Understanding Our Bodies as a Resource for Shalom:
How We Can Partner With Our Nervous System to Move Toward Safety and Connection.
One distinctive characteristic of the Christian faith is the dignity given to the human body. From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture shows that God’s good design for human beings is to be embodied creatures. This valuation stands in contrast to other faiths, philosophies, and cultural traditions, both past and present, that denigrate the physical body or consider it to be inferior to the mind or spirit. This is not the case with Christianity! The Bible teaches that life in a physical form is foundational to God’s original design and to our eternal realities. In Genesis, we see God creating and commissioning Adam and Eve to serve as embodied ambassadors of God’s shalom, the Hebrew word meaning peace, wholeness, harmony and reconciliation. After sin entered the world through Adam and Eve’s choices, the Gospels recount how the Son of God became incarnate through Jesus and would forever be fully God and fully man, in order to save humanity and restore shalom throughout all of creation. With this, Christians are rightly empowered to befriend our physical bodies and understand how they function (physiology). In doing so, our physical bodies can become powerful allies with our hearts, minds and spirits, as we seek to love God and bear witness to His shalom.
This article examines one aspect of our physiology, the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), and explores how we can resource this system to further our connection with ourselves, God, and others. Rather than fight against our physiology, we can work with it to become recipients and agents of shalom. To get there, we first need to understand the basic function of the ANS.
Understanding Our Autonomic Nervous Systems
The autonomic nervous system is part of the peripheral nervous system, which is the network of nerves outside of the brain and spinal cord. The ANS is responsible for regulating basic physiological functions like heart rate, respiration, and digestion. It makes adjustments to these functions in response to stimuli from the outside world, from within our own bodies, and from relational interplay (Dana, 2018). It does this in service to our survival and well-being as we move through the world.
The ANS can be divided into three main branches: the sympathetic, parasympathetic and enteric. For our purposes, we will focus on the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. These systems activate “opposite but complementary” actions in the body. (Cleveland Clinic, 2024) The parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) activates in response to safety cues and sends signals to the body’s systems to relax, rest and repair (“rest and digest”). In contrast, the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activates in response to danger cues and sends signals to the body’s systems to become alert and mobilized (“fight, flight, freeze”). The balance between these two systems determines how our bodies function from moment to moment.
When the ANS senses no immediate threat or stressors, the parasympathetic system takes the lead. It directs the body to conserve energy and initiates tasks like digestion and cell repair. In this state, we feel at ease and are best able to connect with others and to engage in creative or analytical endeavors. In contrast, if the autonomic nervous system detects enough cues of threat or danger, the sympathetic nervous system takes lead. In this state, our bodies expend energy to prepare for mobilized activity. We shift into a state of defense and are less able to connect with others or to think critically or creatively.
Cues for Safety
Largely, the ANS operates involuntarily and functions without our awareness. This is by design! In times of acute physical danger, we want our bodies to react quickly and make the self-protective shifts that will move us back to safety. However, there are many situations when the sympathetic nervous system takes lead in ways that become unhelpful or counterproductive. The SNS can over-respond to cues of stress, such as traffic jams, work deadlines, and relational conflict, or it can simply remain activated in the body for too long. In situations like these, we have the opportunity to befriend and resource our ANS for the sake of ourselves and others. It is possible to shift the balance between the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems by bringing awareness to the ANS and to the cues of safety and danger that are influencing its state.
In her work with Polyvagal-informed therapy, Deb Dana teaches about cues that either contribute to or detract from a sense of safety in our bodies. As part of this, she outlines the “Three Cs of Safety” (MyUnyte, 2024). These are three categories of cues that signal to our bodies a sense of safety, and direct the activation of parasympathetic pathways and the inhibition of sympathetic pathways. All three are not possible or necessary in every situation; we can feel “safe enough” with just one of these elements present. However, acknowledging the presence or lack of these cues can bring understanding to our present state and introduce options for change moving forward.
Three Cs of Safety:
Choice: Having a sense of choice in a situation contributes to our sense of safety. This is in contrast to feeling trapped or backed into a corner with no options or potentially feeling overwhelmed by endless options.
Connection: Feeling that we are connected to someone or something outside of ourselves also brings a sense of safety. This is in contrast to feeling alone or left on your own. This could be a connection to another human being, to God, or even to a beloved pet.
Context: Understanding the how, what and why of a situation brings a sense of safety. This is the opposite of feeling left in the dark and confused about the circumstances around you.
If we notice our SNS beginning to take lead in ways that are unhelpful, examining the situation in light of these three C’s can bring possibilities for how to move back toward a sense of safety and shalom. Even understanding why we might be headed into the “fight, flight, freeze” posture expands our sense of context and can bring the beginnings of an ANS shift. I share the following example as an illustration for how this resourcing could look.
Seeking Cues of Shalom
I recently found myself on an airplane that was held on the tarmac for over two hours. Around the 60 minute mark, I started to feel restless, impatient and agitated. My breathing became shallow, and my heart rate quickened; I noticed a tightness in my chest. Everything in me wanted to jump out of my seat and confront the flight attendant, who seemed to have no (good) answers for why we were stuck on the tarmac and when (or if) the plane would finally take off. Thankfully, rather than act on my impulse to berate this innocent airline steward, I took a moment to pause and reflect on why I was headed in that direction.
Seated in the window seat of a completely full plane for an extended period of time, I felt trapped with no real choice to do anything but sit and wait. I had not been given any information or context for what was happening: reasons for the delay and how or when it would end. And I had no connection to most of the people on this plane, especially the ones who held any genuine authority or information. In this mental reflection, I explicitly attuned to the cues prompting my current ANS response. A mental scan affirmed that my autonomic nervous system was rightly sensing a deficit in cues of safety, which understandably prompted my SNS to take charge.
However, in this situation, a continued sympathetic response would have been counterproductive. Since this was not actually a life-threatening situation, the survival responses of “fight, flight, freeze” would not get me very far, and physiologically, a continued SNS response would keep me from the relational and problem-solving skills that might actually be helpful!
Therefore, in my attempt to befriend and partner with my nervous system, I revisited the 3 ‘C’ categories and intentionally began to seek out cues that would shift my ANS back toward parasympathetic activation and put me in a better position to navigate the situation. First, I leaned into my connection with God. The Holy Spirit was present with me on that plane, and I could receive from Him. I was not alone. The other connection at hand was my spouse, seated next to me. In my sympathetic activation, I had lost sight of his presence. This oversight is common when we have shifted into a mobilized, defensive state and become hyper-attuned to cues of threat. However, if I could redirect my attention toward my spouse, I could also glean from this connection. My spouse and I were equally trapped on the tarmac, but we could be together in it. Again, I was not alone. In taking these initial steps, I began to notice that my heart rate slowed just a bit and my breathing deepened.
Moving on to the categories of context and choice, I acknowledged to myself that the options here were, perhaps, more limited. However, I could remind myself of the larger context for air travel. Delays and cancellations happen. This is unfortunately part of the new normal. (Cue “sigh” and deep breath!) As for choice, I acknowledged that while I still had no choice in the matter of airplane take-off, I did have options for how to be while sitting on the ground. I had choices in how to wait, how to engage with the passengers around me, and how to make the most of this frustrating situation. Access to this level of choice emerged because the balance between my sympathetic and parasympathetic systems had shifted. I was no longer led by and limited to the initial sympathetic response. I had found my way back towards shalom.
Extending Cues of Shalom
In addition to being recipients, we can also stand as agents of shalom. Our physical bodies can bear witness to this place of safety and harmony and offer that to others. If we notice a friend, spouse, child or teammate headed into a sympathetic response or already there, we can serve as agents of shalom by extending these cues of safety to their autonomic nervous system. This could also be done preemptively, in order to promote an atmosphere of safety with those around us. For example, we can speak or act in ways that communicate a sense of connection, showing empathy and attunement. We can speak or act in ways that bring structure for context and provide a sense of what, how and why. We can speak or act in ways that allow for a sense of choice and freedom. In each of these, we bear witness to shalom and invite others into it.
Safety Cues in Scripture
Now holding a deeper understanding of how to resource our physical bodies with attunement to cues of safety, we can return to the foundations of our faith and see that God has offered us these same cues of shalom since the very beginning. If we revisit the opening chapters of Genesis and the Garden of Eden, the place where shalom first flourished, we quickly spot examples of these three cues. In the garden, there was an intimate connection between God and Adam and Eve. God also communicated clearly with Adam and Eve to provide the context for their place in the garden, including specific instructions about their agency and its limits. Finally, within this context, Adam and Eve were given a myriad of choices about how they could engage God’s creation to rule and subdue it.
Even after sin entered the world and shattered this initial harmony, God has graciously continued to provide humankind with cues of safety and shalom. Scripture, itself, has been given to us to provide us with a sense of context about who God is and how he is at work in the world. And throughout Scripture we find the story of God’s relentless pursuit to maintain a connection to whomever would accept the invitation (choice) to follow Him and His ways. I would invite you to look for these cues in your next reading of Scripture. In His kindness and mercy, God has chosen to speak to our hearts, minds, spirits, and bodies to call us back into His perfect shalom. Can you feel it?
Citations
“Parasympathetic Nervous System (PSNS).” Cleveland Clinic, online. Accessed August 15, 2024. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/23266-parasympathetic-nervous-system-psns
Dana, D. 2018. The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the rhythm of regulation. W W Norton & Co.
“Safe Delivery of the SSP: Guiding Principles.” MyUnyte. Accessed August 10, 2024. https://my.unyte.com/resources/SSP-Guiding-Principles/f1e45be6-dde4-4f16-af3a-bbf1971d5516?q=safety
Amber, one of our counselors, is the author of this article.
