Nervous System Health

Your nervous system is like an invisible conductor, always sensing the world for cues of safety and threat. Stephen Porges calls this neuroception. It’s how your body knows when to mobilise and when to rest. When this regulation falters under stress or trauma, it shows up in symptoms like fatigue, gut issues, anxiety, irritability, pain, or emotional shutdown.

As Gabor Maté reminds us, trauma isn’t the event itself, but the internal response that remains. Nervous system work meets you in that inner landscape.

Polyvagal Theory explains how your system shifts through different states. In the ventral vagal state, you feel calm, connected, and grounded. This is where healing and repair happen. The sympathetic state creates fight or flight. It’s protective in short bursts, but chronic activation leaves you wired and worn out. When stress feels too big to tackle, the dorsal vagal state creates collapse or freeze. You may feel numb, foggy, or disconnected. As Bessel van der Kolk says, the body holds on to survival patterns long after danger has passed, and these patterns subtly shape how your whole body functions, including your pelvic and vaginal ecosystems.

Healing isn’t about staying calm. It’s about flexibility. It’s about noticing your state and returning to safety more easily. Deb Dana describes this as moving up and down a ladder. Going down isn’t failure. The practice is learning how to move back up. Breath, gentle movement, eye contact, voice tone, and orientation to your environment all help the nervous system find steadiness. From infancy, we rely on others to co-regulate. Over time, this scaffolds true self-regulation and widens your window of tolerance, so you can hold more sensation and emotion without tipping into overwhelm.

Humans are wired to detect threat more than safety. Chronic stress trains the brain to keep scanning for danger. Orientation is the antidote. Noticing colour, sound, temperature, and space around you invites your body into the present moment. This regulates not just the mind, but the whole body, including the reproductive system. Pleasure is also medicine. Small moments of lightness or delight help the nervous system recognise safety. Deb Dana calls these glimmers. This isn’t indulgence; it is rewiring.

Your body also holds sensations that haven’t yet been processed. Learning to notice them without flooding yourself allows safe completion. Emotions are signals, not problems. Anger, for example, is energy that needs containment rather than suppression or explosion. Working gently at the edge of discomfort, in slow increments, builds resilience and adaptability. When the body feels safe, circulation improves, hormones communicate more effectively, and the vaginal microbiome can find balance again.

Healing is also environmental. We evolved for connection, movement, daylight, nature, and rhythm. Modern life delivers isolation, screens, and overstimulation. Loneliness itself is stressful to the nervous system. We need safe relationships, meaningful connection, and grounding spaces. Even our environment shapes our state. Light, noise, airflow, temperature, and clutter all speak directly to the nervous system. Simple shifts like spending time outdoors, softening your bedroom environment, or moving your body after stress support the biological baseline your body craves.

Consistency, not intensity, creates real change. A low pitched “vooo” can stimulate the vagus nerve and soothe the system. Gentle walking helps release accumulated stress. Micro-moments of pleasure teach the nervous system that safety exists. Boundary-setting supports regulation. Healing takes time, repetition, and kindness toward the body you live in. It is not forceful. It is invitational.

Your nervous system can learn safety and expand its capacity. It thrives through small daily practices including grounding, orientation, breath, connection, and play. These choices support your whole body, including vaginal and reproductive health, by creating the internal environment where balance becomes possible.

“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, feel your breath, notice the light around you, or simply let your eyes softly scan your environment. Healing begins in these subtle moments. As you tend to your nervous system, you give your body the conditions it needs to thrive.