Regulate, THEN Rewire

In the last year, sev­er­al peo­ple in recov­ery I know have “fall­en off the wag­on.” I’ve seen a return of dis­or­dered eat­ing in lots of my yoga stu­dents. My class sizes have swelled and my pri­vate somat­ic ther­a­py ses­sions* are wait­list­ed. I’m hear­ing over and over how the things that once helped peo­ple heal no longer feel like enough. How their talk ther­a­py and med­i­ta­tion prac­tices are no longer pro­vid­ing the same amount of insight and relief. They are baf­fled as to why, despite doing “all the right things,” they still feel stuck, over­whelmed, and on edge.

In a world con­stant­ly on fire, it’s nat­ur­al to reach for solu­tions that promise clar­i­ty. We think it through with our ther­a­pist. We med­i­tate to rise above. So why do those prac­tices sud­den­ly feel strange­ly inef­fec­tive? It’s not because they don’t work (they do!), it’s because they’re being asked to do a job the ner­vous sys­tem hasn’t yet been pre­pared for.

Before we can rewire the brain, we must reg­u­late the ner­vous system.

The ner­vous sys­tem pre­dates thought. Long before lan­guage, log­ic, or polit­i­cal iden­ti­ty, our bod­ies evolved to answer one ques­tion. Am I safe? When the answer feels like “no,” the ner­vous sys­tem shifts into sur­vival mode—fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. In that state, the brain is designed only for speed and pro­tec­tion, not insight, nuance, or long-term change. Reason nar­rows, curios­i­ty dis­ap­pears, and empa­thy can shut down.

You can under­stand your pat­terns per­fect­ly in ther­a­py, but if your body is chron­i­cal­ly braced for the next dis­as­ter, those insights won’t land. You can med­i­tate dai­ly, but if your ner­vous sys­tem is con­stant­ly flood­ed by polit­i­cal out­rage or a sense of exis­ten­tial threat, still­ness may feel inac­ces­si­ble or even unsafe. 

The prob­lem is not a lack of dis­ci­pline or intel­li­gence. It is dys­reg­u­la­tion. If you’re dys­reg­u­lat­ed, then you tend to just push through or over­ride what you’re think­ing and feel­ing. So, your heal­ing prac­tice becomes about con­trol, not regulation.

Politics, espe­cial­ly in times of polar­iza­tion and per­ceived moral emer­gency, speaks direct­ly to the ner­vous sys­tem. It frames the world in terms of dan­ger, ene­mies, and urgency, trig­ger­ing a sus­tained sur­vival response. We’re doom-scrolling instead of sleep­ing, snap­ping at those we love most, pin­balling quick­ly between emo­tions: numb one moment and incan­des­cent with rage the next. When this hap­pens, the pre­frontal cor­tex, the part of the brain respon­si­ble for reflec­tion, inte­gra­tion, and change, pret­ty much goes offline. You can­not rethink your way out of a state your body believes is life-or-death.

Regulation is the bridge.

Regulating the ner­vous sys­tem does not mean dis­en­gag­ing, feel­ing calm all the time, or rid­ding your­self of anx­i­ety or dis­com­fort. It’s an adap­tive capac­i­ty to feel a wide range of emo­tions with­out the ner­vous sys­tem shut­ting down, brac­ing, or tak­ing over.  It means restor­ing enough inter­nal safe­ty that the brain can come back online. It means telling the body, again and again, at this moment, I am safe. Only from that place can new neur­al path­ways form. Only from that place can insight turn into embod­ied change. 

This is why prac­tices that work with the body are often what peo­ple are miss­ing right now. We need more slow, extend­ed exhales, gen­tle move­ment, hum­ming, singing, and danc­ing. We need to be in safe, attuned human com­mu­ni­ty. These are not less­er prac­tices than cog­ni­tive insight, but foun­da­tion­al require­ments for them. They calm the vagus nerve, low­er stress hor­mones, and reopen the brain’s capac­i­ty for learn­ing and flex­i­bil­i­ty. This is why your ther­a­pist might have you shake or bounce before you sit and talk, or why your yoga teacher cues the med­i­ta­tion or breath­work at the end of the class, after you have moved your body.

Think of it like try­ing to rewire a house dur­ing an elec­tri­cal storm. You can have the best blue­print in the world, but if the sys­tem is over­loaded and spark­ing, noth­ing new can be installed safe­ly. Regulation qui­ets the storm. Then rewiring can occur.

In over­whelmed polit­i­cal times, this order mat­ters more than ever. If we skip reg­u­la­tion, we risk becom­ing more reac­tive instead of more effec­tive. We con­fuse con­stant acti­va­tion with moral seriousness. 

We need safe­ty before strat­e­gy, ground­ing before growth, and reg­u­la­tion before rewiring.

Want to learn more about the ner­vous sys­tem? Check out our Trauma-Informed Mindfulness Certification Program!

*I am not a licensed men­tal health prac­ti­tion­er. I am a cer­ti­fied mind­ful­ness coach and a Therapeutic Yoga Teacher. I am more like a phys­i­cal ther­a­pist than a talk therapist.