As you begin journey of learning how to reduce interference and change your health trajectory, understanding and strengthening your Autonomic Nervous System is vital.
What is the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)? The ANS is a branch of your Nervous system that regulates involuntary functions and is constantly assessing the environment around you and sending information to the brain. This ongoing process keeps you healthy and safe and goes unnoticed as you go about your day. Its goal is to balance your body to its environment.
Functions such as heart rate, salivary secretions, eye dilation, digestion and adrenaline release are governed by your ANS.
Your ANS has two branches, each at one extreme of functioning. These branches are called parasympathetic (rest and digest) and sympathetic (fright, fight or flight).
An example from animals is in order…
When a zebra is being chased by a lion, its blood flow concentrates to core life-sustaining organs, digestion slows, and heart rate increases. When you face a stressful situation, your body will do the same thing.
Once a zebra has eluded the lion, it returns to a “rest” and “digest” state or parasympathetic response. This is when the body returns to balance with its environment.
Animals are always one to one with their environment. This is where the difference between humans and animals becomes evident. Animals live on instinct. We are different, we are capable of conscious thought.
When you experience stress, your sympathetic branch of the ANS is activated. It’s what’s commonly referred to as “flight” or “fright” response. It’s ok when a mortal danger presents itself. It’s not ok when you chronically respond to everyday life this way.
In fact, when you unproductively manage stress in this way it leads to common and preventable disease such as type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and high blood pressure to name a few.
Because we are self-aware and have the power of creating theater of the mind, humans can and do ruminate about past events or future concerns. We literally can invent stress in our minds by looking back or ahead.
So, therefore we can see why zebras don’t get ulcers, but people do! Our habit of unwittingly placing ourselves in a state where our bodies think a lion is chasing us, drives a cascade of reactions in our brain and bodies that make us sick physically and mentally.
Our ability to perform at a high level is then severely compromised.
At Tiger we will assess imbalances in your Autonomic nervous system, then train you to regain control of all this. It will enable you to self-regulate your responses to life’s events. In so doing, you will live healthier and become a peak performer based on your definition of performance!