Do You Know What Drives Your Overall Mental Well-Being?
- Dec 16, 2021
- 6 min read
Updated: Jul 1, 2024
Written by: Lisa D’Alessandro, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Did you know that the Nervous System is the driver that affects almost EVERY aspect of your MENTAL well-being?
In fact, your Vagus Nerve plays a huge role in your overall HEALTH.
If it isn’t functioning as needed due to low vagal tone from too much STRESS, an infection, toxicity or something else happening inside your body, a traffic jam of inflammation builds up and blunts vital information from being communicated back and forth between your BRAIN and your organs.
Our unique body and mind are self-regulated to heal when the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems are in more harmonic BALANCE.
If you are not familiar with the VAGUS nerve, it’s the longest, most complex cranial nerve in your body that’s made up of thousands of sensory fibers and has more NEURONS intwined within the GUT than the brain itself.
It’s a two-lane highway between your gut and brain while branching off to almost every organ in your body allowing for vital back and forth COMMUNICATION.
It’s responsible for the REGULATION of internal organ function with most of the information going north to the brain. Identifying what's being perceived by your VITAL glands like the adrenals, thyroid and organs, including your stomach, intestines, lungs, heart, spleen, liver and kidneys.
Our Nervous System is designed to REACT in times of trouble to help us take action with the “fight and flight” response but in today’s overly stressed way of living it doesn’t always get turned off allowing the PARASYMPATHETIC system to appropriately calm down and RELAX.
Think of this system as a fuse box for your body and mind.
If it’s not turned off, your body doesn’t get the right SIGNALS for sleep, energy, focus, weight loss or how to elevate HAPPINESS hormones.
Today we know the survival of organisms living in stress is of vital importance. We must become more RESILIENT, being able to adapt to our environment and the stress loads by NURTURING our body like a temple.
Life and our existence is about BALANCE and BELIEFS.
One God-given tool we have is our breath…the quality of our BREATH determines the quality of our lives.
Taking time outs throughout the day to stimulate TONING the vagus nerve with sequential deep BELLY breathing, a person is able to shut off the body’s stress response and CALM the cortisol that gets relentlessly released in the blood.
Our health is all about putting out the systemic FIRES of inflammation within and to support regulating the nervous and immune systems.
The GATEWAY that needs to be regulated is in the gut where much of the MISSING hormones, neurotransmitters, nutrients are absorbed and taken up in the body. Or in many cases, NOT.
Food, herbals, specific bacteria and NUTRIENT chemical compounds provide all the INFORMATION that travels through our internal highways similar to fiber optic pathways. This is where food makes for medicine or our worst poison.
This is where adaptogenic substances can help us have the ability to normalize body functions, help us COPE on all levels while STRENGTHENING systems are compromised by stress and inflammation.
An ADAPTOGEN is categorized as a form of herbal medicinal part of a plant from leaf, stem or as a whole to promote a PROTECTIVE effect on our health, provide a better RESILIENCE from an enormous variety of environmental assaults and emotional TRIGGERS.
Much like our beloved antioxidants, flavonoids, minerals and vitamins, adaptogens constitute a category of nutritional and herbal constituents ESSENTIAL for good health, adaptability, RESILIENCE, survival, and healthier aging.
When we’re stressed there’s a chemical chain REACTION of stress hormones like CORTISOL surging through the bloodstream causing ANXIETY, overwhelm, FATIGUE, adrenal exhaustion and takes a toll on our MENTAL and physical HEALTH.
Ashwaghanda and Matcha are two of my favorite adaptogens acting like a thermostat and INHIBITS releasing these stimulating hormones and CORTISOL from the hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal glands to calm the body down, while simultaneously boosting one’s MOOD and ENERGY.
Inflammation is a menace, the root of DISEASE, the chronic culprit that research associates with heart disease, diabetes, dementia, Parkinson's, Hashimoto’s and thyroid disorders, PCOS, lupus, MS, cancer, arthritis, bowel diseases like Crohn’s, IBS, one AUTOIMMUNE disorder after another.
Luckily, there are ways you can fight back. It's been well documented that the significance of an ANTI-INFLAMMATORY diet as being one of the best ways to fight off inflammation on a large scale.
Taking in more ANTIOXIDANT rich fruits and vegetables protects us from the free radicals that form. They clean up our sludgy dirty BLOOD and why quality supplementing has its place in providing the missing minerals and vitamins that give us energy and PROTECTION.
Life may be FULL on with being so busy, holiday stress and stressors that bombard the body from mold, viruses, EMF’s, GMO’s and lifestyle CHOICES that deter us from leveling up.
I personally know the frustrations of being unable to PINPOINT what’s wrong with your health when you’re experiencing debilitating symptoms. It can be a nightmare and still to this day can take up to a decade for doctors to DIAGNOSE properly.
I know because I’ve been there and so have a hundred of my clients.
The Quickest Way to Feeling Good and More Energized
Flip off the Body’s Stress Response
Enhance Your Body’s Ability to Purge Harmful Toxins
Eliminate Digestive Issues
Boost Nutrient Assimilation & Absorption
Sharpen Memory and Focus
Clear Up Paralyzing Brain Fog
Boost Moods, Motivation and Metabolism
Calm the Fires of Systemic Inflammation
Melt Away Anxiety & Depression
Slip Into the Body’s Preferred State of Relaxation & Healing
Lower Your Chances of Activating Another Autoimmune Disorder
It doesn’t happen by trying this or that, but by going ALL in supporting the GUT BRAIN AXIS.
Let the HOLIDAY'S be a reminder when there’s increased underlying stressors, too many obligations, an overload of chemicals, poor diets and cortisol running through your bloodstream these wreak HAVOC on your BODY and MIND!
When CORTISOL levels stay elevated for far too long it impacts your health in a myriad of ways.
Especially your MENTAL wellness which affects ALL areas of one’s life, including daily routine, desired goals, how we LEAD and make an IMPACT, and of course our physical health!
If you still feel challenged even after doing daily GRATITUDES and/or suffer with ANXIETY, blood sugar swings, EXHAUSTION, intense brain fog, FORGETFULNESS, inflammation issues and a general feeling of being unwell then it’s time to NOURISH your second brain with some needed healing protocols.
So YES, rewiring your brain and the neural pathways with MINDSET shifts is part of the equation.
And more importantly, feed the MICROBIOME targeted bacteria to boost SEROTONIN, specific sources of foods for moods and antioxidants to take down INFLAMMATION you are orchestrating HARMONY within!
There’s NO quick fix to anything but there is the right pathways or ‘yellow brick road’ to OZ.
ASK yourself do you want to live out your life to the fullest, happiest with a body that’s NOT racked with pain, inflammation and a brain that is optimal, clear and focused?
If YOU are one of the majority who is too tired and wired or suffering silently and you’re ready to feel better, do better, and sleep well and STRESS LESS commit to a FREE Gut and Brain Breakthrough Session.
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and visit her website for more info!
Lisa D’Alessandro, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Lisa D’Alessandro is an Entrepreneur and Holistic Heart~Gut~Brain Axis Nutritional Coach who’s walked this walk with her own well-being, her children and countless others. She helps overwhelmed entrepreneurs and mama's put on their oxygen masks to boost their moods, memory, digestion, immunity, metabolism and resilience with holistic solutions for the gut/brain axis so they can calm the cellular chaos within and age more gracefully, blissfully with greater mental vigor and physical vitality. Her other mission is how children’s minds and lives are being compromised which is not beyond our control, but sadly manipulated by marketing, toxic overload in products and the big pharma for which lifestyle choices, food and specific phytonutrients are key to unlocking anyone’s full physiological potential. Let’s lead by example and be the change we wish to see in the world!
