07/23/2026
Have you been hearing influencers talk about “nervous system regulation” a lot? Same. Let’s talk about what that means and what it doesn’t mean ➡️
First we have to dive a little deeper into what the nervous system is beyond our brain:
It is split into multiple categories, but we’re going to jump straight ahead to the system that “regulation” is referring to: the autonomic nervous system (ANS) which is responsible for involuntary activities like organ and gland functions.
Within the ANS there are two divisions: sympathetic and parasympathetic-most commonly known as fight or flight, and rest & digest. Now we’re getting to our topic that might sound a little controversial at first, but hang in there with me!
What I’ve noticed about what I hear and read online, is when people are talking about needing to “regulate”, they tend to use it in the context of being calm, or being calm all the time, and making fight or flight sound like the enemy.
I could go into a whole rant about the glorification of being stressed all the time, but that’s not the point. Yes, we want to engage rest & digest more often than we do now, because we have very high amounts of people running around in fight or flight most of the time; but let’s not get confused about the important role that fight or flight plays in the body’s innate instinct for self preservation. It isn’t the enemy, it’s just had some bad PR.
As a whole, our nervous system never lands entirely in one camp or the other, parasympathetic and sympathetic are always working together and adapting to stimuli 24/7, and they take turns being dominant, all for the purpose of keeping you safe. So the goal of regulating your nervous system is not to stay in parasympathetic rest & digest, and never step foot into sympathetic fight or flight ever again. The goal is to be able to flow easily between the two; the more regulated you are, the easier that transition is!
Your nervous system wasn’t designed to be managed and optimized, it was designed to be lived in! 🌞🫶🏻
