The Pain Relief Secret: How to Retrain Your Nervous System, Heal Your Body, and Overcome Chronic Pain

In addition to all the health issues associated with this chronic stress state, people who struggle with an overactive sympathetic response system (what is known as poor vagal tone) report hosts of troubling issues. Some of the most common emotional and relational patterns include:

All are a product of the synchrony between the two branches of the autonomic nervous system (ANS): the sympathetic, which acts as the body’s accelerator, and the parasympathetic, which serves as its brake.

On its own, the brainstem can process the full cycle of energy when there is a threat. But, as Peter Levine writes, “this activation, led by increased cortisol and adrenaline, can stay on for years until the body is able to complete the responses that it began or wanted to do at that time.

We often maintain tension levels that are greater than we need, just from habit. When muscles are tense, their circulation is decreased and they tend to accumulate metabolic waste products such as lactic acid.