Your Nervous System and God

There’s a lot of talk these days about our nervous systems.

And for good reason. Everything flows downstream from the Nervous System.

When the nervous system, for example, can sustain itself in Parasympathetic Mode - also known as “Rest and Digest” - all of our other systems in the body-mind respond accordingly.

In “Rest and Digest” our immune function works optimally, our neurological function is primed and our psychological system is calm and centred.

This is also the state from which we can enter what is referred to as The Flow State.

Everything functions well when the Nervous System is balanced and optimized.

But the Nervous System requires a tether.

It requires a tether to something that asks nothing of it in order to be loved, okay, enough and safe.

Safety is the one, in particular, that we think of when we think of the nervous system. It is the very biological system that goes awry in childhood when there is bullying, neglect, when there is alcoholism in the home, when there is abuse, when you are not truly seen by your parents, or when there is abandonment.

When those early safety signals are not met with consistent love and response, the nervous system can get stuck in Sympathetic Mode - Fight, flight or freeze.

When the dial is turned to Sympathetic Dominance, we have a problem.

And yes, we can address this systemic dominance with nutrition, therapy, lifestyle and movement. All of these are wonderful and even essential.

But there’s one thing that holds ALL of the above in the palm of its hand, effortlessly.

There is one thing that rewires the whole system and it is most often overlooked. It is passed over for its seeming intangibility.

The hyper vigilant nervous system itself wants REAL WORLD SOLUTIONS and it wants them now.

Let’s stop messing around!!!

This insistence is also a response from the already amped up nervous system. While its hands are white-knuckled around life, it can’t see beyond its own urgency.

This is an untethered nervous system. It has no real safety net and this is its biggest problem.

Safety will be the anchor that leads a nervous system back to homeostasis; that will lead it to the appropriate ‘real world’ measures to sustain and maintain its balance.

And ironically, it is often our day-to-day habits that keep a sympathetic dominant nervous system in its frazzled state. To go even further, it can often be our attempts at balancing our own nervous systems that keep us imbalanced.

I’ll give you an example. I could read up on how to shift my lifestyle in order to soothe my amped up nervous system. But if I, myself, do not have a tether to something bigger…broader…than I am still cast adrift attempting to heal from the very place that I’m broken.

This is like asking a three year old to babysit herself. She can’t. The very one who requires babysitting can’t also be the one to babysit.

The one who already feels unloved, battered, broken, neglected or abandoned, can’t also be the one to love, repair, release or soothe.

And not to sound like a broken record, but new age ideology would tell you that you absolutely can do and be both. You can be broken and heal your brokenness with just enough self-awareness, meditation, supplements or dietary measures.

Here’s the thing…you may wind up employing any or all of these measures with great effect. But with an already amped up nervous system, you will be executing these measures from that same place of imbalance.

Again, an imbalanced nervous system can’t heal itself. It can be aware of itself, but the brokenness can’t be “broken” and “healer” at the same time.

The untethered nervous system can only begin to come into balance through the experience of becoming tethered. And this is no ordinary tether. This tether cannot be human.

Every human, after all, is contending with its own nervous system.

God, on the other hand, does not have a nervous system. God created your nervous system. God is the container for your nervous system.

What else or who else could possibly contain it?

If safety is the ultimate salve, it will be worth the effort of exploring your relationship with God.

If you see God as a Punish-Reward Master, this won’t work. It won’t work because the relationship automatically becomes conditional.

It will be tit for tat. And here’s where we get all messed up.

Our nervous systems come to a state of imbalance because of the conditional world in which we live. For example, if you didn’t look right, dress right or have the right friends as a kid, perhaps you were bullied. The message to your nervous system became: I am not enough.

If you felt unseen, unheard or unloved as a kid, the message to your nervous system was: I am not enough.

If you were abused at any point in your life, the message to your nervous system was: I am not enough.

The nervous system gets amped up in its near constant attempt to be enough. It will overcompensate, attempt perfection, vie for love and affection, blame herself, beg for approval, hide her truth, do too much but be convinced she is doing too little, try harder…all in a misguided attempt to simply be enough; to be loved.

Or, it will exchange unconditional love for what he or she feels is the next best thing…money, status, sexual freedom, fame.

There is one relationship in this world where you have always been enough, no matter what. Even amidst your so-called failures, you were always enough. You were always loved. There was or is nothing you could do that would change that.

God, as I have come to experience, is Unconditional Love. He is relentless in his pursuit for you. For the TRUE you. For the you that He created.

But just because God is unconditional love doesn’t mean that this is an easy or fluffy relationship. It’s not.

To enter into a relationship with God means that you will be pushed to reveal what you have hidden away. You will be pushed to tell the truth. You will be asked to open every closed door within your Being.

This is true healing.

Radical transformation.

So you might wonder how to do this; how to go about igniting this transformation through God.

Take all of the complexities that you may have adopted through worldly or human attempts at healing. Put these complexities aside for a minute.

Be willing to sit down every day with God; with Jesus. Bring Him into your heart. Come to this practice with a total openness. Bring ALL of you.

Reveal the parts of you that you are scared to show anyone; to admit to anyone. Bring those, especially.

There is nothing for us to ‘do’ here. This is likely why an already amped up nervous system overlooks this. It’s already ‘wired and tired.’ It has a very hard time relaxing; surrendering.

It is simply the relationship itself that begins to transform you.

All of you.

Think of a very young baby. It’s placed into the arms of its mother. Her smell is familiar. Her voice is familiar. Her nourishment is custom-made for that baby. The baby recognizes this and relaxes. The baby’s mother loves her like no other possibly could. And the baby knows it in every cell of her body.

This is the closest analogy we could come to our relationship with God. Like stepping into the arms of someone who literally yearns for your return; who is asking nothing of you, other than your love, returned.

This is Home.

This is the ground of transformation.

This is when effortless healing occurs all on its own.

It was never going to be about a pill, a diet, a technique or a sacrifice.

It was always going to be about a Relationship.

This is the New Healing.