If your nervous system has been running on fight/flight mode, taking a vacation or forcefully slowing down your activities can be unhelpful. Your system might see slowing down as a red flag, feeling more threatened. Do this instead…

When your system is hyper vigilant and on the go all the time. The common advice of resting, taking leave from work or taking a vacation normally doesn’t bear many fruits and it can cause more frustration.

You see, your system is on the go because it is doing what it knows best to keep you safe.

On the go in this case mean = I’m defending myself by taking care of everything. Being busy, problem solving to avoid being caught off guard.

Instead of following the common advice trying this:

🌿 Remove, tactically, one single activity that requires high energy to complete. Then replace it with a walk. Do it for 1 week and notice how your body responds. If your body “freaks out” you can go back to it and try another activity that is less triggering to replace.

🌿 in addition to the above, slowly keep on adding resources to your day. Small pockets of resources throughout your day.

Slowing down by stages.

In short: resourcing + adding a less intense activity to replace the high intensity activity is one of many ways you can start to teach your body to slow down, without causing it to self protect.

For more information about resourcing, check my “Resources” highlight on Instagram.