Nervous System Resilience

For some, it’s so exciting and joyous. For others, it’s overwhelming and stressful. Did you notice any strong emotions for you and the children in your lives? How did they present themselves? For many children, it shows up in their behavior. When our children exhibit challenging behavior, it can trigger a reaction in us. Sound familiar?

As children start back to school this week after a long break, they may be overwhelmed and exhausted, which can increase their anxiety and challenging behavior. One of my mentors, Jennifer Cohen Harper, uses this phrase which I love: “Remember your children aren’t giving you a hard time, they are having a hard time!” For us as adults, with or without children, we may notice we feel drained from the holidays even if it was exciting and joyous.
We all need time to reset especially because we may not even know we are in a chronic place of stress. Building our nervous system resilience is so important for times like these for children and adults alike. Although, when we are feeling stressed, exhausted, overwhelmed, or even out of routine, accessing our executive functioning (a group of important skills like paying attention and self regulation) is way more challenging.

This is why practicing inner resources like mindfulness, somatic movement (where we take time to pause and check in on how it feels inside the body), and breath awareness when we are in a calm state, are key to success. We have a stronger capacity to flex the muscle of our internal awareness when our body and mind are not in a state of protection or flight/flight/freeze. This is a great example of why a regular practice is so highly recommended. Consistency is vital to strengthening and increasing our nervous system resilience and well-being as a whole. Over time, the body and brain will create new patterns and remember how it feels to be safe. Then, when a situation arises where we feel stressed, overwhelmed, exhausted, etc., we are better equipped to handle them with greater awareness and ease.

After working with many children and families, it is evident that caregivers and adults need to be learning the same inner resources and tools right alongside their children in order to help embody change.

If you are like me, a science geek who’s curious about how the body and brain work together – here is an interesting read about building the nervous system’s resilience.

Developing our nervous system’s resilience takes time and practice! Check out my upcoming events to support both you and the children in your lives.