Coming Home to Your Nervous System
Understanding the vagus nerve, chronic survival mode, and why gentle support can make all the difference
The vagus nerve is a part of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), and is fundamental to our experience of life and how we move through it. Knowledge about the vagus nerve and its role in the ANS, and how you can work with it to feel better, can help you change how you navigate life and how you feel in life from the roots up.
I like to use the analogy of a tree: the autonomic nervous system could be compared to the roots of a tree. They are invisible, but critical for health, functioning, nourishment, stability, growth and connection far beyond what the eye can see. A tree can only grow as strong and healthy as its roots allow.
Just like the roots nourish the tree, your nervous system nourishes
your experience of life — often beneath the surface of your awareness
If you’re feeling stuck, tense, or disconnected — whether from yourself, from others, or from your desires — working with the vagus nerve can support you in shifting these patterns at the root.
Your vagus nerve plays a key role in your wellbeing
No matter which path you take towards more self-connection, self-agency & inner empowerment, spirituality or healing: A well-regulated vagus nerve is a vital foundation for making that path more accessible, smoother, easier, and more sustainable. Only then can we genuinely feel inner joy, simply be, connect with ourselves, find peace within, and follow new heart-led paths without being held back by old survival patterns or inner resistance.
Why does working with the vagus nerve make sense?
The autonomic nervous system (ANS)—which includes the vagus nerve—is essential for your survival.
It’s connected to every organ in your body and has a huge impact on your psychological and emotional wellbeing. It works beneath conscious awareness and rational thinking — constantly scanning your body and your environment to determine whether things are safe enough for you to relax, or whether it needs to activate a survival response.
Your ANS has a vital job:
To keep you alive, safe, and functioning optimally. You simply couldn’t survive without it.
In order to do this, it works with three core states:
Safe
Mobilised or ‘unsafe’ (e.g. fight or flight)
Immobilised or ‘unsafe’ (e.g. freeze or collapse)
No one state is better than the other — we need a combination of all three states to function optimally and navigate the ups and downs of life.
When you are not in danger, these states actually blend and work together to give you the energy you need, moment by moment.
We’ll explore each state briefly below — but remember, the ANS is complex, and still being researched.
This understanding is based on the Polyvagal Theory developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, who also created the SSP (Safe and Sound Protocol).
The 'Safe' State — and why it's essential for self-connection
When your ANS evaluates your environment as safe, your vagus nerve activates what’s known as the ventral vagal state — a mode of calm, connection, and ease. (You don't need to remember the name — it’s the principle that is helpful to know.)
This happens entirely beneath your conscious awareness. You can’t easily switch it on just with willpower or positive thinking — your ANS decides, based on how it has been shaped over the course of your life.
Only when your ANS is in this safe state can you fully connect with your true self. That’s when you can feel relaxed, creative, joyful, connected, and calm. And because the ANS affects every system in the body, the benefits ripple throughout.
When your ANS ‘feels safe’ and is well-regulated…
Your body works in harmony, and you feel grounded, calm, and more able to connect to your true self.
You might experience things like:
❁ A deep sense of wellbeing in your body
❁ Inner joy
❁ Access to your full potential
❁ Creative flow
❁ A feeling of optimism and lightness
❁ Openness to new experiences
❁ The ability to relax easily
...and many more
When this state is ‘on’ and well-regulated, you have the ability to navigate the stresses, ups and downs of life and shift easily into ‘rest and digest’ whenever you can.
When your ANS ‘feels unsafe’ or is in survival
When the ANS senses that something isn’t safe, it shifts into survival mode.
This could be:
The fight or flight response
Freeze or faint response
Maybe you’ve heard the term “the 4 Fs” — Flight, Fight, Freeze, and Faint.
There are actually more, like fawn and please & appease, but more about those another time…
In truly threatening situations, these survival responses are life-saving. But what happens when these states become chronic?
Chronic survival states are more common than you think
Many people are stuck in chronic patterns of survival without realising it.
This isn’t your fault. These states operate in the subconscious and are often the result of early conditioning, trauma, ancestral themes, chronic illness, or other kinds of long-term stress.
Because they're so automatic and invisible, it’s helpful to learn how these patterns can show up in everyday life. You may not even realise your body is stuck in a survival response. It might not feel like "survival mode" — especially if you’re highly functional or outwardly successful. But underneath, your system may be signalling that something isn’t quite right.
Let’s explore what nervous system regulation — and dysregulation — can look like in daily life.
What is Regulation?
Regulation refers to how smoothly your nervous system can shift between its different states. A flexible nervous system constantly adapts to life’s demands — moving between calm, activation, and recovery as needed. This balance is what allows us to respond appropriately to what’s happening in the moment.
When your ANS is dysregulated…
In this state, your nervous system struggles to shift fluidly between states. It becomes “stuck” in survival mode — even when you are no longer in danger.
You might think of it like this:
Your nervous system is scanning the world through a lens shaped by past experience — especially early life adversity, chronic stress, inherited patterns, or even modern lifestyle overload. This lens shapes and filters how you perceive the outside world and adapts your body to cope with the challenges and stresses in many ways. This can create patterns that quietly shape how you feel, connect, and live — even if you're not fully aware of it.
What can dysregulation look like?
When your ANS is dysregulated, it becomes hard — or even impossible — to connect with others from a place of ease, warmth, or authenticity. Many of the challenges that arise from this can go unnoticed for years, because of the way your ANS works beneath your awareness.
You may experience:
❁ Difficulty relaxing or switching off
❁ Feeling like you always have to ‘function’
❁ Chronic exhaustion
❁ Feelings of hopelessness
❁ Digestive issues
❁ Persistent sadness
❁ Loneliness
❁ Restlessness and inner agitation
❁ Negative thought spirals
❁ Burnout
...and many more.
So is it worth working with your ANS?
Absolutely. Supporting your nervous system to become more flexible and resilient is one of the most foundational steps you can take towards greater ease, joy, and self-connection.
There are so many things you can do to support nervous system and work with it.
Often simple things like slowing down, doing less, breathing consciously, becoming mindful of your body, going for walks in nature, doing yoga or qigong, singing, dancing, or connecting with like-hearted souls can help it to be more deeply regulated.
The nervous system is like the root system of your entire being. When it’s regulated, nourished and supported, everything else has room to grow. Remember my analogy with a tree at the beginning of this brochure?
That’s why I created my Nervous System Coaching using the Safe and Sound Protocol —
to support your ANS to loosen its grip on old programming, and build a more secure, rooted foundation for the life you want to live — one that feels aligned, joyful, and authentic from the inside out.
The Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) is not the only way.
There are many practices you can do to support your nervous system, as I have mentioned above.
And some of this can be really fun.
What is Nervous System Coaching using the Safe and Sound Protocol?
It’s a unique combination of the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) — a music-based listening programme that gently supports your vagus nerve to shift into the ‘safe state’ — and tailored embodiment coaching to help you understand your specific nervous system and learn practices that help you self-regulate and grow in new ways.
If you’d like to learn more, simply visit the Nervous System Coaching site, read my blogpost “What is the Safe and Sound Protocol — and how can it support your inner journey?” or book a no-obligation Connection Call with me further below
A gentle closing...
Working with your nervous system is not about forcing change.
It’s about creating enough safety and support for your natural aliveness, joy, and wholeness to re-emerge in the present moment — so you can thrive from the roots up.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Warmly,
Julia
Trauma-informed Embodiment Coach, Intuitive & Transformational Guide
I’m here to support you on your inner journey, to help you find your way home to your true self. I have walked my own journey home to myself for decades, during which I learned and trained in a wide range of approaches to help me get there. My body has played a central role in helping me transform, heal and embrace a new more fulfilling ways of being - and find my way home. I now weave all I have learnt together to help others find their way home, without having to take the long way I did to get there. I love to combine Sacred Soul Work, Soulful Embodiment and beleive that your body and your nervous system are key in creating a strong foundation from which you can access your full potential. I hope you’ll love this blog in which I share much of what I have learnt.
More about Julia
This blog draws, in gratitude, on the work and wisdom of:
Dr Stephen Porges — Polyvagal Theory and the development of the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP)
Deb Dana — Clinical applications of Polyvagal Theory in psychotherapy
Additional insights from my own professional training in (somatic) psychotherapy, medicine, trauma therapy, spiritual life coaching, and family constellations
And my own lived experience of healing from autonomic nervous system dysregulation