Let’s chat about something that often gets left behind in treatment: the nervous system. Dr. Shelby Garn explains:

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) regulates the body’s automatic functions—heart rate, digestion, breathing, hormone signalling, and stress response. It is made up of the sympathetic “fight or flight” and parasympathetic “rest and digest” branches, which are meant to work in balance. Chronic stress, poor sleep, inflammation or illness can keep the system stuck in a sympathetic-dominant state, reducing parasympathetic activity and lowering vagal tone. When vagal tone is low, the body has difficulty calming itself, leading to symptoms such as anxiety, digestive issues, fatigue, poor stress tolerance, and difficulty recovering from stress or illness—hallmarks of a dysregulated nervous system. As research evolves, it’s becoming clear that without addressing the nervous system, many treatments are less effective and symptoms are more likely to persist.

With Christmas and the New Year approaching, the busiest seasons are often when nervous system regulation matters most. Feeling constantly drained isn’t always about doing too much; however, over the holidays, this may be the case. If this feeling persists, it may indicate dysregulated nervous system function.

Here are three signs your nervous system is stuck in fight or flight:

– Wired but tired at night – when you feel exhausted all day long and then suddenly nighttime comes around, when you should be winding down, but you feel wide awake with a racing mind

– Afternoon crash – even if you slept well and had a productive morning, you feel like you’ve hit a wall around 2-4 pm

– Easily overwhelmed – when any task feels like too much, noise, any changes to your plans feel overwhelming, and your body immediately resorts to fight or flight mode

These are all signs that your nervous system is out of balance. Understanding this helps us use specific tools like breathwork, grounding, gentle movement, and connection to bring the body back into a regulated, healing state. The key to supporting your nervous system is being consistent or “habit stacking,” meaning that implementing these strategies into your daily routine is the easiest way to teach the nervous system that it is safe to bring it out of fight or flight mode. We have a test unique to Vive called the lifestyle impact assessment, which can actually assess vagal tone through testing heart rate variability (HRV). If you’re curious about learning more about your nervous system and would like to do further testing, I’d love to discuss it with you and help you decide what your body might need most right now.

Below are a few easy daily habits to help keep you feeling good & regulated:

– Light Therapy: Get direct sun into your eyes in the mornings – even just 3-5 minutes at a time. Regular exposure to natural or therapeutic light helps regulate circadian rhythms, which directly influence cortisol patterns, sleep quality, and autonomic nervous system balance.

– Journaling: Journaling helps process emotional stress, reduce mental load, and downregulate the stress response by shifting the nervous system out of threat mode and into a calmer, regulated state.

– Vitamin D: Vitamin D plays a key role in mood regulation, supporting parasympathetic activity and resilience to stress.

– Electrolytes & Plenty of Hydration: Hydration supports energy, focus and prevents stress-related fatigue and nervous system overactivation.

– Low-Impact Cortisol-Reducing Activities: Gentle movement like walking, yoga, or stretching signals safety to the nervous system, lowering sympathetic drive while improving vagal tone and recovery capacity.

– Grounding sheets or mats: Grounding may help reduce excess sympathetic activation by stabilizing electrical charge in the body, potentially supporting improved sleep, reduced inflammation, and calmer nervous system signalling.