Vital-Side

Life’s transitions (whether you perceive them as positive or negative) can often lead to feeling like you’re caught up in an overwhelming stress cycle. They might include:

A new relationship
A break-up
Starting a new job
Losing a job
The birth of a child
The death of a loved one
(Insert that really stressful transition going on in YOUR life right now!)

You might think, “As soon as XYZ is over, I’ll be able to relax.”

Unfortunately, just as one crazy life event wraps up, another begins. In time, you become physically and mentally exhausted. You feel tense and hypersensitive and put all your efforts into just SURVIVING. Getting caught up in this stress cycle for too long can lead to, at minimum, a disconnect with your love for life and, at most, chronic health problems that further affect your quality of life.

That’s why it’s ESSENTIAL to break that cycle and learn to adapt to whatever transition you’re experiencing now as well as future changes in life.

In most cases, you won’t be able to change your circumstances. BUT with the right tools, you CAN learn how to make feeling good a habit regardless of what life throws at you.

Some of these techniques include:

Limbic retraining
Polyvagal theory
Somatic experiencing
Positive psychology
Visualization techniques
Binaural ways of accessing different brain waves
Mindfulness
Use of scent
Movement

Learn how these tools can help you reconnect with your life and feel in control of your own thoughts and feelings in my new course REBOOT, coming June 30th! Get on the waitlist for early bird access to the course designed to help you break the stress cycle, connect with the life you want, and start THRIVING! Comment “ready to thrive” to join! (PS- if you have chronic physical symptoms - fatigue, pain, dizziness - check out Rewire- link in bio!)

It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that our circumstances determine our stress levels. 🤔

Say an unexpected and/or major life event occurs—a breakup, a new job, entering parenthood, the death of a loved one, or any one of life’s other transitions that can cause us to pause and take stock.

Suddenly, we feel stuck like there is little we can do to alleviate the stress connected with our circumstances. After all, our circumstances are unchangeable, so the stress is too, right?

The truth is we have more control over our stress levels than we think.

Changing our deeply held thinking patterns can shift our perspective and help us find new ways to cope with stress.

With the right tools and support, we can learn to rewire our brains and develop positive habits and ways of thinking that promote relaxation and inner calm.

If you're feeling like a victim of circumstances and are having difficulty finding your way out of the resulting stress cycle, I developed the Reboot program just for you!

You’ll learn coping skills backed by science 🧠 and come away with tools to help you create and follow a compelling vision for your life.

Remember, you don't have to let your circumstances dictate your stress. By shifting your perspective and adopting new ways of thinking, you can take control of your situation and find inner peace. 🙏

Reboot is open for enrollment on June 30. Join the email list to get exclusive program updates, info, and early bird perks!

Your body is an amazing machine that works hard to keep you going day in and day out.

And it can be really easy to just take it for granted and push your body too far. Then, your amazing body starts throwing you signals that it’s time to slow down and give your body the rest it needs to recharge 🧘‍♀️

Helllooooooo burnout.

Here are 5 ways your body lets you know it's time for a time-out:

1️⃣ Persistent fatigue: Feeling tired all the time, even after a good night's sleep, can be a sign that your body needs a break. Ignoring this signal can lead to burnout and other health problems.

2️⃣ Headaches: Frequent headaches, especially tension headaches, can indicate that you're under too much stress. Taking a break and practicing stress-reduction techniques can help.

3️⃣ Hypersensitivity: If you feel irritable, emotional, or easily overwhelmed, it may be a sign that you need to take a step back and give yourself some space to recharge.

4️⃣ Digestive issues: Stress can wreak havoc on your digestive system, leading to issues like constipation, diarrhea, or stomach pain.

5️⃣ Chronic pain: Pain is a warning signal that something is wrong. Ignoring the signal can produce anxiety that causes the body to send out a signal…in the form of more pain.

If you want to break out of survival mode and prioritize your health and wellbeing, listening to your body's signals and taking action is important.

Our Reboot program (coming June 30!) can help you learn the science behind your body’s signals. It can then give you the tools to hit the pause button on the negative patterns your body is trying to warn you about, and take practical steps to replace those negative patterns with the habit of feeling better.

Whether it's taking a day off, practicing relaxation techniques, or seeking support, putting your health first is always worth it. 💪

Subscribe to the email list (link in bio) to get FREE access to a Reboot tool - coming soon!

Would you like to change feeling good from a momentary state to a state of being?

You can learn to make feeling good a habit!

Habits are the building blocks of our daily routines. They consist of:

A cue 🔔
A routine 🧘🏼‍♀️
A reward ⭐

And our bodies thrive on them. So why not use them as a tool to help you feel good on the regular? You can do this partially by replacing bad habits with good ones.

Here are two simple habits to try:

🌅 Start your day with 5 minutes of “me-time” in the morning. This could be anything from meditation to journaling or simply sipping your coffee in peace (phone-free for extra points!).

🍴 Access the rest-&-digest response before eating. Take a few deep breaths or practice gratitude before your meal to help your body relax and optimize digestion.

In addition to physical habits, brain retraining methods can help you stop the negative mental habits that are keeping you from finding joy and feeling good, habits like negative self-talk. Instead, you can learn positive mental habits to help break you out of survival mode.

That’s exactly why I created Reboot! 🧠 This is a new program that uses the latest science and limbic retraining tools, polyvagal theory, positive psychology, visualization techniques, scent, movement, mindfulness, and more to help you hit the reset button and create lasting changes in the way you feel 🙌

Coming June 30! Join VS email list for early bird specials! Comment “WAITLIST” to receive a link to learn more

The body is designed to heal—it is always trying to reach homeostasis (optimal health/balance) in one way or another.

⚡️This is true no matter how long you’ve been sick or how much damage you think has been done.

Sometimes, we just need to get out of our own way.

And by that I mean, shift our nervous system into a state where homeostasis is possible.

🚨When our nervous system is in a state of sympathetic dominance (fight-or-flight), the body is directing vital energy toward survival.

So what happens when we redirect this energy and get our nervous system into parasympathetic (rest & digest) mode?

We can go from surviving to THRIVING.

⚖️Our body can begin working toward its optimal state of balance.

When we use our words to shift the meaning behind the painful & traumatic events in our lives, we start to create change.

For example, a simple shift from labeling your chronic illness as “mine” (belonging to you) to something that is currently affecting you but that you can change flips the script.

💡Or Instead of, “I *have* to complete this morning routine,” try, “I *choose* to commit to this morning routine because my wellbeing is a priority.”

We all have the power of choice.

We may not be able to choose everything we experience, but what we can choose is where to focus our minds, what words we use, and how we treat ourselves.

We can choose what we absorb, what we release, what we keep, and what we let go of.

✍🏼With every choice, we are writing the story of our lives.

Tell me, what’s one small action you are *choosing* to take today so that you can have a brighter tomorrow?👇🏼

And for those of you working on this change, check out Reset - a 7-Day introductory to brain retraining for just $14.99/ month (cancel anytime) - link in bio!

Have you noticed lately that you're experiencing:
🔹Fatigue
🔹Stress
🔹Nighttime hypervigilance
🔹Chronic pain
🔹Anxiety that comes & goes

You've spent hours figuring out how to change your habits, clean up your diet, and find a more conducive work-life balance that makes the most sense for you in 2023...

…but you're STILL symptomatic.

It can be so frustrating to feel this way, especially when you feel like you're doing everything you can to make a change.

If this is you, it may be time to turn your attention to your nervous system.

🧩Addressing the nervous system and focusing on calming the stress response is often the missing puzzle piece in a well-rounded treatment plan.

If we are experiencing chronic symptoms, our brain is likely experiencing chronic stress, which activates the limbic system and puts our nervous system in a state of sympathetic dominance.

We can get stuck in a state of fight-flight/freeze, which continues to exacerbate the body’s physical symptoms and prevents healing from occurring.

On the other side of chronic illness awaits an awakening to your TRUE self. The one who is healthy, vibrant, and resilient.

Still have questions? Learn how to retrain your brain out of the chronic stress response to radically transform your health. Join Rewire, The Vital-Side Membership. LINK IN BIO

⚡️Shocking fact: without intervention, studies estimate that 66% of our spontaneous thoughts are negative.

And for some… it may feel more like 90% 🤚🏻.

Harmful thoughts can easily become habits, like repetitive songs that stick in our minds.

But if harmful thoughts can become habits, so can beneficial ones!

It just takes a little willpower, some discipline, and commitment to create a change.

The Rewire Membership was designed to help you develop positive mental habits and create new neural pathways in the brain for symptom relief—and we make it fun!🥳

If you’re a giant stress ball 24/7, I want to tell you that however you’re coping is brilliant. It truly is. Why?

Because behind every survival behavior is a good intention—it’s your 🧠 trying to protect you.

So pat yourself on the back.

Because friend, you’ve made it through some challenging times with fewer resources and less knowledge than you have now.

But there is another way—you don’t have to continue living in survival mode.

Our brains and bodies are magnificent systems with their own intelligence and an innate ability to repair themselves when provided with the right environment & tools.

💎In Vital-Side, I help people get out of fight-or-flight and reboot the brain to bring the parasympathetic nervous system back online.

The more time we spend in parasympathetic mode, the faster we bounce back, repair damage, and gain strength.

👉🏼Not sure if you buy it?

Watch my Free Brain Training Video at the link in my bio - click on “About Us”

I want to start by saying: 🗣this mechanism is meant to protect you.

Part of being human is developing survival strategies.

⚠️It’s why we continue to exist as a species!
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The problem is that survival strategies from the past can become unsustainable and maladaptive in our current environment. ⁣
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💡For example: maybe in your younger years, you learned that keeping the peace meant keeping to yourself. You became conditioned not to express yourself, your emotions, or your opinions.⁣

Now, as an adult, you continue to fear rejection & confrontation. Because of this, you may find it difficult to express your needs and form meaningful connections with others.⁣⁣

👉🏼Suppression of our needs and a lack of social connection causes nervous system dysregulation and traps energy in the body, leading to chronic symptoms. ⁣
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Social connections reduce our stress response by inhibiting activity in our pain and alarm neural systems.⁣
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As opposed to the "fight-or-flight" response, the brain responds to social connections with the “tend and befriend" response due to the release of oxytocin.⁣

Oxytocin triggers the uniquely human ability to empathize, build relationships, and create meaning.⁣
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Having a community is so important when it comes to healing from chronic illness because we .⁣

One of the most valuable differentiators between Vital-Side and other brain retraining programs is the community component.⁣
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💎Vital-Side Ed is a community of . We meet weekly as an accountability practice and share our experiences, increasing the probability of long-term success in the brain retraining process.⁣

When you become a member of Rewire, you get one-month free access to our weekly group calls where we dive deeper into subjects and connect as a community in an empowering way. You also get to connect with over 2,200 members in our network, working on making positive changes to their brains 💫.

Trauma and sensory integration are deeply interwoven.

We can have emotional reactions to certain sensory experiences of hearing, seeing, smelling, or touching things that we didn’t have prior to a traumatic event.

It is not just a simple matter of “being reminded” of painful past events (that can be a factor), it’s that the whole system for processing sensory input is altered.

⚡️You may be reading this and experiencing an “aha!” moment. I certainly did, and I continue to all the time.

It’s interesting how our nervous system can memorize trauma and relive it later in the form of protective mechanisms.

Think sensitivities, inflammation, anxiety, pain.

⚠️These symptoms can arise because traumatic experiences are primarily handled in the sensory processing networks of the body and lower brain functions, rather than the higher functions of narrative memory and rational thought.

This is why talk therapy alone has limited effectiveness with trauma survivors.

🧠When engaging in trauma work, it’s so important to work with the brain & nervous system through *embodied* practices, like those I teach in Vital-Side.

By incorporating both top-down (thoughts & beliefs) and bottom-up (body-based) approaches, we can start to see measurable progress when it comes to chronic symptoms. I’ll give you an example…

The death of a close friend and colleague two years ago triggered a maladaptive pathway in me.

↩️My unconscious brain reverted back to a similar pathway it took when I experienced abuse as a child.

I was experiencing emotions of blame, shame, and guilt, and these emotions showed up in my body.

The first step in overcoming these maladaptive pathways?

💡Awareness

From conscious awareness, we can learn to shift our nervous system responses over time.

We don’t have to live today by our body’s memorized responses from yesterday.
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If you know all too well what it’s like to have memorized nervous system responses as a result of trauma, drop a 💜 in the comments and tag a friend who could benefit from this post.

Reset is an intro to brain retraining - a week-long program to help you gain more awareness of how your survival responses show up. LINK IN BIO. 💜

You may have heard that trauma is stored in the body, and it’s true.

When we carry unresolved trauma from our past, we may live in a perpetual state of fight, flight, or freeze.

👉🏼It can be trauma from 20 years ago or trauma from more recent events.

Often, our way of dealing with painful memories is to avoid them through distractions.

🚩At a time when we have endless options for distracting ourselves, it’s important to block out time to quiet our minds.

Quieting the mind allows us to go within our bodies to gain a sense of awareness and awaken us to thoughts, ideas, and behaviors to which we were previously unaware.

These discoveries can become new neural patterns that help us gain a new perspective.

🧠And when we create new neural pathways in the brain, it has a direct effect on the physical body.

By quieting our minds and making small, daily changes to our nervous systems, we can begin to gently unravel the stuck energy and grief that are holding us back from experiencing true healing.

So, how do we make small changes to our nervous systems? Sometimes, all we need is a small piece of evidence for change.

Here’s a 15-minute exercise you can try:

🔸Spend 5 minutes grieving, whatever that looks like for you. Crying, yelling into a pillow, rage journaling, etc.

🔸Then spend the next 5 minutes shifting your current reality. Finish this sentence, “This event happened, but today I am ______.” (Fill in the blank with, “strong,” “safe,” etc.)

🔸For the last 5 minutes, find a way to send your body a signal of safety. What does it need to feel good? Maybe it’s laughter, deep breathing, or gentle movement.

We are changing and influencing the structure of our brain with every new idea, attitude, behavior, or piece of knowledge we obtain, giving us the power to create greater health & well-being.

If you have experienced the freeze response long-term, my new program, Reboot, was created just for you! This is my NEWEST program that is not yet released - get on the waiting list (link in bio) to snag a deal in the upcoming months!

10 years ago, I was sitting at my desk, studying for a pharmacology exam, when I looked up and saw the empty road over my desk.

This was my prized possession - a photograph I had bought off Etsy that represented absolute freedom. A life I so badly wanted.

I did become a practitioner… but then I got sick, very sick. And my whole life turned upside down after receiving the diagnosis of Lyme.

Fast forward to today, I experience freedom. Freedom of health, freedom of choice, and freedom to be.

I achieved this through taking 3 steps to help my body recover from chronic illness & chronic stress:

Awareness - understanding my limbic system’s stress response and how it shows up in my life
Acceptance - learning to accept this part of me and slowly modeling to my nervous system a way of being that aligns with my current life
Action Taking - this was when I learned the tools & modalities that modeled the joy, freedom, and peace in my life that I continually wanted to connect with. This is the time I used neural manifestation to connect with the emotional experience and neurochemistry of connecting with a life that I love *ahead* of the actual experience.

I live on the road, I run a business doing something I feel connected to. I have an incredibly supportive husband that works with me.

Home is where I feel peace. Freedom is what I get to choose. I don’t need a picture above my desk anymore, I get to live it.

And now? I developed a new program: Reboot. Reboot combines these 3 steps stated above to make feeling good a habit in your life & help you connect with a life you love. It’s not designed specifically for people with chronic symptoms, but it’s nervous system regulation for the person who is physiologically *stressed.* Sign up to learn more about Reboot (link in my bio)! & snag a deal on it when it gets released 💫.