Nervous System Restoration
Why working at the nervous system level is an imperative part of healing from Multiple Sclerosis. Well, really all of us could use a dose of nervous system restoration.
What if there is a facet of healing from Multiple Sclerosis that never gets talked about?
What if working through this facet is infinitely available and leads to lasting healing from this condition?
I literally walked into this layer of healing without knowing it. In ways I could never have imagined, my deepest healing from Multiple Sclerosis showed up, uninvited and without intention. It’s through this experience, my living, working and learning this deeply, authentic way of healing for the last three years, that it became the cornerstone of my work with women.
I want to share the imperative significance of Nervous System Restoration. An important disclaimer before I begin. With all my work, in sharing my personal healing path, I aim to distill its features into applicable healing for all, regardless of one’s personal state of health.
So, in reading, while I will reference the importance of nervous system restoration in the healing of Multiple Sclerosis, which after all, is a condition that targets the nervous system, there are many health conditions that arise from a dysregulated and dysfunctional one. The autoimmune condition of MS is but one.
One one hand, working at the nervous system level feels a bit ephemeral. Like we can’t “see” our nervous system like other organs. We can point to our primary “nerves”, but we also understand that there are “nerves” that run throughout our body and brain, acting as our own mycorrhizal network, constantly communicating our body's needs across systems.
Having said that, I think we are also beginning to understand the interplay between the “soma” or “body”, our nervous system and how we truly do hold old traumas and unseen emotions deep within our body, but also, those energetic vibrations (as we are energy after all) live on in our nervous system as an adaptive response to past harms. The job of our nervous system after all, is to keep us safe. Safe externally from threats, but also internal threats as well, via the digestive and breathing process. Our nervous system is constantly reading and regulating ourselves relative to our environment.
Now, we also accept the parts of our nervous system commonly understood such as the Autonomic nervous system, Sympathetic and Parasympathetic, etc. And we also understand the concepts of Flight, Fight, Freeze or the newly adopted, Fawn response. Many modalities aim to regulate our nervous system via various techniques that look directly at manipulating these nervous system responses such as “Vagus Nerve Reset” and other “programs” or “methods” that aim to calm or soothe our nervous system.
As helpful as those approaches may be, I liken them to the benefits of massage for a sore body. Relaxing and beneficial to relieve muscle tension, but not a permanent or enduring method toward alleviating the root of the muscle tension itself.
There are other modalities that aim to work at the nervous system and body level to address held trauma, relieving our nervous system the burden of carrying those old wounds. Those include the wide net of somatic practices such as Somatic Experiencing, Hakomi, EMDR and Trauma Release among many others.
All these are super beneficial as well. No need for anyone to carry excess baggage. However, I posit that while these modalities relieve us of unfelt but fully manifested (in the form of dis-ease or harmful relationships) past traumas - they don’t offer an invitation for us to look at how we create our own reality, we create our own stresses and challenges and by extension we also create our own nervous system dysfunction. This functions (or rather, dysfunctions as the case may be) in our shadow, our subconscious. But make no mistake, it is driving our life and by extension our health, unseen in the background, the same unseen way our nervous system manages our breathing and digestion.
Why is this important in the healing of MS?
Well, if MS is a condition of the nervous system, can we change our relationship with our nervous system and how it functions in such a way that it facilitates the healing of MS? This is what I call Nervous System Restoration. That's a made up word. I made that up. Much like over a decade ago, no one knew what a restaurant menu that was coined “Ingredient Conscious” meant. Now it’s pretty understood. Nervous System Restoration is a multi-faceted approach to restoring natural balance and harmony to our entire nervous system. See, if you’re not recreating your relationship with your nervous system, nurturing and caring for it as you would a newborn infant, then all the trauma release, experiencing et al. will only provide temporary relief. Its incorporating changes in the ecosystem of our nervous system that lead to lasting changes in our health.
Nervous System Restoration is about restoring the natural, inherent rhythm our nervous system is designed to function at. When that happens, all our body systems that are impacted by our nervous system align. Alignment is healing. Aligned healing is a natural byproduct of the restoration process. This is a deep unraveling that is natural, and one your body will automatically respond to regardless of what your thinking mind says. For me, I liken the process to pregnancy whereby the female body knows how to do this. The process of incubating a human into the world are source codes built into our feminine design. Our body knows what to do, no matter how many pregnancy and birthing books you read, no matter your state of mind during the process, the body moves along at the elegant pace of nature to gestate.
The restoration process begins gently. By building a container within which one's nervous system is held. It begins by learning to hold and see your own nervous system within this safe container as well. Within this container, your nervous system engages in limbic resonance, naturally, its own instinctual way of communicating with another. Letting your nervous system rest in a container of co-regulation and emotional harmony allows the layers of needs from your nervous system to arise. Much like a small child hurting that wants to be heard. Then comes learning the language of your nervous system, like that newborn baby. A parent attuning themselves to the subtle cues from the baby, what does this noise or that grunt mean? But again, like a parent to a baby, there is only love and curiosity. And the desire to meet its needs.
In this gently unwinding process, there is learning how to hold and manage the hidden emotions that arise to be seen. I don’t believe anyone ever talked to me about emotional regulation and expansion. Learning how to hold and be with the emotional sensations that flows through us all, without attaching a story, label or judgment to that emotion. After all, emotion literally means Energy in Motion.
And the beautiful dance unfolds. Of your learning the intricacies of your nervous system. Learning to hold its vast intelligence. And be your own witness to the healing that begins as gently as the process itself began. Learning to tap the vein of healing that flows through us and nature. All healing is self healing and all healing begins within.
And so with that, I invite a new perspective or paradigm within which we view Multiple Sclerosis.
What if it isn’t about micro targeting which exact place on your spine or brain where your myelin sheath is malfunctioning and saying let’s fix that. What if nothing is wrong with your immune system? What if its infinite intelligence is trying to communicate its needs? What if the symptoms of MS are just a nervous system at its absolute max? What if it's asking us to alter our relationship with stress? What if it's inviting us to look at our own patterns that keep our nervous system in perpetual misalignment and driving disease.
A final question to ponder….what if the healing path isn’t linear? What if there are many facets across the healing matrix that constellate out in ripples across our internal ecosystem, driving healing across all systems?
If you are reading this and know a women with MS that desires deeper healing, please forward this. If you are reading this, have MS, and are interested in learning more about this healing process, I invite you to schedule an insight call with me through my website. ChristineRuch.com or you can email me. Christine@christineruch.com
With love and in service of the healing path,
