“When you suffer an attack of nerves you’re being attacked by the nervous system. What chance has a man got against a system?” -Russel Hoban
Meditation is to your nervous system as dark green vegetables is to your digestive system. I am lucky that a lot of people I know and work with in exercise and meditation classes speak with great reverence about our nervous system. Usually before I say anything, they can bear witness to the havoc that stress or even too much of a good thing can wreak on my nervous system. A few of them are cranial sacral practitioners, and there is nothing quite so settling as competent hands on the body.
Even in my Pilates class, which is laser focused on not just what the movement is, but even more importantly how it is executed. My teacher can see where I go into automatic pilot, where the nervous system is so on flight that it takes time to find another speed. Still, the attention and work to find it is all there is.
Meditation is direct medication for a nervous system that is misfiring, which is the cause of all kinds of weird ailments. Of late I have been feeling the weight of the world in my left arm joints. It eases as I go into meditation and when I come up, I don’t feel it at all. All I do in my meditation time is get quiet enough to sense my body as it is.
Opening up to the quiet and stillness that is at our center is like a healing balm for the nervous system. In some ways it is more deeply relaxing than sleep. I have had some nights when I was unable to sleep and meditated for half the night. Surprisingly I was clear and refreshed after hours of meditation that some nights of dreaming doesn’t quite offer.
Learning to tap into a different frequency for your nervous system in a conscious and deliberate way is truly as nourishing as eating fresh Italian Kale. It is a direct infusion of goodness and healing. No more skimping on either for me in the next weeks of holiday preparation. When you know what it takes to live your most productive and inspired life, you have to ask yourself why you wouldn’t make those conditions the habits of everyday.
I don’t think I will ever quit evolving the positivity quest.
