Healing from Burnout: Exercises to Develop a Healthier Nervous System

In a world that values you for your productivity, it’s easy to get stuck in overdrive. How do you learn to slow down when everything seems to be speeding up at a rapid rate?

As an entrepreneur who’s experienced burn-out and an addiction to over-achievement rooted in childhood trauma, I’ve committed myself to learning about my nervous system as an everyday wellness practice.

A part of my “recovery” process has been learning to slow down, feel and notice the “unconscious” patterns of my nervous system. In doing so, I’ve created a framework that may support you as you navigate a busy, hectic global marketplace.

Since we live in a technology-based world, allow me to explain it through that lens of experience.  The human body is very similar to your computer or phone:

• It stores memory in data centers inside your hard-drive (mental and emotional imprints layered into your nervous system memory)
• It holds browser history to support a better user experience (this is literally a survival instinct of adaptation and protection)
• Over time, too much data can slow you down (you’re not meant to go-go-go. Every machine needs to be turned off.)
• Clearing cache and cookies can improve your user experience (everything can run more smoothly and process better)
• You need to recharge, reboot, and upgrade your mainframe consistently (breath, rest, gratitude, attention)

When a computer’s operating system is malfunctioning, short circuiting, or running sluggish; you need to upgrade your system before you would expect proper running of the various programs and apps you have installed.

Well the operating system of the human body is the Central Nervous System. It is the ‘communication network’ for all electrical signals between your brain, heart and your body.

Your computer comes from the store with DEFAULT settings that may not be your “user preference.”

We too have DEFAULT settings programmed into us from our earliest manufacturing environment, i.e.:

• memory of your lived experiences
• past failures
• worries
• early abuse
• limiting beliefs
• relationship patterns
• traumas
• resentments
• cultural, familial, societal and gender programming

These are literally stored “data,” in a full hard drive, living in your physiology, psyche, your nerve channels, and subconscious mind.

Just as your computer may have an old, outdated operating system from years ago; you too may be running on old programming, outdated wiring, malfunctioning equipment that doesn’t support your present day function.

Understanding your nervous system: the wiring of your main communication highway (spine), the positive and negative currents of your brain, controlling the left and right sides of your body respectively. This is critical to your basic everyday functioning.

Strengthening your nervous system will improve your everyday operating, and can potentially increase the bandwidth and processing power. Essentially it’s like upgrading yourself from “dial-up” technology to high-speed data transmission.

So how do you do it? Attention on your Breath. Research shows that awareness of your breath can change your brain instantly. The key to breath is consistent attention.

Practice with me. Here are two simple attention practices to begin to “clear your cache and cookies” instantly.

BREATHE: Engage your electrical energy intentionally

1. Breathe in and out through your nose.
2. Relax the tongue behind the two front teeth (this helps to soften lizard brain reaction patterns)
3. As you breathe, try to expand the ribs on the inhale, and deflate them on the exhale
4. Even if your ribs don’t move, just focus your attention there and imagine them moving.
5. Extend your inhale to last for 5 seconds.
6. Extend your exhale to last for 5 seconds
7. Continue to practice for 3-5 minutes

The LOVE Process: Learn to notice how energy flows in your body. 

Begin by imagining a grounding cord or current from your hips, low back and belly extending down to the earth like a tree trunk. Feel the security of it as you breathe.

1. Locate yourself (put your hand somewhere on your body)
2. Observe your inner space. (what do you notice? Find your breath, notice sensations)
3. Variance-Vibration-Velocity (what’s the direction, speed, quality of sensations)
4. Excavate the excess energy (send the energy down the body into the root systems of the ground)

GuruNischan is a Nervous System Consultant and Breath Trainer. Visit www.gurunischan.com to discover more resources and learn how she helps entrepreneurs and independent minded thinkers to optimize their productivity and happiness by helping them disengage from their conditioning and create new patterns to thrive in.

Burnout stock image by insta_photos/Shutterstock

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