Episode 63 - Your Nervous System Doesn't Need More. It Needs Better.

Are you actually regulating your nervous system… or just giving it more things to do?

In this episode of Three Questions, I explore the growing world of neuro wellness tools, from cold plunges and red light therapy to breathwork and vagus nerve stimulation.  But instead of asking whether these tools “work,” I challenge us to ask a deeper question: are they helping us support the real problem, or distracting us from it?

In This Episode You’ll Hear:

• Why sleep, movement, digestion, and social connection still outperform most wellness trends
• How to tell if a neuro wellness tool is supporting you or becoming a crutch
• Why regulation isn’t about doing more and what it’s actually about. 

Whether you're a movement professional, a wellness enthusiast, or someone who owns approximately 47 neuro wellness tools, this episode will help you think more critically about what your nervous system actually needs.

Links & Resources For This Episode:
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Transcript

Meghann Koppele Duffy: Welcome to Three Questions, where critical thinking is king and my opinions and research are only here to support your learning and deeper understanding. Hey, I'm your host, Meghann, and I'm so honored you clicked on Three Questions today so we can talk about wellness tools. More specifically, neuro wellness tools, which really means any tool or practice that is geared to optimize, improve, regulate your nervous system.

But before we get into the three questions, I just wanted to make sure we're all on the same page here. So I'm gonna be a little scientific. I'm gonna do my best to make it interesting. What is the nervous system? So, ugh, I was thinking about the most interesting way to explain this. It's a pretty sophisticated information processing system, almost kind of like a computer.

It's not just our brain. Our brain is a big part of it, but it's our brain and our entire, uh, our entire body and its communication to all our organs, all our cells, all our joints. Every sensation we feel and every movement we do is based off our nervous system. Okay? There's some conscious and some unconscious decisions.

Now, that's kind of at a bigger level. On a cellula-level, cellular level... I'm having trouble speaking today. There's about, I think, what? Like 86, maybe 90 billion neurons? And all this information is happening so fast. So if you think we can upload or download or share files quickly, I mean, our nervous system, our internal computer is even faster and more sophisticated than that.

So pretty cool, but with all that going on, think about all the different places things can go wrong. So let's break down the nervous system into its two kind of categories here. We have our central nervous system. That's our brain and our spinal cord. Okay? Then we have our peripheral nervous system, which is like a super highway of nerves that get to each little nook and cranny of our body, and that, the peripheral nervous system takes in all that information and brings it to the brain.

The brain processes it. We get it. So sensory input in, motor output. So it's this constant communication between the peripheral and the central nervous system. Maybe you guys might feel more comfortable if you've heard, like, issues or diseases of the central nervous system. If you've had any experience with multiple sclerosis, that is a disease of the central nervous system.

The myelin, so, like, think of, like, your computer cord. The outside is damaged, so communication from the brain down or from the peripheral up, it's affected, but in the central nervous system, brain and spinal cord. Then there's also other conditions like ALS, which affects the peripheral nerves. So it's really important to understand which system we're looking at.

Now, when we're looking at all these neuro tools, we kind of have to break things down even further. Stay with me. So let's put central nervous system on a shelf. Let's just talk about the peripheral nervous system. Our peripheral nervous system is then broken down into two sections. We've got our somatic and our autonomic Now, I don't love memorization.

Okay? We can memorize terms, but they often get confused. I mean, I screw them up all the time. So I like to think when we're looking at our peripheral nervous system, we've got an area that's kind of unconscious. Our heart rate, our blood pressure, digestion, we don't have to think about those things happening.

They happen when they need to, and sometimes when they don't, there's a problem. So we've got our autonomic, and think, that's easy, autonomic. So think heart rate, blood pressure, digestion. That's just a few. Then we have our somatic, so feeling, so stuff we're more conscious of. So when we go to reach for, like, you know, if I want that cup of water, that's gonna be my somatic nervous system.

Now, if I'm trying to digest or I am trying to make an adjustment, decrease my heart rate, blood pressure, stuff like that, that's going to be more autonomic. Now, for... depends on who you are or, like, what you do for a living. But for me, what, what kind of is important there for you for your day-to-day? I like to think let's work on controlling the controllable, things that we can control, and not freak out about the things we can't.

And the things we can't, we can best support that system so they can work best. You got me? Now, the last branch we're gonna talk about, I promise I will get to the point When we're looking at our autonomic nervous system, you'll know these two words, sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. You've heard these.

Usually, they're aligned with fight or flight and rest and digest. And because we're all so highly agitated these days or busy and always on the move, the s- um, sympathetic nervous system I feel like has gotten a bad rap, and everybody's looking to promote an increased parasympathetic nervous system. And while that is a baseline understanding, what I want you guys to get out of today is the word balance.

Balance is a des- isn't a destination, it's an act. So we're constantly striving for these balance between systems. I find I love to use myself as an example because it's easy to understand. Now, I have celiac, which as my, uh, good friend Mary Beth's husband Gary says, it's the worst disease that will never kill you.

I'm not minimizing celiac, so people with celiac, don't come after me, but, um, it is an annoyance, but it is livable. A lot of my clients, if there was one thing they could do to feel better, they would do it. Me, it's just avoiding gluten. All right? But because of major digestive issues I've had my whole life, is my digestion is sluggish.

It's not great. So when we're looking to rest and digest, people always like to blame my sympathetic nervous system. But because of issues with my parasympathetic nervous system, I have a pancreas that's shut down. I don't get a lot of good lubrication for digestion. So my parasympathetic has to work harder to do all those things.

Now, what some people don't realize is if you had increased parasympathetic and decreased sympathetic, you would die. Do we really want a decrease in heart rate and blood pressure so low that we die? No. Now, that's drastic. Don't freak out. But we really want these to be in balance because if your parasympathetic is working in overdrive, your sympathetic has to match it and kind of come above it.

So what I want you to take away of that is that's just one example. Everybody's brain and body is different, so don't, like, take what I just said as gospel. I want it to foster critical thinking. And you look at it as not as easy as lowering one and increasing the other. It's how can we support both systems in ways we can control?

And that's why I wanted to do this episode about neuro wellness because there are things we can use to help that control, but we also might be using those things because we don't wanna deal with the thing we wanna deal with I'm gonna let that land. All right? So we've learned about the nervous system.

It's our communication system. It's what's keeping us alive. So what I want you to think about is everything we do all day long affects our nervous system. I am very handsy today. If you're just listening to me on Apple Podcast or Spotify, you're not seeing the hand movement, it's aggressive. But so when we're saying, "Oh, I'm doing this to activate or change my nervous system," everything you're doing is affecting it.

So my question one: With so many neuro wellness tools out there, how do you know which ones actually support your nervous system, or are you just choosing them because of hype, fear, or clever marketing? Now, there is no wrong answer, and you should not feel shame for buying something you think will help you.

Okay? So how do we actually know which ones we need? Well, I like to... Let's, like, list off a bunch. Okay? So I'm gonna start with research first. All right? So the ones that have the most clinical research supported, that means peer-reviewed, is sleep hygiene, aerobic exercise, mindfulness, meditation, breathwork.

Oh my gosh, what am I forgetting? Oh, social connection. This is a big one. So these are the most that have the most research support, but let's go through them a bit. Sleep. Sleep is one of the most important things that are going to affect your nervous system. Now, don't come at me with, "I just had a kid, I'm not sleeping well."

Listen, there's exceptions to the rules, but despite what's going on in your life, you've gotta figure out a way to help your body sleep. So when it comes to sleep, there's all these wellness tools to help you sleep. Some of the best tools are free. They are going to bed this, around the same time every night.

No devices before bed. Waking up the same time every day despite your day. Now, think about right now if that's possible for your life. Okay? Now, if it is not possible, I want you to say, "Well, it is technically possible. I might not be able to go to bed till 10:00 PM, but I'm gonna make sure that at 10:00 PM, even if I wanna do X, Y, and Z, I say, 'No, I cannot do that today because it is my bedtime.'"

Why do we put children to bed at a certain time, yet we don't do that for adults? Guys, we are just larger children. Sometimes I feel like children regulate themselves better than we do. So make a bedtime. Brian and I go to sleep very early. The reason why, I need eight to nine hours of sleep, closer to nine hours, and if you're thinking that's frivolous, well, I don't care.

That's what my brain and body need. My brain goes at a million miles per hour all day long. I interact with a lot of people, so at night I need alone time. I need time to unwind. I need to sleep. That is really critical to me. It is a non-negotiable, and there are some times when I'm traveling to teach, I say to myself, I have a mantra I say to myself, "You are so lucky to get to do what you love every day, even when you're tired."

And it just grounds me. And so maybe you're in the weeds right now with a kid, and you are not getting any sleep. I don't have any solutions for that. I won't even pretend. But oftentimes, I've heard... I'm just kidding, I know. I love my nieces and nephew. Children bring joy, although they can be pains in the butt.

Ugh. Just looking at a family member. Ugh. So even when you're at your worst day, I want you to kind of figure out something. Say, maybe it's not this, maybe it's something else. I am so lucky that I have this child, even though the fact it has ruined my body and life. I'm just kidding. S- figure out a way where you can ground yourself.

It is critical. Okay? So sleep, really important. Make it a priority because let me tell you, I'm gonna be saying this a lot in this episode, a lot of these neuro wellness tools cannot replace not sleeping. Now, I had a, a client ask me a question the other day if they should go on medication for sleep, and I said, "Speak to your doctor about that."

But it is very critical we get sleep. My question was this: Are you actually gonna get good, restful sleep on that medication? I don't know. I'm not an expert at that medication. Ask your doctor. Look at some research. Because just knocking you out cold might not be the sauce. We need to figure out how to help you get good sleep, and I know this is like duh, but it is often hard to change patterns, right?

Ugh. All right. Now, breathwork, meditation, mindfulness, these are stuff we put off. I'll do it tomorrow. I'll do it tomorrow. No, we can fit this into our life. When you're picking up your kid, when you're waiting in the parking lot, maybe just Work on your breath. Maybe do a guided meditation. Maybe during that hour, call one of your friends and say, "Hey, meet me for coffee.

I need social connection." Maybe one of the other parents, ask them if they wanna get coffee, have some social connection. I know sometimes we feel like, "I just have a moment to myself. I just wanna be by myself," but that doesn't always recharge our battery as much as we think it will. Often, good social connection can recharge your battery more than you think.

Please notice I said good social connection. Do not go w- to coffee with a friend you can't stand or something that's a priority and think that will recharge your system, right? So these are the things that are... have the most research. Now let's go down the list. As I talk, these have less and less research.

Cold plunge, neurofeedback, non-sleep rest, flotation tanks, red light, um, vagus nerve or full body stim, grounding, earthing, frequency healing, sound baths, and crystals. Those last four have the least amount of research, but as someone who identifies as a movement scientist and does research, research is amazing, but it doesn't give us the answer.

It asks more questions. So just because something is not fully research supported does not mean it can't have a positive effect on your nervous system. Make sense? I think it's hard to research these things because everybody's nervous system and their response to that input is going to be different, okay?

So what I always tell people, how will you know which tool will actually support your nervous system? Well, I want you to look at the basics first. I always go back to Maslow's hierarchy of needs. If you're not familiar with it, go look at it. I remember writing a paper, I think it was last year, and I'm looking at this pyramid, s- self-actualization at the top, all these higher level things, and I'm like, "I am killing it."

And then I look at the bottom of the pyramid. It's like my eyes just skipped the fact that digestion, shelter, safety, sleep are all at the bottom. So it's like the foundation of our house. If we have a crack in the foundation, all the stuff we pile on top is just creating more havoc, and it's only going to, as I say, put a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound.

So for me, sleep is not a problem. You know what is a huge problem for me? I mentioned it earlier. Digestion. I am not a good eater. I'm a picky eater. I'm a l- actually have allergies to most food. Not an allergy to it, an inability to break it down. So- The fact that digestion is so hard for me, I have to make a concerted effort to make it easier, and that's where I really fall short It's my Achilles heel.

You all have your Achilles heel. I'm being very vulnerable and honest about it. So I like to use red light, infrared and near red light for my belly. I put it on my belly every night. Is it fixing my digestive issues? Absolutely not. Is it increasing blood flow and helping that? Yes. But if I don't eat well, if I eat too many gluten-free or processed foods, I could use as much red light as I want, I could get lymphatic massages once a month, it doesn't matter.

I'm chasing my tail. Okay? So if you want to use any wellness tools that are gonna help vagus nerve or blood flow or healing, you've got to make sure that you're not creating more damage before you use that tool. Think, these tools aren't fixing the problem, they're helping the nervous system heal and move forward.

But again, if you are not sleeping, all these other tools are just throwing lipstick on a pig. And I hate that saying, 'cause I love pigs. Pigs are adorable. My nickname is Piglet. Okay? So how will you know which one to pick? Understand where you're lacking. What is your Achilles heel? Can you address your Achilles heel first?

And which of these tools helps support that? You might be someone who has anger issues or someone that's gotta deal with a lot of people, and you find you get really agitated really fast. But you do cold plunges and after a cold plunge you feel so much better, you're able to deal with the world. Awesome.

That to me is a neurological reset, a cold plunge. There is some research supporting it, but you don't need to buy a cold plunge thing. Jump in my pool, it's pretty cold, or at the end of your shower just turn the cold water on. And the least offensive is take a bowl of col- a bowl of cold water and dunk your face in it.

You can get the same results with your face as if you do full body. Okay? But again, are you creating more problems that, that, that, that cold plunge won't be able to solve? All right? Do not get onto something because of hype. Do not get on something because of fear. And clever marketing, I know it gets us.

So how do we deal with hype and fear? "Oh, my God, Meghann, I got this new thing. It vibrates my right butt cheek. And did you know that right butt cheek activation helps your left shoulder and your vagus nerve?" What? I'm, I'm totally making that up, by the way. It is, "Meghann, I can't believe it's helping me so much.

I feel so much better. I'm not screaming at my husband. I'm chill with my kids." Okay. So first of all, ask that person, "Hey, why did you start with that tool?" "Well, I was short fused with my kids and everybody." And so we kind of got to the root of the problem. Now, before... My rule of thumb is before I buy anything, is it something I can fix on myself?

Now, if I'm hearing my friend say that, my first gut is be like, "Hey, maybe you should talk to a therapist about that." I get it. I have anger issues. I talk to my therapist about it. Okay? Now, therapy can only take you so far. So when I get angry, I might need a tool to reset the system. Okay? Beautiful. So that right butt cheek vibration, now what is it really doing?

Right butt cheek vibration, that can activate more our somatic nervous system. So with actual sensation to our buttocks, it can, through our skin, um, different sensory receptors, can help our brain know where we are better in space and feel safer. Okay? When we feel grounded and safe, we might not pop off, which takes me to the bottom of the list, grounding.

That has zero research to support it, except for the fact, um, guys, can we all admit standing on the earth is good for us? Frequency healing, I don't care if there's a lot of research. My little dog who's laying down right next to us here had cancer when he was two, a gut-based cancer, and we... I, I don't even know what...

I was devastated. We thought we were gonna lose him Go to the doctor, talk to someone. They go, "Hey, people have found that when a dog is on a very low-fat diet, they won't be leaking proteins." It was this whole big thing. Put him on a low-fat diet. I also got a PEMF mat, mostly because one of my students, um, I think it was Angelica, Angelique, excuse me, was like, "I love this thing.

It's amazing." Got one. Willie would lay on it every single day. I never had to pick him up and put him on it. I would sit on it, he would join me. Our vet is shocked at how he recovered. He was on chemo for, like, a year and a half, and every time she sees him, she's like, "This dog is like a miracle." He's not a miracle.

What we did was he had a digestive issue. Luckily, we were able to kinda get to the bottom of that, and maybe the frequency healing helped him. Maybe time healed him. I don't know. I don't care. When I lay on that PEMF mat, and if you want to know, I use the higher dose PEMF mat. I'm a little upset right now because this is the second time my mat broke at the two-year mark.

Now, I don't know if it's something I'm doing. I'm gonna reach out to them. Um, higher dose, I've always had good, um, experiences with their customer service. But if nothing else, I believe it saved my dog's life, and it helps me stay calm. However, if I don't do the work, and if we didn't change Willie's diet and put him on chemo, I don't know if it would have that much help.

I hope that helps you understand how multifactorial everything is. So let's kinda move on from question one to question two, and question two and three kind of go hand-in-hand. So- Everybody hates this question. I hate it, too, but I'm gonna ask it. If you feel like you need a neuro reset every day, what is your nervous system trying to tell you about your life, your habits, your environment?

I know. I have been trying not to use the red light on my stomach every night because I don't want it to be a crutch. I need to be conscious of what I ate. I need to have good digestion. All these things, right? So if I have to use the red light to function or feel good, what is that telling me about what I'm doing, about what I'm eating?

It's not working. Okay? So I originally said this question, "This is the question the wellness industry doesn't want me to ask," but that's not true. I mean, yes, and I think it's a question we don't wanna ask ourselves. If you've gotta do a cold plunge every day, if you've got to use your infrared sauna, if you cannot function without exercise every day, we need to look deeper into that for our nervous system.

I used to be like that. Anybody else feels... who f- would feel completely off if they didn't have t- if they didn't exercise every day? It was kinda bad in my 20s. Now, I do kind of just daily movements. I'm creative. I'll do some, um, um, vestibular resets. But I'm able to function without exercise every day because my life gets in the way, okay?

So in that thought- I think in order to answer question two, ask yourself, what is the tool that you love to use? If you removed it, would your nervous system be okay?

Would your nervous system be okay? Now, I wanna bring up, um, so I know in neuro a lot of my students who, like, did Z-Health training, um, I am not Z-Health certified. They do their thing, I do mine. But, um, they I think talk about the threat bucket a lot. And so think all the stresses in our life fill up a bucket, right?

And things are gonna overflow at some point. So we can do all these little things, maybe a visual exercise, a cranial nerve exercise, a little joint movement, and it's gonna take out some of the water so we don't overflow, okay? What I like to look at, and what I want the big takeaway from this for all of us, including myself, is what if we pour out a shit ton of water by getting to the foundational things first, then using these wellness tools s- to support those foundational changes, right?

So there's this other theory, um, oh my God, the guy's name is slipping my mind. I remember the year, it was like 1993. Allostatic. So looking at allostatic theory, it's really looking at the cumulative effect on our nervous system about everything, so similar to the threat bucket. But what was super interesting about this research to me is no daily reset Can compensate or fix overwhelm of the whole environment or the system.

I hated that. Come on, give us a little win. But it was interesting, and you can only really, um, measure this with, like, biomarkers, like cortisol levels. Um, I think they use waist to hip ratio, blood pressure, inflammation markers, stuff like that. So for us, I'm not gonna be measuring these all the time, and I know some holistic practitioners do measure this.

But instead, I, I just love the idea of let's stop changing small things. Let's change the big things first, and give ourselves the grace when we are not ready to change those big things, okay? Sometimes we kinda have to hit our rock bottom or spend a lot of money on tools to realize The change, the call is coming from within inside the house situation.

Okay? So I'm not gonna beat a dead horse on question two. What I'd love you to take from this is identify your neuro tools, your neuro wellness tools. What ones do you actually need? What ones are gonna help you? Don't just pick it 'cause your friend used it. Understand what tools they were trying to, or what holes they were trying to plug.

Don't be fearful of something happening. And then ask yourself, "If I didn't have this tool, would I be able to function?" I want you to think of these neuro tools as icing on the cake. Now, I love icing. Oh my God, I could eat it out of the jar. The cake is good, the icing is better. If you're the opposite and hate icing and like the cake, well then flip my saying.

Okay? The icing on the top enhances the cake, but you're not really just gonna eat icing out of a jar unless you're, like, a weird kid like I would. But that's not normal. All right? So question three What was my question three? I don't like question three. I'm looking at what I wrote for myself

Are we confusing stimulation with regulation? Why I don't like this question, I feel like these are just terms. I feel like they don't hit us deep in the gut. So what I mean is, are we just giving ourself more things to do rather than improving the quality of the things we already have and are doing? So I guess this kind of goes with question two, but let's make this more actionable here, right?

So for me, I want our take home is are we able to improve our sleep hygiene? What we're doing, how we're sleeping. Yes or no? Number two, can we get in a little bit more aerobic exercise? You don't have to join a gym to do that. One of the best things you do is walk. For me, I like doing mindless walking where I have no music, nothing, not even the dog, where I just stroll.

And I honestly haven't been doing that lately. I've been using my dog to force me to go for walks, but I can't get into my mindfulness like I do, like I like to do when I'm walking when I've got the dog because he does his beagle bark, he's sniffing, all the things. Okay? So how can we walk more? How can we sleep more?

How can we be more mindful of everything around us? And I am not a religious person, but I do like in each religion, there's sometimes they seem like weird food rules. And I love, um... A client once told me, and I'm not even gonna point out the religion, like, the way they ate. I go, "Is it because of this?" She said, "Yes, and..."

But it's really about conscious consumption. And I kind of was like, "Say more." And she's like We just can't eat everything on our plate. We have to consciously notice if it was prayed over or the combinations, and to be really grateful of the food that is nourishing us. And I was like, "Oh my God, we're so disconnected from everything, even the food we eat."

And it was something I needed to hear as someone who has weird, a really weird relationship with food. I hate that I think about food more than is normal. Um, and it's something I had to work on not knowing I had celiac, and I've really worked on it, and now I have to always be conscious of what I eat.

And I have like... I'll be honest, I get, like, embarrassed at a restaurant when I'm like, "Is that... I see it says gluten-free. Like, is there cross-contamination there?" Because I don't want to be a pain in the neck, but I am allergic to gluten. My body can't break it down, and it screws up my digestion, which makes my nervous system freak the hell out.

Okay? So I took that to be more conscious of what I'm consuming. Take a breath. Look. Be grateful of all the food on our plate, and maybe that's how you look at sleep, being grateful of that we have a bed, a roof, all these things. See if you can find mindfulness in everything you do. And really important, whether you do breathwork or not, I've got a quote, uh, one of my good friends, Shantae.

She did this great breathing workshop years ago. I can't remember the name of it, but her, um, business is The Movement Maestro. Um, it was a really good, um, breath workshop. She sent it to me to ask to give her my opinion. I thought it was great, and she started it out by saying, "If you're alive, you're breathing correctly."

And I just love that, 'cause if you're alive, you're breathing correctly. Can we optimize our breath? Yes. But I want you to think about breathwork like this. There is not one breath pattern that is better. I see all these movement professionals that are trained in a breath method, but it screws up other thing.

Like, I see a lot of Pilates teachers that are obsessed with lateral breath, yet their, their lung, their ribs don't go forward and back enough, or their upper ribs don't expand. So they're sh- they have a lot of shoulder girdle issues. "Oh, I can't find my serratus. I can't move my arm." Yeah, because your ribs are only in, moving in one direction.

Your shoulder blade... For my non-movement people, the shoulder blade, like, kind of needs that kyphosis, that roundness of the back ribs to just kinda chill, right? So if you have any, like, scapular pain, and you just feel like you can't get your shoulder blade in the best place, breathe. Make it really expansive.

Breathe your ribs back into your shoulder blade. Take up space. Okay? That's gonna really shift how things move. But if you're alive, you're breathing. And last but not least, that social connection aspect. I will be the first. My girlfriends in my 20s, they would call it the Koppele back-out. I would back out of things all the time because emotionally and cognitively I was overwhelmed.

And you know what would've, would've fixed that? Time with my girlfriends. Because I am lucky. I have the best group of female friends from college They are the best. I'm sorry. They're better than yours. I'm just kidding, but I'm not. Okay? I've never been surrounded by a group of women who are non-competitive, truly support each other, and really love each other, and can call each other out on their shit.

Okay? I'm, I'm, I- if you don't have that in your life, seek it out. Find people. I joke locally I have one adult friend. Um, uh, shout out to K- Katie McNulty, who's now Katie Dougherty. I know she listens to the podcast. Um, I met her through my husband, and I don't get to see my college friends enough, but she, I joke, is my one adult friend because every time I see her, it's like I frigging plug myself into the wall.

I feel better. My sister's like that, too. Spending time with my sister, my family, my niece and nephew, that plugs me in. Now, I understand I am very lucky in that, and if you're having trouble seeking that, reach out. I got your back. I'm always here to listen, tell a joke, make you laugh, help you find a community.

I know that's kind of hard. When I moved down to the Jersey Shore area with my husband, like, I have no friends down here, and I have no... I don't have kids, so I don't- I didn't make friends through that. And it can be hard. And I'll admit it, I s- I get insular in my house a little too much. So remember, that social connection feels like it's gonna drain your battery.

It can actually enhance your nervous system, provided they're people that aren't people who drain you. Mm-kay? Keep that in mind Now, getting back to it. So once we look at all those things, are there areas you can improve? How can you use all these wellness tools to support those areas? So mine are, I use frequency healing.

I use red light, um, to help with digestion, my biggest problem. When I have trouble sleeping, what I do is I actually get out of bed and do slow movement. Why I do slow movement is I'm trying to mobilize my joint, actually activate my somatic nervous system to improve my proprioception so that when I lay down, my body feels safer.

I also will recommend to other people to do eye exercises, especially if they do eye exerci- if they're on their phone a lot. I give them eye exercises to open up their visual field top to bottom and right to left slowly. When we're scrolling on our phone, our eyes move so fast. We gotta slow that down.

We gotta get our eyes to move big, see things far and near. Doing a few slow eye exercises can calm down your nervous system so much because if your eyes are going at a mile a minute, think about all that sensory information your brain took in. All right? So other ways to improve the input is through good movement.

This is what I do all the day long with clients. I don't just give exercises. We look to fill unique sensory gaps. If you do not feel well or you feel tired or drained after exercise, you are draining your battery. Exercise should not drain your battery. Now, if you are an athlete training for an activity, there is going to be times where your battery is drained.

But for the majority of population, we need to look at exercise as a nervous system tool, not a punishment for what we ate or what we wanna look like. When your nervous system is functioning better, your digestion will be better. Everything will function better, and I guarantee you will look better. So if we lead with nervous system, I'm telling you, you will look and feel better.

If you are punishing your body with movement, you are reinforcing linear patterns that actually screw up our proprioception and can make us feel less connected to our body. You can still work out hard from a nervous system response. Reach out. I will pair you with a neuro studio level three or level two teacher that knows how to do this.

You can do this on Zoom. You can do this on in person. I do Pilates. I'll do L- um, Lagree workouts. I will lift heavy. I do kettlebells. I do, um, classical Pilates. I do contemporary Pilates. I walk. I do all movements. I play tennis. But I use the nervous system regulation tools to help me get the most out of those movements so that it doesn't negatively affect my mindfulness and my sleep.

Okay? So I know I kind of said we were gonna talk about nervous system regulation tools, and while I am not against any of them, what I want us to ask ourselves the question, do we really need them? Can I get the same benefit without paying for something Am I doing the best I can and I need this tool to support me?

All of those are good reasons to use a neuro wellness tool. Please do not think that these neuro wellness tools are going to be the thing that makes the biggest change. When we look at the threat bucket, it's only pouring out a little bit. And when we go back to what I talked about before, no daily reset can truly fix an issue in your environment.

I know a lot of things are out of our control, but you know listening right now, there are things in our control we can change. You also are more than welcome to be like, "Yes, she's right, but I don't care. I don't have the time. I am doing all these things right now. I am in the weeds." Fine. So figure out a way you can help your body function, and we can all make excuses.

Lord knows I make them all the time. But if you want to be the best version of yourself, spend less money and look a little bit more inward. Think about how the nervous system is responding and how everything affects it. Think about how you can best support your autonomic nervous system with good food, good movement, not overstimulation, and how we can help our somatic nervous system through, again, more mindful, good movement and stuff like that.

They work hand in hand. There's no one secret. So I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I know we went through a lot. If you have any questions, if you wanna know about my opinion about a neuro wellness tool, I'm happy to give it. But opinions are like buttholes, we all have them. If it fills a gap for you, it's perfectly fine and I would recommend you use it.

So thanks everyone, and I hope you do one thing today that helps your nervous system feel at its best and most optimal zone