Nervous System Health
Your nervous system is your body’s invisible orchestra, constantly scanning the world for safety and danger. Stephen Porges calls this process neuroception. Its job is to regulate energy, to know when to mobilise and when to rest, when to fight and when to surrender. When this delicate balance falters under stress or trauma, it shows up in your body and mind as fatigue, gut issues, pain, anxiety, irritability, or even emotional shutdown.
Gabor Maté writes in his book The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture, “Trauma is not what happens to you but what happens inside you as a result of what happens to you.” That inner response is precisely what nervous system work addresses.
Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory explains how your nervous system moves through different states to keep you alive and safe. In the ventral vagal state, you feel calm, connected, and socially open. Your body feels warm, your breath steady, and your presence grounded. This is safety, where repair and growth can happen. When stress hits, the sympathetic state, fight or flight, mobilises energy to respond. Short bursts are lifesaving, but chronic activation leaves you tense, restless, and exhausted. When action feels impossible, the dorsal vagal state, or freeze, can take over. You might feel flat, foggy, disconnected, or simply too exhausted to move. As Bessel van der Kolk writes, “The body keeps the score,” holding onto the traces of survival long after the danger has passed. These traces subtly influence how your body and even your vaginal ecosystem function.
Healing doesn’t mean staying calm all the time. It means learning flexibility, noticing your state, and recovering safely faster. Deb Dana likens these states to a ladder. Moving down is not failure. The skill is in climbing back up gently. Grounding through your breath, moving your body, or simply observing your surroundings helps your nervous system find safety again. From infancy, we rely on others to mirror safety. Calm energy, eye contact, tone of voice, and touch all soothe the nervous system. Self-regulation grows from that foundation, and over time, you can expand your window of tolerance, the range within which you can experience stress without tipping into fight, flight, or freeze.
Humans are wired to notice threats more than safety. Chronic stress or trauma can lock attention into scanning for danger, strengthening neural pathways of fear and dysregulation. The antidote is orientation, noticing sights, sounds, and sensations in your environment. Before meditation or turning inward, spend time with what is outside. Predictable, safe input lets your nervous system settle and restores balance to both body and mind, including the reproductive and vaginal systems. Small moments of pleasure, like the warmth of sunlight, laughter, or a gentle breeze, train the brain to feel safe. Deb Dana calls these glimmers. Pleasure isn’t a reward at the end of healing; it is the healing itself.
Your body holds wisdom and unresolved material. Learning to notice sensations without overwhelming yourself allows the nervous system to process safely. Emotions are information, not flaws. Anger, for example, is energy. Containing it rather than suppressing or explosively releasing it allows clarity, courage, and self-respect to emerge. Working at the edges of your capacity in small, gentle doses, a practice called titration, teaches your nervous system flexibility and resilience, which also benefits the delicate balance of your vaginal health. When the body feels safe, blood flow improves, hormonal signals regulate, and your microbiome can thrive, breaking the cycle of stress and symptoms.
Healing isn’t only an inner project. Humans evolved for connection, movement, natural light, and belonging. Modern life offers isolation, screens, overstimulation, and constant stress. Loneliness is biologically stressful. Our nervous systems crave co-regulation through people, pets, and nature. Even the spaces we inhabit shape our internal state. Light, air, clutter, sound, and smells send signals to the nervous system. Simple changes, like spending time outside, moving after stress, and creating a sleep-friendly environment, restore alignment with your biology and support reproductive health.
Small, consistent practices create big change. Using a low-pitched “vooo” sound stimulates the vagus nerve, grounding and calming you. Gentle movement, walking, or shaking after stress completes cycles and prevents stagnation. Micro-moments of pleasure retrain the brain to seek safety. Honouring your boundaries and expressing your needs protects your nervous system. Healing takes patience and repetition. It isn’t about intensity or pushing through discomfort. It’s about creating safety, noticing your state, and inviting your nervous system back into flexibility.
Your nervous system can learn safety, expand its capacity, and cultivate resilience. It thrives not in perfection, but in small, consistent practices: grounding, orientation, movement, connection, and play. Every small step you take supports your mind, your body, and your vaginal health.
“You are not confined to one end of the spectrum. Your window of capacity expands as you learn to move between states.” — Peter Levine
Today, notice your breath, feel the warmth of sunlight, or simply orient to your surroundings. Healing begins in these simplest moments, and when you nurture your nervous system, you give your body and your vaginal ecosystem the space to thrive.
