Less Stress, More Success!

I ask for a lot of feedback from my community that I connect with. It is so important to me to get feedback from my followers, podcast listeners, and clients. I have routinely noticed that the community struggles with a lot of the same core problems and also wants to fix, resolve or learn more about them. The topic I want to discuss today has come to my attention more than once. I want to discuss the concept of stress, your nervous system, and how to regulate your self when you are overwhelmed by it.

Whether it is big or small, we all have endured the concept of stress. Especially in today's societal norms and expectations. But, did you know that there is a part of the stress that is purely physiological and the effects of being in a constant state of stress are toxic to your well-being?

I have experienced stress so much from my experience in complex PTSD and starting my own business as well as just existing in today’s life. I want to give you some understanding and tools that have changed my life and my clients' lives.  

LET’S GET REAL: Sometimes it can just get a little too much!

What does an unbalanced nervous system that is filled with stress look like?

• It is your body living in a constant state of hyperarousal or hyperarousal.

• Living in a constant state of self-soothing (numbing behaviors, avoiding behaviors, addictions).

• Physical body ailments or sicknesses (your nervous system connects with your immune system).

• Impaired Mental Health (anxiety, depression, anger, etc).

• Sleep Imbalances.

What can cause a life of an unbalanced nervous system and unregulated stress?  

• Mental diet: We are surrounded by fear stories! Your mental diet will get filled with what you are feeding it every day in your surroundings. What is in your social media feed? What are you mentally consuming?

• Long-term stress: Imagine you constantly living under stress, your stop mode will not know how to work! Your body will constantly be living in fight or flight mode and it will affect your physiological state of being.

• Societal Values and Expectations: If you live by societal rules of approval, appearance, and achievement you will constantly be in a mode of the sympathetic dominant nervous system. Your happiness lies outside of yourself and you will never have enough because your core values do not belong to you.

• Compare and Despair: This is a big one in today's society of social media scrolling. You are constantly scrolling through social media and comparing yourself to others. Everyone else is always better than you, or doing something you can’t do, has the better body, etc. This overwhelms our brains with information and constantly stimulates our stress hormones.

• Having a history of trauma, stress, heavy emotions: If you have a build-up of emotions and history of trauma without dealing with it and letting it go you will carry it every day with you. Whether the trauma is from last year or your childhood it will live either in the back or the front of your mind until it ultimately explodes and seeps into your daily life.

If you are living this way and find that you do not know how to leave this highly intoxicated life of being overstimulated, sick, stressed, exhausted, follow these daily practices to help you! Self-regulating stress and emotions will go much farther in life than self-soothing. I know, because I have been you.

7 Steps to Regulating Stress Levels and an Over Active Nervous System: 

1. Meditation and Breathing Techniques: You do not always have full control over your body once it has reached peak stress levels. You do have control over your breathing and sitting in a moment of silence. This may sound hard but start with one minute at the beginning of the day and one minute at the end of the day and build from there. It will change your life!

2. Guilt-Free Rest: Schedule rest periods into your schedule DAILY! Not once a week or a month, you need daily re-coups. Start with 30 minutes of guilt-free rest and build up from there.

3. Good Sleep: Your body needs a good night's rest, and a good sleep routine in order to get that good night's sleep. Create a nightly routine so your body knows when it is time to shut down and go to bed when your body needs you to go get rest.

4. Movement: Movement keeps your energy inflow. Keeping your body moving will release that nervous system energy that you can’t seem to shake. Daily movement does not mean it has to be a high-energy workout (which can actually create more stress in the body). Go for a walk, do yoga class, etc. Create time to do a daily movement.

5. Diet: Diet affects your hormones moods and productivity more than you will ever know. Now, I am not a dietician so I am not going to tell you what to eat but I will tell you that what you eat matters. Did you know that scientifically a big side effect of over caffeinating is higher anxiety levels, unregulated emotions, hormonal imbalances, and more?

6. EFT (Emotional Freedom Tapping): Sometimes your body is physically having a stressful moment and you need to release that tension and build up. There are trigger points in your body that you can tap and it releases those physical and emotional feelings.

7. Check your Beliefs: Toss away the societal, expectations, norms, and needs. Figure out what and how you want your life to align with your freedom of living. Create your own standards of happiness and stop comparing yourself to others.

I know that it is simpler said than done. The more you practice and want to make a difference in your life. The more YOU will see the efforts of your work. It has made a major difference in my life and my clients. The tips and understandings that I give you are things I do myself on a daily basis.

Now, this does not mean you will not have stress. These practices will help you regulate and keep your stress levels in check and live a more balanced and happy life.

Best,

Claire

P.S. If you want more information on regulating stress, check out the podcast episode HERE!