Over the years, I’ve heard countless metaphors for stress and human experience that reference the body. I’m under pressure. I’m carrying too much. I ned to ride this out.  I’m overstretched. I’m running on empty. It makes my blood boil. There’s never enough time to...

Have you ever felt exhausted before the week has even started? Nothing particularly demanding has happened yet. You slept reasonably well. But on Sunday evening or Monday morning, you already feel heavy, slow and reluctant. That's a pattern many people recognise,...

People often put “nervous system work” in the box of stress and emotional regulation: breathing, mindset, sleep, therapy, or general fitness. But mobility and strength training 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲 a place in the same conversation. Because at the heart of strength and movement...

You can be taking time out and still very much be working in your head. You might replay a conversation, plan tomorrow, check for messages or feel that you should be doing something useful. The same can happen with responsibilities at home: one task ends, but your...

Have you noticed that when pressure rises, your thinking can become narrower? You might find it harder to hold several things in mind, see the wider picture or pause before responding. Stress changes what the brain and body prioritise. When something feels urgent,...

𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗵𝗮𝗯𝗶𝘁𝘀. Here are 7 habits that make it easier for your brain to perform when stress is high: 𝟭. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗵𝗮𝗯𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁 Under stress, your brain falls back on defaults....

Before I studied functional breathing, I assumed sighing meant I was stressed or that I was “releasing” stress. A psychologist colleague said the same thing to me recently: “I sigh a lot to regulate.” It’s a common belief. But it’s only part of the picture. A sigh is...

  If you’re functioning but not feeling restored, this is worth checking. Falling behind on stress recovery often happens because people have strong "coping" muscles. They can override signals of fatigue and strain and keep going, which looks like resilience. But...

One reason stress doesn’t always resolve is that the nervous system doesn’t only respond to events. It learns and responds to patterns over time. What this means is that under longer stretches of ongoing stress, what should be a temporary stress response can become...