How Safe Relationships Regulate Your Nervous System
Healthy relationships have to power to facilitate proper nervous system regulation, especially through co-regulation. This is why choosing people who make us feel safe and secure is important. The nervous system, is responsible for running various bodily functions, like heart rate, breathe, digestion, and stress responses. Here's how safe and healthy relationships contribute to the health of our nervous systems:
Co-Regulation: In a healthy relationship, when one person is stressed, the other person has the ability to help co-regulate their partner's nervous system by providing comfort and support. Comfort and support can look like safe physical touch, words of affirmation, or just listening. In order to make co-regulation possible, partners need to provide each other with emotional safety. Co-regulation can help to calm the sympathetic nervous system and relax the mind. When your in an emotionally safe relationship, the brain perceives less threat in stressful situations, leading to lower cortisol (stress hormone).
Attachment: Secure relationships are built on strong attachment bonds. Attachment bonds are formed in early childhood and have influence our present relationships, especially close relationships. Secure attachments promote a sense of safety, which, in turn, helps regulate the nervous system. Insecure attachments can negatively impact the nervous system by activation of our stress responses.
Oxytocin: Oxytocin, often called the "love hormone" or "bonding hormone," and is released in the brain during positive social interactions, including those in safe and loving relationships. Oxytocin can counteract the stress response and promote relaxation and safe attachment.
Stress Reduction: Safe relationships provide a buffer against external stressors. When you have someone you can turn to for comfort and understanding, it provides you with the ability to cope with stress more effectively. Effective coping reduces the negative impact of stress on your nervous system.
In summary, safe and healthy relationships have a profound impact on regulating your nervous system by promoting emotional safety, secure attachment, stress reduction, and secure connection. I want to encourage you to keep these tips in mind when dating or seeking out various future relationships.
*written through educational knowledge and ChatGPT.
