Nervous system regulation is an intricate dance of both upregulation and downregulation

A healthy balance of both is necessary for how we feel and respond to the world around us, enabling us to respond to life's challenges in a way that feels manageable and safe 

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Sometimes nervous system regulation isn’t just about getting into the rest and digest state, the peace state, the state of regulation where we’re in the safe and social, where we’re feeling calm, relaxed, soothed.

Sometimes we need to upregulate and sometimes we need to downregulate.

Up regulation is when we might be in the freeze state, where we might feel stuck and we need to move. We need to mobilise energy and need to release stuck energy and rev ourselves up so to speak and create some good stress in our bodies, to release stagnant, stuck energy and also to energise ourselves.

Down regulation is when we need to rest and come into that state of deeper relaxation. But often we might need to mobilise the energy and get rid of the stuck energy before we can downregulate.

So there are differences. The point is for our nervous systems to be flexible and to accommodate different states of being. But to always returned to a steady state in the end, so that we’re able to manage the challenges of life, so that we’re able to go into that stress state, get mobilised and to manage that and come back to a normal state of nervous system regulation.