physiology

Today in class we learned about the autonomic nervous system. This is the majority  of the nervous system and includes everything that you cannot control, which is most of your functions. The autonomic nervous system is made up of the parasympathetic system and the sympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic nervous system is the rest and digest and the sympathetic is the flight or fight response. Your body does it's best to keep you centered between these two but different stimulus can alter your state. For example, when you're scared the flight or fight response takes over. Seeing a bear would stimulate the sympathetic nervous system and would lead to increased heartbeat, dry mouth, narrowed pupils, and this system is also linked to the gastrointestinal system. When you're relaxed, the parasympathetic system might take over. This state lowers your heartrate, makes you salivate, and in general you become calmer. The body tries to keep you inbetween these two systems. One of the only ways to affect the autonomic nervous system is breathing. Taking long, slow, deep breaths can lead to the parasympathetic nervous system. You can initiate this state and calm yourself down just by focusing on your breathing. Other than that, the systems are automatic and you cannot control. Like you cannot control what your response to a certain frightening stimulus would be, when scared you either run or try and defend yourself but it is an automatic response that you have no control over.