Empathic Self-Care & Healing

You’ve hopped into your car, fresh from the dentist’s chair. The shrill reverb of the drill echos in your ears. The slurping sound of the suction tube makes your jaw tighter still. Muted office chatter, which stealthily soaked into your nervous system feels like a spoon blending all of that commotion together. 

ARGH!

Now, you have to drive your poked and prodded gums into traffic and get back to your day! Er, right… “I need a nap.” your body whimpers.

Take this situation or anything else that feels uncomfortable and chafing — you know your nervous system has been impacted, small or significant.

We think we’re impervious to the pressure of our high-tech world. News channels bark angry stir-the-pot opinions and commentary, because … you know, breaking news rarely happens. They can’t have dead air. Somebody has got to comment on something.

We silently keep telling ourselves that we can handle all of this. However, we actually can’t. Physiologically, psychologically, and electro-magnetically we are fooling ourselves. Our ancient physiology is wired for noticing crackling branches, rumbling rocks, and shifting winds as signals to alert us of danger and change.

Our nervous systems are being taxed more by the unheard and unseen; whether you are an empath or not. Our brains feel more scrambled than ever.

We keep telling ourselves the same story. That we can deal with social media’s dopamine popping Likes, 5-G 😳, A.I., and on and on.

At least that’s the story we act out, as we’re entranced and entrenched within the realm of modern mayhem. The world is only going to get louder and more buzzed up with wireless. You know that.

When you come home and reconnect to your wi-fi, you have lots of options, as your neighbor’s wi-fi signal is in your bedroom too.  🤔

We know this. Yet gloss over it, because “this” is what is.  Frankly, I know I’m not going off the grid anytime soon. In fact, the majority of humans are just now coming onto the grid, which certainly offers benefits within every category of life.

Most likely, we won’t look like burnt marshmallows at the end of our lives; however, we don’t know that for certain. Multiple generations have not crossed this high-frequency rubicon as of yet.

It’s a wait and see evolutionary issue.

Oh, what’s a human to do. For starters, the most important organ system to be in touch with, to eat for, and to nurture is your nervous system. Specifically your autonomic nervous system — your ANS. (I’ll be writing more on this in the future.)

For now, though, let’s work on the basics. This is for all of you … the empaths, intuitively savvy, and busy-bee minds out there.

Below are four self-care and healing strategies to help your nervous system, body, mind, and soul recoup what’s been jammed and zapped throughout your day.

ONE —

Get outside and amongst the trees. Get out in nature. You know this already. Yet, are you doing it? Trees give off chemical compounds that support the killer cells in your immune system.

Tune into the birds. The more trees you’re around the more species of birds you’ll experience. There’s a growing body of evidence regarding what you and I have always known — 15 minutes of bird song calms the nervous system, soothing the ANS’s stress responses.

I’ve lived in big cities like Manhattan, Honolulu, Seattle and several more. I found my self always shifting to the trees, just like when I was a kid. I bet you do too. I moved to Whidbey Island, instead of Seattle proper. Out of Honolulu, which I love, to the Ko’olau Mountains, which I love even more. Now, I’m in the middle of the US in a state that has only 2 million people — more trees than people. It was a strategic move.

What’s your strategy to be in nature for health and well-being? Design one. Keep it simple. Nature is complex but not complicated. Our lives are have become both.

TWO —

Pause. Power down. Presence.  Like the dentist chair scenario above, you have to pause after a life jolt. You can’t keep taking one for the team or you’ll melt.

Power down your nervous system and give yourself some space through breathing, closed-eye moments, and shut down your technology. Get it out of your hands and away from your brain.

It only takes a few moments of centering and being present for you to recoup and shift your nervous system from overload to overjoyed. It does, however, take pause,  power down, and presence to do this.

THREE —

Ground. When your hummingbird mind is out of control and you’re jittery from the inside out, you need to check your grounding. Your body is electrical and electro-magnetic. You’ve got to manage your electrical system — your lightening potentials.

Look at it this way, like air, the spaces and tender tissues in and around your body and nervous system act as insulators between the positive and negative charges of electricity, as well as life, emotions, other people’s energy, etc.

When you get too buzzed out, the charges build up and that which has safely insulated you get stressed; it breaks through your personal level of capacity. Flash. Boom. Bang. Your nervous system has hit a tipping point and you feel stressed, jittery, or even fried. It’s time to ground your lightening by checking your grounding axis.

A Practice: Take your mind’s attention and the energy of your breath downward to your navel. When you naturally exhale drop the energy of the breath down through the central axis of your pelvis, branching off into each leg and down into the earth.

Repeat as needed. Feel the carbon crystalline structures in your bone’s matrix connect with the carbon in the earth. Calming you the heck down.

FOUR —

If you’re scared do math. 🤓 If you find yourself in the midst of a personal lightning storm and your nervous system is starting to panic, try this:

• Be brave. You’re okay, even if you don’t feel that way.
• Do mathematics in your mind or on paper if you have it handy. Start with simple addition, 1+1 = 2 and so on. Do multiplication tables, 8 x 8 = 64, etc. Count through the prime numbers 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13….
• Keep breathing. By doing math, you’ll lift your attention, interrupting your nervous system in a good way. You’re shifting it from freeze/fight/flight to figuring something out. From primal to prime numbers. From exacerbated to Einstein.

Use these four simple ideas to take care of yourself in the moment. Again, life and your body are complex, but it doesn’t need to be complicated. That’s on you and me. We make it more difficult than it needs to be. I can raise my hand on that one, for certain. Lord knows that!

Your task this afternoon is to grab a piece of paper. Write out your personal steps regarding what your nervous system says it needs — more sleep, silence, joy, laughter, trees, hugs, grounding, a move, a friend, a vacation (a real one), or math camp!

When you ask your body and trust it, because it doesn’t know how to lie to you, follow what it suggests. Follow your body’s rules. When you do, changes will happen. Problems are solved with less consternation and effort.

We all struggle too much; each in our own way. Breathe, ask within, and find yourself again.

Do you inner math. The universe is built on it. Get in touch with your personal algorithms — a set of processes and personal rules that solve problems.

What makes me happy?

What will help me heal?

In what direction do I need to move for my health, abundance, well-being, and heart-felt joy and connection?

Sending love, healing, and divine calculations your way,