Your Nervous System is the Ultimate Abundance Detector
This morning, I watched my children walk through the doors of a public school for the very first time. After years of homeschooling, this moment felt monumental, not just for them, but for my entire nervous system.
As I walked away from the school parking lot, my heart was doing something interesting. It wasn't just racing with anxiety (though there was some of that). It was also quickening with genuine excitement. My breath felt both shallow with wondering and expanded with possibility. My body was telling a story.
Here's something I've been sharing with clients lately that bears repeating: sympathetic nervous system activation isn't always the enemy.
Polyvagal theory, developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, teaches us that our autonomic nervous system has three primary states. We often demonize that sympathetic "fight or flight" response, but the truth is, we need that energy to feel excitement, curiosity, and engagement with life, as well as to leave dangerous situations. The key difference lies not in the activation itself, but in whether our nervous system feels fundamentally safe or threatened, and if it can fluctuate between states fluidly.
When I felt my heart rate increase this morning, I had a choice. I could interpret that activation through the lens of scarcity: What if they struggle? What if I made the wrong choice? What if they can't handle it?… or through abundance: Look at this new adventure. Look at how they're growing. Look at all the possibilities opening up.
The physical sensations were nearly identical. The story my nervous system told about those sensations? That made all the difference.
The Body's Abundance vs. Scarcity Signals
After years of working with clients on nervous system regulation, I've noticed distinct patterns in how abundance and scarcity show up somatically:
When we're operating from scarcity, our nervous system often looks like:
Chronic sympathetic activation: heart racing without purpose, shallow breathing, muscle tension that never releases
Or dorsal vagal shutdown: numbness, disconnection, that heavy feeling of "I can't handle this"
Sleep becomes restless, digestion struggles, and we feel like we're constantly bracing for impact
But when our nervous system feels safe and regulated, when we're feeling abundance:
We can access sympathetic energy when we need it (like feeling excited about new experiences) and then settle back into calm
Our breath flows naturally, our muscles can both engage and release
We feel connected, to ourselves, others, and possibilities
Rest becomes restorative rather than escape
Take a Walk
After dropping the kids off, I found myself automatically turning toward the trail near our house. My body knew what it needed before my mind caught up.
There's something profound about how nature interacts with our nervous system. The irregular patterns of rustling leaves, the varied textures underfoot, the expansive views, all of this feeds what researchers call "soft fascination," a gentle engagement that allows our nervous system to regulate naturally.
As I walked, I could feel my breathing deepen. My shoulders released tension I didn't know I was carrying. But more than that, I could feel my perspective shifting from scarcity to abundance. Instead of focusing on all the ways this transition could go wrong, I found myself marveling at my children's resilience, at the teachers who would care for them, at this beautiful expansion of our family's world.
Building Nervous System Resilience
This experience reminded me that cultivating abundance is a mindset practice and it's also a full-body, nervous system endeavor. Here are some of the most effective ways I've found to build this resilience:
Co-regulation through connection. Our nervous systems are designed to regulate through relationship. After my walk, I called my mom who could hold space for both my excitement and my concerns. Her calm presence helped my system settle even more deeply.
Micro-moments of safety. Throughout the day, I practiced noticing small signals of safety: the warmth of my tea cup, the familiar comfort of my home, seeing the morning photos of my kids’ excitement. These tiny moments of "all is well" accumulate.
Somatic practices that honor both states. Instead of trying to eliminate all activation, I practiced welcoming the energy of excitement while also cultivating the deep rest of true safety. Both have their place.
Nature as nervous system medicine. Regular exposure to natural environments is peasant and it's regulatory. The nervous system developed in natural settings, and returning to them helps recalibrate our stress response.
The Abundance Practice
Tonight, as my kids bubble over with stories from their first day, I will watch their nervous systems in action. Yes, there is activation, new environments, new people, new challenges. But underlying it all was a fundamental sense of safety, of resilience, of abundance.
They approached their day from a place of "I wonder what will happen" rather than "I hope nothing goes wrong." Their nervous systems, still developing and beautifully adaptable, showed me what's possible when we feel fundamentally held by life.
Your Turn: Exploring Abundance in Your Body
I'm curious about your own relationship with abundance and scarcity. Not just as concepts, but as lived experiences in your body.
Take a moment right now to check in:
When you think about something you're excited about, how does that show up in your body? Can you feel the difference between excitement and anxiety, even though they might create similar sensations?
What are the ways you currently cultivate abundance in your life? Is it through movement, nature, connection, creativity, rest?
How does abundance actually feel in your nervous system? Is it the absence of activation, or something more nuanced?
What would it look like to welcome the energy of sympathetic activation when it serves growth and possibility, while still honoring your need for genuine safety and regulation?
I'd love to hear about your own experiments with this. How do you help your nervous system distinguish between the activation of excitement and the activation of threat? What practices help you return to that underlying sense of abundance, even when life feels uncertain?
Because here's what I'm learning: abundance isn't the absence of challenges or unknowns. It's having a nervous system resilient enough to meet life's uncertainties with curiosity rather than contraction. It's knowing that we have the capacity to regulate, to connect, to find our way back to safety even when the path isn't clear.
And sometimes, it's as simple as taking a walk and trusting that both we and the people we love are more resilient than our scarcity stories would have us believe.
What stories is your nervous system telling you today? I'd love to hear about your own abundance practices in the comments below.