Nervous system regulation – from marketing to the real thing

You cannot miss „nervous system regulation“ these days – everybody offers reset, tool kits, the ultimate techniques, even daily time frame to be able to calm your nervous system down.

Some would try to hook you on the relatively easy daily techniques. Others will sell you the complexity and therefore their professional guiding as a must.

In order to choose nervous system regulation programme well (if any at all) - let´s shift from marketing to real thing by finding answers to these questions: 1. What really is the nervous system regulation and why is it of interest to be able to regulate nervous system?  

2. Who is the person proposing nervous system regulation, do they have relevant training?

3. What are they promising and is it in the scope of their profession?

You might be the person who is stressed, easily agitated, maybe going through divorce, recovering from burnout, taking care of neurodivergent child, elderly parents or having a chronic illness. These are all relevant reasons to feel off, tired, angry, frustrated, sad, even depressed, in other words dysregulated. How would you know what is the best intervention that will help you to feel better?

This depends on the severity of your symptoms – how is your sleep, are you able to perform daily tasks, take care of yourself, your children, going to work. Are you often ill? Are you becoming anxious, pulling away from social activities, having trouble to move out of bed in the morning? Do you have suicidal thoughts?

Never miss the talk with the general practitioner – they are the first point of reference. They can prescribe necessary medical treatment and give you referrals to specialists.

Contact psychologist, psychotherapist – those are the people trained to navigate mental health illness – clinical depression, personality disorders, neurodivergent people or people on the spectrum (together with other specialists), PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) etc.

Be your own caring and compassionate guide and if you are in distress always have a doctor at your reach.

On the other hand, if you are confident that your troubles, difficulties are temporary but still too heavy to be carried alone you might check the alternative therapies. In Luxembourg, many therapies and approaches are nor regulated by the state and yet thriving. People have problems, the accessibility of mental health therapists and the reimbursement of their services is limited. Moreover marketing anything in the era of social media is easy but again unregulated activity.

Now we come to the answers to the three questions about nervous system regulation.

1.        Nervous system regulation is the ability to shift your nervous system out of a survival state (stress) and back into a balanced state of safety and calm. Easier said than done. Unfortunately, our daily lifestyle with all stressors confuses our brain that thinks we are threatened by predators, even though in western Europe we keep them mostly in cages. Learning to calm down is essential - chronic stress takes a massive toll on our health – organs, immune function, emotions, digestion, sleep…

2.        Check the practitioner who is proposing the “nervous system regulation” – what is their training, how long did they study (do not be shy to ask for diploma, check the body that is issuing the diploma – ministry, school or some “institute”, online course of 20 hours is probably also not enough). Check the method – is it a method that has been established in the well-being world, if not reimbursed, is it “validated” as a method that can be used in parallel with medical treatment. Do not rely on social media and online reviews, they are often curated, fed in artificially and moreover negative comments are never published.

3.        The promise. This is a good clue, what is the person promising – treating everything from depression, trauma, attachment “issues” to addiction? It is fishy when the person presents miracle-like stories and testimonials, hundreds of happy customers, exclusivity - "my clients tried everything, but they found solace only with me", etc.

Probably the most important thing to remember is that human beings are extremely capable creatures to survive and this is also thanks to the built-in mechanisms to self-regulate. Sleeping, yawning, crying, shaking (e.g. after a shock) is a „built-in software” that brings us back to balance.

Instead of buying expensive programmes, following our smart watches for when and how to rest, we need to go back to listening to our bodily signals. Back to basics – following natural rhythms, going off screens much earlier before bedtime, walking regularly in the nature, allowing natural morning light exposure, consciously releasing tension from the jaw, conscious breathing. Taking short breaks while working on a computer and looking far to a distant point etc. Learning not to fill in every hour of the day with activities, slow travel – not chasing quantity but spending quality time might be hard at first. Practice and repetition are the key.

To sum it up – we can self-regulate (calm down) and often we do not need more techniques, we need to allow our body to use natural built-in reflexes. It is not about time, it is about awareness and regular practice. Now that you are aware, maybe you can skip the marketing oriented social media „free” tutorials and instead go for a short walk, sit on a bench and prolong your exhale for couple of minutes. If you still need to talk or maybe learn couple of techniques reach out to a trusted provider. Not the one with the best method, but the one that empowers you from the start - showing you how to press the brake pedal but leaving you the responsibility to take your foot off the gas.

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My name is Alexandra Barancova and I am sophrology practitioner and life coach based in Luxembourg. I help busy people cut through the wellness hype and reclaim their inner peace. You don’t need an expensive programme to reset your nervous system—you just need the willingness to change your patterns and step out of your body’s way.