Why Nervous System Resilience Matters More than Nervous System Regulation
In recent years, nervous system regulation has become a ubiquitous catch phrase in the wellness world. From cold plunges to breathwork to guided meditations, there are innumerable trends claiming to help your nervous system be more regulated.
But what does nervous system regulation actually mean, and is it even the right goal?
Do we really need more control, or do we need more flexibility?
Nervous system regulation teaches you to control your reactions so you stay calm.
Nervous system resilience expands your capacity to respond to life so you can roll with changes and challenges without being completely overwhelmed.
This article explores the role of the nervous system in maintaining safety and balance, and the importance, not of “regulating” the nervous system’s interactions with the world, but of expanding the flexibility and resilience of the nervous system so that it becomes more adaptable.
Rather than simply teaching the nervous system to be calm, nervous system resilience retrains your nervous system to be able to mobilize in response to stress, and to be able to recover once the danger has passed.
How does the Nervous System Work?
The nervous system is organized into two main branches:
The Central Nervous System (CNS) is comprised of the brain and the spinal cord. These structures serve as the master control system in the body.
The Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) includes all of the nerves that branch from the brain and spinal cord to the body, enabling the brain to communicate with the body, and with the outside world.
The Somatic branch of the PNS is responsible for sensation and movement.
The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) is the branch of the peripheral nervous system that controls all of the involuntary functions of the body, including heart rate, breathing rate, and digestion.
The Autonomic Nervous System is automatic. This means that it is not under conscious control. The Autonomic Nervous System also has two branches:
The Sympathetic Nervous System is commonly referred to as the fight or flight system because it mobilizes the body by:
increasing the heart rate
elevating cortisol
dilating the eyes
increasing respiration
sending more blood and energy to the brain for problem-solving and the limbs for movement and self-defense.
The Parasympathetic Nervous System is often called the rest and digest system because it helps the body relax and recover. When the Parasympathetic Nervous System is activated:
blood and energy are directed to the gut
the eyes are able to focus on details
breathing slows energy is conserved, making it possible to rest and digest.
Is Fight or Flight Bad?
The Sympathetic Nervous System has gotten kind of a bad rap in some wellness circles because many people associate it with stress, but its activation is a necessary part of life.
The Sympathetic Nervous System is activated by the four E’s:
Excitement
Embarrassment
Exercise
Emergency
We need the body to be able to mobilize in order to go hiking, deliver a presentation at work, and feel the thrill of riding a rollercoaster as much as we need it to protect us from danger.
When it activates, heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration rate increase, the pupils dilate, and glucose is released so the body has the energy it needs to mobilize and respond.
The body is designed to maintain homeostasis, so once the excitement, embarrassment, exercise, or emergency has passed, the Parasympathetic Nervous System naturally activates, reversing the effects of Sympathetic activation to bring the body back to its baseline.
The Autonomic Nervous System works just like a thermostat in your home that monitors the ambient temperature and turns the heating and cooling systems on and off as needed to maintain an even temperature. In a building, if the room gets too hot, the air conditioning turns on, and if it gets too cold, the heat turns on. The Sympathetic and Parasympathetic branches of the ANS work in much the same way, adjusting up and down to maintain balance.
What is Nervous System Regulation?
When people talk about regulating the nervous system, they typically mean using stress-relieving techniques to reduce Sympathetic Nervous System activation.
While having a toolbox to help you feel calm is certainly important, this concept of nervous system regulation is oversimplified, and fails to consider why the body is in fight or flight mode.
It also assumes that it is desirable to stay in Parasympathetic mode, which simply isn’t true.
The nervous system’s main job is to protect you. If you were in rest and digest mode all the time, you would not be able to survive because your ability to respond to danger would be shutdown and you would become immobilized rather than mobilized when there is a threat.
Understanding Vagal Tone: The Foundation of Resilience
The vagus nerve is the primary messenger of the parasympathetic nervous system. It is the tenth cranial nerve that begins in the brainstem and travels along the spine, branching off to the organs in your chest, abdomen, and pelvis.
The vagus nerve is responsible for your ability to rest, digest, connect, and create.
Vagal tone refers to how responsive and flexible your vagus nerve is.
High Vagal Tone enables you to:
Mobilize quickly in response to stress
Focus and think clearly under pressure without feeling overwhelmed or incapacitated
Bounce back from challenges quickly
Rest at the appropriate times
Digest your meals and eliminate your wastes with ease
Low Vagal Tone occurs when you are stuck in survival mode, leading to:
Shutdown in response to stress
Difficulty problem-solving
Feeling overwhelmed an unable to focus under pressure
Staying stuck and having difficulty bouncing back
Being unable to mobilize, but also unable to rest
When you are in survival mode, your body believes there is a threat and is sending danger signals to the brain via the vagus nerve.
If you have low vagal tone, nervous system regulation exercises like restorative yoga and guided meditations won’t help you metabolize the fear that is keeping you stuck.
You don’t need another exercise to help you calm down, you need to stimulate the vagus nerve to help your body reestablish a sense of safety.
The Polyvagal States
While we often simplify the autonomic nervous system into mobilization and rest states, there is a third, deeper parasympathetic nervous system state called freeze or shutdown that is activated during times of grave danger.
The Ventral Vagal State (safe & social)
During times of safety, the ventral branch of the vagus nerve enables you to connect with the world with curiosity.
Ventral Vagal activation helps you to feel:
calm, grounded, and present
clear and focused
connected
curious and open
creative
able to handle stress without feeling overwhelmed
The Sympathetic State (fight or flight)
When the nervous system is activated by stress or potential danger, it mobilizes. We call this state the fear mobilization response, and it leads to:
heart pounding
mind racing
hypervigilance
feeling wired but tired
difficulty concentrating
poor digestion
These are not signs of dysregulation, but rather of the nervous system functioning as it should in response to stress.
The key is that once the stressful event is over, the nervous system should be able to shift back into a ventral vagal state. If you aren’t able to reestablish a sense of safety, you may feel stuck in this mobilization response.
Expecting your nervous system to relax via typical nervous system regulating exercises, such as restorative yoga, guided meditation, or breathwork, is unrealistic unless you have first convinced your nervous system that you are safe.
The Dorsal Vagal State (shutdown or freeze)
The deepest state of nervous system reaction uses an ancient, reptilian pathway to shutdown the body to protect against danger by immobilizing it.
This can make you feel:
numb
disconnected
exhausted
collapsed
foggy
dissociated
hopeless
empty
isolated
The dorsal vagal pathway is the same pathway activated in other animals when the threat is so large, and the chance of survival so low, that the nervous system slows down all biological functions to make the predators believe the animal is dead. This is not a conscious choice to stay still, but a physiological immobilization.
Some people misinterpret shutdown as a failure to act in self-defense, but dorsal vagal shutdown is the ultimate act of protection and preservation.
Other people misinterpret that low energy state of dorsal vagal shutdown as a state of calm, but it is not a regulated state, it is a survival strategy.
A resilient nervous system recognizes when the danger has passed, knows how to discharge the energy of the threat, and is able to reconnect with sources of connection and safety.
In other words, a resilient nervous system can move out of immobilization, back into healthy activation, and eventually into rest without getting stuck in shutdown mode.
Nervous System Resilience
Nervous system resilience is your system’s ability to move fluidly between mobilization and recovery, fear and safety, without getting stuck.
A resilient nervous system can:
activate when needed (for focus, action, or protection)
downshift into rest when safe
adapt quickly to changing conditions
tolerate discomfort without shutting down or spiraling
recover after stress instead of accumulating it and staying stuck
A regulated nervous system needs things to be just right in order to feel comfortable because it feels fundamentally unsafe.
A resilient nervous system is flexible, responsive, and dynamic because it knows how to establish safety and connection.
The goal isn’t to be calm and regulated all the time, it is to be responsive to whatever life throws your way.
Instead of striving to stay calm at all times, focus on building a system that can move, adapt, and return to center with ease. That’s the real foundation of mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing.
TL;DR Summary
Nervous system resilience is the body’s ability to move smoothly between states of activation and rest, while nervous system regulation refers to tools that help you temporarily calm or stabilize your state. Resilience is more impactful because it strengthens vagal tone, improves stress recovery, and prevents the system from getting stuck in sympathetic mobilization (fight-or-flight) or parasympathetic immobilization (freeze or shutdown). Instead of aiming to stay calm all the time, building resilience helps your body adapt to stress, shift states more easily, and return to balance naturally.
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People Also Ask
1. What is nervous system resilience?
Nervous system resilience is the ability to shift smoothly between activation, focus, rest, and recovery without getting stuck in stress or shutdown. It reflects how well your body adapts to challenges and returns to balance.
2. How is nervous system resilience different from regulation?
Regulation focuses on calming or stabilizing your state in the moment, while resilience expands your system’s overall capacity to handle stress. Resilience builds flexibility and recovery, not just temporary relief.
3. Why is nervous system resilience more important than regulation?
Resilience creates long-term adaptability by strengthening vagal tone and improving state flexibility. This helps your body recover faster from stress and prevents chronic activation or shutdown, whereas regulation offers short-term support.
4. What is vagal tone and why does it matter?
Vagal tone measures how responsive your vagus nerve is. Higher vagal tone supports emotional stability, healthy stress responses, digestion, and the ability to move between sympathetic and parasympathetic states with ease.
5. What is the difference between sympathetic mobilization and parasympathetic immobilization?
Sympathetic mobilization is the “fight-or-flight” state that prepares your body for action, while parasympathetic immobilization is the “freeze” or shutdown response triggered when overwhelm or helplessness is perceived. Both are survival states but serve different purposes.
6. Can you build nervous system resilience?
Yes. Mobilization and immobilization are activated by fear, so the first step in building nervous system resilience is to help the nervous system feel safe enough to restore social connection. Rather than simply reacting to stress, nervous system resilience is cultivated over time via strategies that metabolize the energy of stress, strengthen vagal tone, and improve your ability to shift between states smoothly. It can help to work with a nervous system coach to create a personalized plan.
7. Is it unhealthy to be in fight-or-flight?
Not inherently. Controlled sympathetic activation is useful for focus, energy, exercise, and motivation. It becomes unhealthy only when the body cannot return to baseline and remains chronically activated.
8. Why do some people get stuck in freeze or shutdown?
A system with low resilience or low vagal tone may default to parasympathetic immobilization when stress feels overwhelming or inescapable. This state can feel like numbness, exhaustion, or disconnection.
