The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is a critical component of human physiology, regulating involuntary functions such as heart rate, digestion, and respiratory rate. It is divided into two primary branches: the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). These two branches work together to maintain balance, ensuring that the body responds to external demands while also recovering and restoring energy.
The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for acute stress responses. It increases alertness, enhances focus, and mobilizes the body for action - often referred to as the "fight-or-flight" response. While essential for productivity and action, chronic activation of the SNS can lead to nervousness, restlessness, and fragmented thinking.
On the other hand, the parasympathetic nervous system facilitates recovery, promotes relaxation, and enhances cognitive flexibility. Activation of the PNS is associated with states of empathy, active listening, and creativity. The PNS plays a crucial role in energy restoration and complex decision-making, allowing individuals to approach problems with a broader, more integrative perspective.
In many professional environments, leaders spend the majority of their day in a heightened state of SNS activation. This imbalance, often evident in physiological assessments such as ECG diagnostics, reduces access to the qualities governed by the PNS—such as creative thinking, emotional intelligence, and deep problem-solving. Since the parasympathetic nervous system is essential for long-term performance and well-being, understanding how to modulate nervous system states is crucial for sustainable success.
Different levels of nervous system activation influence behavioural outcomes in specific ways. Research has shown that acute stress leads to habitual, rigid information processing, making individuals more reliant on automatic behaviours (Dandolo & Schwabe, 2016, Hermans et al., 2014, Nitschke et al., 2019). While this response may be beneficial for routine tasks, it hampers creative problem-solving and adaptive thinking.
Creativity, on the other hand, has been linked to the ability to enter a relaxed state. Studies suggest that individuals with higher parasympathetic activity exhibit greater creative potential (Meier et al., 2020), and stimulating the vagus nerve - closely related to the PNS - can enhance creative performance (Colzato et al., 2018).
Similarly, empathy and active listening are more readily accessible when the nervous system is in a lower activation state. Research indicates that while stress can sometimes heighten focus on social cues, prolonged SNS activation tends to reduce cognitive and affective empathy (Nitschke et al., 2023).
Additionally, acute stress influences decision-making. Under high stress, individuals rely more on habitual patterns rather than assessing novel information, often leading to suboptimal choices (Potts, 2018). The presence of stress hormones like cortisol and norepinephrine has also been found to shift decision-making from a deliberative approach to a more intuitive, loss-averse style (Margittai, 2019).
Here is some further research on state management and down-regulation. In this research summary, the word ‘stress’ is often considered as ‘acute stress’ which is strongly related to ‘sympathetic nervous system activation’