I have a problem with what we call STRESS

Because stress isn’t a problem. It is in fact a beautifully designed innate system keeping us safe from danger. When combined with rest, it is energizing, resilience building, and life enhancing. This is the ‘fight or flight’ part of the stress response we might feel when we’re running late for a meeting, about to present on stage, or about to do something for the first time.

We are designed to move through this stress response cycle, then after the danger has passed, return to a grounded sense of calm and readiness. Stress + rest = growth.

Problems arise when we get in the way of this beautifully designed survival mechanism.

When we:

Don’t complete the cycle to return to grounded calm and readiness, including giving our body the nourishment and rest that it needs;

Or when the situation(s) demands more than we have the capacity for, and our system determines a shutdown as the best chance at survival.

What we know as the ‘freeze’ response. Our whole body moves from energy giving, to energy protection. A totally different whole body orchestration from fight or flight.

There are two reasons why our entire system might enact this whole system shutdown.

Number 1:

Too little for too long –

we have been running on too little nourishment, rest & support; lack of self connection, trust or doubt for too long. We have essentially been asking more from our system than we have been giving for too long.

Number 2:

Too much too fast –

we are hit with too much too quickly. Either one singular event, or multiple events in a row. We may be able to handle losing our job, but losing our job and the death of a loved one, could be too much too fast.

For many people, it is a combination of both.

Living in a pond of too little for too long, slowly depleting our capacity. Then when we are hit with a large life event – a car accident, illness, job loss, divorce, partner/kids illness/death – it pushes us over the edge into shutdown.

And we cannot thrive in shutdown. Our biology – when we enter into this state – won’t allow it.

It is this distinction, between stress and overwhelm (or shutdown), that we need to understand and address, because they require different treatment.

Stress management techniques on a system in overwhelm doesn’t work, and in fact, can make the problem even worse.

You might be able to recognise this in yourself?

You’re ticking off your movement, eating ‘right’, and doing all your practices… yet you’re still exhausted.

This isn’t your fault. You just aren’t addressing the full picture.