Even Your Calm Might Be Stress

Your nervous system is the system that runs your fight, flight, or freeze, which is your sympathetic nervous system, so that you're aware and you're alert to danger, or the parasympathetic nervous system, which allows you to calm, to digest, to create immune cells, to feel good, to let your muscles repair. And both systems are really important. I recently realized something, and I would like to share my realization with you. Even though I meditate and I do calming behaviors and I teach these things, I realized my nervous system, even then, is on the always-on position. I have a difficult time when I— it actually doesn't even matter. At night, specifically calming my nervous system. And I realized even my calming behaviors were on a to-do list. Like, this is my sleep protocol, and this is how I calm, and this is how I'm gonna meditate. Being able to figure this out made me realize that there's this clinch, this have-to, this gotta-do. Always running around in the background. I do identify as a high achiever and maybe a hyperachiever, an overachiever, but I want to learn how to calm my system so that I don't have to purposely calm my system. Does that make any sense? So instead of making it a to-do item list, I'm able to just chill. I'm able to relax. I'm able just to do nothing and just breathe. Not breathe— I love box breathing. I love all the breathing, but not doing it for 2 minutes in order to. Everything in my life has been an order to, and I am excited for now the next evolution of just the, what does it look like not to have an order to? So I started a little mantra for myself. Take it if you'd like. And instead of the I've got to, I need to, I shoulds, I keep saying I could. I could meditate. I could chill out. I could read a book. I could sit and look at the mountains. I could sit and look at a beach. I could. do a lot of things. The difference is it takes that forcing energy away. I don't know, maybe this will help you. Let me know.