Speaker 1: If I could say one thing that has changed my
Speaker 1: whole entire life, it is breath work. I think it's
Speaker 1: one of the most underrated things that you could do
Speaker 1: in your day to completely shift you from one state
Speaker 1: to another.
Speaker 2: I'm Raley W.
Speaker 1: Kiah and on my podcast A Really Good Cry, we
Speaker 1: embrace the messy and the beautiful, providing a space for
Speaker 1: raw and fielded conversations that celebrate vulnerability and allow you
Speaker 1: to tune in to learn, connect and find comfort together.
Speaker 1: Hey everyone, and welcome back to this week's episode of
Speaker 1: A Really Good Cry. Today, I wanted to talk about
Speaker 1: our nervous system because I don't know about you, but
Speaker 1: it's getting to the end of the year and I
Speaker 1: still feel really high strung and what I need to
Speaker 1: do is calm my nervous system. And I think it's
Speaker 1: really easy to go through our days, weeks, years of
Speaker 1: being overstimulated and having our nervous system in fight or
Speaker 1: flight without it coming back down to feeling in a
Speaker 1: safe mode. And it's really normal because of the type
Speaker 1: of life that we all live, the overstimulation that we have.
Speaker 1: But I do know that there are so many incredible
Speaker 1: ways to help us to regulate and a state of
Speaker 1: our nervous system in the morning really dictates how the
Speaker 1: rest of our day unfolds. And look, I definitely think
Speaker 1: that there are incredible supplements out there like magnesium and
Speaker 1: ushwa ganda or doing red light therapy, all of that
Speaker 1: does work. One of my favorite supplements right now for
Speaker 1: soothing my nerves is terror Origins Healthy stress relief.
Speaker 2: It contains lots.
Speaker 1: Of adaptagens like ushwaganda and rodeola and elthenine, a herb
Speaker 1: cortious chandra, and all of these are incredible ingredients used
Speaker 1: to help the body better manage stress and helps to
Speaker 1: reduce tension and just support the balance of your nervous system.
Speaker 1: And so I do use that as a little extra
Speaker 1: care for my nerves. But I also want to remind
Speaker 1: you that your body was designed to regulate itself long
Speaker 1: before supplements or devices ever existed, and so of course
Speaker 1: these are really helpful in this environment that we're living
Speaker 1: in to reduce stress that we weren't expecting in our body.
Speaker 2: You know, if you think about all the people who just.
Speaker 1: Lived with nature, they probably didn't need all these supplements
Speaker 1: because they weren't as high strong as we are in
Speaker 1: this environment. That we now live in, and so it's
Speaker 1: definitely useful to have a little top up. But Ioveda
Speaker 1: has shown us for thousands of years how possible it
Speaker 1: is to help regulate our nervous system with so many
Speaker 1: tools and techniques that are completely free. So in this episode,
Speaker 1: I want to take you through nine things that I
Speaker 1: do before nine am to help reset and regulate my
Speaker 1: nervous system for the day. They are all free, they're
Speaker 1: all simple, and they are genuinely effective, and I have
Speaker 1: been doing some of these for years and years.
Speaker 2: You can do them all in the morning, or.
Speaker 1: If you don't have time for that, you can kind
Speaker 1: of sprinkle them throughout your day. You can also pick
Speaker 1: and choose which ones feel right for you, because we're
Speaker 1: all so different and different things are going to help
Speaker 1: heal our system. I've had many many health and hormone
Speaker 1: experts on my podcast, and so some of these recommendations
Speaker 1: are things that I put into practice after hearing their
Speaker 1: advice that is based on clinical studies, and other things
Speaker 1: are just tools that I have learned from Aravada and
Speaker 1: ancient healing practices have existed for thousands of years. So
Speaker 1: the first thing I want to remind you of is
Speaker 1: that your nervous system is not broken, It is just overloaded.
Speaker 1: And we have to realize and recognize how overstimulating modern
Speaker 1: life is. Whether it's the constant notifications, whether it's looking
Speaker 1: at screens before our brain even wakes up, rushing from
Speaker 1: thing to thing, loud environments, all the emotional overload, caffeine,
Speaker 1: lack of sunlight, lack of real rest, you name it.
Speaker 1: We are putting our bodies through it. And your nervous
Speaker 1: system is not malfunctioning. It's doing exactly what it was
Speaker 1: built to do respond to all of this input. We
Speaker 1: just need to give it counter signals of safety to
Speaker 1: help reregulate it. So before we get into the tools,
Speaker 1: I want to quickly explain these three basic states that
Speaker 1: your nervous system moved through in the most simplest possible
Speaker 1: way to help you to understand your body a little
Speaker 1: bit better. So the first state is our sympathetic state.
Speaker 1: This is our fight or flight, which is what many
Speaker 1: of us live in. This is the go go ghost state.
Speaker 1: It turns on when you are rushing, when you're stressed,
Speaker 1: when you're scroll or overwhelmed, or when you're running high
Speaker 1: on caffeine. Your heart rate goes up, your mind speeds up,
Speaker 1: and your body gets ready to react. The second state
Speaker 1: is your dorsal vagel or this is your free state.
Speaker 2: This is full.
Speaker 1: Shut down mode. You're not anxious, you're not exhausted. You
Speaker 1: just feel numb, checked out, and unmotivated, or like your
Speaker 1: brain is just wrapped in a cloud. This is your
Speaker 1: nervous system saying that was way too much and I
Speaker 1: need to shut down to protect myself. That's when you
Speaker 1: know you have gone way past over stimulation and all
Speaker 1: the way to my body cannot handle this. And the
Speaker 1: third state is ventral vaguel. You don't need to remember
Speaker 1: these names, but just know that this is your safe
Speaker 1: and connected zone. This is your body being in its
Speaker 1: regulated state. It's calm, it's clear, it's grounded, it's steady.
Speaker 1: You might, like me, be sitting here thinking, God, I
Speaker 1: don't even know what that feels like, haven't felt in
Speaker 1: a really long time. But it's when you feel like
Speaker 1: yourself again. You can think properly, you breathe properly, and
Speaker 1: you respond instead of reacting. How lovely does that sound?
Speaker 2: What a dream? So let's make this happen, shall we?
Speaker 1: This is relevant here because all the tools that I'm
Speaker 1: about to share help you move back into this regulated,
Speaker 1: safe state, and hopefully the more that you do them,
Speaker 1: the more regulated you feel and the easier it is
Speaker 1: to get back into that state. Your nervous system is
Speaker 1: going to move in and out of stress all day.
Speaker 2: That is normal.
Speaker 1: The goal isn't to live in a complete zence state,
Speaker 1: even though that sounds like a wonderful place to be.
Speaker 1: The goal is to recover faster, to come back to
Speaker 1: calm more easily, to not stay stuck in stress or
Speaker 1: shut down for too long. So that is what we
Speaker 1: are aiming for. Once you finish this podcast, try and
Speaker 1: put these into practice and see how different it makes
Speaker 1: your body and mindful. First, I'm going to give you
Speaker 1: a little iravadic perspective, because you know I have to.
Speaker 1: I talk about doses a lot, but if you're new
Speaker 1: to it. In our vader, just like we have these
Speaker 1: different blood types, we also have different doses. It is
Speaker 1: our natural mind body type. They are the qualities that
Speaker 1: we're born with and the patterns that shape how we think,
Speaker 1: feel and move through the world. This regulation doesn't necessarily
Speaker 1: look this for everyone. We all look different our minds
Speaker 1: act differently, so of course the way that we regulate ourselves.
Speaker 2: Will be different.
Speaker 1: We don't all break down in the same way, we
Speaker 1: don't react to overwhelm in the same way, and therefore
Speaker 1: we don't all always need the exact same tools. So
Speaker 1: understanding your dosha helps to tell you why your stress
Speaker 1: looks the way that it does, why certain tools will
Speaker 1: instantly calm you, and why other tools just don't work
Speaker 1: on you at all, and what your body is really
Speaker 1: asking for when you feel off. So I'm going to
Speaker 1: go through some of these disregulation modes of different doses,
Speaker 1: and as you hear them, simply just notice which one
Speaker 1: you feel you fit into the most. So Vata dysregulation
Speaker 1: looks like anxiety, restlessness, overthinking. This is when your mind
Speaker 1: is sprinting, your body is buzzing, and you just cannot
Speaker 1: switch it off, Like your mind is just racing over
Speaker 1: and over again no matter how much you try. Your
Speaker 1: thoughts feel really scattered and all over the place. So
Speaker 1: if you are someone who hears this and you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: that really sounds like me. Your nervous system can't through
Speaker 1: warmth and routine stillness and lots of grounding practices. Cold showers, fasting,
Speaker 1: or intense morning workouts may actually make you feel far worse.
Speaker 1: But warm breakfast, breath work, long exhales, and grounding rituals
Speaker 1: they are incredible for you. Pitter dysregulation looks like irritation, anger, urgency,
Speaker 1: that kind of feeling of everything is urgent and everyone
Speaker 1: is annoying me right now. You know the term hot headed,
Speaker 1: That's basically how you get when you're disregulated. Your heat
Speaker 1: is rising mentally and emotionally. So if you're hearing this
Speaker 1: and you're like, this is definitely me. I feel snappy,
Speaker 1: I feel annoyed. I just want to punch everyone in
Speaker 1: the face. You need cooling, you need softening, and.
Speaker 2: You need space.
Speaker 1: So competitive workouts, hot environments and rushing around will definitely
Speaker 1: inflame you even more. But having soft morning lights, slow walks,
Speaker 1: cooling breaths, and a little bit of silence can instantly
Speaker 1: regulate you. Kafa dysregulation looks like freeze, that zone that
Speaker 1: we spoke about earlier where you feel heavy and numb,
Speaker 1: the feeling of I'm stark and foggy and unmotivated, and
Speaker 1: I feel really low in my mood and my energy.
Speaker 1: So if you had that, and you're thinking, oh, I
Speaker 1: felt like that for a little bit. Your calm comes
Speaker 1: from actually moving, stimulation, warmth and gentle activation. Stillness and
Speaker 1: coziness might actually make you feel a little bit more stuck,
Speaker 1: and so you need invigorating breathworks. You need brisk walk,
Speaker 1: sunlight and warmth that can re anchor you. So I'm
Speaker 1: now going to share the things that I do in
Speaker 1: the morning. And like I said, all of these practices
Speaker 1: work for me, but that you may have to test
Speaker 1: and trial these to see which ones benefit you the
Speaker 1: most and helps to soothe your nervous system best. So
Speaker 1: the first one, which I've been doing four years is
Speaker 1: hot water. Now you can add a little bit of
Speaker 1: spices in there. You know. I love my CCFT, corry
Speaker 1: undercumin and fennelcy. It's great for digestion. Recently, I've been
Speaker 1: putting apple side vinegar in my hot water in the
Speaker 1: morning to help with my digestifier because it's winter at
Speaker 1: the moment and it needs a little bit of help.
Speaker 1: Warm water helps to soothe and calm the digestifier and
Speaker 1: the mind in the morning. If you think about it,
Speaker 1: warm water equals warm body and a warm mind. And
Speaker 1: usually a warm mind feels more comforted. It signals to
Speaker 1: the nervous system that we're safe, we're not rushing, and
Speaker 1: we are starting today off slow. If you think about
Speaker 1: it, it makes sense. So when do you feel comforted, you
Speaker 1: get into a snugly little blanket, you put your comfory
Speaker 1: clothes on, and so a little bit of warmth in
Speaker 1: the body and the mind can really help to make
Speaker 1: it feel comfortable and relaxed. The second thing that I
Speaker 1: do first thing when I make up in the morning,
Speaker 1: I brush my teeth. And while I brush my teeth,
Speaker 1: I stand on a murrama mat. This is basically an
Speaker 1: acupressure mat. It has these little spikes in it and
Speaker 1: you just walk up and down. It helps to massage
Speaker 1: your pressure points. Your marma points or these pressure points
Speaker 1: are energy junctions where your mind and your body meet.
Speaker 1: So standing on a murrama mat, it helps to stimulate
Speaker 1: the nerve endings on your feet and it sends grounding
Speaker 1: signals up the vagus nerve, which is, by the way,
Speaker 1: the nerve that helps to calm your body. It instantly
Speaker 1: shifts you mental to physical presence, not because of the pain,
Speaker 1: because it can be a little bit painful, especially if
Speaker 1: you're not used to doing it, but it really just
Speaker 1: allows your body to feel. You suddenly realize you're in
Speaker 1: your body your mind doesn't one day. It brings you
Speaker 1: back into the moment. If you don't have a mat,
Speaker 1: it's okay. You just can use your thumbs and you
Speaker 1: can press into different parts of your feet, even if
Speaker 1: you do it for ten to twenty seconds on each foot.
Speaker 1: The third thing that I do in the morning is
Speaker 1: breath work. Oh my goodness, if I could say one
Speaker 1: thing that has changed my whole entire life, it is
Speaker 1: breath work. I think it's one of the most underrated
Speaker 1: things that you could do in your day to completely
Speaker 1: shift you from one state to another. Your breath is
Speaker 1: literally like a remote control for your nervous system. It
Speaker 1: is the bridge between your mind and your body. It
Speaker 1: is the best tool to bring you back into presence
Speaker 1: and the fastest way for you to shift from fight
Speaker 1: or flight to feeling like you are safe. The first
Speaker 1: breath work you could do is so easy. It's a sigh.
Speaker 1: You do a tiny in hell and a long excel
Speaker 1: in one breath. You'll notice such a difference I just
Speaker 1: did and I didn't do it properly, it instantly reduces
Speaker 1: your cortisol and there's actually science behind why these longer
Speaker 1: exhales are calming. So when you're doing breath work, and
Speaker 1: especially if you're trying to calm your body, do a
Speaker 1: shorter inhale and a longer exhale. When you inhale, your
Speaker 1: heart rate goes up, and when you exhale it actually falls.
Speaker 1: So when you make your exhale longer than you're inhale,
Speaker 1: you are basically telling your body, we are safe and
Speaker 1: you can slow down now. The long exhale helps to
Speaker 1: activate your parasympathetic nervous system, which is a part of
Speaker 1: your brain that is responsible for calming, grounding, and healing.
Speaker 1: Another great breath work is either box breathwork or four
Speaker 1: seven eight. You breathe in for four counts, hold for seven,
Speaker 1: and breathe out for eight.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 1: This helps us slow the heart rate, and sometimes counting
Speaker 1: can feel easier to get through the breath work than
Speaker 1: just trying to breathe in and out with no direction.
Speaker 1: The next thing that I've been doing a lot lately,
Speaker 1: and it's something that I realized was helpful actually when
Speaker 1: I was getting tattoos done and my body felt inclined
Speaker 1: to start humming, and I started noticing that whenever I
Speaker 1: was in painful, physical painful situations, humming felt like a
Speaker 1: very soothing practice to do for my body. Whether it
Speaker 1: was getting skincare treatments done, or getting tattoos done, or
Speaker 1: anything that made me feel physically uncomfortable, humming helped me
Speaker 1: so much. Or if I would feel scared on a flight,
Speaker 1: whenever there's turbulence, I just start humming, and it really helps.
Speaker 1: I cannot like, until you try it, you won't really
Speaker 1: get it, but I cannot tell you how much it
Speaker 1: soothes my nervous system. It makes me feel safe in
Speaker 1: my own body. And then I looked at it. I
Speaker 1: was like, there must be a scientific reason for this,
Speaker 1: So I looked it up and I found out that
Speaker 1: when you hum, your sinuses produced fifteen times more nitric
Speaker 1: oxide than normal. And at first I thought it was
Speaker 1: nitric oxide not bad for you, but apparently it's not.
Speaker 1: Nitric Oxide helps to relax your blood vessels, improve oxygen flow,
Speaker 1: reduce inflammation, and helps your body shift out of fight
Speaker 1: or flight. So this is why I felt, and other
Speaker 1: people feel clearer and calmer and more grounded after humming
Speaker 1: for even thirty seconds, Isn't that amazing? A simple practice
Speaker 1: like humming can do so much for your body, and
Speaker 1: even scientifically, it's proven humming gives your brain something rhythmic
Speaker 1: and repetitive to focus on. It interrupts these spiraling thoughts,
Speaker 1: and it brings your attention out of your head and
Speaker 1: into your body. And this is also why chanting. Like
Speaker 1: so many traditions have chanting is part of their morning practice,
Speaker 1: where it's part of their spiritual practices. It's something that
Speaker 1: I practice every morning, and that's why it feels so soothing.
Speaker 1: It's literally built on this mechanism of repetition of sound
Speaker 1: vibration through the body, and so even one minute can
Speaker 1: change the state of your body.
Speaker 2: So give that a go.
Speaker 1: The next time you feeling anxious or unregulated or scared
Speaker 1: on a fly, do a little bit of humming. Oh
Speaker 1: the other day, I was in a skin treatment that
Speaker 1: was a little bit painful, and I started humming Christmas
Speaker 1: songs made me feel great. Okay, this next one is
Speaker 1: something that I'm really trying hard to do, but I
Speaker 1: struggle with it so much because I'm not an early eater.
Speaker 1: But it's not working out on an empty stomach. And
Speaker 1: this was something that every female hormone expert that has
Speaker 1: come on the podcast has told me. And it's the
Speaker 1: one that I've been resisting the most because I struggle
Speaker 1: to eat too early in the morning and I work
Speaker 1: out early and I don't feel like breaking my fast
Speaker 1: at that time.
Speaker 2: I just don't after sleeping. I want to eat when
Speaker 2: I'm hungry.
Speaker 1: But they keep saying that your hormones get so disrupted
Speaker 1: when you work out on an empty stomach. And apparently,
Speaker 1: when we sleep, especially as women, our cortsolt is already
Speaker 1: really high in the morning. It's also what helps us
Speaker 1: to wake up in the morning, and so it definitely
Speaker 1: has its benefit. But because it's already high, when you
Speaker 1: have fasted intense workouts without fueling yourself, it spikes are
Speaker 1: even higher. So you have more stress, more anxiety, more cravings,
Speaker 1: and more hormonal disruption, and so you're kind of setting
Speaker 1: yourself up for failure right from the star. So I mean,
Speaker 1: it's something that I'm still working on. And it can
Speaker 1: be something small. A banana, a half a banana, a
Speaker 1: small carb is enough. It doesn't have to be a
Speaker 1: big meal, but it's amazing to think that just by missing,
Speaker 1: just by not eating when you're working out, it can
Speaker 1: make you start your full day in a stress state,
Speaker 1: which is the opposite of what you want your workout
Speaker 1: to be doing. I usually work out to feel less anxious,
Speaker 1: not more, and so give that a go. Something I'm
Speaker 1: still working on, but it's definitely an important one.
Speaker 2: This one, you know.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you've heard it so many times, and so
Speaker 1: have I, and I keep telling myself to do this,
Speaker 1: and I've really managed to do it until I get
Speaker 1: through part of my meditation. At least I'm still working
Speaker 1: on making through my full meditation. I take a little break,
Speaker 1: go to the bathroom, and then I'm scrolling through my phone.
Speaker 2: But screen free mornings what a game changer.
Speaker 1: No TV, no music, no podcasts, no screens, just and
Speaker 1: even minimal talking get used to silent. So stimulation free
Speaker 1: mornings are so important. The nervous system actually regulates through absence.
Speaker 1: So when you wake up and you immediately take in
Speaker 1: noise and screens and you're feeding your sympathetic nervous system
Speaker 1: like you're feeding this fight or flight mode. It sounds dramatic,
Speaker 1: but it's actually the most biologically normal thing for your
Speaker 1: nervous system. We forget that for thousands of years, even
Speaker 1: though this was very unnatural to us now. But for
Speaker 1: thousands of years, humans woke up to absolutely nothing. Maybe
Speaker 1: the sounds of the birds, maybe the sound of something boiling,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe like a nice tea, But they definitely
Speaker 1: didn't wake up to all the trending sounds on TikTok.
Speaker 1: They woke up to nature, and as unfamiliar as that
Speaker 1: might feel to us now, softness and quiet and slowness,
Speaker 1: natural light, the sounds of your own breath. This is
Speaker 1: what heals and soothes our nervous system. The flood of
Speaker 1: simulation that hits your nervous system before your brain even
Speaker 1: has a chance to arrive in your body, it can
Speaker 1: put you from a calm sleep state to being super
Speaker 1: high strung within minutes. Silence is how your body recalibrates.
Speaker 1: It is the absence of input that actually gives your
Speaker 1: nervous system space to settle. So if there's one nutrient
Speaker 1: that we're all deficient in is definitely silence. Honestly, just
Speaker 1: five to ten minutes of quiet in the morning. It
Speaker 1: has so much and if it yea lowers your heart rate,
Speaker 1: lows your breath, balances your cortisol, grounds your mind, and
Speaker 1: improves your focus for the rest of the day, and
Speaker 1: it actually helps you to feel like yourself before you
Speaker 1: take in the world. You know, I think most of
Speaker 1: us don't even think of silence as being useful. It
Speaker 1: feels like something that's so passive, but it's actually active regulation,
Speaker 1: Like our body needs silence to regulate our nervous system.
Speaker 1: The next thing is something if you know me, you
Speaker 1: know I'm obsessed with nature and the power of nature
Speaker 1: to be able to heal us in so many ways
Speaker 1: that we do not even realize. Whether it's the sun,
Speaker 1: whether it's the earth, whether it's water. Nature literally has
Speaker 1: the ability to heal us in so many ways. It
Speaker 1: is so magical, and I think it's something that people
Speaker 1: take for granted and don't realize the magical power. But
Speaker 1: we're so disconnected from nature. We're so disconnected from its
Speaker 1: ability to it. We're so disconnected from the fact that
Speaker 1: we're connected to nature. Every single day. Our sarcadian rhythm
Speaker 1: is connect to the rhythm and the cycle of the
Speaker 1: sun rising and the sunsetting. So imagine how much more
Speaker 1: of our body is regulated by that the moon affects
Speaker 1: the water in the world and affects the water in
Speaker 1: our own body. And so I think if you are
Speaker 1: able to venture into the world and notice the effect
Speaker 1: of nature on your body, I guarantee you you're going
Speaker 1: to have a transformative experience.
Speaker 2: I definitely have.
Speaker 1: I've fallen in love with nature, and whenever I feel
Speaker 1: overwhelmed or whenever I feel like my body is just
Speaker 1: not happy, the first thing I think about is going outside,
Speaker 1: having fresh air, looking out into the distance, seeing the
Speaker 1: green nature around me, and there is just something so
Speaker 1: soothing about it. If you think about when you go
Speaker 1: to a beach, or you're in the woods, or you know,
Speaker 1: it may not be something you notice, but start noticing,
Speaker 1: start noticing when you're out in nature how your body feels.
Speaker 1: I think we often don't even take time to notice that.
Speaker 1: But actually I guarantee you if you start knowing noticing it,
Speaker 1: there is not going to be a time where you're
Speaker 1: in nature and you don't feel that way. Before technology,
Speaker 1: before supplements, before wellness practices, we had sunlight, we had earth,
Speaker 1: and we had open space. And your body is still
Speaker 1: biologically wide to respond to these three things instantly, no
Speaker 1: matter how much we have trained it out of it.
Speaker 1: So the first thing is morning light. We can all
Speaker 1: experience it, we can all receive it. Morning light isn't
Speaker 1: just a nice thing to have. It's not just a
Speaker 1: nice wellness thing. It literally programs your hormones for the
Speaker 1: entire day. It regulates your quarters alt, it improves your sleep,
Speaker 1: it stabilizes your mood. Honestly, two minutes outside. I usually
Speaker 1: go outside when the sun is rising. It feels my
Speaker 1: heart in weighs nothing, and nobody else can like. It's
Speaker 1: just phenomenal. You do not need to go outside for
Speaker 1: a twenty minute some bathing session. Just step outside, look
Speaker 1: at the general direction of where the sky is. Maybe
Speaker 1: shut your eyes if you want to, or just look
Speaker 1: into the distance and let natural light do its job.
Speaker 1: Just look into the sky. That's all you have to do.
Speaker 1: The second thing is grounding. Oh my goodness, go barefoot.
Speaker 1: I know we will have this thing about feet, seeing
Speaker 1: your own feet, seeing other people's feet, But you know what,
Speaker 1: Our feet get us around places. They do magnificent things.
Speaker 1: And your feet are meant to feel the soil and
Speaker 1: the earth that it walks on. We don't need to
Speaker 1: wear shoes and socks all the time. What we need
Speaker 1: is to feel the incredible energy of the earth going
Speaker 1: through our body. And I know it sounds really woo woo.
Speaker 1: And when you think of grounding, you imagine like a
Speaker 1: hippie with long hair standing in close to no clothes
Speaker 1: with their feet in the ground. But actually science has
Speaker 1: backed this up finally, and the science is simple. Your
Speaker 1: body holds electrical charge. The earth holds electrical charge, so
Speaker 1: when your skin touches the ground, your body equalizes. It's
Speaker 1: literally like plugging into a charger. I usually do it
Speaker 1: when I land places, like especially when I go back
Speaker 1: home to London and my body clock is off. I'll
Speaker 1: go outside no matter how cold it is, and I
Speaker 1: will touch my feet to the soil and I just
Speaker 1: feel so connected. I feel so much better instantly. You
Speaker 1: can ground in a few different ways. You can stand
Speaker 1: barefoot on soil or grass. You can sit on the ground.
Speaker 1: You can touch a tree trunk or even hug it.
Speaker 1: Or you can just place your palms on the earth too.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I just go outside and lay on the ground
Speaker 1: look up at the sky, so I can do a
Speaker 1: few of these things in one go. But yeah, they're
Speaker 1: really simple and so easy to do wherever you are.
Speaker 1: The next thing is looking out into the horizon. When
Speaker 1: you are anxious and stressed or overwhelmed, your eyes naturally
Speaker 1: actually narrow. Your vision becomes tunneled, and this is your
Speaker 1: brain just preparing for threat. It is a survival response.
Speaker 1: But when you look at the horizon, your eyes widen,
Speaker 1: your peripheral vision expands, and your brain interprets this as
Speaker 1: there is no threat nearby. Because you're opening your eyes out,
Speaker 1: you're looking around. If you think about it, when you're scared,
Speaker 1: your whole body tenses, your eyes tense, your shoulders tense.
Speaker 1: Everything is just one track vision of saving yourself. Whereas
Speaker 1: if you are someone that's looking around calmly, softly, it's
Speaker 1: obviously telling your brain that, hey, we're actually here as
Speaker 1: a tourist. We're just looking around, we're having fun, we're
Speaker 1: enjoying the space around, and so looking far away physically
Speaker 1: opens your field of view. This is a safety queue
Speaker 1: for the brain. We're really similar to animals actually in
Speaker 1: that way. It literally softens your whole system. Number eight
Speaker 1: is a regulation anchor. It's one ritual that tells your
Speaker 1: body we are safe, and you can choose one to
Speaker 1: be consistent with every single morning. It's just a lovely
Speaker 1: signal of safety to your nervous system. And this can
Speaker 1: be anything from journaling to prayer to gratitude. That hot
Speaker 1: cup of water in the morning, one minute of stillness
Speaker 1: are younger, This beautiful practice of self massage with oil,
Speaker 1: chanting or humming. This just becomes your baseline ritual and
Speaker 1: your nervous system loves patterns. It relaxes when things feel familiar,
Speaker 1: rhythmic and safe. This is actually iradus concept of the nacharia,
Speaker 1: the idea of small, repeated actions that help to regulate
Speaker 1: your entire system. Number nine is hot showers with eucalyptus.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I look forward to my hot showers
Speaker 1: with eucalypses every single day. Have this eucalyp dispray of
Speaker 1: it pure essential oil, and I follow it with a
Speaker 1: little oil massage when I come out of the shower.
Speaker 2: All both of these practices are calming and grounding.
Speaker 1: Warm water relaxes your muscles and dialects your blood vessels,
Speaker 1: which reduce its tension, lowers the stress that's in the body,
Speaker 1: and again it signals safety to the brain. Most of
Speaker 1: the time when we're in this fire or flight mode.
Speaker 1: It's basically we don't feel safe in our own body.
Speaker 1: So imagine feeling that over and over and over again,
Speaker 1: day and day out. This hot shower in the morning,
Speaker 1: it's like telling your body, we are not rushing, we're
Speaker 1: warming up slowly. And it is perfect for the mornings
Speaker 1: you wake up anxious, tense, you're overthinking, or even those
Speaker 1: cold giatree mornings that we're experiencing at the moment, and
Speaker 1: this are younger or oil body massage, Oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: it is my favorite thing that I do every morning
Speaker 1: and evening. I jump out of the shower, even if
Speaker 1: I have one minute. I'll do my legs, my feet,
Speaker 1: my upper body, just my shoulders, and I have this
Speaker 1: beautiful smelling oil that just feels like I'm doing a
Speaker 1: luxurious treatment on myself. And I do that at night
Speaker 1: as well. And you could just do it on your feet,
Speaker 1: you can do it just on your upper body. But
Speaker 1: there's something about soothing oils or even your own touch
Speaker 1: to your body, even giving yourself a hug, like just
Speaker 1: having your own touch to your body, especially with oils,
Speaker 1: it helps to soothe your nervous system deeply and oils
Speaker 1: actually help to lubricate your nervous system. So that is
Speaker 1: a big part of the practices I do. I do
Speaker 1: a lot of oils, whether it's on my face, on
Speaker 1: my body, and it says that when it absorbs into
Speaker 1: your body, it helps to actually lubricate and kind of
Speaker 1: wrap around your nervous system, giving it a big hug.
Speaker 1: So those are the nine things that I do before
Speaker 1: nine am. They are simple, they're free, they are ancient
Speaker 1: and science factors that genuinely change the way that my
Speaker 1: nervous system feels every single day. And look, there are
Speaker 1: times that some of these work and some of them don't.
Speaker 1: And there are times that I wake up super stress
Speaker 1: and other times that I fate wake up super relaxed.
Speaker 1: That is just part and parcel of being a human
Speaker 1: and living in this human experience. But I really hope
Speaker 1: that this episode helps you to create a morning that
Speaker 1: feels nourishing, a grounding, and stead because we really need
Speaker 1: that in our life. And the more we feel that,
Speaker 1: the more we can share that energy with other people.
Speaker 1: And so instead of being someone who is bouncing off
Speaker 1: the walls, you get to be the calm in someone
Speaker 1: else's life. You get to be someone who brings presents
Speaker 1: and not panic into somebody else's life, and then you
Speaker 1: can move through your day from a place of clarity
Speaker 1: and not chaos. How lovely does that sound. I just
Speaker 1: want you to remember you do not need a perfect routine.
Speaker 1: You just need a few simple steps, a few moments,
Speaker 1: and they tell your system we are okay, or we
Speaker 1: can slow down and we can breathe. That's all our
Speaker 1: body really wants. So sending all so much love. I
Speaker 1: hope that you find this episode helpful, and I'd love
Speaker 1: to hear all your feedback. I really appreciate reading all
Speaker 1: your messages and sending all so much love.