Introduction:

Flighty? Agitated? Short-fused? You’re likely running on empty and no, one decent night’s sleep and a multivitamin won’t cut it. When your nervous system is in a chronic state of “go-go-go,” you’re not just tired. You’re depleted at a cellular level. Your mitochondria (the little power plants in your cells) are sputtering like an old lawnmower. And when they’re not firing properly, neither are you.

Stress doesn’t always arrive wearing a neon sign. Sometimes it’s jaw clenching or your shoulders halfway to your ears. It’s the snapping at a loved one for chewing too loudly, or the urge to abandon your entire life because someone used your moisturizer…again.

The problem? We become so accustomed to the tension, we stop noticing it. Until our body forces us to….through fatigue, headaches, gut issues, or just feeling flat-out “done.”

Enter: the micro-break. No, not a luxury. A necessity. Think of them as nervous system snacks… tiny resets that keep you from tipping further into burnout.

Quick nervous system resets:

•          Drop your shoulders. Then drop them again. You probably didn’t get them the first time.

•          Unclench your jaw. There it is. That TMJ tightness? Pure stress.

•          Exhale longer than you inhale. It tells your brain, “I’m safe, not being chased by a lion.”

•          Look out a window. Bonus points for anything green and not screen-shaped.

•          Name three things you can hear. Gets you out of your head and back into your body.

Stress you don’t notice is often more damaging than the stress you do because it simmers. Start noticing. Then start interrupting. Not with a holiday. With a breath.

And if all else fails, turn off your phone and go lie down in the laundry. No one ever thinks to look there nor visits… just sayin.