Understanding Your Nervous System
Your autonomic nervous system is the foundation of how you experience stress, safety, connection, and regulation. Learn how it works and how to work with it.
What Is the Autonomic Nervous System?
The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is the part of your nervous system that operates largely outside of conscious control. It regulates essential functions like heart rate, digestion, breathing, and stress responses. More importantly, it shapes how safe or threatened you feel in any given moment.
Understanding your ANS is crucial because it's the foundation of emotional regulation, stress management, and overall well-being. When your nervous system is dysregulated, everything feels harder— relationships, work, self-care, even basic daily tasks.
The Three States of Your Nervous System
According to polyvagal theory, developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, your nervous system operates in three primary states. Understanding these states helps you recognize where you are and what you need.
Ventral Vagal: Safe & Social
This is your optimal state—you feel safe, connected, and capable. Your heart rate is regulated, digestion works well, and you can think clearly. You're open to connection and able to engage with challenges without becoming overwhelmed.
Signs: Feeling calm, present, socially engaged, able to think clearly, good digestion
Sympathetic: Fight or Flight
When your nervous system detects threat, it activates the sympathetic branch. This mobilizes energy for action—your heart rate increases, breathing quickens, and you feel alert or anxious. This state is adaptive in true danger but problematic when chronically activated.
Signs: Anxiety, racing thoughts, tension, irritability, difficulty sleeping, digestive issues
Dorsal Vagal: Shutdown
When threat feels inescapable, your nervous system may shift into shutdown mode. Energy drops, you feel numb or disconnected, and motivation disappears. This is your system's last-resort protective strategy.
Signs: Numbness, dissociation, fatigue, hopelessness, difficulty feeling emotions, social withdrawal
Neuroception: Your Safety Detector
Your nervous system is constantly scanning your environment for cues of safety or danger—a process called neuroception. This happens below conscious awareness, which is why you might feel anxious or shut down without knowing why.
Neuroception is influenced by past experiences, trauma history, and current context. Sometimes your nervous system detects threat when you're actually safe (faulty neuroception), leading to chronic dysregulation. Learning to recognize and shift these patterns is key to healing.
Building Regulation Capacity
Nervous system regulation isn't about staying calm all the time—it's about building flexibility to move between states as needed and return to safety. Here are evidence-based strategies:
Breathwork
Slow, diaphragmatic breathing activates the vagus nerve and signals safety to your nervous system.
Movement
Gentle movement helps discharge sympathetic activation and brings you back into your body.
Co-regulation
Connection with safe others helps regulate your nervous system through social engagement.
Sensory Input
Temperature, touch, sound, and other sensory experiences can shift your nervous system state.
Frequently Asked Questions
References
- Porges, S. W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions. Norton.
- Dana, D. (2018). The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy. Norton.
- Levine, P. A. (2010). In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma. North Atlantic Books.
Discover Your Nervous System Patterns
Take our neurotype assessment to understand your unique nervous system profile and receive personalized regulation strategies.
Take the Quiz