I have been working on regulating my nervous system. Outside of the always popular and never-failing journaling, always eating protein before I drink my AM coffee (trying my best with this one) and taking long walks. Here are a few other ways that I regulate my nervous system:
🤳 Quality time
As a business owner, I find it hard sometimes to stop working. I’m always on my phone checking an email or doing social media. But I have made it a point to put my phone away when I am with my boyfriend or my friends & family and enjoy the quality time. I often notice how addicted other people are to their phones when I am not on mine, but when I make a conscious effort to not check my phone, I feel much more relaxed.
☀️ Natural Light in the Morning
I sleep with my blinds open and wear our silk sleep mask to sleep (can’t live without it) which totally blocks out all light. When I remove my mask in the morning, it’s nice to have the natural sun on my face. Natural light supports metabolic health, hormone function, circadian rhythm, and mental health. It helps your body produce serotonin, which is key to elevated mood.
☕️ Time Caffeine Intake
Your levels of cortisol and epinephrine (adrenaline) naturally begin to rise around 4 am to wake you up and get you ready for the day. Naturally, our cortisol levels hit their peak around 8 am. Because our bodies are already mobilized and ready to go, adding caffeine can leave me feeling more jittery than usual and missing out on the benefits of caffeine. I have been trying to time my coffee intake 2-3 hours after I wake up when my cortisol levels naturally begin to decrease. I also never intake any caffeine after 1 pm.
🕯️ Reduce artificial light/use lamps
I am a huge fan of candles and soft lights. Once the sun goes down, my candles are on, and all lights are off! It’s non-negotiable for me. Studies have found that using artificial bright or blue light at night can disrupt your natural cortisol rhythm in comparison to dim or red-light conditions. “Using lamps in the evening instead of lights above the height of your head is beneficial as the cells that bring in the circadian clock setting information sit in the lower half of the retina that, because of the optics of the eye, view the upper visual field." - Andrew Huberman, PhD.”
💤 Prioritize Sleep
Since my entire life (Pisces gang), I have always gotten 7-8 hours of sleep a night. Getting enough sleep is essential for your general health and keeping cortisol levels healthy. At midnight, cortisol levels are lowest, and at 9:00 a.m., they are highest. Even small disruptions in your sleep-wake cycle can cause large fluctuations in cortisol levels. Elevated cortisol can result in poor sleep, and people with sleeping problems tend to experience higher cortisol levels. If I find my mind racing and I start to get anxiety at night, I take the Nighttime Formula by @crystalbodydrip and I am out, dozed off to dreamland within 30 min.
🧊 Icing or Gua Sha
After 7 pm, I really try to stop scrolling and wind down with a self-care routine that I quite literally do while I am lying in bed. Most nights, that is a gua sha, or taking our unicorn ice Mold and rolling it across my face. The cooling sensation instantly grounds me and also the gliding of both ice and gua sha helps sculpt the face and if you are really consistent with it will reduce the size of your double chin.
