BBR #161: Teaching Your System to Prevent Future Stress

I was at a Christmas gathering recently yesterday , to be exact December 10th and I was talking about my trip with some friends and I said you know , I just got home this month on the 11th , and someone reminded me that it is now December and the 11th has not happened yet .

And I realized that I have been home for a month now and time flies by , time continues to move forward and keeps moving no matter what we're doing .

And even though my trip wasn't the movie montage of meditation and exercise that I had imagined , I did create a solid morning routine including reading , journaling , lymphatic massage , somatic shaking , meditation , breath practice , a nice walk , some coffee , yummy , fresh , sweet bread , and it was lovely .

And it took a couple of hours , which I don't have every morning here . Back in my usual routine and I guess that's not true I do have that time I could get up at five and do all of the things , but I am solid in my don't love getting up early era and I embrace that .

And part of that is making sure that I'm getting plenty of sleep to protect my brain , because lack of sleep is a contributor to seizure activity . It's also one of the worst things just overall for brain function .

We know that chronic lack of sleep is linked to a ton of health problems , including trouble , self-regulating anxiety , stress , depression , and that's just a drop in that bucket . So all of that to say that I choose sleep and name all of those things as evidence that I need more of it , which you know , I'll take that for now .

So , anyway , I could choose to get up and spend two hours in my routine , and I may do that again at some point , but that is not right now and I'm finding it much harder to fit a couple of minutes here and there with my preventative routines , feeling like it's not the time I want . So I'll just wait until I have more time .

This may come as a shock , but that happens day after day , because unless we make time , it doesn't just appear . The thing is , there will never be more time . We have to choose how we use the time that we do have and until I am willing to pull the time away from other things .

What I have time for is a few minutes here and there between all of the other things that I have going on in my day , and the good news is that that is plenty of time , no matter how we think or feel about it being enough or not enough to be worth it .

When it comes to creating patterns in our brain and body , it's about frequency , not length of time . It's how often we do something , even if we only have a few minutes to do it , and the more we do something , the stronger that pathway gets . It's called practice and it's a real thing . This is why we practice .

This is why we do things over and over again , so that we can build these patterns and strengthen them . Having the tools to actually and actually using them are different things . We know this . We know what to do and actually doing it are very different . We can know what to do all day long , but if we don't take action , it's not helping us .

If we're only reaching for the tools that we do have when we need immediate relief , it may not help as much as it would if we practiced in other times where we were not needing that immediate help , when we're not super stressed , when we're not in the middle of anxiety .

The tools only work when you use them , and there are tools for immediate relief and tools to help prevent and redirect the system , and a lot of the times those are the same tools . We just use them more frequently . Prevention means teaching your system something new . You can't like a new normal . You can't try something once and expect to do it perfectly .

It is learning a new skill . It takes practice , and teaching your system a new way of communicating means you have to send messages over and over and over again to speak a new language . You have to practice so many times . We want to have that magic fix , something that we can pull out of our bag of tricks when we need it and that's it .

And that's the only time we use it . That's the only time we pay attention to our tool . We're not just inputting code into a machine . As much as we have heard the comparison between our bodies and machines and our brains and computers . That's not how we work . Those are not accurate descriptions . We are not robots .

Your brain and body are in constant communication . All systems of the body are in constant communication . What that communication is depends on what we do , how we think , how we move , how we breathe , how we eat , our social support . Every single experience we have is input for our system , a message .

So even when we only have time to pick one tool in practice for one minute , we are still sending a certain message to our system . And remember , you are always sending messages , always communicating , and you can choose what you want to say with intention . So don't let the lack of time stop you .

We have time to pull from somewhere else , always , even if it is that one or two minutes . And when I look and I know this is not , I know I'm not alone here when I look at how much time I spend actually scrolling or watching TV , I know that I have 10 minutes to borrow from that , even if I split that in between 5 minutes 2 times a day .

2 minutes 5 times a day . Whatever it is , you have got that time and it's going to take intention . It's going to take dedication to you and your future self . You will have to choose you . You will have to choose what you want more than the immediate comfort of avoiding work and scrolling and distracting and numbing . You will have to choose to intervene .

You'll have to choose intention , choose to interrupt the automatic response and habits . Your brain loves efficiency , so it takes the things that you do , the thoughts that you think most often , and it makes habits out of these things and thoughts , thoughts and things .

It automates them so you don't have to use your conscious energy there , so that you have that energy to use on other things that are new and different . And one of the best ways to interrupt that autopilot and have space to choose intention is to breathe , pause into the moment Over and over . Breathe , pause into your day . Build awareness around each breath .

You notice Each pause that you give yourself . Bring awareness to that In those moments . You have that space between your pause and then the next action that you take , and that is where you get to choose what happens next . So , my friend , this is a reminder to myself and I offer it to you if you need it .

Two minutes absolutely counts . If that's all you've got , do that and then do it again tomorrow . Choose to create messages to yourself . Choose you . The tools cannot help you if you won't let them Choose you , because you choose what you do next and keep choosing .

And the best thing about that is that you have endless moments in this life to choose , so choose yourself . I see that we are under 10 minutes here , which I love because I am going to give you whatever two to five minutes . You had planned on listening to more of me and I'm going to give that time back to you to choose a tool to practice .

Even if you're driving , even if you're cleaning , you can choose to pay attention to your breath . If you are not , you can choose whatever tool you want to practice . So I hope that you take a couple of minutes . Give them to yourself right now . Thank you for being here , endlessly grateful always . I will check back in next week .

Until then , I hope you have a beautiful week . I am out of here .