Daily Habits for a Healthy Nervous System

Season 4- Episode 50

In today’s episode, Lauren continues her discussion on the nervous system, highlighting simple, effective rituals to support regulation throughout the day. By focusing on small, manageable practices instead of drastic changes, she makes consistency easier. She shares practical ways to incorporate these habits into your morning, midday, and evening routine.

Try it at home tip: Pick one practice to try from the list of things Lauren mentioned in today's episode.

Resources:

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

Other related resources from The Behavior Hub: 

Blog Post: 

Podcast:

Our Online Courses: 

Do you have a question? I can answer it in a future episode!

Are you struggling with behaviors and not sure where to begin? Let me help!
 Schedule a free discovery call and let me be your Guide.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 


As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 

—-

Transcript:

“Continuing down this nervous system train. I could talk about this topic just nervous system for a lifetime. I mean, it's the foundation of 5 Ives. But really all the work I've done in the last many years and the foundation of a lot of trauma based work, chronic stress based work. But today I want to talk and go into more of like, what are some things that you can do on a daily basis, because very intentional work behind nervous system regulation kind of fixing your wrecked nervous system can be done on the daily in micro doses, so you can feel more calm focus. Better, be more productive. If you desire to be more productive or just feel more energized throughout your day, just just feel better. But it's hard to always be really intentional about that. So pairing things up with daily routines or daily habits can really help. For like sustainability long term, and like longevity, just like keeping the practices kind of both. This is the more preventative side of things. We do a lot of like reactive nervous system regulation work and trauma based work. But this is like, well, let's implement some things in our daily life that prevent us from having dysregulated episodes. To begin with. So think about this. It's almost like your nervous system. Some people are not going to get this example. I like just barely hit the cutoff, but a nervous system that is like tapped out is almost like running on dial up Internet speed versus what we can achieve. Or, what's more, normal is this high speed Internet. So it's it's just stuck in this overdrive when you may want to relax, and even if you have the time or the space to relax, you may feel like I totally resonate with this outlook, too, like when I have large gaps of time, and I'm not trying to work. I'm trying to truly just rest and relax and and find peace and heal, and just like I don't know what to do. Like. I read a book for a little bit like, Okay, what's next? Or like, I need to. quite healed yet. So basically your nervous system, it's a beautiful thing. It's kept us where we are. I've talked so much about this in the last many episodes I've talked about this window tolerance, and how we all leave this window tolerance. We become dysregulated, and that's very normal. It's what saved us as a species. But we can't stay in that dysregulated state, even if it's a micro stressor level. We just can't stay there because it's like a muscle, and it grows so our nervous system is constantly scanning for signals of safety or stress. But if you make some small shifts by integrating regulatory practices into your daily life. It will work with your mind and body and no longer against it. So let's kind of talk about.

Let's break this up into like morning, midday, and evening, so that we can come up with some ideas for for each part.

So let's talk morning, and this is meant to be like it could be like a morning routine or a morning ritual. It doesn't necessarily have to be, can. Yeah.I was a person who used to love morning routines and morning rituals when I was a single individual in my twenties and even early thirties. I think, child, pretty early into my thirties, but when I had a kiddo it became so much harder now that he's 2 and a half, it's still hard. I really struggle with morning routines, but I'm getting back to. I'm getting better because I've I've desired to show him that having a morning routine is really important for me, and I want him. I want him to see me do a morning routine. So he potentially adopts something similar or just sees the importance of that time. So morning rituals things that you could adopt that will help regulate your nervous system are really simple, and don't take long. One, sunlight, natural light. 1st thing, I mean, if you walk out of a bedroom, maybe even in your bedroom you have natural light, but beyond, just like planting your face in front of a window, letting the sun hit it, depending on where you are, what time of the year might not be sun. But can you just step outside, hot, cold, sunny, rainy. Just step outside for like 3 breaths, 5 seconds to 15 seconds, and just let your body wake up. Let your rhythms be activated and and or deactivated, and just doing their their neurobiological workings. And do this first, st like, before you reach for your phone. And you may use your phone as your alarm. I'm guilty. But I'm trying really hard not to like check my email or check my messages. I try to go outside 1st thing in the morning, 1st thing in the morning. The sun, biologically does this thing where it tells your body like, Hey, time to wake up. But you need that natural, not artificial light, and it really helps to keep that sleep wake cycle going. So we go for coffee 1st thing. If we did a little bit of sun or not even just sun, just just fresh air just just outside for a couple of seconds before we did our coffee. I may not need as much coffee.

Okay, that's number one, number 2 is kind of 2 things. One, we are like chronically dehydrated. So hydration 1st thing, but also breakfast and a breakfast that really helps like not a breakfast that's full of, some people are going to feel attacked by this, like high artificial, high processed high sugar, high dye. Your brain runs on glucose sugar, but not quite the kind that we would find in our like lucky charms or fruit loop, or it's a fruit loop. No, that's a clothing brand for loops for loops. That's amazing. Cinnamon toast crunch. I love cinnamon toast crunch. But oh, I think I got a little nauseous. Think about it now, because it's so full of sugar. But but think glucose in terms of like protein, healthy fats, fiber to keep the blood sugar steady. These are the things that you want in the morning. Protein, healthy fats, fiber to help keep your blood sugar steady. Why? Because that keeps your nervous system chill. So yeah, a lot. I know a lot of people do intermittent fasting, and it's omething should definitely speak to a medical professional about. But for me, like it was something I tried to adopt, because it's like this biohacking or like health craze. And then I read more into it and learned more about it with my body with my high cortisol levels, my high stress levels with my erection nervous system, and being a female and hormonal things, I realized that intermittent fasting really actually isn't good for me. What is much better for me as a female, and to keep my hormones regulated and keep all these cycles regulated was to actually get up and have, like a high protein healthy protein, healthy, fat, high fiber breakfast. I'm still struggling with the fiber part of it, but I will do like a Ezekiel bread. You know what it is. Quick, Google, search for that. But like more protein based more like easily digestible bread, and I'll throw some eggs in there, and like some avocado and throw on some either sheep's milk cheese, or like a dairy free nut based cheese, and that is like a wonderful start to my day along with usually a cup of coffee.

Okay, that's number 2, and don't forget like water. I try and like, just slurp down some water 1st thing alongside my coffee before my coffee. After my coffee. I usually try and do after my coffee, because I let my brain think about if I don't drink some water right now. this coffee is probably gonna stain my teeth, so I quickly just drink some water after my coffee to kind of wash out my teeth so they don't get stained. So hydration breakfast,

 Number 3, gentle movement, so this could be some stretches. I like a foam roller, because my back is usually a little bit tight when I wake up could be a quick, short walk outside. If you have the time it could be even just like rolling your shoulders back for me. The one thing I did that I really love is I hung, and this takes the purchasing of this, but they're really inexpensive. I hung, Gosh! Not a pull-up bar from my bathroom door. You could do it from your bedroom door, but I hung it there very intentionally, not because I really want to pull up bar in my bathroom, my bedroom, but when I'm in the mirror in the morning. I'm brushing my teeth or do whatever I'm doing to prepare for my day. I see that pull up, bar, and I can't avoid it. I don't even do pull ups on it. Sometimes I do, but infrequently what I usually do more so is I hang from it. I literally just grab one of the pull-up bar, and I just hang. So my shoulders are kind of being stretched out. My back's being stretched out and just like 15 seconds, that's all it, that's all I do. So that is my gentle movement. I don't go for a walk. I don't stretch a new foam roller if I can, but I typically just hang from that bar. But these small movements, these intentional small movements. Early in the morning, 1st thing in the morning one gets your blood pumping that gets oxygen to your brain helps you to think more clearly, but also tells your body like we're safe. slow down again. My systems in in action, but not in action, like as in ready to fight flight, getting my systems in action like, Get ready for my day, and just enter in peacefully. Those are just 3 simple things that you could do in the morning.

Midday. What else could you do? Oh, I feel like midday is when we're like, okay, second, 3rd 4th 5th cup of coffee. What if you can just integrate some movement when you feel like you're going to crash like? Not everyone can do this, but I have tried to adopt. This is like around like 2 o'clock when I'm feeling really tired, instead of going for another cup of coffee, which I sometimes do. I instead try and do like a quick little workout, just like 10 min. I just keep some bands near my working space and just grab the bands and do a quick little workout with the bands. Oh, so even if you like, at that time especially are stuck in long meetings, or you're like stuck in a certain environment like, can you just stand up and shake out your body like, just take a lap around the table or a lap around the room. Bonus points. If you can stick your head out the window for a couple seconds or a minute, but just just move when you feel like you're crashing, and again that could be, stand up, sit down, stand up, spin around, sit down, stand up, walk around the table, sit down, just just move before you go ready for that coffee and then sit back down.

Okay, number 2 is we tend to have lunch, and then by that, like couple hours after lunch, like 2, 3 o'clock. We have that like almost like blood sugar crash, and our mood gets a little destabilized, which is kind of why, we also get tired like digesting. And then we're just feeling like like sleepy. So try to eat things one that you can have for lunch that will stabilize you through that period. Sometimes we eat things for lunch that we metabolize so quickly, or it's not enough food, or it's not high enough protein that we burn through it. And then by like 2, 3 o'clock, we're like, I'm starving, and I'm irritated because I'm hangry. There are a lot of foods that will help stabilize your mood. That'll help stabilize your blood sugar. So go for some of those things, or if if you do feel like you hit 2 or 3 o'clock, and you're like, I'm getting like hungry. And I'm getting irritable. Are there any things that are there items or things that you could eat that are better than some of these processed snacks, like the one thing I do a lot of, and this I love these, or like what do they call it? Jerkies, ish, I guess I call them jerky. Yeah, I call them jerky. There's like a whole bunch of them. A lot of people eat like chomps. I don't love Chomps in particular, but some people might. I prefer. There's a brand that's like Rosemary. I can't remember the brand, is. It's like Rosemary Turkey, so it's a turkey stick I love. There are a couple of salmon ones that have some maple syrup in it that I love. These are all like dried, but it's it's enough protein to just like, get me up off my slump. So things like that or nuts could be good anything. That's a little bit of protein. They'll kind of hold you over until dinner.

Also, just even like micro regulation check-ins like, can you have a reminder of a sticky note or an app or a reminder in your calendar, just like, don't forget, check in and take like 30 seconds to preventatively regulate like. Do you need to take some deep breaths? Do you need to hold your shoulders up at your ears like that? Progressive muscle, relaxation, turtle strategy? Do you need to just do something for a quick reset, so that in 30, 60, 90, or 2,080 min you're not just feeling so burnt out, or that when you go home to your family, if you have a family, or a partner, or whoever or whatever, at home, you're not feeling burnt out like these 30 second micro regulations, and better throughout your day, can like sustain you through the day and enable you to go home a little bit more regulated. Okay, so those are the 3 4 midday move before you crash! Steady your blood sugar, and you'll steady your mood and micro regulation check-ins.

Last thing is end of day, evening wind down period. No one's gonna like this one. I'm gonna share it, anyhow. And I'm struggling with it, too, and I'm working on it myself. But ditch the phone, ditch, the tablet ditch, the TV ditch, the shows, ditch, the scrolling ditch, Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook. It's it's hard because those things just hate our dopamine circuits, and they're addicting. And also they don't do any good for you to relax, to rest your brain to get into a sleep state. I mean, they feel kind of good because they they take our mind off of all the gazillion things that we have to do. But it really is draining what little mental capacity you have left, and it's hard. I I don't have any subscriptions. But I recently switched to Verizon phone, and I was like, oh, we get like Hulu, and we get Disney plus. And I kind of wish those things never came with that, because I was doing great and not watching shows, I'm like, well, let's just turn on one, and one turns into the next. It just flows right into each other, and all of a sudden you like 2, 3 hours into watching a show. And I'm like, Oh, my gosh! It's midnight!

So it's just you just couldn't glaze over. So there's a book I recently read called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. I highly recommend it, but they talk about as a family. They put their phones on airplane mode and put them in a drawer in the kitchen at 8 o'clock, 8, 30, and they do not check them the next day until they've like done something like had coffee or had breakfast. I'm trying to figure out how to adopt that. I want to get there. I would need a an alarm. That's not my phone. but I love the idea of that. I think the hardest part of that for me is like back to when I feel like I have these rest periods. I'm like, what do I do if I don't have my phone to scroll or to? I don't even scroll that much. But if I don't have my phone to do something on, or you know, I don't own a TV, but it doesn't matter if you own a TV, because if you have a tablet or a phone, it might as well be like a TV, what will I do with that time? Like, part of me is like, yeah, I could read, and I desire even to read. But I'm so tired I don't feel like I have the space in my head to do that. So I'm trying to listen to audio books. Listen to podcasts really more audio books and not like educational audio books. I'm really trying to listen. Fun. Audio books read with my child. Whatever I can do to not be on my device, and it just just take baby steps and figure out what you need to put in place there to take place of the the scrolling or the shows, because if you don't put something in place of that, you'll you'll end up going back to it. The the issue with all this is like even the stuff that we watch or we see on there. Some of. It's good. Some it's not. But a lot of us do watch a lot of things news, non news, or just, you know, checking into channels or apps or things. And it it kind of unconsciously, subconsciously stresses us out. So our brain isn't really able to differentiate like that. News is like far away. It's on my phone, or like that, news is right here in my home right now. So it kind of activates a parts of the the brain that send you into fight or flight, and we don't want that. So aim for chill time, soft lighting, peaceful music, quiet time. I don't know whatever you can do to to create, use Chatgpt. This is what I do when I get stuck. I'm like ChatGpt, for example, here's a great example tangent. I have readopted the Sabbath. I'm a religious person, and even if you're not a religious person, I think this is a great practice, you don't have to call it the Sabbath, but like one day a week to not work, just not work at all like, spend time in nature, spend time with people, maybe move your body. Maybe nap make meals, not meals like meal, prep like make meals that you just like. Want to be present with and enjoy just a whole day of not doing. not cleaning, not preparing for Monday, like, I think it's wild. Most people are like, what? How would anyone do that? Anyhow? I think it's a beautiful thing I'm trying to get there. It's really hard to not be there and then go right there. So I'm working towards little doses of it. That said I was good with half day when I switched to trying to do it the full day. I was like, what do I do for the second half of the day, and I found myself like losing my mind because I'm like I don't know what to do, and I would clean, or, you know, do do something. So recently, I was like, you know, I'm gonna put it in chatgpt, and ask ChatGpt to help me design a Sabbath, where I'm not doing, and I'm just being. And I shared some things I liked and some desires I had, and what the time breakdown it gave me like a whole breakdown of the day. I was like sweet. That's what I needed. So you could do the same thing with like asking Chatgpt for ideas for what to do before bed, instead of scrolling or watching a show, you could ask Chatgpt, how to like, prepare your body and your brain for bed like it can design a routine for you. That's what I'm trying to say.

Something else I would encourage you to do before. But is some type of like breath work even just 3 big breaths in your nose and out your mouth or box breathing. which is like maybe a 4 count in hold 4, count out 4 count. I mean, you can do box breathing any way you want. You could go in 4, count, hold 4, count out 4, count, hold 4, count, or you could go in 4, count, hold 4, count, hold another 4, count out 4, count, or you could go in 4, count hold for 4. Count out for 4 count. Keep going out for 4 count ideally longer out than in you could. Hum, sing, dance, take a warm bath, like whatever helps you go from this like alert, crazed state into a rested state. That's what we're aiming for, like an unwinding mechanism, literally unwinding your brain and body. The last one is just this one's hard, especially with kids trying to create a consistent bedtime and trying to create a space where you sleep. That is like tech free. No Tvs, cool, dark, I mean, the optimal temperature for sleeping is 64°F, which to me feels frigid. But if I can set temperature controls. I I like to sleep at that temperature. I just would like when I get up in the morning I need to get a bed, but it's definitely not 64 degrees. I will not get out of bed. Dark curtains, blackout curtains. Not having caffeine too late, not eating too late. you know all these things are like, well, you're taking away all the fun. Lauren. Kind of yes, but it's not just about like the longevity game and like living to a zillion. It's just living functionally and optimally and like being able to be present with your kids and like being around and healthy for your grandkids, and also just like feeling like your life is fulfilling when you add these things, and you make them routines and habits like, wow! I feel better as a human. Yes, because we've gotten a little like away from the biological things that we were built to do and be as humans so ditching the scroll or the TV before bed, doing something to unwind and unwinding practice. And like center your sleep by changing some of those sleep-based habits.

All right. You do not have to overhaul your entire life overnight. Just pick one thing and try it for a week after a week. Kind of sit with it and reflect. How did that feel? What shifts can I keep this? I need to modify it. I need something completely different, and then continue to add on to that practice like I said, when I adopted the Sabbath, I tried like 2 h first, st and I was like, Hey, like 4 h half day. And I was like, Okay, let's try like 3 quarters of day and up to to a full day, and that was hard. But I didn't just jump from not doing it to doing it full day. It's micro steps that are sustainable.

Try the home trip. Try it at home tip. I am not going to give you one, because I just give you like 9 of them. Just I would say, pick something for morning, midday, or evening. I wouldn't do all 3 at first, and if you're really audacious, go for it. But I would pick one area, pick one thing to to change and to adopt, and then continue to add on. if you were looking for more supports in the area of stress, trauma care, the brain nervous system.

Jessica, Dr. Jessica Doring and I would love to be a part of your learning journey, which is why we created the the concept of the 5 Ives. So we come into organizations, and as a whole kind of audit to see where you are on a stress nervous system based spectrum, not just like frontline, staff or leadership. The whole organization like frontline staff leadership boards, the practice as a whole. Employees, everyone. How do we shift you all from being in survival, stressed out into feeling like. We love our work. We love coming to work, and we don't feel burnt out leaving work at the end of the day. Reach out to us 5 ives.com FIVE, ives.com. We could hop on a call with you. Talk about what you do, how we can integrate into the work that you're doing, and see if we're a good fit.

And don't forget to lock in what you learned by sharing this episode with somebody else, or talking about the practice with someone or using an accountability Buddy, to hold you accountable for doing one of the things mentioned in the episode, and don't forget to subscribe to future episodes, to learn more ways, to hack your brain, your body, your nervous system, and just feel better until next episode. I am Maren Spiegelmeier, and thank you for joining me.”

 

Calming & Coping, Emotional RegulationLauren SpigelmyerComment