02/06/2026
🔥 Yesss! Another great one by The Body Artisans.
Myofascial release can help to flip the switch and calm the nervous system 💆🏽
The Sympathetic Nervous System
You know that scene in a scary movie where the character reaches for the basement door?
The house is quiet. The handle turns slowly. The music builds. Each step down is careful, breath held, their heart pounding so loudly it feels like it might give them away. Every sense is sharpened, and every shadow brings a sense of urgency. The body is no longer just walking down the basement steps, but it's preparing for survival, for the unknown.
That is the sympathetic nervous system.
We sometimes confuse it as being the villain of the story, but in fact, it is our guardian. When the brain senses threat, the amygdala signals the hypothalamus, and a cascade begins. Adrenaline and noradrenaline surge, while our cortisol rises, and our blood flow is redirected from organs to muscles. The body becomes action-ready, sensation-focused, and future-oriented as you slowly begin to descend the stairs.
Years ago I described this system like a pot of water sitting on a stove, and the image has never left me. When the flame turns on, it serves a purpose. Heat gathers, molecules move faster, and energy becomes available for us to use.
A short boil can be helpful.
A rolling boil can save a life.
But so many people are living with the burner always lit; sometimes at a low restless simmer, and others at a violent boil, but rarely ever turned fully off. Deadlines, trauma history, relationship strain, constant input, lack of sleep, unprocessed fear, and a culture that rewards urgency. The flame keeps licking the bottom of the pot and no one remembers to remove it from the heat.
Now if the body is largely water, imagine what chronic internal heat does to the bodies landscape. Inflammation rises. Tissue repair slows. Hormone rhythms drift. Even mood changes, because long exposure to stress chemistry reshapes our neurotransmitter balance. Our sympathetic system was built for moments of fire, not a lifetime slowly burning on the flame.
So much of regulatory work is not about silencing this system but about completing its cycle: removing our pan from the stove, then taking the time to replenish our water.
