Intro

It was in December 2020 that I caught Covid. The acute phase wasn’t too bad, I wasn’t hospitalised or anything.  But a week later, everything changed. Suddenly, the fatigue hit. Along with debilitating fatigue, I developed quite severe brain fog, trying to do any kind of thinking was almost impossible (big issue if you have to work to pay the mortgage). I had internal vibrations (if you know you know!), noise sensitivity (thanks Loop ear buds) and a number of food allergies/food sensitivities - I transformed from being a carefree eater to a neurotic eater.

Having regulated my nervous system, I now have almost no limitations on my life - the remaining symptom I need to understand more I mention towards the end.

Also to provide a bit of background, prior to Covid, I had been recovering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), which had been caused (triggered) by a shoulder surgery.  I was almost recovered albeit with some limitations, but I didn’t feel resilient.  I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

What is nervous system regulation?

Nervous system regulation is, at its core, the ability to move flexibly between different states of arousal in response to stressors. This means that when we encounter a change in our environment, like a stressful situation, we can adapt so that we are not overwhelmed.

What happens when you are dysregulated is that you are unable to shift out of the state you are in - you become stuck.

What I learnt along the way was that my nervous system had been dysregulated for years, and it was a 'shock or trigger' to my system that caused my nervous system to shut down. First with the surgery and being under anesthetic and then with a strong virus. The fact that so may people have got Long Covid or post viral fatigue or whatever you want to call it shows how many people's nervous systems are dysregulated and is it any wonder in this frantic world that we live in.

And by the way, the nervous system interacts with every function, system and organ in the body which is why the symptoms can be so variable and also change over time.

When I discovered nervous system regulation

I’m not sure when I first heard the term "nervous system regulation or dysregulation"  - maybe 6 months ago or so - but when I did, it was like everything suddenly started to make sense.

One of the commonalities people suffering from Long Covid experience, is being disconnected from their bodies. Instead they are in their head, obsessing over symptoms and trying to think their way to recovery. There are also some other common traits such as being analytical, Type-A personalities, perfectionists, solution driven, high achievers, people pleasers, being disassociated. Also there is often a commonality with upbringing - perhaps having parents with high expectations, or who couldn't emotionally connect with us, or physical trauma as we know it such as some kind of abuse.

And that fitted with me - emotionally unavailable parents, high achiever, always pushing myself, being a people pleaser.

So with these traits, there is a tendency to be disconnected from your body – to be honest I didn’t even really know what that meant.  But actually, its about being aware of the sensations in your body and understanding the language of the nervous system.

The physical symptoms you are experiencing are actually a message from your nervous system.  It is trying to tell you something, and currently you’re not listening.  I know this is a difficult concept to grasp.

I don’t mean by this that it’s “all in your head” this isn’t about just thinking positive thoughts and magically getting better. It’s more about how your nervous system is responding to things.

A key concept that it took me a while to wrap my head around was that my nervous system was actually trying to protect me by creating these symptoms. I know it doesn’t feel protective—it feels anything but! But it was my body’s way of saying, “Hey, something’s not right here!” Understanding that helped me stop fighting against my symptoms and start working with them.

The question you need to ask yourself is ‘Does my nervous system feel safe?’  Because that is the determiner as to whether you feel well or not.  Healthy people have a nervous system that feels safe.  And conversely unwell people have a nervous system that doesn’t feel safe.

So, in order to recover you need to make your nervous system feel safe.

And let's not forget mindset.  Mindset is soooo important.  You have to believe you can get better.  And I always believed that, even in my darkest hours.  And as soon as I stopped waiting for the ‘magic fix’. Things started shifting a whole lot quicker.

What I did

Some of the things I started doing to help my nervous system feel safe seemed pretty inconsequential.  I would wonder whether it was even doing anything. A starting point is practicing orienting – this is orienting to your environment and body – and away from your head (try Googling it as I don't have a post on it yet).  This increases your capacity to be able to handle stressful situations.

I also started doing somatic movements, which are amazing for helping release stress and tension trapped in the body.  If you are anything like me, I was brought up to suppress all my emotions - so they all got trapped inside of me.  Vagal toning exercises were also a big help for me They build up resilience in the vagus nerve, which controls what state your nervous system is in.

Both of these techniques switch the body into parasympathetic state which is the rest and relax state. I always start yawning when I do these practices which is a good sign as it means that me parasympathetic nervous system is being activated.

I also started practicing brain retraining. When your nervous system is stuck in a constant state of fear, you need to rewire and intervene when you are having negative thoughts or when your breathing is shallow, or your muscles are tense. It’s a process, but it’s necessary for healing. This isn't always suitable if you are really dysregulated as you may become overwhelmed.

If I’ve learned one lesson through all this, it’s the importance of acceptance. Fighting the illness, being frustrated, or angry just keeps you stuck. It’s hard to stop those feelings, I know, when you can’t do all the things you want, but accepting where you are unlocks your ability to heal.

There’s so much information out there these days—from Facebook groups to companies offering brain retraining or somatic therapies it equally can be overwhelming. What worked for me was a combination of all techniques and approaches.

A couple of examples

I have mentioned previously that there are still some things I'm working on. I am close to living a with no limitations but I'm not completely there yet. However, the transformation I have made in less than 6 months is remarkable. I would also note, that we are always learning and evolving and if we are truly honest with ourselves there is always work we can do do continue to heal ourselves and be more connected with ourselves and others; making us better friends, partners, parents etc.

Having said that, I would like to share a couple of examples including a symptom I working to understand more as it provides more insight into the healing process.

On Friday, I went to help a friend with her new business launch.  Since Covid, this kind of scenario has been a big trigger for my brain fog symptom - being around people I don’t know, doing something I'm not familiar with (going into the office for work was a huge trigger). I have done a lot of work on this, trying to ‘why’ it’s a trigger.  Again – I need to understand that my symptoms are a message from my brain that I'm doing something that is making it feel unsafe.  Towards the end of the afternoon,  I started getting brain fog, it was quite mild but it was there. So when I got home I knew I was feeling a bit dysregulated so I did some regulation practices.  The next day I had to go to my friends birthday – it took me 2.5 hours to get there, I was with loads of people I didn’t really know, lots of chatting, 2 hours to get home and 15k steps – and I was absolutely fine the next day.  I know that going back 6 months I would have needed to really recover from that especially post a dysregulated day. So that was a real evidence point of how far I have come.

So in this context, my remaining 5-10% goal is to really uncover why my nervous system feels unsafe in that environment and how to make it feel safe.

Another example is that a couple of months ago I went to Barcelona for my Nervous System Regulation Practitioner training – I was really nervous about going as I knew that concentrating 9 - 6pm every day , in a foreign city with people I did not know I would find triggering.  And I found some of it hard, but every day I was getting better, in part due to a number of emotional releases. When I got back to the UK, not only did I not need to recover from a 20 hour day with delayed flight, but also all of my brain fog when ‘working’ had completely gone. And didn't come back.  I believe this down to several days of continuous somatic awareness and exercises. This even more validated to me how effective somatic exercises can be for releasing the emotion and tension that is stored in your body – even if you didn’t know it was there.

It is possible to recover!

So, I just want you to know that you can recover – you just have to believe and start to listen to your body.  It’s the little things, but often.  Consistency and patience is key to recovery. It's also important to start with the small things like orienting and not just going steaming ahead with brain-retraining as there is the possibility you could become overwhelmed and become discouraged.

If you want to understand more about 'why' your nervous system is at the root of your symptoms, you can download my free guide. https://rebalancewithhazel.com/cause-chronic-symptoms--opt-in