Nervous System Resilience
Physical & non-physical considerations
NERVOUS SYSTEM RESILIENCE
What is health?
While the mind prefers concrete numbers, finite ideas and unchangeable facts as deterministic measures of well-being, health is not a static state. We have come to believe that specific values or numbers, along with the absence of certain sensations means that we are healthy. When we achieve function within these parameters we are given the status of health. What we know experientially however is that all tests of health can come back demonstrating no abnormalities, or what is called “within normal limits”, yet we feel far from well. According to the current standards we should be feeling great, but we aren’t. At this point many people seek to find more advanced, non-traditional testing that can hopefully provide some information, but often this just creates more confusion. Many of these functional health tests are relatively new. While they might appear to be the next magic bullet, they lack long term data in regards to the information they provide and what it means in terms of health. Even if we do discover some “problem” or a label that can give definition to our experience, frequently we find ourselves still feeling unwell.
What is really going on here?
The big picture is that we are attempting to create a static picture of health. We think that if we just fix this or that thing then everything will be fine. We piece meal things together hoping that we will feel good. What is missing, and why our attempts to create the health we want don’t work, is that we are coming from a flawed perspective to begin with. It is a perspective of health that is static, where all the parts operate separately, which is rooted in an overly simplistic view of the body. A view that thinks of the body as a machine rather than a living, dynamic, interrelated organism. While there are aspects of the body that are mechanical, the body is nothing without the life that animates it. This is largely unaccounted for within the scope of health as we relate to it.
What is known, but less understood is that health is actually a measure of adaptability, flexibility & variability. This equals resilience. Resilience is more about capacity then it is about numbers. Resilience means that numbers can fluctuate, sometimes dramatically, and with those changes we have the ability to adapt to the variability. We are not moving towards fixed ranges & data, but rather towards dynamic flexibility with whatever presents itself in our life. It is that flexibility which is true health. If you have perfect ranges & no capacity to adapt you are not healthy. Attempting to create static, controlled, non-changing states is a reflection of rigid, concrete thinking, not of well-being.
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
Physical & nonphysical considerations
It seems that perhaps we have been focusing on the wrong things, or at the very least we’ve had an incomplete picture of what health is. This is not a fault or blame game, it is more about evolution. 150, 100, or even just 50 years ago we were more physically focused and mechanical in our thinking. As we are evolving within the human species we are becoming aware of the nonphysical aspects of our selves. It’s not that these aspects weren’t there before, it’s just that we were less focused on them. People are now becoming aware of “more of themselves.” What do I mean by that? I mean that it is becoming more obvious that we have emotions, thoughts, and even a soul that is beyond our rational mind. It is also becoming increasingly known that these nonphysical aspects of ourselves directly influence our physical body. We also know from a physics perspective that the physical body is simply vibrating energy fields. Solidity is an emerging property of fields interacting. What that means in more basic and relatable terms is that beliefs, perspectives and ideas collapse indefinite energy fields into defined states that hold our bodies and the seemingly solid world together. But nothing is truly solid, rather it is 99.99% empty space.
Where do we go with this information and how do we utilize it practically?
What we know is that the nervous system is the bridge between our nonphysical and physical selves. To keep it simple our mind and emotions get communicated to our physical body through our nervous system. Our soul does as well, but let’s keep this inside of what is a bit more known or accepted within our current societal agreements and fields. When we have a thought, idea, belief or emotion our body reacts to it because we have a nervous system. Without a nervous system there would be no physical response. For example if we are rigid in our thinking, need to ensure control constantly, and don’t trust ourselves or life, over time we will create a rigid, tight, inflexible physical body that doesn’t have the bandwidth to respond with adaptability and therefore resilience. Progressively we start to feel trapped or stuck in our body, but the thing is that we aren’t actually trapped in our body even though it feels that way. What we are trapped in is our thoughts, feelings and perspectives that have created our physical experience. What we now know from our previous discussion here is that this inflexibility creates dis-ease, breakdown, and lack of health. Regardless of what the numbers say, we won’t experience vitality if we don’t shift our perspectives that are creating our inability to adapt.
While some might want or insist that there be a more physical cause to what ails them, and resist that their perspectives determine their health, all I can do is report what I see. When we get that we are actually not physical, that we are nonphysical beings having an experience of electromagnetic fields interacting to create the appearance of solidity, and those fields are influenced by our perspectives, where does that leave us in terms of physical health? Perhaps we should more accurately call it nonphysical health. It begs the question of what really determines those numbers we value so much as deterministic markers of health. What I will say is that the system, meaning all the aspects - let’s say physical and nonphysical - that make up your experience of you, can be accessed at various levels. For some entering through the lens of the physical body might be most useful. Here people might use supplements, herbs or manual techniques that allow them to create more flexibility within themselves. For others entering through the emotional or mental body might be of more benefit, where feeling emotions and investigating thoughts in order to become more dynamic is most helpful. Still for others accessing through the soul might be the most advantageous in creating overall resilience.
Your nervous system will always respond to you.
Having a resilient nervous system means that you are adaptable, flexible and can navigate variability. It also means that you can meet whatever fluctuates inside of you, within any of your bodies. This equals health. How do we measure it? I imagine that at some point there will be sophisticated tools that can measure dynamic fluctuations and coherence between systems, both physical and nonphysical. The closest we have now is heart rate variability, but even that can lock us into a static perspective thinking that we need the number to be something specific. Remember nothing is supposed to stay the same or be a certain way, including your physical body. The more we can ride with the variability that presents itself when it presents itself and move with it rather than trying to make it go back to how it once was or into our ideas of what it should be, the more we evolve. We will eventually transcend the need for a physical body because our nonphysical self will have evolved past the point of needing it to learn. This too is health. Yes I just said that what we call the natural progression of transcendence of the physical form is health. While that is an expanded definition of the health for most, our current definition is limited, lacks inclusivity and rooted in fear of physical death. As we expand we take our nonphysical nervous system into the next dimensions of our existence and the resilience we have becomes the foundation for our next journey.
Dr. Amanda Lalita Love
Subtle Energetic Chiropractor & Integrative Somatic Healer at the Sanctuary for Heart Magic. A Mentor for Heart-Led Healers at Soul Luminaries & the Writer of The Everyday Divine.
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