So many people in our culture live in fight or flight mode (sympathetic nervous system stimulation) and have no idea. It’s almost a badge of honor, an expectation we will feel stressed and overworked living in America. How else can you earn your rest? I think we’ve lost sight of what it means to be human, and that we function better and can be more attentive when we feel relaxed. 
The rest/digest mode (parasympathetic nervous system stimulation) is where we should be most of the time. It does not mean being airy-fairy and non-functionally lazy, but simply is a state in which we are rested, content, and able to focus on what we are doing without feeling stressed.  In this state your internal resources are being managed well, and it is easy to feel “in the flow” and have increased productivity and creativity.
Here are 3 ways to flip the switch to rest, digest and relaxation:

1. Quick Breathing Exercise: 4 count in, 8 count out - This stimulates the vagal nerve, which is a large nerve that goes throughout the body and touches just about every system in your body. When the vagal nerve is stimulated you go into rest/digest mode.
2. Humming or Toning: Humming/toning/chanting to yourself for 5-10 minutes a few times a day, and especially when stressed, can put you back into rest/digest mode by stimulating the vagal nerve. 
3. Music: use music to match the mood you want to achieve or the current mood you are in. Sometimes using music that already matches how you feel, good or bad, can help you engage more fully with that mood till you are ready to move on to something else. 

Sometimes using music that matches what you want, like feeling more relaxed or more energized, can help you get there. The key here is to try something and use your self-awareness to adjust if it’s not working the way you want. 
It’s not always easy to switch into rest/digest mode, especially when you are not used to doing it and are addicted to stress hormones of fight/flight mode. Like any skill, practice brings improvement. When you practice switching on your relaxation response, you get better at it and your body can relax and heal naturally.
If you are struggling with anxiety, depression, or chronic health issues, you could be stuck in fight or flight mode. It’s time to flip the switch! Call me today to set up your free call. I will help you see how stress may be affecting your life and how you can apply simple tools to recover your health.

I’ve been putting this off for a week, this thing I’m supposed to do. This little huge thing, writing a blog post. What should I write about, will anyone be interested, how long should it be, do I really have anything important to say, will this require me to break my poker face?

​That last question is what really caught my attention and made me realize what the problem is. I am worried about writing this blog post and any number of other posts because I don’t like showing the world who I am. At all. I have what might be the world’s best poker face, rightfully earned, and to write anything personal that the world can see feels like a monumental threat. I did not grow up in a world where revealing who I was and what I needed was met with celebration, or a world where sharing how I felt resulted in anything less than ridicule.

So I learned how to have the world’s best poker face to keep me as safe as I could. Even now, I struggle with showing my emotions and letting the world see what is going on under the flat face. Sometimes I think I am smiling but I’m not, and it’s weird when someone lets me know that. The unexpected downside of walking around with a poker face is it got inside me and shut off how I actually feel, and limited what I think I deserve in life.

 This year, after so many years of wishing life could be different, after years of telling myself I had it good enough and not to make any waves, I decided I needed to make a change. I decided to start the business I wanted so I could try help people in a way that makes sense to me, and that has felt pretty exciting. BUT. Wow it also feels like a monumental threat. I have to show up and be me in order to do the work I know I am supposed to do.

So here I am, trying to live out loud as the person I want to be, even when I don’t quite feel it , rather than the wounded kid still hiding behind my poker face. She kept me safe when I needed it but can’t help me now.

​Hello world, nice to meet you.