How you live your life on a daily basis and how you react to the people and environment around you has a major impact on sympathetic (SNS) and parasympathetic (PNS) nervous system balance. Those that are SNS-dominant often feel nervous, jittery or tense because of the SNS-dominance; this makes it all the more important to incorporate activities throughout the day to help calm down and release negative thoughts and feelings.
- Practice gratitude. First thing in the morning and just before bed, write down five (5) things you are grateful for. This will help get you into a positive state and help you be aware of the beauty in your life.
- Release negativity. Negative emotional states – including worry, fear, anger, frustration, guilt and shame – rev up the sympathetic nervous system and just feel bad. When you become aware of these feelings, try to let them go and fill that space with something that is uplifting. Meditation, affirmations, and counselling can help.
- Surround yourself with love. Whether you are at home, work or in your car, surround yourself with pictures, music, books, magazines and things that bring you joy and remind you of people, places and experiences you cherish. Along those same lines, hang out with people that build you up and let go of relationships that are no longer fulfilling.
- Practice forgiveness. Yes, it’s easier said than done, but forgiving any wrongs you feel have been made against you allows you to take control and puts you in a position of power and possibly even compassion and takes you out of the victim role, which feeds the sympathetic response of fight-or-flight.
- Don’t worry, be happy. We are bombarded with images, sound bites and news about all the cruelty and injustices in the world. Give yourself a break and get in the practice of happiness.
- Get enough sleep. Get as much sleep before midnight as possible and sleep until you naturally awaken. If you need an alarm clock to wake up, get to bed earlier the next night. If naps are restorative and don’t negatively impact your sleep at night, take them.
- Breathe deeply, and often. Deep breathing is one of the fastest ways to calm down and quiet an overly active sympathetic nervous system. Practice taking deep breathes multiple times daily; attach the act of deep breathing to some other activity that occurs regularly throughout your day – such as receiving/sending emails, texts or phone calls.
Choose one or more of these activities and incorporate them into your daily schedule. It will take persistent, consistent actions to achieve results – think weeks or months rather than hours or days – so get started and enjoy each day as much as you can. Before you know it, you’ll be feeling better and much more balanced.
Thank you for this post. Thru a naturopath, using kiniseology, I found out my parasympathetic & sympathetic nervous systems were barely working. I have been supporting thru supplements, diet & lifestyle changes…reiki, meditation, prayer, gratitude & love. Based on both home stress and career stress, it should have come at no surprise (but it did). My 22 year old son has suffered PTSD from a trauma for past 1 1/2 years…psychiatrist loaded him up with meds. His health declined dramatically. This was a high functioning student & athlete (very bright), who is not catatonic, withdrew from college, playing video games, sleeping & taking anti depressants & a benzo. Took him to naturopath & both nervous systems not working, kidneys have infection, spleen, eyes, thyroid, pancreas all deficiencies. I will share this 3 part series with him to provide some hope (in addition to my hope my 22 year old gets this). Any other posts or support would be very much appreciated!! I’m trying to practice and repair my health and not allow worry & fear for my sons health interfere with my recovery. Thank you for your posts!!!
Hi Denise – thanks for your comment; I’m glad you found this series of posts interesting. In order to customize a therapy program and get more specific recommendations, I suggest that you work with your ND, as s/he will be the best able to target your specific imbalances.
Good luck!
Sincerely,
Dr Chad
Hi Dr Chad,
Thank you for this great article! I will definitely refer to it.
As I found out that my nervous system is constantly in sympathetic mode and the fact that I’m now 2 months pregnant, I wonder if my situation could harm my baby.
Thanks,
Sonia
Hi Sonia – thanks for the comment/question. Before making this assessment, it would be important to know how you determined that your SNS is overactive and what effect it is having on your current state of health. Assuming your SNS is overactive, the next question would be how did this come about? These answers would point us in the right direction as to what should/could be done to lessen the impact of your SNS activity on your and your baby’s health.
Unless the SNS overactivity is very great, it is likely that you can use the suggestions in this series to minimize any negative effect on your baby. Your physician can and should monitor your and your baby’s health status to provide you peace of mind:).
Hope this helps!
Sincerely,
Dr Chad
Hello Dr.Oler,
I have been leading a very sedentary lifestyle & suffering from acute back spasms on & off for 7 years. After meeting a great Physiotherapist, I started on my journey of regular exercise (since Jan 2017).
From absolutely NO exercise to twice a day for 1 hour each , I exercised, daily. It was strenuous for me. But helped my back. Around 6 weeks after this new regimen I found that I could not sleep well.
Just the sleep problem got me stressed out & i got anxious over it. Do you think that the SNS imbalance could have crept in over a 6 week period?
I reduced exercising to an hour a day. My sleep is still not like earlier days, though slightly improved. I practise almost all points mentioned in the above article. And surely, regular meditation etc helps. But anxiety due to the fact that I have trouble over sleeping, persists.
I do Pilates for 30 minutes nowadays & nothing vigorous. But for my weak back muscles I need to exercise more than that. Mild exercises wont do.
How to get a balanced nervous system while exercising. And also address the sleep issue?
Hi Rachita,
Thanks for the comment/question. Be sure and follow the other recommendations in this series to balance the nervous system. Additional testing may help provide some additional information, including an adrenal stress assessment, GTT with insulin response and hs-CRP. It is also possible/likely that you are experiencing a neurotransmitter imbalance and may benefit from amino acid therapy: http://www.amino-acid-therapy.com.
I would suggest you work with your health care provider to get these tests completed and look into amino acid therapy; you can contact NeuroSupport to find a provider near you: http://www.neurosupport.com.
Good luck!
Sincerely,
Dr. Chad
reading this, i’ve come to the conclusion i have an overactive sympathetic nervous system . i have never been diagnosed by a doctor but i am mostly always nervous, my anxiety goes through the roof and it is extremely easy for me to cry. i went from doing nothing for 4 months to having to go to school from 7-4 and every day i get home i start crying but i don’t know why. for a while i have felt all of these feelings but i cry a lot more often now then i ever have and it concerns me. i don’t want to feel this way anymore but i cant make it go away. it’s so bad that if i tried to explain my feelings out loud i cry and stop talking to my mom bc idk why i’m crying. i’m going to change my diet and follow the other advice you gave me and hopefully i will be like a normal person
Hi Catherine – thanks for the comment; following the recommendations outlined in these posts is never a bad idea. I also recommend that you follow up (or find ) with your health care provider to have some testing/evaluations done to rule out other possible causes. If you have an overactive SNS, these tests/exams will provide information about how extensive/severe it is; if you do not have an overactive SNS, they can provide data on what the cause(s) may be so you can correct them.
Good luck!
Sincerely,
Dr. Chad
Hello!
I was diagnosed with CLL in April of 2015. I have been seeing an oncologist/hematologist every three months for blood work and check ups, but have not received any treatment yet. My lymph nodes, especially in my neck, have become very prominent and are actually affecting my ability to sleep well. As a result, my oncologist brought up the possibility of starting chemo soon, to shrink the lymph nodes. That was in July, and since then I have decided to radically change my diet and lifestyle to avoid having to do chemotherapy. I now eat only organic foods, drink filtered water, am taking many supplements that I have read help the CLL, am exercising (using a Chi machine and a rebounder) and at my recent check up appt, my doctor said that not only had I lost 18 pounds (since September), but my white blood cell count dropped 29%, and both my blood pressure and cholesterol are healthy. I was thrilled as to how quickly we saw such positive and promising results!! My question for you is what type of diet should I be on? I had been avoiding almost all red meats, but after reading what you wrote here and reading Suzanne Somers interview with Dr Gonzalez, should I be eating grass fed red meats and fats (since it says that Leukemia is usually associated with a parasympathetic nervous system? Also, any advice on how to rid the toxins from my lymph nodes? Thank you!!
Hi Susan,
Thanks for the comment/question. It certainly sounds like you have been on quite a journey the last couple years!
I’m not in a position to answer your questions without doing a much more thorough workup and health history with you; however, I would suggest that you consult with a naturopathy and/or integrative medical provider in your area to get some professional guidance. They should be able to determine the best dietary measures for you and recommend the correct balance/types of fats, proteins and carbohydrates for you.
Good luck!!
Sincerely,
Dr. Chad
Hello Dr. I have had constant high anxiety for years. I have tried exercise, meditation, and prescribed alprazolam, with not much relief. Recently had foot surgery, and have since developed a pain syndrome. Now prescribed Lyrica and nortriptyline. My nervous system seems to be always on high alert, and I am now burnt out feeling, and worn out from this constant state of anxiety. Any suggestions? Thank you!
Hi Brett – thanks for the comment/question. I would suggest you find an integrative and/or functional medicine practitioner and have a salivary adrenal test completed. Ideally, the person you work with would also be experienced with the use of amino acid therapy, as it sounds like you may also have an underlying neurotransmitter imbalance that would need to be corrected. A test like the NutraEval from Genova may shed some light on things as well.
Good luck!
Sincerely,
Dr. Chad
Thanx doc for this article .May be this will be helpful to me. I have some what anxiety & recently I noticed that anxiety increase in social gatherings lead to abdominal pain & nauseous filling .I also have Sinus tachycardia & occasional hypertension So went for ecg & 2d echo.ECG shows lvh & right atrial enlargement changes without any specific symptoms .2D echo shows long & redundant Anterior MVL with trivial MR.So cardiologist told me that u have overactive SNS & u can cure it naturally without using drugs & gave me 5 months it heal my self naturally with lifestyle modification..I will definitely try your advice to cure it..Thank u
You are very welcome – I hope you find these recommendations useful!
Dr. Chad
My almost 4 year old son has been suffering night terrors. He suffers constipation on a daily basis no matter how much fiber I give him. Prune juice helps. He’s anxious, often upset for no reason. I’ve been trying to find a solution to his night terrors and I stumbled upon this article. I believe his SNS has taken over. I’ll try and fix his diet but why could he be stressed? How else can I help hm before there is a breakdown? We’re a mostly calm household. Very loving and supportive. We did move in with my dad to take care of him and I think he had a hard time with that. At the same time, he gained a new brother who he is now closed to. Could these be factors and if so, these factors will not be changing anytime soon so how can I help him?
Hi Chris – thanks for the information; you should certainly implement as many of the dietary and lifestyle strategies in this series of posts ASAP.
In addition, we have found journaling/drawing (free-hand) to be an effective way for children to process whatever is occurring in their (possibly subconscious) mind, which can help calm the brain at night.
If your son is not hypersensitive to cow’s dairy, having a small glass of warm milk before bed may help; there is a dipeptide in milk that can increase GABA activity in the brain, which can help calm it down.
Good luck!
Dr. Chad
I have extremely over active nerves, when I lie down and im perfectly still I can litterly feel every nerve in my body twitching, it’s the worst feeling in the world. I have anxiety over it, and do to the anxiety my blood pressure spikes. Very frustrating
Thanks for the interesting and informative article. What advice could you give me as I feel like I have the opposite issue as most where it seems my parasympathetic system is over active. When having an episode I feel desensitized in my entire body and a brain fog/light-headedness, also extreme unquenchable thirst. I have low blood pressure and heart rate consistently, I get cold very easily too. Lately I’ve been fatigued and increased level in emotions seems like I could cry very easily for no good reason wheather its from happiness or just being to emotional about a subject. I’ve struggled to find answers because most people have opposite issue as what experienced. Most have high blood pressure and opposite of what I’ve experienced. Any help would be appreciated thank you in advance.
Hi Emilio,
Thanks for reaching out; I would suggest you start by speaking with your physician/health care provider to rule out blood sugar and thyroid imbalances and or cardiovascular disorders. If everything comes back normal, I would investigate whether one or more neurotransmitter imbalances are in play. You can learn more about neurotransmitter imbalances here: http://www.neurosupport.com and http://www.amino-acid-therapy.com.
I hope this helps!
Sincerely,
Dr Chad