Stress and your Nervous System

Before I attended massage therapy school, I wasn’t aware of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), let alone that it included divisions like the sympathetic and parasympathetic.

Your Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) handles many involuntary movements like digestion, breathing, heartbeat, and muscle movement.  It is affectionately called the “rest and digest” system.

In contrast, your Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) kicks in when you are under stress, feel danger, worry, anxiety, and is often referred to as the “fight or flight” side of your nervous system. 

According to the 2022 Institute of Stress study:

• 33% of Americans feel extreme stress

• 77% say stress affects their physical health, and

• 73% say it impacts their mental health

Take a moment to think about how stress may be impacting you physically or emotionally.  Stress often manifests in pain, discomfort, and tension throughout our various body systems and may show up as headaches, stomach aches, muscle pain and tension, etc.

You do have some control over this - How? through your thoughts. You have a choice in how you define stress and therefore, how you respond to it.  If you are able to redefine your relationship with stress by identifying what (or who) triggers stress in your life, you can then CHOOSE how to respond to the situation or person impacting your health. You then have free will to decide whether you want to continue having this influence on your wellbeing. 

My training in Craniosacral Therapy, Manual Lymphatic Drainage, Reiki, and Massage offers clients a variety of options to help them better manage stressors in their lives.  Additionally, as a professionally certified coach specializing in shifting mindset, I  offer clients tools they can immediately put into practice to support their journey to lessening the impacts of stress both emotionally and physically.