Anxiety busting with Emily

04/07/2025

So......

Biologically crying (especially emotional crying) is a uniquely human behaviour. Here’s what it does:

✔️Stress relief:Emotional crying can reduce stress hormones like cortisol.

✔️Soothing effect: Crying activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps calm you down afterward.

✔️Pain relief: Emotional tears contain endorphins and oxytocin, which can temporarily ease both physical and emotional pain.

Psychologically and socially crying also serves a purpose:

✔️Emotional expression: It helps you process intense feelings — sadness, frustration, relief, even overwhelming joy.

✔️Brain waves changes: Crying is like a reset button for your nervous system — it changes your brain’s electrical patterns to help you move from high tension to a calmer state by changing the type of brain waves to alpha state.

✔️Communication: It signals to others that you’re in distress, which can prompt comfort and support.

✔️Connection: Seeing someone cry often evokes empathy in others, strengthening social bonds.

So, crying isn’t “pointless.” It’s part of how humans cope, heal, and connect.

14/06/2025

Staying too long operating in the red 'battery of you' zone🟥:

✅️reduces resilience
✅️causes sleep problems
✅️confuses hormone balances
✅️lowers immunity
✅️makes every task feel harder
✅️slows cognitive performance
✅️causes nervous system dysregulation
✅️Sends your message unsafe messages as you are continuing without stopping when rest is needed
✅️creates the conditions for lower mental health and.............................................................. it's frankly just a✅️ miserable existence. (believe me I know)

Reframing micromoments of pause,⏸️ rest and not 'doing' as value adding,➕️ proactively creating a sustainable self, is beyond needed in today's world. (In my opinion).

Human beings were NOT designed to be on all the time. ❌️

Let's consider a little pause at AMBER🟨🙌

30/05/2025

Exhausterwhelmulated.🤯🤯

It's a thing .....love that there's a (sort of) word for it.👌

This can stem from so many different sources and combinations of factors.......

(a beyond busy society, lots of forms of stimulus multiplied by technology inputs, neurodiversity, hormone imbalances, stress, anxiety, life milestones).😌

It doesn't really matter how and why.
What matters is what happens when we NOTICE exhausterwhelmulation.👁

The negative bias ❌️protective voice will want to shout:🗣

❌️this is your fault
❌️you should handle this
❌️get a grip
❌️other people cope
❌️just keep going

It's trying to do a job of protection, in a confused "one view only" limited way.

See it, notice it thank it, let it be a cue, a route to self compassion, 💜this voice sees a wider view☺️:

✅️its totally understandable to feel like this our brain evolution hass not caught up with rapid external development and are continually triggered by perceived bombardment as threat, so let's ask:

✅️what do you need in this moment ?
✅️ let's come back to just this moment only
✅️you're not alone, so many other brains are also experiencing exhausterwhelmulation!

Relief, understanding, grounding....calm and a reduction of exhausterwhelmulation 🙏

25/04/2025

❌️It's never about not feeling any stress in response to life.

❌️It's never about always being calm or relaxed.

☑️It's always about building awareness of movement out of a functional range of responding to stress.

☑️It's always about knowing how to return to a gentle stabilised oscillating baseline.〰️〰️〰️ small tools, used cumulatively.

☝️Without this, stress compounds,🌪 nervous systems get stuck in dysregulated states, emotions stay heightened; mental and physical health is impaired. 😩

Learning to flex with life, by tuning in to self to balance putting back in what is taken out; this is regulation, this is the aim.⚖️🙏

23/04/2025

Glimmers or Grimaces ?....🤔

I talk about Glimmers a lot.🤦‍♀️ It's not an individual's fault that finding, noticing negative triggers is a priority of being human; evolution makes it so to survive.(Negative bias). Acknowledging these has a place, however without balance it's one dimensional, with one narrow view.👀

Glimmers ✨️are direct, observational levers 🔘within an individual's control to focus upon bringing safety and ventral vagal energy (safe, grounded balanced energy) into our bodies, the relaxation response then overrides the stress response.🙏

Widening the view to see the glimmers is transformative,👁 it's so simple, yet sets afoot a chain of neurotransmitter, chemical reactions that directly affect the brain and body in a nurturing way balancing hormones, thoughts, feelings and behaviours.🙌

Love these glimmer examples below 👇

Making glimmers part of daily routine is a gift that transcends the initial glow in the most amazing way, over time the well worn glimmer pathway in the brain wires together and cortisol naturally reduces, resilience heightens. ❤️ It's like a dial you can reach and easily adjust.

05/04/2025

"Sleep and rest are not the same thing." Dr. Dalton-Smith

Physical rest forms just part of one of the seven types of rest that humans need to focus on replenishing. So, if you are wondering why you don’t necessarily feel energised after a night’s sleep, there may be experiencing ‘rest-deficits’ in other areas.

26/03/2025

Auto pilot activated🧠
Too much time in thinking mode💭💭
Stress response stuck ON🔛

☝️

All can cause a REACTION rather than a RESPONSE. 🤷‍♀️

Reactions, tend to be instinctive, emotional and quick.😩

Responses are more grounded, made once initial emotions have settled enabling different outcomes.

Some good ways to switch to a response that serves an individual are below.👇

Awareness of what comes up initially enables a gentle consideration of how to channel it in a way that supports, not destructs.🙏

21/03/2025

I love these.👇

Our nervous system is the purveyor of all things protective, seeking at all times to maintain balance.⚖️

So, building a few of these daily practices in, sends the nervous systems the signals of safety ⛑️ it craves to give the green light to our brains and bodies to engage in a relaxation response🙏

20/03/2025

Grief Brain.😢🧠

The brain responds to grief as a threat.⚠️

It moves into a survival mode by invoking a stress response.😩

The rational, thinking part of the brain ( prefrontal cortex ) REDUCES. ⬇️

The emotional part of the brain (amygdala) INCREASES. ⬆️The survival response prioritizes this enlarges its dominance to look out for more threat. Heightening anxiety during grief and prolonging emotional pain. 😔

The memory formation part of the brain (the hippocampus), has a series of memories 💭💭relating to the person that's died, that are referral points for what to expect, when to interact with that person, who they are to the individual, where they live etc.

This is why it can be hard to come to terms with grief, our brain hasn't got reference points to draw upon and expects them to walk through the door any moment.🤔

To create new memories WITHOUT this person means rewiring NEW memories, this takes time.

This is why adapting to life with grief takes time.

Understanding how the brain responds to grief can really help inform:

✔️how to relate to ourselves and others
✔️how compassionate we are to ourselves and others
✔️our understanding of why it takes time to move through grief.
✔️the commitment to self care as a priority to soften the stress response created by grief.

Getting to know our brains is so revealing.

27/02/2025

Breathing exercises.🫁

Those that know me, will know that this is something I merrily chirp on about a whole heap.🐦

👇This is the infographic I've been looking for 🙌 (Thank you Angela Foster).

Breathing is information for our bodies and brains. It is decoded, assimilated and acted upon.🔎

Breathing is the lever we ALL can choose to pull in a direction that serves our needs...🔘
.... whether that's....

-to help sleeping 💤
- to reduce symptoms of Menopause/andropause
-to aid emotional resilience 〰️
-to regulate emotions
- to interrupt stress and reduce to a eustress (good) stress level 👌
- to get present in the moment as an anchor to NOW ⬇️

It's the gift that keeps giving. 🎁I will never stop harping on...Breathing deeply as a habit, is a game changer 🙏

as habits

24/02/2025

09/02/2025

Letting it go

Zooming out to see its relevance in time; can be the viewpoint to stop sweating the 'soon to be' small stuff.

Let focus and attention be shifted to nurture; that's where the power is.🙏