Fight, Flight, Freeze? You Might Need a Nervous System Reset (Here's How)

Welcome. It is such a pleasure to see you. I'm Dr. Nicole and today we're going to talk about anxiety freedom and the power of soothing your nervous system with rest. This is also a really fun, exciting day because I'm going to teach you you how to get into the anxiety freedom course and I'm actually going to show you a sneak peek of what it looks like. And so we're going to be taking a peek here, but let me explain to you a little bit more. And then I'm actually going to show you a sneak peek in where I'll show you the content that I've created on this. And so if you're stressed, if you're overwhelmed, if you deal with anxiety or panic, or if you feel like you don't even know what's going on, you just feel like your brain can't slow down or you feel like you can't focus and it's just hard for you to be in the moment, then I'm excited to share this content with you. So thank you for being here and for you all who are on the live, I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to get to know you and connect with you. As I'm talking, if you have questions, just type them in the comments and, and I'll do my best to get to them. And then at the end, if I don't answer your question, then just leave a comment on the video. I'll make sure to save it on my Instagram page. We'll also throw it in YouTube and you can comment on Instagram or send us a dm. And I have a really great team of amazing healers who help me with messages and will definitely make sure to get back to you. And so I wanna talk about rest and how that impacts the nervous system and, and I always like to share with you my story and I think it's helpful for you to know that you're not alone and to know that as I'm talking with you about these things that I get it and I've been there. And my story of anxiety starts with going to graduate school. And then I. Oh, you're so sweet, Curly. Merly, when are you gonna resume practice in Michigan? We're actually working on getting a delegate, so stay tuned for that. Really excited. Yes, we're. Right now I'm just practicing with Arizonans and so I'll just give you all the free content I can here. But thank you for that, honey. And so I was in graduate school. I got a master's in Clinical psychology. And I was busy, busy, busy running around Chicago, really busy, not taking time to decompress. And so the nervous system will respond to that demand by producing changes in your hormones, like your cortisol levels, your epinephrine levels. It changes your dopamine and your serotonin. So my body is responding to the increase to demand. And then we get to medical school. And so I'm in medical school. I'm in human anatomy. I'm taking all of the ologies, I'm doing all nighters, taking medical board exams. And then I do a residency. And so I do a residency in primary care medicine. And you can guess that, oh my gosh, it was really stressful. So imagine thinking about your life, where you are, what your activities are like, are you really busy? Do you take time to rest? And there's a real psychology to resting. But if we just simply think about the biological shift that your body has to make to meet those demands, we know that the body has to create something called homeostasis. And so in my life, my homeostasis was, was to be constantly on the go. So my body had just adapted to that. And so if you find that you're really, really busy and you're running around, and then have you ever stopped and rested or you didn't have something scheduled and you almost felt kind of depressed. Is anyone with me? Have you felt that way before? Like when you're finally slowing down and you try to relax and then suddenly you're feeling depressed, Right. So that's changes in your dopamine. So when we're really busy, when we're running around, our nervous system has to adjust to that. And so then when we actually slow down and we actually rest, our body has to adjust again. And so your dopamine is used to being at a certain level. You take that away, your cortisol crashes, you may feel exhausted. And so it can create feelings that make you feel more depressed or lethargic or tired. So then we respond by doing more and more and more, we have someone responding, anxious for nada. And yes, I like to stay busy because I feel like I need to be productive in my waking hours. Otherwise I feel like I'm being lazy. And oh my goodness, I resonate with you on that one. And I'm a three on the enneagram love. So I totally hear you. If I'm not being productive, if I'm not creating, if I'm not writing content, it can be hard on myself. And so I hear you. And I'm with you. And our nervous systems hear us. Our nervous systems, our cells are hearing that message and they're creating homeostasis. And it's amazing that our bodies can respond in this way, but it becomes a problem. And our homeostasis leaves us in a state where we have to be amplified all the time, because that is going to make you anxious, it's going to make it harder for you to sleep, and it's going to make it harder for you to be present and focused and in the moment. So today I want to teach you about how to rest in a way that isn't going to make you depressed. And so I'm going to turn the camera around and what you're going to see is the Anxiety Breakthrough Challenge. And so I've logged in here. And so the Anxiety Breakthrough Challenge, you can learn about this by going into the link in the Instagram bio. It's the Anxiety Breakthrough program. And so what I want to actually show you is one of the modules that there's actually nine here, but we're going to go to module eight, because module eight is all about writing your new story. And what we want to do is we want to re equilibriate our nervous systems so that they are calm on command. So I have Lorraine, she says when my anxiety is high, I have to keep busy. It's almost impossible for me to rest. And so, Lorraine, I hear you. And your nervous system has adapted to being in that fight flight freeze. And I know you, Lorraine, I know you personally, and I know that you are always so focused on caring for other people. You're really busy, you're doing all of the things, and your nervous system has adapted. But when our nervous system adapts in this way, it can make us feel more anxious and more stressed and it's hard to calm down. So what you're going to do when you get in here is you're going to click on this link and this is where you get the peak. And this PDF is going to have the content that I'm teaching on today. So I have the PDF open. It's 68 pages of goodness over here. And today's principle is about rest. And so you will get a video where I teach on this topic. But for now, we're just going to go straight to the rest principle. So when it comes to rest, we're thinking about, how is my nervous system responding to the demands that I've put on it? How has my nervous system responded to the demands in the past? How is my nervous system Demanding to the demand, responding to the demands in my present. Right. And so if you've had a high stress life, if you've been really busy, if you feel like you're burning the candle at both ends, your nervous system is creating changes biologically to respond to that. And so we have to gently start teaching your nervous system the importance of being able to rest. And let me just hit the pause on sharing this video with you. We'll come back to it in a moment. But I want to just look at you while I ask you this question. Is when you rest, is it a part of your intentional schedule or is it because you can't keep going? And so one of the comments that I saw in the messages here is that I feel like I push it and push it and push it until I can't push it anymore. And then I collapse. And then when I collapse, I feel guilty or I push it, push it and push it, and then I have to take a break because I'm so anxious and I literally can't anymore. Like, it's just making me crazy. Right? So if we can gently start the process of resting intentionally, it's a part of our healing strategy. It can take away that guilt. Like, I'm not doing what I need to do because you have intentionally planned that in. And if we start to intentionally plan that in, your nervous system can start to get used to that. And then it'll help pull you out of the anxiety. So let me just pull back into this book. So the first principle in rest, I want to just tell you that there are some really great benefits to it. And so I have highlighted, I just have 12, and there are so many more. But one interesting thing is that when you rest your body and your gut brain access actually repairs itself. So you may have heard that the gut is your second brain. And when we're really busy and when we're really stressed, those hormones change, which can be problematic for that second brain. So to give you an example is cortisol. So when we're under high stress, high demand, we're really busy, even if it's not physically busy. Maybe you're just mentally and emotionally busy. This causes changes in your gut, it causes changes in your cortisol levels, and then that can be problematic. It can change your gut flora, it can change your neurotransmitters, which will make you more anxious, more depressed, and cause issues with sleeping and focus. So the second thing is that resting will actually regulate your circadian rhythm and your circadian rhythm, your sleep, wake, Cycle impacts your hormones. And so there's an interesting pathway that I don't know if you've heard about, is that you actually make more melatonin when it's dark. And your melatonin, that sleepy hormone, it goes down when it's light out. So, so what we see is that if your circadian rhythm is out of balance and you have more sleepiness, or it's dark, or you're sitting in front of a computer, your melatonin may be rising and dropping. And what's really interesting about this is that melatonin is made from serotonin. And if you've heard of serotonin, you've probably heard that that is the number one neurotransmitter that is responsible for mood stability. And it's antidepressants like Prozac and Lexapro and Zoloft. These are medications that impact your serotonin levels. And so, interestingly, by having an irregular circadian rhythm, it can interfere with your serotonin levels. So maybe you've been depressed, or maybe you've been anxious, or maybe you've had sleep issues and your doctors told you to take an antidepressant or your functional medicine, doctors told you to take five HTP or tryptophan. But awesomely and amazingly and empoweringly, if we can start to work on resting a little bit more, we can restore our circadian rhythm and then we can restore our mood and our energy. We know that resting reduces stress. We know it increases your mental bandwidth. It restores your energy. When you have more energy, you're not going to have to make as much adrenaline to help you get through your day. Adrenaline is what makes us feel panicky. If you've ever seen a really scary movie and they jump out of a corner and then you feel that burst in your heart and you feel like you're going to run from the bear, that's adrenaline. That comes from norepinephrine and epinephrine. And when our bodies are tired and depleted, they make more adrenaline to try to give you energy. But it also makes you anxious. When we're not resting, we're not able to be as creative. And so if you're able to rest, you'll be more creative, you'll be more productive. And so we have a lot of high achievers that are on this channel, people who want to make a difference in the world, who want to be entrepreneurial, who need to get things done, who have a lot of responsibilities on their plate. And amazingly, you resting will actually make you more productive in less time. And I know that sounds like a paradox, but it's true. And I could teach you more about that at a future video. Resting improves focus, and that's really interesting. So let's talk about focus for just a second. So let me put a pause on this. We'll turn this around so you can see me again, and we'll come back to the Inside Scoop in a minute. But when we have too much on our plates, when we're too busy, when we're running around and trying to make demands and we're not resting and we're not sleeping well and we're not eating well, we have higher levels of cortisol. We talked about cortisol, and did you know, this blew my mind when I learned it. Did you know that cortisol can actually go into the receptors in your brain, in the hippocampus and block your hippocampus? The question that you're probably asking is, well, what is the hippocampus? Right. Your hippocampus is the part of your brain that helps you process memory. So if you're really stressed, if your body is adapting to that stress, if your body is going into homeostasis, where you have constant high circulating levels of cortisol, that cortisol can go in and block your brain, block your hippocampus from processing memories. And so you may find that you're forgetting things, that you're not able to recall things as well. If you're a student and you're trying to study for exams, if you're more stressed, you're not going to remember the material as well. So resting will help you remember things better. It will help you focus better. So this goes also into memory and concentration. Resting reduces inflammation. And we know that inflammation is a really important part of the pathogenesis of anxiety. In fact, one of the ways that anxiety medications like benzodiazepines, antidepressants, one of the ways that they work is to bring down inflammation. And so if we can start to rest, we'll be able to target that inflammation at the root and reduce your need for expensive supplements and medications. And get this. Resting boosts your immune system. Have you ever noticed how when you get done with the deadline or when you finish a semester, or when a big stressor has been taken off your shoulders, have you ever noticed that you get stuck? Is anyone with me? Has that happened to you after the semester ended? I used to always get sick. In fact, when I was basically like grade school through college, I would get laryngitis, bronchitis, and upper respiratory infection every single November for the entire month of November after exams. Now, that goes into the whole story of I was eating like Chef Boyardee and drinking milk and I didn't know about all of this yet. I'm Iowa born and raised kind of girl. And so making unhealthy lifestyle choices is a whole other conversation. But when your stress goes down, when your cortisol goes down, your immune system's finally able to breathe and then take out the garbage, and then we start to feel sick. So if you're with me, I hear you. Okay, the last one. Adequate rest adds years to your life, and we want to make that life as anxiety free as possible, right? We want to help you be healthy. So. So let's turn this into the actionable. I want to make sure we're getting you good stuff and not too much time. Here is, I want you to think about this little quote here that I have in the book is if they say if you don't have time for five minutes of meditation, then you probably need an hour. And I really resonate with that. In fact, right now I'm doing a meditation challenge where I learned transcendental meditation and I'm doing well. I started with 11 days, but I'm committing to you right now. I'm going to do more. And I've had a hard time with it because I'm busy. My homeostasis is frenzied squirrel mode where I want to do all of the things. And so I'm like, all right, I need to practice what I preach. So we need to work on bringing down that stress. And meditation can do that. And I was feeling like I don't have time to be meditating for 20 minutes a day. And so really that means that I probably need to be doing it for more. And so if you feel like you don't have time for rest, then you need the rest even more than if you did have the time for rest. So here's the homework part. Let's go back into the homework here. The anxiety book is how do you like to rest? So we need to be intentional about this. Just like you build out your schedule, this is how you plan meals or task lists. I want you to write down rest filled activities so they can be active. It can be going for a walk. For me, it's resin painting, hiking, gardening. These are things that help you to feel calm and collected and rested. So I want you to write down some activities. If you don't have the Anxiety Breakthrough program. You can write these questions down, take a screenshot, and then do this in your own journal. Of course, this book, the 68 page Dream Book that Haley made for me, has spots for you, but you can do it in your own journal. So screenshot this and then I want you to actually schedule it because we know that if you just say, oh, well, I'm going to garden more, that suddenly three weeks have passed. And you had no idea that three weeks had passed because it went in the blink of an eye. And that can, you know, we might miss out on it. I love your comment. Painting, reading, walking at the park. I think that's really, really good. So write these down. Try to pick something that you can do every day. So maybe Monday you read something for fun, and then Tuesday you go for a walk at the park. Maybe on Wednesday you read a little bit more, and then on Thursday you paint whatever sounds fun to you, be accountable, write it down. And then you want to pick how many hours you want to do it and what time of day it feels best. So for me, I'm fairly catatonic in the mornings. I wake up, I have my coffee, I'm very kapha. And so I like to have a slow morning. So I do my resting in the evening. So when I get home from the office, I have a yummy meal, and then I do my meditation or my creative stuff. Sleep is huge, right? And so we're thinking of rest, we're thinking of sleeping. And so I want you to start thinking about it. And if you're anything like me, your stress comes with issues with sleep. And so if any of you know my story, I was an anxiety freedom warrior and an insomnia freedom warrior. I would literally go days where I got maybe an hour of sleep a night. And it just made my anxiety worse and worse. And so as you're listening to this, if sleep is a problem for you, know that there are solutions and that I can help you with that. I have a ton of free content. Just click on the link in the bio and then go to my website, drnicolecane.com and then there's a search bar at the top and you can type in either sleep or insomnia, and you're gonna get different content on that. And so we want to work on improving your quality of sleep. And I have tons of free tips for you there. So what we've been talking about is rest. And so this is one of the principles of the 5F freedom model. I want to scroll all the way to the top. So this is from module 8 of the Anxiety Breakthrough program. And what this is all about, what the last few weeks on this Instagram live have been all about is designing the life that you want. Because oftentimes we have the story of anxiety and. And we're working on healing our anxiety, but we have to tell your nervous system where you want it to go, and we have to give it a bullseye. We have to carve out those neuro connections so that we can get the life that we want. And so one of the concepts is rest. And so this is when you look for this, you go to the Anxiety Breakthrough program. You can find the link to learn about this in the bio. And then when you get here, here's the inside peak. You just click on this home button. We have a welcome video. We kind of go through all of the different concepts, and then there's booklets that come with each module. So we've been talking about module eight today. All right, my love. So if you have questions, if there's anything that you want to learn more about this, then send me a message. We've been talking about neurotransmitters. We talked about cortisol. We talked about serotonin and melatonin and dopamine, and we've talked about epinephrine and norepinephrine. And so if you didn't get everything in this video, don't worry. I'm gonna save it to the Instagram homepage here. We'll also put it up on YouTube and you can screenshot it, you can play it slowly and take pictures so that you can do the homework on your own. I honor you. I know that you can get your life back. And I'm really, honestly, I just have to be really real with my heart here with you. I am so honored that you are on this page and that you are following this content and that you are giving yourself a chance and that you're allowing me to be a part of that. So I really want to thank you, and so let us know how we can better support you. And I will be back next week. And so, again, this has been Dr. Nicole. We have a ton of free goodies in the bio, so click the link in the bio. Click it. It's amazing, I promise you. All right, thanks for being here. So much love. Bye.