How To Activate Your Parasympathetic Nervous System To Ease Stress, STAT

Even with my extensive experience in healthcare, including over 25 years as an oral surgeon, health educator, and researcher, I've had my own struggles with anxiety and burnout. These personal challenges motivated me to explore ways to manage stress and heal my dysregulated nervous system, and share my findings with others.

You may have noticed that there's been a lot of buzz lately around ways to "hack" your body for instant stress relief. However, my scientific findings have shown me that the secret to managing stress and easing symptoms isn't trying out new, fancy techniques. Instead, it's about consistently doing small, simple actions.

Your body has a built-in system to regulate anxiety and stress. This natural mechanism is connected to the parasympathetic nervous system, a part of the autonomic nervous system that works to calm the body down after the threat of danger has passed.

When faced with stress or anxiety, the body goes into a state of high alert that results in increased heart rate, rapid breathing, and heightened senses, among other reactions.

Activating the parasympathetic nervous system allows you to bring the body back to its normal state after the "fight-or-flight" response has been triggered. This involves slowing the heart rate, reducing blood pressure, slowing the breathing rate, and relaxing muscles. It instantly reduces feelings of anxiety and promotes a state of calm and relaxation.

I recommend really focusing your attention on these two practices before moving on to any other "hacks" for achieving calm.

Here's why: One of our most popular resources on my blog lists 45 different ways to activate the parasympathetic nervous system. A reader messaged me, saying they had tried all 45 techniques, yet their stress levels were still through the roof. 

This got me thinking: are we actually contributing to people’s stress levels by giving them too many options? 

When it comes to managing stress and anxiety, it's helpful to have immediate strategies for quick relief. However, it's equally important to recognize that these practices, while helpful in the moment, are only part of the solution. To truly reverse the effects of a dysregulated nervous system, you need a long-term strategy. If you don’t address the root causes of nervous system dysregulation, you might find temporary relief, but your symptoms will resurface.

In my book, Heal Your Nervous System, I delve into the strategy that has successfully helped thousands of people in our community. It focuses on consistently doing small, manageable tasks and following a plan that effectively addresses the causes of nervous system dysregulation.