A Gateway of Understanding and Self-Awareness

Lauren Malone, owner of Soul Nectar Yoga + Wellness, is a new contributor to Hashtag Lapeer.

Your nervous system is more than just a group of nerves and neurons; it’s more like a gateway of understanding and self-awareness. It’s the watchful guardian of your body, constantly working in the background, scanning for safety and connection. It feels the world around you before your mind has the chance to analyze it. Every breath, heartbeat, squeeze of tension, and sigh of relief is a whisper from your nervous system telling the story of how you move.

To understand your nervous system is to understand how you partner with your life. It’s made up of the intricate threads that connect your inner and outer worlds, your past experiences with your current reality, shaping how you respond and react to everything and everyone around you.

You might think of your nervous system as a companion who cares for you deeply. It has been with you through every step of your journey, every struggle, stumble and success. It has been your fiercest protector and your most compassionate caretaker. It holds your unique makeup of memories, the past experiences and interactions that shape how you connect with what’s happening around you.

Your body’s reactions may seem automatic but there is so much beauty in recognizing that you are not just along for the ride, a passenger to your hard wiring—you have the capacity to change, to create new pathways towards a greater sense of ease and safety. You have the power to create a life lived on purpose, full of aliveness and intention.

Cultivating a relationship with your nervous system is a practice of deep listening. It’s learning how to be attentive towards the messages that your body is sending you. It means taking note of how and when you feel relaxed or tense, on edge or safe. It means becoming aware of the signals of your body—the waves of calm, jitters of anxiety and jolts of joy. These sensations are the language of your nervous system, this is how it communicates your needs and boundaries.

It’s not about judging these responses as “good” or “bad”, but simply acknowledging them and tending to them. When you feel overwhelmed or anxious it’s an invitation to get curious and learn to listen. When you start to understand these messages, you can show up for yourself differently. You can begin to offer yourself what you truly need in real-time: perhaps a slow breath, a moment of stillness, a hand on your heart, or a word of kindness to yourself.

By understanding your nervous system, you can center yourself in a relationship of trust with your body. You learn to see yourself not as an adversary to be conquered, but as an ally to be embraced and naturally begin to approach yourself with greater compassion and kindness; Tending to yourself in moments of distress, gently guiding yourself back to a place of calm and savoring the moments of contentment with gratitude and grace.

In this space of understanding, you can create a new narrative—one where the space between your mind and body is no longer a battleground but a bridge to deeper understanding. Where honoring the wisdom of your body becomes a declaration of your worthiness. May you care for yourself just as deeply as your body cares for you.