Breaking the myth of nervous system fragility

Building deeper trust with your psyche

If you’ve ever explored the healing arts, you know how central it is to learn how to regulate your nervous system and how to take proper care of it.

I’d even say that as far as I know at this point, it is something that is not refutable. It’s a skill I wished I could’ve learned in elementary school.

That being said, the popularization of the concept of nervous system regulation has caused the emergence of one main distortion.

I call it the myth of nervous system fragility.

Over the last few years, I’ve seen many social media post going along the lines of “I need to protect my nervous system”.

Don’t get me wrong here, I understand the intention. No one in their “right” mind would enjoy being dysregulated. Especially not for a sustained amount of time.

I’ve spent the last 12 years as a devoted student of the healing arts, and to this day, I still believe that thinking of your nervous system as fragile, is one of the most limiting perspectives for your expansion you’ll ever adopt.

Your nervous system may be overloaded, but it is not fragile.

The point is, that myth has caused a new form of hyper vigilance. That new form of hyper vigilance is directed at anything that might even cause the slightest levels of nervous system unrest.

This new form of hyper vigilance might even cause you to resist meeting the pain that your system and your body are already carrying so that you may release it.

I’ve had people tell me at times that they are afraid that if they meet fully meet they emotional intensity that they carry within themselves, they might lose their minds.

And I do get it. Repressed pain needs to be skillfully approached in the appropriate container.

What I am pointing at is the fact that many people seem to relate to their nervous system as if it was made of extremely delicate glass. And that is not really the full picture.

Is this an invitation to be neglectful with your nervous system health? Absolutely not.

I am merely pointing at the mistrust that some people seem to have with their own nervous system.

And what I would like to do is to introduce you to the humongous quiet strength of your nervous system.

The underrated power of your nervous system

Every time I help clients resolve the repressed emotional conflicts that keep them from thriving, I am often met with great resistance at first.

That's natural and somewhat expected. We often have resistance towards what we once repressed.

After all, It wasn’t safe to meet that pain for the longest time. Sometimes decades.

That fear of pain is a form of mistrust of our nervous system’s capacity to move through it.

Here’s another way I am inviting you to look at things.

Your psyche has been holding that same repressed pain for years and sometimes decades. Your nervous system already knows how to be with it, because it has done precisely that for years. Your psyche has been carrying the wounds you didn’t know how to resolve for YEARS.

Thinking about doing that heavy lifting for years!

I am not sure if you can imagine the amplitude of what this means.

That is not fragility, it is raw strength.

Your nervous system is not weak. It is certainly not fragile. Yes it needs care and tending to. But your nervous system is a beast. Plain and simple.

It already knows how to be with the pain that scares you, because it has. It just needs you to allow yourself to consciously go into these places where the pain is held so that the release and the alchemy can unfold.

It needs more of your own trust.

Are you going to lose your mind if you do it? The answer is most likely yes. You need a new mind anyway. One that trusts that the pain that has been stored in your body is no longer something you need to run from.

I think a great deal of healing has to do with actualizing and making conscious the capacity to be with pain that your nervous system already has. And that capacity is beyond comprehension.

In other words, you are unconsciously feeling your feelings. Your nervous system is. You are just learning how to consciously do that with an open heart.

You are already “being” with the pain you had repressed. You do that unconsciously. Your nervous system does that. You are learning how to do that consciously with an open heart.

And as you do that the magic of healing unfolds.

With time, the overload of your nervous system decreases, and there is more emotional stamina to be who you truly are.

How is this sitting with you?

Embracing that practice is a great part of what we do in my private community The Embodied Light Project.

Think about how that would liberate you? That practice is what undoes the grip of self sabotage, resistance and makes room for you to be truly unleashed.

Doors open soon. Click here to join the waitlist and be the first one to know.

In gratitude and reverence,

— Xavier