Is Your Nervous System Stuck on 'GO'? How to Hit the Brakes and Reset Your Stress

Dec 6

For high-achieving women, that familiar feeling of being **"always on"**—the drive to be busy 24/7—is often celebrated as a good work ethic. However, this constant, frantic pace gives us an illusion of importance but leads to exhaustion and is fundamentally **unhealthy**.

This guide dives into the essence of Week 3’s challenge: **Reduce Stress** by giving your nervous system a gentle, much-needed break.

How Stress Works: The Paper Tiger Problem

Stress is a natural part of daily life, and in ancient history, it was acute—physical threats that came and went quickly. The body is adapted to face this stress, adjust for survival, and then return to a stable, calm space.

In modern times, however, our stressors—like texts, job reviews, or fear-based articles—never truly go away. They are sometimes called "paper tigers" because they look and feel real to your body's ancient threat response system, but they won't actually kill you.

Chemical Buildup: We can’t effectively Fight, Flight, or Freeze from these modern stressors. Consequently, the stress chemicals build up in your body all day long and don’t return to normal unless you actively process them.
The Cost: This chronic activation causes significant physical and cognitive issues, including sleep, gut pain, and mental health problems. Some studies link up to 70% of medical illnesses to stress-related causes.

The Illusion of Importance (The Ego Trap) & The True Cost of Stress: Worse Than Smoking

While we often worry about external health threats, the greatest danger may be internal: chronic stress.

Research has shown that chronic psychological stress can be more detrimental to your long-term health than habits like smoking. This is because prolonged psychological distress damages the body on a cellular level, creating a systemic, corrosive effect that accelerates aging and vulnerability to disease.

The Bottom Line: We must acknowledge the ego trap and comfort ourselves with the truth: our well-being is what gives us the ability to help others. Dying young because you worked yourself to death doesn't help your family. We are looking at the long-term gain, which requires actively trying to reset our stress levels.The drive to be constantly frantic and do twenty things at a time is exhausting, but it often fills the ego with an illusion of being important, valued, wanted, or needed.

We must acknowledge this ego trap and comfort ourselves with the truth: our well-being is what gives us the ability to help others. If we get sick because we worked ourselves to death, we become a burden on our loved ones, not a help.

We must look at the long-term gain, which requires actively trying to reset our stress levels.

Your Challenge: Intentional Non-Doing

The Week 3 challenge is designed to proactively stop the cortisol flood before your day even begins:

Dedicate 10 minutes every day to a "Mindful Moment" ritual some time early in your day. No screens allowed! This can be quiet journaling, listening to a calming song, or just staring out the window with your breakfast.

The Morning Reset

Cortisol Control: High-achievers often jump from 0 to 100 the second they wake up. This pre-emptive stress floods your system with cortisol.
Choosing Your Mindset: A 10-minute pause helps you choose your mindset instead of reacting to it.
Soul Work: This ritual is an act of intentional non-doing. By refusing to immediately engage with the world's demands, you are sending a signal to your deepest self that you are in charge of your peace.

Beyond the Morning: The Day of Active Rest

To truly reset your pace, take your challenge one step further with a Day of Active Rest:

Some religions consider Sunday to be a rest day, but no matter the day you pick, Take one day to focus on reducing your stress. Try to limit your tasks, projects, or obligations and reduce judgments.

This is a way to reset your normal pace to something more sustainable and healthy. It may feel awkward and different, and that is a good sign.

Quick Tips for Combatting Stress in the Moment:

How to Combat Stress:
Remember that this may look different for everyone, but in general, it may be helpful to try to understand where the stress is coming from in order to reduce it.
1- Is your to-do list enormously long? Try prioritizing just the top 3 things. (Use a sticky note to help you limit the number of items).
2- Focus on one thing at a time. You may find yourself more productive when you focus on one task at a time instead of overwhelming yourself with the length of your to-do list.
3- Try taking breaks every hour or two by expanding your breaths, practicing guided meditations, walking in nature, and refocusing on your short task list.
4- Reduce judgemental thoughts: Do you get frustrated with yourself when you feel you don’t measure up to your high standard of productivity? It’s understandable to feel that way. Try to have patience with yourself. Just take one day and allow yourself to relax without the nagging pressure of your lengthy list, time constraints, or obligations to others. You can even write a permission slip or schedule a time later to consider any judgments that come up.
The Power of Reflection

At the end of your day of active rest, take time to reflect.

Did you notice any difference compared to the stress of your usual day?
Did you get better sleep? Did you feel happier? Did your food taste better?
What was different, and did you get your desired results?

This reflection helps you gather the evidence that your well-being works, cementing the habit for the future.

Your Next Step: Making Peace a Priority

You are learning to use intentional non-doing to send a signal to your body that you are safe and in charge of your peace. If the chronic stress feels like an insurmountable habit, know that you can retrain your brain. To deepen your ability to actively process stress, the ZenHikr Challenge offers guided somatic (body-based) practices to gently shift your nervous system out of that "always on" state, allowing you to sustain a healthy, powerful pace. Individual therapy is also a great option and including EMDR to help shift the Mind state out of the doing Mode into the Being Mode!