Overview of the Parasympathetic System (PSNS)

May 6, 2024 ~ dcgoodson62373 ~ Leave a comment

The parasympathetic nervous system, aka the PSNS, is a network of nerves, led by the vagus nerve (the 8^th chakra or the seat of the soul). It relaxes your body after periods of stress or real or perceived danger. The PSNS also helps run some of our basic functions such as digestion. Sometimes, it’s referred to as the rest and digest response.

What is the Parasympathetic Nervous System?

The PSNS is part of your autonomic nervous system. Some people refer to it as your ‘automatic nervous system.’ Why? Basically, it’s because the PSNS is responsible for many functions you don’t have to think about to control. They kind of work all by themselves. These functions include: your heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, urination and sweating, among other things.

What does the PSNS do?

The Parasympathetic Nervous System relaxes or reduces your body’s activities. It calms and soothes you. The PSNS can do some of the following:

Eyes – constricts and contracts your pupils to limit how much light enters. The PSNS can also make changes that can improve your close-up vision and causes tear production.

Nose and Mouth – the Parasympathetic Nervous System is responsible for your mouth’s saliva production. It also helps your nose produce mucus. These functions are helpful in digestion and rest.

Lungs – the PSNS tightens airway muscles, reducing the amount of work they do during rest periods.

Heart – it lowers your heart rate and the pumping force of this instrumental organ.

Digestive Tract – the Parasympathetic Nervous System increases your rate of digestion. It also diverts energy from other organs and functions to help your body break down food. The PSNS alerts the pancreas to make and release insulin. This helps your body break down sugars into forms your cells can use.

Waste Removal – The PSNS relaxes muscles in your colon and bowels that help control when you urinate or defecate.

Reproductive System – this system manages some of your body’s sexual functionality including feelings of arousal. It helps with erections in men and lubrication in women.

What’s the difference between the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PSNS) and the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS)?

These two systems have complimentary and opposite functionality. For example, your sympathetic nervous system (SNS) carries signals to your body to keep it on high alert. Many people think of these as the stress responses such as fight, flight or freeze. Conversely, the Parasympathetic Nervous System allows your body to return to standard activity levels after a stressful event. The PSNS also manages the activity in organs throughout your body when you feel calm and safe which is vitally important to keeping you alive and healthy.

Where can you find the PSNS in the body?

The Parasympathetic Nervous System uses four of your twelve cranial nerves. These nerves connect directly to your brain. Three of the four nerves only involve your senses and glands that are connected to your eyes, nose and mouth. The fourth nerve, which is known as the vagus nerve, connects part of your mouth and extends down through your neck to your chest and your abdomen. The vagus nerve is vital to the PSNS, making up about 75% of it. It connects your heart, lungs, and other vital internal organs.

How does the Parasympathetic Nervous System help you reduce stress?

Stress is everywhere these days – from Zoom meeting fatigue, a train that makes you late for works, relationship troubles and so much more. Stress makes your body feel like you want to run away or fight. In some cases, it can also cause us to freeze (be inactive, almost paralyzed by anxiety).

These high levels of stress impact the body by making it think it’s in danger. This heightened level of stress elevates your heart rate, dilates your pupils and increases your blood pressure. It brings you into a hyper-alert state to protect you from the real or perceived danger.

The PSNS steps in to downregulate the body. The vagus nerve sends signals to other parts of your body that all is well and that you can calm and soothe. It tells your brain what to do instead of your body. A healthy parasympathetic nervous system can reduce your risk of heart disease, increase your digestive metabolism and decrease migraines. It also helps you feel better emotionally.

We will certainly delve more into the connection between the Parasympathetic Nervous System and emotions in future articles. I hope this has given you a good overview of the PSNS and a deeper understanding of how it functions. I often work with folks on teaching them how to activate the parasympathetic nervous system. If you’re interested in learning more, why not set up a free, 60-minute consultation today? You can schedule it at my Calendly link.

Small Changes Make Big Impacts

January 16, 2024 ~ dcgoodson62373 ~ Leave a comment

Recently, I was chatting with a long-term client. She and I had worked together on and off – mostly on – for over three years. In that time, she’s lost over eighty pounds and built up a consistent workout regimen. This did not, as you can well imagine, happen overnight. She thanked me for sticking with her and encouraging her to go slow and steady.

Not a lot of my clients appreciate this approach. In fact, some are downright hostile to the concept of making small, measurable goals. They want faster results, a bigger payoff. I do not promise to get significant results in the short term. I also do not encourage huge, sweeping changes.

Why?

Well, I have found for myself and for others like the previously mentioned client, that habit-based change and behavior modification is more likely to stick if you make small changes one at a time, over time. At this time of the year, many people talk about resolutions and they’re usually unsustainable.

When I first embarked on my weight loss journey over seven years ago now, I began by exercising. I currently exercise for up to an hour a day seven days a week. I do a variety of activities such as rowing, biking, walking on the treadmill, yoga, barre class (sort of like ballet with strength training and lots of isometrics) and pickleball. That’s not to make anyone insecure about where they’re at, but to let you know what possibilities there are.

I began by working out five minutes a day, twice a week on the recumbent bike. I was so out of shape; you’d have thought I ran the Boston Marathon with all the sweat pouring off on me. It was difficult, but I stuck with it. I don’t necessarily think that my journey will work for everyone, but what I learned, over time, is that I can’t – it just doesn’t serve me – make sweeping changes – and stick to them.

Currently, I eat low-to-no sugar, no high fructose corn syrup, gluten free and mostly pescatarian. I realize my eating plan is rather restrictive and don’t advocate it for everyone. I have certain food sensitivities, so I honor them, but I did not get to this point all at once either. I experimented for years, finally learning what works best for me and my body.

Everybody is different and has different nutritional requirements. It takes time to figure out what works best for you – and patience. That’s the main thing that behavior modification requires – patience. We often want a quick fix or impressive results. Truthfully, those changes are not sustainable and the weight we lose from them is short-lived. Many times, we wind up gaining more weight in the long-term and doing more harm to our bodies than good.

If we engage in small, consistent changes that are sustainable then we can make radical shifts in health and fitness over the course of several years. I know my approach is not for everyone, but I do know from my own personal experience and that of my clients who stay the course, it is not just possible but absolutely doable and, once these habits change, we also change and don’t wish to go back to the way things were previously.

If you’re looking for long-lasting change that is slow and steady, measured and measurable, then I’m the right coach for you. I’d love to chat with you. Reach out to me at dcgoodson@gmail.com and let’s set up a time for your 60-minute complimentary session. What have you got to lose but some bad habits?

Resolving Not to Make Resolutions in 2024

December 29, 2023 ~ dcgoodson62373 ~ Leave a comment

As a coach, many people come to me at the end of the calendar year and the beginning of the next one to discuss resolutions. I often find that these resolutions are too broad and too difficult to maintain. I personally don’t make resolutions myself. Rather, I make promises to myself that I intend to keep. I know that for some people that doesn’t seem much different, but mindset is key. A promise is something that’s harder to break than a resolution.

So, what’s an example of a resolution?

A lot of people resolve in January to eat 5-7 servings of fruits and vegetables daily. Another common resolution is to work out six days a week for up to an hour at a time. When clients come to me with these types of resolutions, I often ask them what their current situation is. Questions include -how many servings of fruits or vegetables do you eat now, or how often and how long do you work out for?

The answers are usually pretty astounding. Many of those clients don’t eat any fruit or vegetables and are pretty sedentary. Going from nothing to something significant virtually overnight is not only daunting and overwhelming but next to impossible.

Behavior change happens incrementally and with consistency. It also happens over time. It’s not an immediate occurrence. People are creatures of habit and when they are working to change the habits they currently have, it takes time to build new neural pathways in the brain that lead one to engage in the new behavior or habit. The good news is that the brain is neuroplastic and it’s absolutely possible to change our habits. We just need to be patient and put in the work.

Some scientific studies seem to suggest that it takes about 21 days to make a habit. That’s a bit too simplistic. It depends on the habit you’re changing and your consistency with it as well as your overall desire to change. Some people know they should change, but deep down, they don’t really want to. That’s okay. As a coach, I make it my job to meet people where they’re at even if they don’t always know exactly where that is. Coaching is a collaborative effort, and we work together to figure out what approach is best for the client. Different clients often require different approaches.

So, for the folks who want to eat 5-7 fruits of vegetables a day, I suggest that they add in one extra serving of fruits or vegetables, whichever they prefer, for at least five days a week to start. I suggest they do this for 4-6 weeks and see how it goes. Once they realize that it’s doable and relatively easy, they come back to me and they’re reading to up their intake naturally. They find they like eating better and feel better when they do so. They see the benefits of it even if the scale hasn’t shifted much.

As for those would-be exercise buffs, I ask them to try two to three twenty to thirty sessions of cardio each week. It can be walking (indoors on a treadmill or outdoors depending on the weather), riding a stationary bike, doing the elliptical, dancing or a myriad of other activities. They often ask me if that’s enough. I tell them it’s a good start and they can slowly build up to the ultimate goal of 6 days a week for an hour at a time. I also encourage them at some point to put in strength training activities, but I take it one step at a time so as not to overwhelm them.

How do I know that this works? I’ve done it myself. When I began exercising in 2018 – after an extended period of being extremely sedentary – I started with five minutes on the workout bike twice a week. It was difficult, but I kept at it. Now, I do at least 40 minutes on the bike daily and add in rowing, yoga, pickleball or isometric exercises multiple times a week. I often work out for longer than an hour in total and I’m perfectly content to do so. I love exercising so much that I can’t go for a day without it. I never thought that would be me. It never would’ve been me had I set the stakes too high. At the time, I was so physically unfit that if I tried working out too much, I’d either have injured myself or overworked my body and it would’ve been so unpleasant I wouldn’t have wanted to do it again.

In 2024, let’s work on achieving goals together. Contact me at dcgoodson@gmail.com to set up a free 60-minute chemistry session to see if we’re a good fit. I’d love the opportunity to work with you!