Once the stressor is gone there is still work to be done.

I’ve come out the end of  a few very stressful weeks in a row, as Laura would say “life got real lifey there for awhile”. I had to work hard to keep on the level. Now most of the big stressors have been resolved and the change in how I feel is dramatic

🤓 My head is clear and I have capacity to problem solve and be creative again

😌 My emotions are calmer - I’m not ping ponging all over the show in various modes of emotional reactivity

😊 My stomach is settled and there’s way less muscle tension in my neck

🤗 I’m finally sleeping through the night, Iess snappy, more present and generally a much nicer person to be around!

It feels good.

But I notice I’m not quite fully settled yet….

🤔 I feel edgy when I’m trying to sit still

🤔 I’m still reverting to mindless phone scrolling more often than I’d like

🤔 I catch myself sighing and yawning more often than normal even though I don't feel tired

Maybe this sounds familiar? Can you guess what’s going on?

Just because the stressors are gone, doesn’t mean my nervous system has fully deactivated from fight/flight mode - its hanging in there for a bit longer, doing its job and scanning for the next thing to react to 👀 🧠

I’ve got 2 options here:

☝ Continue on as is and hope that it continues to settle on its own and to be honest there’s a good chance this will happen over time as my regular routines are reestablished.

Or

✌ Be intentional about getting it down those last few clicks sooner rather than later. Fully complete the stress cycle. This means I have to work on the “getting comfortable with sitting still” thing again. Purposefully taking the time to do nothing, be conscious of how I’m breathing, resist the urge to “keep busy”......you know those things that are actually SO hard to do sometimes!

I’ve decided I’m going with the latter cos who knows what next lifey thing is on the horizon. Personally I’d rather deal with whatever that is from a more stable starting point.

Some things for you to ponder…

What do you notice about your own stress response?

Are you doing anything about the signals?

~Kirsten