NCSB Journal Spring 2026

PATHWAYS TO WELL-BEING

The Science of Steady: Reclaiming Your Health Through Nervous System Regulation B Y L A U R A M A H R

Chronic stress is often viewed as an un avoidable aspect of practicing law—usually managed by enduring both the causes of stress and the toll of stress on mental and physical wellness. Over the past decade as a well-being coach and trainer, I have regularly worked with clients to address and mitigate the mental and physical impact of professional stress. Most frequently, clients present with health condi tions related to digestion, muscle tension, au toimmune disorders, disrupted sleep, and high blood pressure that persist even when work loads temporarily ease. Understanding how prolonged nervous system dysregulation creates imbalance across the body’s physiological sys tems is the first step to reclaiming our overall well-being. Neuropsychobiology and the Law How often do we as a legal community pause to consider how our current patterns of stress may be influencing our long-term health? Last fall, I created a course for the Buncombe County Bar (BCB) to do just that. The five week CLE course, The Science of Steady: Mind Body Skills to Regulate Stress in Challenging Times , educated participating lawyers and judges about the impact of nervous system dysregulation on mental health and physio logical systems of the body through the lens of neuropsychobiology. Neuropsychobiology is the study of how the brain, nervous system, physiological sys tems of the body, and emotions interact to shape perception, behavior, and physiological and psychological health—a big word for a concept that depicts what occurs internally at any given moment when practicing law. For example, neuropsychobiology is at play in a stressful courtroom interaction if an attorney’s nervous system’s fight response is activated. The fight response, once activated, can simul taneously: ● narrow cognitive focus impacting the at torney’s ability to remember facts (brain);

©iStockphoto.com/Juergen Sack

● increase heart rate and activate rapid breathing (respiratory system); ● elevate the stress hormone cortisol (en docrine system); ● tighten shoulder, jaw, and neck muscles (musculoskeletal system); ● elevate the attorney’s frustration (emo tional response); ● cause the attorney to perceive the case as a “losing battle” (perception); and ● influence the attorney to advise the client to settle or plead instead of moving forward with litigation (behavior). Each of these psychological and physiolog ical impulses may happen lightning fast and outside of the attorney’s conscious awareness. Over time, stressful courtroom interactions that are not mitigated by nervous system regu lation tools may cause the attorney to experi ence ongoing psychological anxiety (feeling of dread/fear) and corollary physiological anxiety (sensations of panic, elevated heart rate, high blood pressure) associated with going to court. Nervous System’s Role in Stress and Physical Health As illustrated in the example above, our

bodies do not work in silos; everything is connected. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) regulates a surprisingly long list of essential bodily functions, including heart rate, breathing, digestion, immune activity, and hormone release, as well as blood pres sure, body temperature, pupil dilation, sweat, bladder and bowel function, sexual arousal, sleep-wake rhythms, metabolic processes, and inflammatory responses. Have you experienced professional stress influenc ing these interconnected systems throughout your body? The two primary branches of the ANS— the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system—support mobilization and recovery, respectively. The nervous system has the ability to “activate” or “up-regulate,” mobilizing us to accomplish all that we do in a day. A healthy nervous system is reliant upon the nervous system also being capable of “down-regulating,” allowing us to rest, reset, and recover. If the nervous system functions properly, it shifts smoothly between upregulated and downregulated nervous sys tem states as needed, as well as idling in a state of ease when there’s no need for mobilization.

SPRING 2026

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