A Permission Slip for Your Nervous System

By Lance Isakov,
Licensed Acupuncture and Shamanic Practitioner

I hope you are having a great day. If you missed my Winter Letter from last week, you can find it here.

Today I want to share a little about our amazing nervous system, and something I’ve been noticing again and again in the treatment room.

People lie down.
The needles go in.
The room gets quiet.

And almost immediately, the body starts to do what it has been waiting a long time to do.

A deep sigh.
A dropping in.
A long exhale.
A wave of emotion.

Sometimes tears.
Sometimes laughter.
Sometimes restlessness.
Sometimes very deep stillness.

As if the nervous system has been waiting for permission to be exactly as it is.

So many of us have learned to override our body’s signals in order to be good, peaceful, productive, pleasant, or resilient. We tighten. We push through. We breathe just enough to get by. We call it coping.

But what I see, over and over, is that the nervous system isn’t broken.
It’s just been working very hard.

Hard to keep the peace.
Hard to stay functional.
Hard to not fall apart when there isn’t space to do so.

What if healing isn’t about regulating ourselves into some ideal state, but about offering the body permission to do what it already knows how to do?

A Tiny Practice to Try

You can try this anywhere, not just on a treatment table.

Place one hand on your belly.
Place the other hand wherever feels comforting.
Let your breath do whatever it wants.

No fixing.
No technique.
No special breathing techniques required.

Just let your breath breathe you.

You might notice a sigh.
A swallow.
A yawn.
A tightening.
A softening.
Or nothing at all.

All of it counts.

The body releases in waves, not on command.

Note: It’s important to do this practice in a space that feels calm and safe.

Something I Wish More People Knew

Rest is not collapse.
Zoning out is not failure.
Stillness is not avoidance.

These are nervous system languages. They are how the body metabolizes stress, grief, joy, and everything in between.

You don’t have to regulate your way out of being human.

This week, see what happens when you offer your nervous system less instruction and more compassion.

Feeling better is just the beginning.