frazzled our nerves are but also how well everything is communicating and functioning.

In today’s fast-paced world, we’re constantly bombarded with a relentless stream of stimuli – from the endless notifications on our devices to the ever growing to-do lists. This constant influx disrupts the natural state of our nervous system, keeping it in a state of fight-or-flight.

The nervous system can be broadly divided into two branches:

Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS): Often referred to as the “fight-or-flight” system, the SNS kicks in during times of perceived danger or stress. It increases heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure, preparing the body for immediate action.
Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS): The “rest-and-digest” system, the PNS counteracts the SNS, promoting relaxation and bringing the body back to a state of homeostasis (balance).

When one kicks on, the other kicks off. So when our SNS is active, our bodies aren’t able to heal, digest properly, fight off pathogens or rest adequately. Ideally, these two branches work in harmony. However, the constant barrage of modern stressors can lead to an overactive SNS, leaving us feeling perpetually on edge.

From an energetic standpoint (as well as from a health standpoint), there is nothing more important than stress management. If holding onto a certain vibration is how we attract and manifest, we do that through our emotions and how we feel. Something that’s hard to do if we’re stressed out and anxious.

While our ancestors navigated a world with more unpredictable threats, their nervous systems weren’t under the constant barrage of information overload we face today. Unlike our hunter-gatherer counterparts, we now need to actively incorporate calming practices into our lives to counteract this chronic stimulation and its negative consequences, such as elevated cortisol levels and heightened stress. Which is literally killing us all but also effecting everything from our digestion to our coordination and balance.

Lifestyle Choices:

Say no when you can: Some stressors are unavoidable. Others we choose. Try and be a little selective with what you agree to and allow into your life. Set some healthy boundaries where you need to.
Prioritize sleep: Aim for 7-8 hours of quality sleep each night. During sleep, the body repairs itself and the PNS takes over, promoting relaxation and nervous system restoration.
Nourish your body: A balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains provides the essential nutrients needed to support nervous system function. Poor diet choices activate the stress response because your body can’t process much of it, recognizing it as a threat. Nutritional deficiencies are more likely to occur, adding to the problem.
Move your body: Regular exercise is a well-known stress reliever. Engaging in activities you enjoy, like dancing, swimming, or brisk walking, helps to release endorphins, the body’s natural mood elevators, and promotes a sense of well-being.
Limit stimulants: Excessive caffeine and alcohol consumption can disrupt sleep patterns and exacerbate anxiety. Be mindful of your intake and prioritize calming beverages like herbal teas.

Mind-Body Practices:

Deep breathing: Taking slow, deliberate breaths activates the PNS, signaling to the body to relax. Techniques like alternate nostril breathing and box breathing can be particularly effective.
Meditation: Mindfulness meditation allows you to focus your attention on the present moment, reducing mind chatter and promoting inner peace.
Yoga: Combining physical postures with deep breathing and meditation, yoga offers a holistic approach to stress reduction and nervous system regulation.
Spending time in nature: Immersing yourself in nature has a calming effect. Go for a walk in the park, listen to the sounds of birds chirping, or simply sit beneath a tree and soak in the fresh air.
More practices discussed in the episode below!

Calming your nervous system is a journey, not a destination. Experiment with different techniques and find what works best for you. By incorporating these practices into your daily life, you can combat the stimulating effects of the modern world and cultivate a sense of inner calm, allowing your nervous system to function optimally and fostering a healthier, happier you.

Beginning –

How your nervous system responds to your eyes.

Anxiety isn’t always a result of over thinking and worry. Anxiety is your body’s alarm system and it can be triggered by all sorts of things, independent from the mind. Anxiety is just as much physical as it is mental, if not more so.

Emotional pain is physical pain. The cerebellum is responsible for coordination and balance not just in physical movement but also in thoughts and communication.

Our brains are always scanning for threats with our emotional baggage in tow. Sometimes, (probably most of the time) this leads to old wounds, emotions and traumas being tied to things happening in the now that aren’t even related to the previous situation and/or circumstance. This can make us combative, reactive, have all sorts of negative experiences and make bad decisions because we’re correlating the now with the past instead of seeing it clearly for what it is in this moment.

We are wired for survival. This was great back in the day when our stress response wasn’t always on and things were relatively calm and boring on a day to day basis. Now, this same system that was crucial for the rare times we needed it is now active more often than it’s not.

It no longer takes a life or death situation and/or circumstance to trigger this fight or flight response. Instead, it’s activated by the smallest of things, be it bad traffic or the kids stuck in the house all day screaming and running around. We haven’t previously needed stress and anxiety coping skills until relatively recently.

8:15 –

The brain pays more attention to the eyes than it does anything else. It’s the number one input device for how we navigate the world safely. If we have any sort of deficit here (and most of us do), it can cause problems in our nervous system. The results of which can be things such as coordination issues or anxious moments.

Visual training can build the skills to lessen these problems. We have a “threat bucket” and when this bucket becomes full and begins over flowing is when we’re met with these issues. Visual training is one of many things that can keep our threat bucket levels low so that our stress and anxiety isn’t over flowing into areas of our life it has no business in.

For example, our relationships or work space if there are no threats coming from those areas. If your eyes aren’t functioning properly, your brain will start putting on the breaks in order to keep you safe.

Our lifestyle, of course, has a big impact on all of this as well. We spend a lot of time looking at close up screens, looking down and across. A good practice to start implementing in order to counteract this is “look out, look up.” Every so often (on average they say every 20 minutes), look away from your screens, look out a window and try and focus on a far distant point. Preferably one that’s “up.”

“Distance looking” activates the parasympathetic tone, calming us. Another easy way to do that is going for a walk and taking in all of your surroundings. We’re meant to live in a three dimensional, physical world, not just the 2 dimensions we’re stuck in on screens.

Remaining open instead of closed up. We should always be focusing on expansive energy. We spend so much time scrunched up and this tension leads to stress. This looks like “power poses” as much as it looks like mindset and lifestyle habits.

Macular degeneration is a use it or lose it type of situation. It effects everyone differently but essentially, if you stop looking out into the distance, you’ll begin to lose the ability to do so. This works in all directions, not just far away. It’s the same if you stop looking at things close up and everything in between. You have to figure out which direction you struggle with and actively counteract it with purposeful exercises.

Vision is a trainable strength and should be exercised just like any other muscle. You don’t have to accept that with age, you’ll automatically decline. We can’t completely eradicate symptoms of aging but we can lessen their hold on us.

19:25 –

Eye yoga. A lot of modalities or practices are the same thing but have different names because they developed in different parts of the world. Much of the practices that we credit to being life changing are ancient practices that we’re just now bringing into the main stream. These things (meditation, energy work, yoga, etc) weren’t something many people had need or desire to be interested in.

We only just now have the communication means to make them more interesting and show people why they’re needed. That’s why it’s called “new age”. It’s a new age where we’re bringing these world changing practices back to the forefront and teaching one another that their are answers to their problems and a way to improve the world for us all.

Science is finally catching up with this ancient knowledge and proving their substance. Epigenetics is a prime example of this. Science is helping us bridge the language gap of the mystics. Whereas the only way they could attempt to explain things was through stories, mythology, analogies and allegories, we now have a greater vocabulary of the workings of the universe.

Check try recheck methodology allows us to explore what works for a certain individual and what doesn’t. Nothing is a one size fits all. Everything always comes down to a life long dedication of self study. We can talk tools and what works for this person or that all day but ultimately, it’s up to you to figure out what works for you and what doesn’t.

Muscle testing can be done to communicate more effectively with the body. One way to do muscle testing is to link your fingers together, ask a question and attempt to pull them apart. If they hold strong and tight, it’s a yes. If they easily break apart, it’s a no. You can also stand in a neutral position and ask a question. If you sway slightly forward (attracted to) it’s a yes. If you sway slightly back, or away (repelled) it’s a no.

You can also tap into the communication of your body via your breath. Check in with your breathing and rate it 1-5 on how easy it is to breathe. A 1 probably means something is tense and going on. What is it? Can you analyze it further? A 5 means you’re relaxed and okay. It’s up to you to decipher what’s going on from there based on your intuition and senses. What do you notice? Where are you being led in thoughts and feelings?

Sometimes it can be hard to discern our intuition because of normal societal conditioning. People are always telling us we’re wrong about ourselves, the decisions we make and trying to steer us towards their “right” answer. This can confuse us and make us super doubtful of our intuition or hyper trusting of it and we could be off a bit or right on point. Finding the balance of truth in between takes a bit of practice and muscle testing is a great layer of reassurance if you struggle here.

36:25 –

Self care is a lot of work. It’s not just a list of 5-10 things we need to be doing in order to care for ourselves, mind body and spirit, but it’s 1000 different things that change everyday. We’ve been taught that we need to go talk to a professional in order to figure out what we need but we really jest need to learn how to check in with ourselves and listen to what we’re told. Some days we may need more productive yang energy and other days we need more calming yin.

Meditation is a great way to do this. It has a lot of misconceptions about it but meditation is simply the act of getting to know yourself and training yourself in the direction that you would like for you to be. It doesn’t have to be super time consuming. 1-5 minutes is plenty to scan your body, notice your energy levels, see what you’re picking up from your mind and gauge what’s needed for today.

Ultimately, we need to learn how to be in the present moment. All of the work in healing is being aware of what is actually going on within and around you and actively choosing what you want, discarding what you don’t. Consciously choosing your actions, your words, your thoughts, your emotions and when things come up that you don’t want, not suppressing them but instead dissecting them to understand what they need in order to run their course and be released.

When situations and circumstances trigger us we have to learn to pause instead of react. Practicing the pause allows you the space you need to analyze the situation and see if you can pull at any tools to help you navigate it in the best way you’d like. Take a breath, do you need to step outside for a moment? Do you need to go lock yourself in the bathroom to recalibrate? There’s all the time you need to move gracefully forward in a way that progresses you, your healing and the situation at hand.

Neuroplasticity is our ability to rewire our brain by making new, better choices. Our thoughts, words, decisions, actions, etc create habits. These habits are hardwired into our brain and become automatic and subconscious. It’s easy to stay in your patterns. Changing those neuro pathways takes a bit of effort because it’s going against what’s already physically wired in your brain. This is how we create new habits. With just a little persistence these new, better habits become just as second nature as the previous harmful ones.

We don’t teach children how to regulate emotions so they turn into adults who also don’t know how to regulate and process their emotions. These emotions get suppressed, becoming stuck in our bodies and causing physical problems but also become wired in as part of our subconscious programming. If we’re honest with our children about emotions, how they’re normal even when big, and model appropriate management and work through of our own emotions, this teaches them what to do and how to be when they encounter their own too big emotions.

Life is chaos and we should really just take things less seriously. Everything matters but also nothing matters. We have to find the balance between humor and seriousness because if we can’t laugh, we’ll cry. If we’re not dead yet, we’re not done yet. Make jokes because things are as big as you decide they are. We’re all and everything is, a train wreck. It’s fine.

About Our Guest

I’m Jessica Raaum Foster, Neuro Performance Coach: I help people get out of pain and improve performance by teaching them how to play with their brains. I use practical tools and techniques taken from cutting-edge neuroscience to help people understand and overcome their obstacles to better health and performance. I work with a wide variety of clients ranging from people stuck in pain to elite-level athletes and performers looking for an edge up, but it is my personal mission to share this information with everyone, regardless of their goals!

Being a Neuro Performance Coach has utterly changed my experience of life, and I want EVERYONE to have access to this technology. Ten years ago, I felt like I was swimming upstream all the time. I was always exhausted and stressed with horrible digestive issues, brain fog, etc. – I felt awful, and worst of all, I didn’t know what to do about it. I went to multiple doctors, but there wasn’t a clear diagnosis; I tried therapy, self-help workshops, 12-step programs, meditation, medication, you name it. I had actually just started to accept it as the way things were when I was introduced to Neuro Performance Coaching. I discovered some problems in the way my eyes move, deficits in the function of my vestibular system (a network of organs in the inner ear that help us balance), and some extremely blurry movement maps around old injuries. I learned how these deficits were adding stress to my nervous system without my even being aware of them!

By improving the function in each of these areas (and others) I started to feel SO much better, and my capacity to do life increased exponentially. Today, I feel like I can show up fully to my deepest priorities, which for me are playing with my 3-year-old daughter, singing and acting, and now… coaching! I have been a Neuro Performance Coach for nearly a decade, and I still get giddy watching my clients transform. Sometimes it still seems like magic, but really, it’s just applied neuroscience. It’s extremely effective and can be lightning-quick.