Challenges with Change and the Nervous System

Do you find transitions hard? Do seasons and routines changing feel challenging? Do transitions during your days (work to home, weekend to the weekday routine) feel like they take more out of you? This can be a signal that your nervous system is experiencing dysregulation.

Our nervous systems are designed to respond to stress and to activate our fight, flight or freeze responses — then to deactivate from stress and move into the restful and restorative parasympathetic nervous system. These shifts happen in bigger and smaller ways throughout our days, even days without much stress. Our nervous system states are constantly shifting and changing. This is normal and exactly what our nervous systems are designed to do. We ideally want to be able to move with ease from different nervous system states.

When we experience nervous system dysregulation — as many do either occasionally or chronically — it can feel challenging to shift nervous system states. You might feel like you go from feeling completely overwhelmed to crashing or wanting to zone out by using your phone, watching tv or other ways of disconnecting. You might feel like small things stress you out and overwhelm you and you might feel like you can’t relax. These are signals that there is nervous system dysregulation in your body and nervous system, and it can make changes, even ones that are relatively easy feel challenging.

Understanding this phenomenon can be helpful to understand ourselves better. And when we understand ourselves better, we can make small shifts to support bigger changes.

Can you notice that your nervous system shifts, even a little? Can you feel the difference between activation and deactivation in your body? What happens when you notice your breath? Or notice one thing you can see that you find pleasant to look at? If you notice a shift, bring awareness to that change. Over time, this simple practice can help support nervous system regulation and you feeling more ease and increasing the capacity to be with these shifts and changes.

Tips to Manage Hot Summer Weather

It’s been HOT in Charlottesville this summer! Hopefully you’ve had time away, enjoyed cooler weather and reveled in some summer fun. But in Virginia, summer weather doesn’t stop when summer vacation ends. Here’s a few tips to help manage the heat until cooler days arrive.

• Exercise and do other outdoor activities early! Try to avoid the hottest times of the day for walking, exercising, gardening and walking the dog.

• Hydrate! Hydrate! Hydrate! Make sure you’re drinking enough water. If you are sweating more, you’ll need to drink more. It can also be helpful to replace electrolytes that are lost through sweating. There are many different brands on the market that can be added to water. Here’s one that’s a favorite of mine.

• Rest! You may feel more tired during the heat of the summer, so listen to your body and make sure you’re taking time to rest.

• Wear sunscreen and a wide-brimmed hat if you need to spend time in the sun.

• Listen to your body when it comes to how much you should push yourself with a workout or activity.

• Eat regular, light meals.

• Stay cool while you’re sleeping to help support restorative sleep.

I try to enjoy all the seasons, but this summer has been a roaster! I remind myself that before we know it, it will be cold and I’ll be wishing for warmer days!

What is Somatic Experiencing and Nervous System Coaching?

Nervous system coaching and Somatic Experiencing can be incredibly helpful for people facing a number of physical or emotional challenges, yet many don’t really know what they are or how they work.

Somatic Experiencing is a way to learn about your body and nervous system from the inside out. It is a way to work with your physical body to support yourself through the challenging life experiences we all go through. When we have a stressful or traumatic experience, our body (through our autonomic nervous system) should move through a natural and automatic process that allows our physical body to process the experience.

For a variety of reasons, this process doesn’t always happen as it should and some of this nervous system energy can get “stuck” in our bodies. Then, if we’ve experienced repeated stresses, this can build up and create stronger patterns that can impact how we respond to stressful situations. This stuck — or dysregulated — nervous system energy can show up in our physical body as symptoms. Anxiety, chronic pain, fatigue, trouble sleeping, difficulty in relationships, digestive issues and depression can all have roots in nervous system dysregulation.

The good news about this is that you can support your nervous system in becoming more regulated! More nervous system regulation means more ease in your physical body and fewer symptoms. Understanding how the nervous system works and your nervous system’s unique patterns are the best ways to understand yourself better and to support more health and ease in your life.

Nervous system coaching sessions are part educational to understand how the nervous system works and part experiential, where we use gentle practices to support more body awareness and noticing of your nervous system. If this sounds interesting and you’re curious about learning more, please don’t hesitate to reach out! I love to share about the gentle and impactful way this work can support you in feeling your best in your body and in your life.

Simple Movements to Support Your Best Summer Life

Summer is here, which means many of us are on the move. We could all use a few simple exercises that are easy ways to support, mobilize and stretch our bodies when we’re on the go (and don’t want to lie on a hotel floor). You can do these literally everywhere! And they feel good!

1. “Pilates style” breathing can support deeper breathing, gentle abdominal engagement and help you be in your body. Breathe in through your noise and encourage your breathe into the front, back and sides of your ribs as well as relaxing gently into your belly. On your exhale, gently engage your abdominal muscles, like you are zipping up a zipper and pulling your muscles tighter around your trunk. Repeat several times. This breath engages your deep core muscles and offers support for your trunk.
   *Note: I don’t recommend breathing like this all the time, but it is helpful to feel your core muscles and bring awareness into your body.

2. Rotation mobility: Stand with your arms above your head. Slowly turn your head, neck and torso while lowering your arms down toward your hips. Twist back to your starting position as you bring your arms back up. Repeat a few times to each side. This exercise is a nice one to bring movement into your neck, arms and spine. Move slowly and evenly, being aware of your spine moving one joint at a time.

3. Standing hip flexor stretch: Stand with one leg forward and one back in a lunge position with both knees bent. Lift abs up and tuck tail under, keep this position while you slowly straighten the back knee. Hold for a few breaths and repeat on the other side. You should feel this stretch in the thigh and hip flexor of the leg that is back.

Add in these movements for a short and sweet way to find more ease in your body with summer travel and activities.

Check out the video for these exercises below.

A Treasure Trove of Actionable Tips for Dizziness

For those who suffer from chronic or recurrent dizziness, allergy season always seems to kick up symptoms. Here are some actionable tools you can try right now to calm symptoms from Dr. Stephanie House, a mind-body physical therapist and wellness coach in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Keep moving:

For people with chronic or recurrent dizziness, the story generally goes:

Even on your most dizzy days, some form of movement can help lessen symptoms and, in the right dosages, send signals of safety to your brain. Some ideas include:

• Gentle movement

• Tai Chi

• Qi Gong

• Certain types of yoga and Pilates

• Graded exercise

Build in time for rest, recovery and optimization:

Our brains need periods of rest and safety to help us rewire and minimize symptoms.

• Prioritize your to-do list for what needs to be done versus what you want to get done. Do the most important things first and leave optional and easy tasks for the end of the day.

• Plan out time throughout the day for rest. “Rest” will look different for everyone and will change for you day to day and as you heal. It may mean preventatively laying down in bed with the lights off for 30 minutes. It could also look like longer rest breaks when doing a strenuous workout. The more you learn about what your body needs, the faster you can break the dizzy cycle and start to recover.

Manage allergy and migraine symptoms, which may be exacerbating dizziness:

I always get an influx of dizzy people in my clinic during allergy season. Read about the interaction here. Many people find that their dizziness subsides with frequent nasal rinses after exposure to pollen and other irritants.

If you have a migraine disorder, tracking food, weather, stress levels and sleep over five days can give you insight into your triggers so that you can better manage symptoms. For both allergies and migraines, adequate hydration, electrolyte and mineral levels are important. Your physician or holistic practitioner may also be able to help symptoms through gut work, supplements and medications.

Have your tools ready:

There are countless products on the market to improve dizziness, including:

• Blue light blocking glasses (helping for daily screen exposure)

• Green glasses (great for vestibular migraine attacks)

• Vagus nerve stimulators (such as Truvaga or Cefaly)

Reflect on your thoughts surrounding dizziness:

When dizziness comes on, do you go into panic mode and catastrophization? Reflect on the thoughts that come through and see if you can approach these sensations more with curiosity than fear.

Get grounded:

Guided grounding meditations can be found through a simple google search. If you are having a dizzy day, you can try this simple but powerful practice:

Begin by lying on your back, close your eyes if comfortable. Begin with deep, slower breathing. Move toward sensing every body part that’s touching the ground (shoulders, back of head, etc). On each exhale, soften and sink those points of contact deeper into the floor, allowing it to support you fully. Feel how stable and safe you are despite symptoms. Feel free to then move through a body scan from head to toe — approaching the sensations with curiosity, not fear. Stay here for 5-10 minutes continuing with any combination of the above.

About Dr. Stephanie House

Dr. Stephanie House has over 17 years of experience in the health and wellness field and currently owns her own practice as a mind-body physical therapist and wellness coach in Charlottesville, VA. Many of her clients with dizziness and chronic pain seek out her holistic healing model after they have exhausted other traditional avenues such as medications and “big box” PT. Stephanie holds certifications in vestibular therapy, dry needling, yoga therapy, and pregnancy and postpartum.

House of Balance’s mission is two-fold: Healing and Empowerment. We create a healing and supportive space to eliminate symptoms through addressing root causes of movement dysfunction and pain. Along the healing journey, you are given tools, resources, and accountability to empower you to become the CEO of your own heath – learning to manage new or recurring symptoms and designing the life you desire.

Learn more about dizziness and balance exercises here. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Dr. House directly: info@houseofbalancept.com or visit her website: www.houseofbalancept.com