Rattibha

An unpredictable, chaotic, or emotionally disconnected childhood can lead to digestion issues and insomnia.
Signs Your Body Is Stuck In Sympathetic Overdrive:

Growing up in a home with: explosive fighting, harsh punishments, emotionally disconnected parent figures, financial insecurity, or any other chronically stressful event switches on our sympathetic arousal.

Sympathetic arousal is when the body goes into a survival state. The event doesn't actually need to be life threatening for us to go into sympathetic arousal.

If the events continue to happen over extended periods of time, the body goes into sympathetic overdrive.

Emotional Signs Of Sympathetic Overdrive:
-moodiness,
-irritability or restlessness
-short temper, agitation
-chronic overwhelm
-sense of hopelessness
-anxiety depression
-inability to focus or pay attention
-'mood swings'

Physical Signs of Sympathetic Overdrive:
-chronic pain
-rapid heart breat
-digestion issues (chornic diarrhea or constipation)
-dizziness/nausea
-insomnia (tired but wired)
-chronic fatigue
-metabolic issues

Behavioral Signs of Sympathetic Overdrive:
-chronic procrastination
-using substances to cope with stress
-isolation
-impulsivity
-self shaming
-shame spirals
- catastrophizing (an impulse to obsess over worst-case scenarios)

We each carry our childhood with us in the form of something called the allostatic load.
Our allostatic load is the cumulative burden of chronic stress and life events.

Someone with a high allostatic load cannot handle stress in productive ways. Instead stress will become debilitating. And the person will attempt to self soothe in any way they can.

Common ways of self soothing allostatic load: over-eating, drinking, procrasination, substance use, shopping, gambling, relationship addiction, obsessing, catosrophizing.

Our bodies are designed to handle stress. We've evolved to be able to face stress and find actions to resolve that stress (known as resilience).
The issue with being stuck in sympathetic overload is the body is frozen, hyperactive, or shut down.

This means our autonomic responses are working against us. Our body can't find solutions or go into action because it's quite literally fighting for our lives.

How to Help Heal Your Body:
1. WALK: the body needs to release the cumulative stress load in the body. Walking is an amazing way to start. The more we can tire the body and release that energy, the more we can enter parasympathetic (rest) states.

2. NUTRITION: your body needs proper nutrition and stable blood sugar levels in order to function optimally. Also be aware of omega levels. Being conscious about nutrition gifts your body a boost to deal with stress.

3. DAILY BREATHWORK: breathwork activates the parasympathetic nervous system. There are countless apps and simple guides on youtube to start this practice. Start to feel your body and what it's like to be within a relaxed state.

4. SUNLIGHT AND NATURE: sunlight and nature cue relaxation to our body. Walk barefoot outback, let the sun hit our face, sit around trees and just sense the calmness. This is how we train the body to welcome and enjoy relaxation.

5. CONNECTION: connection with safe, loving, playful people activates our ventral vagal response. This promotes creativity, collaborations, and feelings of belonging. It's worth noting that toxic relationships can keep us stuck in sympathetic overdrive.

If this was helpful follow: @Theholisticpsyc
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