Understanding Your Nervous System States
Your nervous system shifts through several states throughout the day. When you understand these states, your reactions make so much more sense:
Fight/Flight: Your body mobilizes—heart rate rises, thinking speeds up. You’re trying to solve a threat.
Freeze: Everything slows down; you may feel stuck, numb, overwhelmed, or unable to act.
Fawn: You move toward appeasing, smoothing, or people-pleasing to maintain safety.
Flop: Overwhelmed to the point of hopelessness, you collapse/faint/are nonresponsive.
Rest & Digest: Your body is grounded and connected; things feel possible again.
There is no “good” or “bad” state. Each is your body’s best attempt to keep you safe with the information it has. The work of regulation begins with noticing where you are, without judgment, and building small practices that help you shift when you’re ready.
Oftentimes, we don’t realize that there are “tells” in our body, sensations that we can feel, that are indicators that we are going into a dysregulated state. We often feel “bad” about the nervous system states we end up in. Why didn’t I defend myself? Why did I freeze? Why did I run away from that conflict? Because we don’t like the reactions we experienced, we deny our connection with our body even more - in an attempt to control ourselves. But this leads to even more disconnection and lack of awareness. The key is to lovingly and curiously lean in. And I can teach you how.
