Eating mindfully is the easiest way to biohack your nervous system

Eating mindfully is one of the simplest yet most effective things you can do for your own wellbeing. It is also one of the hardest (it did not come naturally to me), but it really is worth putting the effort in and I will explain why.

How hard is it for you to sit and eat a meal without any distractions?  Can you be fully present with yourself and your food without talking, watching, reading or listening to something or someone?  If the idea of being alone with your body and your food and nothing else is daunting, then let me tell you why it is so important to develop this life skill.

Why is it so hard to just eat?

Truly being present with ourselves and our food means that we have to acknowledge how we are feeling physically and emotionally; something we rarely do.  Because we spend so little time tuning into our bodies and our emotions, there is a backlog of physical and emotional sensations that our bodies need to process.  When we take the time to tune in, the backlog feels overwhelming and uncomfortable, so we avoid it or put it off for when we have enough time and space to process our feelings.  But we do this so rarely that the simple act of being present while we eat feels unbearable.

Even if you do manage to sit down with your food with no external distractions, your mind may find a way to distract you from yourself.  Have you ever tuned in at the end of a meal or snack binge and thought, I don’t even remember eating that?  Kind of like when you drive somewhere on autopilot and realize when you arrive that you were barely present the whole time.  The problem with eating on autopilot is that your body doesn’t turn on the right physiological mechanisms to digest your food properly.

Eating without connecting to your food and your body takes a toll on your digestion, nutrition, sleep, emotional stability, hormone balance, fertility and energy levels.  This is because of your autonomic nervous system (ANS).  Your ANS governs bodily functions that happen automatically, like your heart beating, your lungs breathing and your food digesting.  It is split into two major branches, your sympathetic nervous system which governs the stress responses of fight, flight and freeze; and your parasympathetic nervous system which governs resting, digesting, reproducing and repairing your bodily tissues.  For brevity I will call the two branches fight or flight (sympathetic) and rest & digest (parasympathetic).

The problem for most people living in modern, urban environments is that our fight or flight responses are constantly being triggered by things that are not actually likely to kill us, but the primitive aspects of our brains don’t know that.  So we are running on adrenaline whether we need it or not, and this becomes a habit that is slowly destroying is from the inside.  Our bodies were not designed to spend prolonged periods of time in fight or flight mode without the calming effects of rest & digest mode.

When our fight or flight mode is activated we are not fully in rest & digest mode, which means we don’t sleep well and we don’t digest our food well.  The parasympathetic nervous system is also what helps us heal and repair damaged tissues, so acute injuries can turn into chronic pain when we don’t spend enough time in rest & digest (and repair) mode.

I have also found that some unexplained fertility issues can improve by consistently spending more time in rest & digest (and reproduce) mode.  If you are constantly in fight or flight mode your body might decide it is not an optimal time to have a baby because your nervous system is receiving lots of signals that your environment is not safe.  It is important to note therefore that time spent on activities (such as eating mindfully) that activate your rest & digest mode consistently can improve your ability to self-heal and become pregnant.

Eating mindfully will also help your body to process and assimilate the nutrients from your food.  If you can switch your nervous system to rest & digest mode every time you eat, you will gain more nutritional value from your food, which means you can eat less overall.  You will also have less digestive discomfort.  If you are primarily eating whilst in fight or flight mode you will have less blood supply to your digestive organs as your nervous system will have diverted resources to your heart and muscles so that you can flee from danger or defend yourself. Your digestive system will not be operating at full capacity, which can ultimately lead to conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

A great way to tell if you are in rest & digest mode is to tune into your body and notice if you can hear or feel your stomach gurgling (the technical term for this is borborygmi).  These noises do not necessarily correlate with having just eaten or being hungry, they are more of an indicator of the state of your nervous system.  If your intestines are grumbling it is a good sign that you are in rest & digest mode and your body will be able to sleep well, eat well, heal itself and reproduce.

Another sign that you are in rest & digest mode is if you are salivating.  This is why it’s great to take a moment before you eat to gaze at your food, stimulating your senses with the colors and aromas.  Ideally you should wait until your mouth starts producing extra saliva before you start eating. Once you take your first bite, take a moment to really notice the flavors and textures with your tongue.  All of this will kick start your rest & digest mode if it hasn’t fully switched on yet.  The key now is to maintain this level of presence and mindfulness with your food and your body for the whole time you are eating, and keep it going while your body is fully digesting afterwards.  If you can do this every time you eat, you will be giving your body an unbelievable gift of wellness.  So many of our modern ailments can be traced back to eating in a rush.  When you understand the physiology of stress and how it affects our digestion, sleep and self-repairing functions, it makes it a lot easier to prioritize eating slowly and mindfully.

This article is an excerpt from my book: Invisible Work: An Ex-Lawyer's Guide to Self-Care.

Annie McCasland-Pexton is a craniosacral therapist based in Melbourne, Australia. You can book a session via Melbourne Craniosacral Therapy.  

Craniosacral therapy for anxiety and depression

Craniosacral therapy is remarkably effective for alleviating anxiety and depression. Whilst the therapy works on many levels, the main mechanism for relief is in the regulation of the nervous system.  Often depression and anxiety stem from imbalances in the nervous system that have been caused by emotional and/or physical shock and trauma. This could be due to any number of issues sometimes stemming right back to trauma in utero or during birth, as well as childhood accidents, head injuries, surgeries, dental & orthodontic work, falling off a horse or bicycle, car accidents and sporting injuries, for example.  It can also be due to stressful or traumatic events, long term stressful relationships and environments, witnessing or experiencing violent attacks or abuse.  A period of life when you felt vulnerable, neglected, or unsafe could still be "running" in your nervous system, even if it has little to do with your current circumstances or environment.  The nervous system needs to be "reset" to adapt to your current reality.

When traumatic events unfold, we tend to have one of three responses: fight, flight, or freeze.  Sometimes when we go into one of these modes we aren't able to fully resolve, or complete the actions that we are instinctively programmed for, such as running or fighting, in a way that enables us to move on, recover and deal with the next source of stress.  By suppressing our natural responses to stress our nervous systems can become "stuck" in one or more of these modes, leading us to feel "frozen": tired, depressed unmotivated, etc, or alternatively leaving us in a state of perpetual nervous system "activation", releasing lots of adrenalin, cortisol and other stress hormones leading to frequent anxiety and panic attacks, even in situations where there is no real danger.  Sometimes we bounce between the two states, feeling  sometimes exhausted and apathetic and other times hyper-vigilant and anxious, but rarely at peace and fully present and embodied. 

This means that our reactions to new situations are overlaid on top of the initial traumas, adding more layers of trapped or stored stress in our brains and bodies.  When trauma goes unresolved it leaves patterns in our nervous systems, which are easily re-triggered, sometimes by the most seemingly harmless situations.  Not understanding why we react or feel this way can lead to further anxiety and depression, and the feeling that life is difficult, unpleasant, or somehow just not as it should be.

Craniosacral therapy is a gentle yet highly effective method of releasing tensions and restrictions in the muscles, joints and membranes of the body, allowing optimal movement of fluids and regulation of the nervous system and hormones (including health and happiness promoting hormones such a serotonin, melatonin, oxytocin and endorphins) to achieve physical and emotional balance. Craniosacral therapy also promotes sleep and deep relaxation so that your body can heal itself.   In this way we can "reboot" our nervous systems by assisting the body to release these memories of trauma that are stored in the muscles, bones, nerves, and other cells, creating greater harmony between our inner and outer environments.

Annie McCasland-Pexton is a craniosacral therapist based in Melbourne, Australia. You can book a session via Melbourne Craniosacral Therapy.  

Craniosacral therapy to optimise fertility when trying to conceive

Craniosacral therapy can help people of all genders to optimise their health and vitality before preparing to conceive by assisting with any physical and/or emotional blockages/imbalances that may lead to difficulty in conceiving. Craniosacral therapy is also a supportive accompaniment to IVF treatment. There are three main ways that craniosacral therapy can boost fertility:

• Promote the healing of any injuries or weaknesses in the spine, especially the lower back and sacrum, which may be impeding or constricting the flow of blood or nerve supply to the reproductive organs, including the production of sperm and the release of eggs.
• Help to reduce the effects of stress and anxiety on the body by encouraging deep relaxation, and the clearance of excess adrenalin, cortisol and other stress hormones which may have accumulated in the cells. When the body is predominantly functioning through fight-or-flight reflexes (governed by the sympathetic nervous system) resources are diverted away from digestive and reproductive functions (the parasympathetic nervous system for “feeding and breeding”). Therefore to optimise fertility the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems must be well-balanced and minimising stress is of vital importance.
• Encouraging the re-alignment of bones in the skull that may be compressing one or more of the hormone-producing glands within the brain such as the pituitary and hypothalamus, which control the production and release of key reproductive hormones such as luteinising hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone. Head injuries including concussion and whiplash from car accidents, horseback riding accidents, sports injuries and even minor bumps to the head can cause a subtle mis-alignment within the skull, especially of a bone called the sphenoid which sits behind the eyes and can impinge the flow of blood, nerves and cerebral spinal fluid to areas of the brain.

Craniosacral therapy is a very gentle, light-touch therapy which is performed while the client is fully-clothed and laying down. It works primarily through regulating the nervous system, encouraging balanced awareness of your internal and external environments, and promoting re-alignment of bones and tissues from within. It is very relaxing, promoting deep healing on many levels. 

 

Annie McCasland-Pexton is a craniosacral therapist based in Melbourne, Australia. You can book a session via Melbourne Craniosacral Therapy.