Addressing the Issue of Overactive Nervous System Response to Circumstances

Whenever anything happens in the world, the senses capture the vibrations and send them up the nervous channels to the brain where they are they interpreted and responded to. When the nervous system is sensitive and overly responsive it may vibrate continuously and not let up. This creates an uncomfortable feeling that makes the individual nervous or jumpy, wound up or overly reactive. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to calmly view whatever the circumstance is and respond to it calmly and in the most effective manner. This is at some point a ‘closed loop’ where the individual feels trapped and under pressure, and cannot find any way out.

The first step to freeing oneself from this over excitement of the nerves is to become aware of it, and then to take steps to distance oneself from it, and eventually bring it to a state of quiet or calm. The separation of the witness consciousness from the external being is a powerful option to accomplish this. There are also specific interim methods that can be employed to aid the seeker in calming the nerves, to break the cycle of disturbance.

For instance, taking deep breaths, reciting a mantra, concentrating on some other point or issue, spending time in nature, perhaps a forest, or along a seashore, some people find it useful to do hatha yoga asanas, or some form of martial arts, or even just sit quietly, read and drink tea. Whatever works to bring the nervous energy back into balance, will help the seeker get to a place where it becomes manageable.

Once the seeker works out a procedure that succeeds in calming the nerves, he can begin to develop the insight to hopefully avoid, or at least reduce, the nervous excitement when future provocations come along. The key is to appreciate that one is not the external personality, but the psychic being, the soul entity, so that whatever occurs to the external being is not to be accepted if it interferes with the sadhana.

Sri Aurobindo observes: “The main difficulty seems to be that you are too subject to an excitement of the nerves — it is only by bringing quietude and calm into the whole being that a steady progress in the sadhana can be assured.”

“The first thing to be done in order to recover is to stop yielding to the attack of the nerves — the more you yield and identify yourself with these ideas and feelings, the more they increase.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 4, Ordeals and Difficulties, pg..109