Western culture tends to talk about the mind and body as if they are separate organisms that only occasionally meet.
The conversations around health and wellness are often distinct from conversations about mental health and well-being.
Real life isn’t so simple. If you’ve ever been distracted from your work because of pains in your body, you know that physical pain can cause cognitive distress.
It can also cause mental and emotional dis-ease. People who live with chronic pain often also experience depression.
The feedback loop works both ways. Mental and emotional distress can cause physical symptoms we know as illness. It can even cause the nervous system to shut down the body entirely.
In the language of the nervous system’s response patterns, this is known as the freeze response. The body immobilizes. It shuts down as a form of protection.
The threat my not be real, but you can’t argue with your nervous system.
When it is overstimulated it will go into lockdown as a form of protection. This is a common experience for those of us with ADHD or highly-attuned nervous systems.
When this happens, the best thing to do is honor its needs and allow it to reboot itself. What it usually needs is physical and mental rest.
Here are five ways you can do this:
- Get off your screens. Allow yourself some quiet time. Take a break from what you are working on.
- Go for a walk in nature.
- Lay on the floor and breathe.
- Engage in less-used parts of your brain by doing something for play, like coloring or a simple jigsaw puzzle.
- Do a Yoga Nidra mediation, which facilitates sensory withdrawal and helps bring an overstimulated nervous system back online.