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Nervous System Regulation | What It Actually Means and How to calm your nervous system Naturally
33 Plays11 days ago
Nervous system regulation is everywhere on social media right now but what does it actually mean? And more importantly, what do you actually do about it?
In this episode of The Bean Talk, Riannon and Jeremy cut through the buzzwords and break down exactly what your nervous system is, what happens when it becomes dysregulated, and the practical tools and natural remedies that can help you build resilience to stress.
Because regulation isn’t about eliminating stress, it’s about learning how to come back to a sense of safety after being heightened. Stress is inevitable but nervous system dysregulation doesn’t have to be your constant reality.
In this episode, we cover:
- What the nervous system is and how it controls your stress response
- The difference between the sympathetic nervous system fight or flight and parasympathetic nervous system rest and digest
- Common nervous system dysregulation symptoms including anxiety, brain fog, irritability, exhaustion, emotional flatness and stress and sleep deprivation
- Why chronic stress keeps your nervous system stuck in fight or flight mode
- What nervous system regulation actually means and why it is not about being calm all the time
- Breathwork and intentional slow breathing for parasympathetic nervous system activation
- Movement, social connection and rest as nervous system healing tools
- Adaptogenic herbs for stress including ashwagandha, withania, rhodiola, holy basil and rehmannia
- Magnesium for anxiety and how it calms nervous system overactivity
- B vitamins for stress hormone support and neurotransmitter health
- L-theanine benefits for promoting calm alert brain waves naturally
- Natural remedies for anxiety and how to calm your nervous system without overwhelm
Connect with us:
Mungbean: Instagram & TikTok: @mungbean_health Website: www.mungbeanhealth.com
Sproutling Supplements: Instagram: @sproutling_supplements Website: https://sproutlingsupplements.com.au/
The Bean Talk Instagram: @thebeantalk_ https://mungbeanhealth.com/pages/podcast
The information shared in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare practitioner before starting, changing, or stopping any supplements, medications, or health protocols to ensure they are appropriate for your individual needs.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'The Bean Talk' and Its Mission
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to The Bean Talk with me, Rhiannon, your fertility fairy godmother, joined by my trusted partner in life and in the mission of Mungbean Health, Jeremy. Here at Mungbean Health, we're on a mission to unlock the secrets of fertility and natural wellbeing one episode at time.
00:00:22
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to another episode of The Bean Talk with Rhiannon and
Challenges of Newborn Care: Sleep and Time Management
00:00:26
Speaker
Jeremy. Hi guys, and welcome back. We are literally in the trenches, the newborn trenches, which honestly, i feel like I speak to clients and ours isn't that bad, thankfully, because some clients say babies are waking up.
00:00:41
Speaker
Every hour. It's not that bad, but it is still valid. Yeah, it's still right the thick of Yeah, in the thick of it because Kit likes to wake up in the night. Not too much. He'll wake up once or twice, but he'll be awake, fully awake, and it'll be for like a decent amount of time, not like a quick wake-up change and feed him back to bed. He'll just be looking around.
00:00:59
Speaker
He's pretty happy though, yeah which we're not happy about it. Obviously still having to work, run two businesses and do all the things, but um he's so cute and chunky it makes it all worth it.
00:01:11
Speaker
Yep. But that is really what is taking up all of our time at the moment.
Parenting's Impact on the Nervous System and Stress Management
00:01:15
Speaker
And it is definitely playing a havoc on our nervous systems, would you say? Absolutely. Testing us?
00:01:23
Speaker
It is testing us. We've been through it all before. I feel like when it's your first baby, it's so much different, probably worse in that way that you just, it's crazy. I feel like because we've been through it before, you just soldier on, hey?
00:01:35
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it's time. Jeremy likes to go to bed late, whereas I'll fall asleep earlier. Yeah. But then Jeremy likes to sleep in the morning. But I can't. We can't.
00:01:46
Speaker
There's no option. So I'm just sleep deprived. Seriously. So what would you say the answer is to that? Maybe try going to sleep earlier. Maybe get rid of the kids. No. I'm just kidding. Yeah, i'm definitely going to sleep earlier is the key thing. But, you know, that me time.
00:02:06
Speaker
I know. It is hard, especially when we are talking about nervous system because it's not just sleep. it's not It's also like stress and all those things and trying to, like, keep a bit of you in there. And you've pick your battles. I know. Let's talk more about that. But let's um talk about a little bit of Big Bean.
00:02:22
Speaker
Golly gosh. The sleep thing is taking off a lot. It's get more sleep. Definitely get more sleep. It's hard though because what are you meant to do? I like let Jeremy sleep in the morning if we don't have anything to do, like we don't have to do anything and he can have a bit of a lane like with Kit.
00:02:38
Speaker
But it's full on when we get up in the morning and all the kids are like, I'm hungry, i need to poop, where's my butt wiper? I've done it like I need a nappy change or someone spilt something or the dog's hungry.
00:02:51
Speaker
There's so many different variables and totally blessed and happy. Yeah, of course. Just telling you what it's like. yeah Little Bean, actually, I've been trying to be quite active on our Sproutling social media for both Instagram and TikTok, which that takes a lot of energy. If you are in the social media game, you will know that...
00:03:11
Speaker
It's full on. So yeah, doing that that, that's my little bean and big bean. I've been very good at that. Yeah, mine would just be yes sleep and big bean sleep. Sleep and sleep. So we'll report back and let you know how that's going next time. But yeah. Yeah, so we're past the big bean. Let's just get into it, hey.
Understanding the Nervous System: Functions and Performance
00:03:33
Speaker
In today's episode, we're going to be talking about something that has become a huge buzzword on social media and that is nervous system regulation. So yeah. Yeah, you would have heard about it. You will literally hear it everywhere.
00:03:46
Speaker
You'll need to regulate your nervous system. That's dysregulating on my nervous system. Try this for your nervous system. This is nervous system healing. But what does that actually mean?
00:03:58
Speaker
what does it mean? We're going break it down today. We're going to talk a little bit more about it. Firstly, let's talk about what is your nervous system. It is essentially the network that connects your brain, spinal cord, and the nerves throughout your body. It controls things like breathing, heart rate, digestion, movement, emotions even, obviously, stress responses, and how safe or threatened you feel. You've heard probably the fight or flight before.
00:04:27
Speaker
Yeah, definitely heard that. Yeah, that's another buzzword. Your autonomic nervous system is a key factor here. It runs automatically in the background, just like when we're breathing. You don't have to think about it. It's just doing its thing. It's like digesting a meal or breathing. As I said, your autonomic nervous system handles all of that. But it could be doing it wrong, right?
00:04:48
Speaker
Yeah, you can't. You could be digesting wrong, you can't really be breathing wrong. You're either breathing or not. We could be. Yeah, could be. But you're still, you're either breathing or you're not. You're dead or you're alive. Yeah, you be doing not right, like the best possible. Oh, optimally. Yes, yes. There's always ways to optimise things. That's what I'm saying. If your nervous system is running but not optimally running. right yeah yeah oh the nervous system i thought you know everything breathing everything every system could be running but not the best yes there's so much that we can do it's i thought meant breathing like black and white like you're no yeah optimizing yeah you know somebody could be breathing very shallow and like what about big slow deep yes through the nose out the mouth instead of cold yeah nose breathing instead of mouth breathing
00:05:31
Speaker
Two key components in the autonomic nervous system.
Dysregulation and Strategies for Nervous System Resilience
00:05:36
Speaker
Your fight or flight response, is which is the sympathetic nervous system, and the rest and digest, which is the parasympathetic nervous system. A healthy nervous system should move flexibly between the two.
00:05:51
Speaker
When the nervous system is struggling or dysregulated, it can present in a few ways. Common symptoms of this would include, what would you think? Constant anxiety.
00:06:03
Speaker
Definitely. and Racing thoughts. Racing thoughts, which sort of goes with that anxiety, right? Buried ability. Yeah. I feel like a lot of that these ones come from sleep deprivation well. Yeah, you're tired as well. Yeah. Trouble sleeping.
00:06:15
Speaker
Yeah. Maybe I've got nervous system dysregulation, i reckon, when you're tired. Feeling overwhelmed easily. Yeah. Yeah. A sense of urgency all the time or a wide feeling, exhaustion, numbness, brain fog, lack of motivation, disconnection, feeling emotionally flat.
00:06:36
Speaker
These are literally all yes, yes, yes, yes to a lot of postpartum mums as well. Oh, okay. And dads as well because you guys are a bit more hands-on these days. Yeah, we are. Like dads are When we go to dancing, there's a couple, there's a few dads there. like on'm a holding they' yo We're not dancing either. It's our daughters dancing. No.
00:06:53
Speaker
But the dads come and we'll bring the kids and stuff and it's so nice to see. Yeah, like real heads on. Yeah, it's so good. So how do you regulate your nervous system? As naturopaths, this is a big factor that comes up for a lot of our clients. We see dysregulated nervous systems a lot in clinic. But I like to break it into two parts when we look at supporting you.
00:07:17
Speaker
So one would be how stressed your nervous system is and how we can help you build resistance or resilience to that stress. Because obviously, and I actually say this all to lot of my clients, we can't remove all the stresses. We just have to you just have to deal with it better. so we're going to give you ways to deal with that. Obviously, you can remove some, but life, et especially when you've got kids or just in this day and age, things pop up and it's stressful.
00:07:41
Speaker
My yamma so stressed. Yeah, exactly. Because you've got kids on it and we're living in 2026 when the stresses pop up. Yeah. So when we say regulate, we simply mean that the body can return to balance after the stress, like homeostasis. It does not mean you need to become all the time as this is practically impossible.
00:08:05
Speaker
You just need to be able to get past the stress or when the stress arises, you need to deal with it better or, yeah, in a better way. Regulation means that you can experience stress, but your system knows how to come back down before it burns out. Resilience.
00:08:21
Speaker
Resilience. When the nervous system is healthy, you will notice that stress feels more manageable rather than feeling like small inconvenience sending you over the edge. Think about it like a cup of tea. If you're only halfway full, you have space to fill.
00:08:37
Speaker
You can put more in there, but not overflow the cup. So the aim of the game is to bring your cup back down to halfway each day so then it doesn't continue to get close to overfilling where you'll blow up and be stressed or anxious or panic attack or whatever that looks like.
00:08:53
Speaker
It doesn't mean being calm all the time. It doesn't mean mean totally eliminating anxiety, although there's some amazing things we can do to reduce it. But if you're presented with danger, obviously anxiety is going to be there. Like I know if I saw...
00:09:09
Speaker
A car accident, I would be freaking out, but also I have to know, okay, calm down, how to deal with this. like you're adrenaline If you're in it or if you just see it happen, whatever. Yeah, your adrenaline kicks in and my cortisol we want you to be able to deal with that, not be like, oh, my God, I've got nothing else to give and you just fall into a heap.
00:09:24
Speaker
yeah These are essentially life-saving hormones and reactions
Techniques for Nervous System Health: Breathing, Movement, Connection
00:09:30
Speaker
for the nervous system. So we want you to still be able to deal with a bear in front of you if it's if you're presented that way.
00:09:37
Speaker
So let's discuss some things that you can do to support your nervous system, intentional, slow breathing back to the breathing. Like you were saying there's ways to like optimally do it. yeah It's gonna activate the parasympathetic nervous system directly telling your body to calm down. You can download breathwork apps. Use box breathing as well, which is that technique where it's four in and four out and then repeat movement.
00:10:04
Speaker
We know we all need it and we know that we have to do it. But trust us, it honestly works really well. We've actually just gotten back. That could be now a little bit, a big bean. We've just gotten back into moving our bodies. Not huge, just slow, but just it's happening.
00:10:19
Speaker
Movement like walking, stretching, or even shaking out tension, taking some deep breaths. Yeah. can help to release stress and that real stressful energy that builds up in that fight or flight.
00:10:32
Speaker
So regular exercise actually helps to strengthen the nervous system, not just your muscles. Social connection, safe human connection is one of the strongest regulators of the nervous system.
00:10:43
Speaker
So hug those people around you that you love and cuddle your kids and love your family. And that is going to help with your stress. I feel so less stressed now. Just one little hug. Cuddle. Have a cuddle with someone that you love.
00:11:00
Speaker
And then also rest and recovery. So sleep. Lol. We're working on it. We'll tell Kit we should have him in here. do this We need to help us regulate our system so we can sleep better. up Quiet time and periods without stimulation are essential for the nervous system and this balance that's created.
00:11:20
Speaker
Now, we know what you must be thinking. How? How am I going to do all of this? It's as simple as making it a priority. If we are choosing to not prioritize regulating our nervous system, then we are choosing to continuously be stressed. So I know it's really tough and it's a tough love conversation that we often need to have, but sometimes we need to hear that. Yeah.
00:11:45
Speaker
So figure your sleep out, bro all right? You figure it out. Go to sleep early. All right. bit less solo time, a bit more regulated nervous system. Okay. Sounds good. It actually sounds nice. I know, until you've got to do it.
00:11:59
Speaker
Stresses throughout the day or throughout your daily life are unfortunately always going to be present, like I was saying before. So life today keeps many people in this chronic low-grade stress, which I think we've all felt. And this means that the nervous system has learned to stay on guard, if you will.
00:12:18
Speaker
This makes taking care of your nervous system an essential
Herbs, Supplements, and Stress Regulation
00:12:21
Speaker
thing. at the end of the day. So you really have to make sure you do. Using herbs and supplements can be really helpful to support nervous system regulation and manage those big stress loads.
00:12:33
Speaker
There are some ways that you can accelerate your support though or get better support. These are things we focus on in our clinic to help our clients get themselves to a point where the daily lifestyle changes don't feel as overwhelming.
00:12:48
Speaker
one of my favorites and what we use, which actually i was thinking in, you should make yourself up a little herbal. You've probably got one in there and get some passion flower in there just to support that sleep. And it's so beautiful for that sort of nervous energy. When we're feeling a bit stressed, I was taking it towards the end of pregnancy. Actually, think I've got a bottle in there. cool And i I was a reminder for myself as well that, okay, I need to get back on that. I have been doing well with Thania though. Anyway, there's so many other beautiful ones, but Adaptogenic herbs, they help the body adapt to physical, mental, emotional and environmental stresses. Okay, there's so many of those around. So instead of forcing a specific diet, or a specific something that's going to create more stress, or even with certain things, forcing specific effects, like sedatives or stimulants, they work by balancing and regulating your stress response system, especially the HPA axis. Okay.
00:13:37
Speaker
Herbs such as withania or ashwagandha, rhodiola, holy basil, romania, I love romania, and ginseng are wildly used and have incredible benefits.
00:13:49
Speaker
Magnesium, such a good one. Such a goodie. Calms a nervous system by helping it activate. Yeah, that parasympathetic. Cool. Rest and digest system and reduce overactive in the brain. Yeah. Overactivity, I should say. When you've got that overactivity where it's like that active mind at night.
00:14:06
Speaker
Also works on regulating our stress hormones. Which is a win because they're flying rampant. High cortisol. B vitamins support healthy communication between the brain and adrenal glands, helping your body respond appropriately to stress. And they also support neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine and GABA as well. So that's a win. And B vitamins help with that energy production.
00:14:29
Speaker
And L-theanine, L-theanine. Lastly, L-theanine is a powerful amino acid, increasing calm brain waves. So really calming brain waves, helping the brain into an alert but relaxed state similar to meditation. Love L-theanine. Actually, I need to get back on that. I was doing that at the end of pregnancy as well.
00:14:52
Speaker
Remember, though, never take supplements without consulting your health practitioner first. If you need a naturopath, we are here for you. So let today be the day that you stop saying, i am just a stress person. That's just me. This is what i'm like. Just stress head. Yeah, because you
Final Thoughts on Stress Reduction and Support Resources
00:15:09
Speaker
don't have to be. Obviously, it's not going be easy. Never said it was going to be easy, but it's going to be worth it.
00:15:15
Speaker
So... Stress less. Stress less, guys. And let us know what you guys change that's going to help. So let this be a reminder to you. If you need support, can find us Instagram, mungbean underscore health.
00:15:30
Speaker
Or you can visit our website at www.mungbeanhealth.com. even on our TikTok at mungbean underscore health. And then you can also find us on Sproutling Supplements. So you find us everywhere, really. And we're Sproutling underscore supplements on both TikTok and Instagram. And then our website is www.sproutlingsupplements.com.au.
00:15:51
Speaker
And we can't wait to help. To stop stressing.
00:16:04
Speaker
And that's a wrap on today's dose of wellness. I'm Rhiannon, your fertility fairy godmother. Thank you for joining us. Stay connected with us on Instagram at mungbin underscore health.