Hello and good morning.
Welcome to day five.
I'm so happy you are still here,
Still joining me.
I am actually having a really good day today,
So I hope you are too.
So today's gonna be a little bit of a more practical day.
I'm gonna share some insider tips and tricks and practices and regulation,
Nervous system regulations that you can take home with you.
Some of them are a little unhinged and a little embarrassing,
So they do not leave these audios.
So let's get into it.
Honestly,
I am obsessed with this day because so much of healing work can feel very conceptual.
Very in your head very okay i understand the pattern intellectually but what do i actually do when i am activated at 11 p.
M and my nervous system is on fire and i cannot think straight i'm going to tell you what to do today we answer that question we are building your regulation menu and you should have a regulation menu on your phone somewhere on you so that when these things happen,
When you're activated,
When you're triggered,
You can just pull it up and use it anytime.
And before we do anything else,
I want you to open the PDF that is attached to this module.
That is your menu.
It is yours to keep,
To add to,
To come back to whenever you need it.
Pull it up right now if you can,
If you have access to it,
Because we are going to reference it as we go.
What does regulation actually mean?
Because I think there is a misconception floating around that regulation means calm,
That the goal is to basically feel nothing,
To be unbothered,
To float through life in some kind of zen state where nothing activates you and you respond to everything with perfect measured grace.
And yeah,
No,
That is not regulation.
That is disassociation.
And it is not what we are going to be doing here.
Regulation means capacity.
It means your nervous system has enough flexibility and enough resources that when something bad or hard happens,
When you get triggered,
When the spiral starts to pull,
You can feel the feeling without becoming the feeling.
You can move through it instead of being swallowed by it.
You can come home back to yourself.
Think of it like this,
An unregulated nervous system is like a phone with 3% battery.
The moment something demanding happens,
It shuts down completely.
A regulated nervous system is like a phone that is fully charged.
It can handle a lot before it starts to struggle.
And when it does get low,
It knows how to find a charger.
We are building your charger today.
There are three main categories of regulation and they work differently depending on what state your nervous system is in.
The first category is grounding.
Grounding tools work by pulling your attention back into the present moment and into your physical body.
They interrupt the story your mind is spinning and anchor you into right now.
So if you're spiraling,
Yeah,
Pull this up.
The second category is discharge.
Discharge tools work by moving activated energy out of your body when you are in fight or flight mode.
Your body is flooded with adrenaline and cortisol.
Those chemicals were designed to fuel physical action.
If you just sit with them,
They keep building or get stuck in the body.
Discharge tools give that energy somewhere to go.
Movement is the most powerful discharge tool there ever is.
Is.
The third category is soothing.
Soothing tools signal safety to your nervous system directly.
They activate your vagus nerve,
Which is the superhighway of your parasympathetic nervous system,
The part responsible for rest,
Calm,
And connection.
It's where we want to be.
Now let me walk you through some actual tools and then I'm going to tell you the ones that personally work for me because I think hearing what someone actually does in real life is more useful than a clinical list.
I don't know,
That could just be me.
So,
Cold water on your face.
This one is science-backed and wildly underrated.
Splashing cold water on your face activates something called the dive reflex,
A sociological response that immediately slows your heart rate and signals your nervous system to downshift.
It takes about 30 seconds,
I'd say.
It feels dramatic,
I know,
But it works every single time.
If you are spiraling,
Try it.
It works.
Humming I know,
I know it sounds strange,
But humming directly stimulates the vagus nerve through vibration in your throat and chest.
Research on polyvagal theory developed by neuroscientist Stephen Porges shows that vocal vibration is one of the most direct ways to activate the parasympathetic nervous system and signal safety to your body.
Movement and dancing.
If you love to dance like I do,
This is perfect.
This is the discharge tool and it is one of my absolute favorites.
When your body is flooded with activation energy,
It needs somewhere to go.
Movement is the most natural discharge mechanism for your body.
Put on a song that makes your body wanna move and just move.
You are not performing,
You are discharging,
Okay?
We're gonna call it that.
There is a difference and it matters,
Okay?
Getting outside and into your body through beauty,
Getting dressed,
Doing your hair,
Stepping outside into the fresh air.
Ooh,
That rhyme.
This is not vanity,
You guys.
They are embodiment practices.
They pull you out of the spiral in your head and into the reality of your physical existence.
Next we have connection,
Texting a friend,
Calling someone you love,
Laughing with another person.
This one activates what polyvagal theory calls the social engagement system,
Which is your nervous system's most evolved and sophisticated regulation pathway.
You are not weak for needing people.
You are human.
That is literally how we were built.
And then there's my personal favorite,
My most unhinged regulation tool that I'm sharing with you because I believe in transparency and also because it genuinely works.
If you can do it,
A handstand against the wall.
Yes,
A handstand against the wall.
Try it.
When I am really activated,
When nothing else is cutting through,
I find a wall,
I kick up into a handstand,
And I hold it.
And something about being completely upside down with all the blood rushing to your head,
From your body,
It just works.
It works.
You literally cannot catastrophize while you are doing a handstand.
Your brain does not have the bandwidth.
I do not know if that is polyvagal theory or just physics,
But either way it works and I stand by it.
Go try it.
The point is this,
Your regulation menu is yours.
It does not have to look like anyone else's.
It does not have to be elegant or clinical or the best looking thing in the world.
It just has to work for your specific nervous system.
Here is the most important thing I want you to take away from today.
Regulation tools do not prevent activation.
They change what happens after activation.
They give your nervous system a pathway back to itself.
And the more you practice them when you are activated,
The more accessible they become when you are.
So your shamanic practice today,
I want you to open up your regulation menu PDF.
Right now,
Read through it,
Pick three tools that feel genuinely accessible to you.
Not the ones that seem like the most impressive or the hardest.
The ones that you would actually reach for and need at 11pm when you are spiraling.
Then pick one right now and try it for yourself for three minutes,
Just three minutes and notice what shifts in your body.
Even a small shift is information and it counts.
Okay?
And your journal prompt is,
What does regulation actually feel like in your body?
Not the concept of it,
The felt experience.
When was the last time you felt genuinely regulated?
Not just distracted or numb or exhausted into calm,
Actually regulated,
Safe in your own body.
And you guys,
You are not at the mercy of your own nervous system.
You have influence.
You have tools.
You have the ability to learn the language of your nervous system and speak it and speak it back to it.
I will see you on day six with so much love,
Haley.
