Pause: The power of letting our nervous systems settle
What the regular practice of pausing can do for our nervous systems and our ability to be and function in the world
One of the things I’ve been curious about recently is the purported “rise of anxiety” in society. Some of my questions include:
- Is there a measurable trend or rise in anxiety?
- How are we measuring it? By the number of Google searches for “anxiety”? The percentage increase in the use of the word in our everyday speech? Is it an increase in anti-anxiety medicine prescriptions? Is it by the reporting of university admissions offices not having enough staff to assist more and more students suffering from anxiety?
- Is this rise found throughout the world or in specific countries?
- Is the media influencing the trend?
- If there is a rise, what is causing it?
- If there is a rise, what can we do about it?
I was sitting in meditation the other day, and I listened to the speaker guiding the meditation, referring to what happens when we sit in silence, in non-movement. After some time, our nervous systems come to a place of calm, for one thing; they settle. Our heartbeats slow, our breathing stabilizes, and if we’re lucky, our muscles start to relax - we can feel our jaws drop and the tension release in our shoulders.
Having a regular practice of calming our nervous systems also creates a place of openness, of non-judgement. We simply sit in silence, breathing, feeling what it feels like to be in this body at this time in space.
From here, when we really get here, we can hear what is going on around us. We can listen deeply, and more importantly, hear what is being expressed in the world. It is perhaps a cliché to say we can come fully present, but in the calming of our nervous systems, and our opening to what is being said or sung or screamed, my experience is, indeed, that I come fully into what is happening, without judgement. For me, the important thing is to breathe into this place of openness and non-judgement, to sit/be with what is happening, for as long as I can — to extend this place of non-judgment as far as I can for the short time I am here.
When our brains start to form thoughts about what is happening — ah, this is good; ah, this is bad; ah, this is because …; ah, this is why — which is perhaps our gift and our curse, we begin to lose the openness and the presence with what is actually happening. And our nervous systems start to ramp up again as we create a threat or excitement or a need or desire (or any kind of emotion) in response to what is happening, not in the world, but in our heads.
So, sitting in silence and non-movement is a pause.
It is a pause in the storytelling and sensemaking we engage in to process our lives.
It is a pause that we can train to take with us into different moments in the day, the week, our year, our lives.
Learning to sit quietly, without judgement, and without tension can teach us something about being present with and for ourselves, our families, our friends, our colleagues and strangers. Consciously calming our nervous systems, giving ourselves, and consequently others, a break once or twice or three times a day can turn into a way of being and a way of living.
And so I sit. This morning before my thoughts fell away, I was curious about anxiety and whether it was on the rise, whether this was a perception or a manufactured phenomenon. I wondered, if it were a reality, what we could do about it.
And I sat.
I created the conditions for my nervous system to settle. I breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth. I released my jaw, my shoulders, and with them my racing brain. My body and mind know this practice well. We’ve been doing it together for years. And so, they settle, like a child being lulled to sleep in a loved one’s warm embrace.
Ah, this pause.
It may not be the answer to my questions about rising anxiety in society. But it is the place from which I can create space. And from this space, I can perhaps move into research spurred not by judgement or preconceived notions, but an openness and curiosity about what I’ll learn next.
For now, I am sitting with what is happening in the moment, in the quiet of the early morning. I am expanding this place of sitting and being.
I breathe.
Feel free to share this article, or give a “clap” if you enjoyed it. For more information on my work on pause, see The 4P Principle: Pause and play (passion and purpose).
