Mona SharmaCelebrity nutritionist and wellness advocate

Fatigue, Stress, Brain Fog? Here’s What You’re Missing

14 May 2025 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

2:09

In this segment of Mona Sharma’s YouTube video, the hosts explore why chronic stress feels overwhelming and how it stems from an imbalance between the sympathetic (fight‑or‑flight) and parasympathetic (rest‑and‑digest) branches of the nervous system. They trace the sympathetic response to its evolutionary origins as a short‑term survival mechanism that, in modern life, is triggered constantly, leaving little time for the body to return to a parasympathetic baseline. The conversation highlights heart‑rate variability (HRV) training as a practical method to gauge and improve autonomic balance. They also discuss the role of genetics and early‑life experiences in predisposing some individuals to a more dominant sympathetic tone, while emphasizing that these patterns can be shifted through awareness and targeted practices. Throughout, the speakers stress that education about the “shake‑off” response is lacking, and that learning to intentionally move back into parasympathetic mode can alleviate fatigue, stress, and brain fog.

Chapters

How can your body function when it's thinking that it's stressed all the time?
Right, right.
It can't at all. The cool thing is if you learn how to balance your nervous system and.
You know, you obviously know about heart rate variability training. That's a really great one. So hrv. And so that's a great way to.
Help understand that balance. Right.
If you have a good balance, then you can get stressed when you need.
To get stressed and you can be unstressed or decrease. Go back to parasympathetic when you're not. Right. Our base status is parasympathetic.
Most likely, like evolutionarily, we had to mostly digest our food.
Right.
We had to have something intake.
So we think most likely evolutionarily, like.
Our system probably started off as more of a sleeping digestive cycle, at least, you know, millions of years ago, before.
We were actually, you know, human form.
And then we created the sympathetic response.
To react to danger.
I'm sure. I don't know if you've ever seen.
These National Geographic videos where you have an animal that's getting chased by predator.
Type of animal, and then somehow the animal gets away. It doesn't get killed, doesn't eat, doesn't get eaten. You'll see them, this reaction, this sympathetic storm, as it were. They start shaking, they move all like crazy, and all of a sudden, 30 seconds later they're fine. They go back, you know, and that's what we're basically programmed to do too. But now that stress is just constantly.
Going at us every minute, and then we don't have any time to, you know, to respond and to go parasympathetic.
And we've never really been educated or it's not part of our training as a kid to like, what is the shake? How can we induce the shake? It's really shake it off and then start fresh. Right.
Yeah.
So you mentioned about your little one.
Yeah.
In your practice, have you noticed that some people are just more inherently susceptible to being more dominant in their sympathetic nervous system?
I think that that is the case, I think. And there is some genetics that are.
Probably playing a part here. And you'll find that, you know, some kids, I have four, as you know.
Some of my kids are more on the anxiety side. Some of my kids are like, really chill. And then some are kind of just even keel. So there is some sort of like nature nurture. There is some sort of base status, but that doesn't mean that you can't.
Also modify that over time.
And I think that it doesn't mean that just because you were, quote, unquote, born this way that you can't shift.
Things as you understand more about your, how you respond to things naturally. Right.
And so, you know, there's usually like.
Your type, a type of people which.
Are more head driven. They can be anxious, but they're typically.
More anxious related to not doing as good as they can do.