AYOE 06 / Small Steps & the Flexibility to Adjust

Today’s post is coming at you from our Rebel Solopreneur coworking time, which makes me look forward to Mondays AND is giving me dedicated space and time to write updates for you. I’m loving it!

This month has been great so far - the sun has been shining most days, the temperature here on the NC coast is amazing (60’s and 70’s Fahrenheit) and my daily routine of somatic practices is something I look forward to doing. 🥳

You may have noticed my daily practices are pretty short, which was definitely by design. Small steps that slowly build tolerance and resilience are the key here.

It’s really important to start small when working with your nervous system. We have a tendency to want immediate results and that not only won’t work in this case, but it is likely to make you more dysregulated.

What I’ve Been Noticing So Far

01: Feeler

This has been interesting! Doing this practice on my own instead of being guided by my Somatic Coach is bringing up memories for me of times I’ve felt hypervigilant about my health. And I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

I think I mentioned in a past newsletter that I have a chronic issue with vertigo. I have a Ménière’s Disease diagnosis, which just means that I have recurrent vertigo episodes with no known cause (gotta love the traditional medical model’s obsession with diagnoses 😂)

I’ve been on the vertigo & dizziness roller coaster for 10+ years now and I have isolated a few possible triggers (excess stress, MSG, respiratory infections that linger and cause fluid in the ears) but it often feels like it comes out of nowhere.

I’ll go years without an episode and then have a cluster of them within a month or so. Once it starts up I’m constantly scanning my body to see if I can feel any changes or notice if an episode may be coming on. Obviously it’s protective in this case, but isn’t particularly healthy as a habit.

So I’m feeling some discomfort around doing this practice daily on my own. I’ve taken to doing it as more of a progressive muscle relaxation while I’m doing my legs up the wall practice. Instead of scanning for sensations, I’m working my way systematically from head to toe, relaxing muscles and noticing any sensations that come up.

For now, that feels much less like hypervigilance and more like gentle awareness. We’ll see if that trend continues.

02: Legs Up the Wall

This practice is definitely my favorite part of my daily routine. I’ve done it in my bed several times and that is even more relaxing than laying on the floor. I have a tall upholstered headboard so it’s the perfect place to rest my legs against and I can use a pillow behind my head.

I have no idea if this is allowed by the yoga police, but I’m all about making things work for me so I’m doing it anyways 😂

Along with my progressive muscle relaxation practice (aka modified feeler) this feels like a nice little reset.

03: EFT Tapping

I’ve made use of the Be Your Own Healer resource I mentioned in my last post and I’m also participating in a 3 week group tapping experience on Zoom. This week is the last week, but it’s been interesting to learn from a tapping practitioner and see her create tapping scripts on the fly for women in the group.

Which brings me to how I’m feeling about this. I haven’t noticed any major shifts in thoughts or feelings, BUT I did use two of the techniques I’ve learned while I was sitting in the waiting room while my husband had surgery last week.

The surgery went about an hour longer than planned and I had a rush of anxiety wash over me. I could feel my thoughts racing and my heart beating faster. Somehow I thought to tap on my fingers (it’s a bit more inconspicuous than tapping on your face) AND I remembered to press/rub on my chest on the acupressure points there.

Just a minute or 2 of those techniques and I felt the anxiety melt out of my body. I also created a script on the fly that was something like: even though I’m feeling super anxious right now, my husband is in good hands and I’m safe here.

I’m thankful I remembered these tools when I was having a moment of panic so I could try them out. Whether it actually helped or it was a placebo effect I can’t say for sure. But the rest of my time in the waiting room was much calmer. 🙌🏼

04: Somatic Exercise

This one hasn’t happened yet, sadly. Last week I opted for some super gentle restorative yoga since I was still coughing and short of breath following my respiratory illness.

I’ve noticed my body is craving the high of a workout this week so I’m planning to do The Class this afternoon and then 1-2 more times this week. I’m genuinely excited! I really cannot recommend it enough 😍

General Thoughts on Regulation

As I mentioned before, nervous system regulation is such a big topic and I’ve barely scratched the surface, but I am really enjoying learning more. One thing I’ve noticed about myself is that I feel a lot of urgency in my daily life.

When I’m working on something, I can physically feel the pressure to finish quickly (tense, shaky, pressure in my head, breaths are fast and shallow). When I’m getting ready to go somewhere I feel rushed and like I don’t have enough time to get myself ready - even when I do. This is something I’ve been aware of for a long time, but before I learned more about nervous system states I just thought it was some annoying part of my personality or the result of me not managing my time well. 😬

Turns out it’s something I can work on shifting. Just today before Coworking I was eating lunch and then needed to throw on some mascara before I hopped on Zoom. I felt the familiar feelings of rushing and not having enough time but instead of letting myself get swept away I stopped for a minute, checked the time, took a couple deep breaths and reminded myself I had plenty of time.

I didn’t magically become regulated, but I did give myself just a tiny slice of space to see the situation a different way.

The goal of regulation isn’t to always be calm, but rather to be able to handle whatever life throws you without getting stuck in a dysregulated state. I’m working on that one teeny step at a time. 💃

That’s a wrap on AYOE 06, y’all. I hope you’re enjoying reading these as much as I’m enjoying writing them 🤩

xoxo - Nic