there is no lasting progress in any health, wellness or performance goal without a balanced nervous system. stress management should be at the core of all holistic protocols to avoid maladaptive resource allocation.

to make things happen in life, you're going to experience stress, uncertainty, fear and curveballs. health, wellness and performance are largely defined by our ability to navigate these inevitable obstacles and push forward without accumulating the damages of chronic stress.

stress activates the sympathetic nervous system to respond to a perceived threat. if the stress response is consistently being triggered, the consequence becomes maladaptive as resources are diverted away from the processes that define health, wellness and performance. by design, stress changes the mind-body from a proactive to a reactive state. proactive (parasympathetic) processes like digestion, detoxification, cellular and tissue repair, learning, neurogenesis, etc. are given fewer resources to prioritize the reactive (sympathetic) state. this reactive state is fight-or-flight mode and it's only designed to run for a short period of time in response to a perceived threat. when stress is chronic, your mind-body doesn't return to a proactive state of resource allocation. more energy is used to fuel the fight or flight (or freeze) response than the immune system, building new brain cells, repairing tissues, absorbing and processing nutrition, learning, etc.

mind. (non-exhaustive)

• constantly feeling like you have to do something right now when you can't find something to do.
• impulsive behaviors. quick emotional reactions.
• jumping into projects or decisions without a plan or an understanding of the objective.
• overwhelmed with decision-making.
• racing thoughts get away from you. racing thoughts might keep you awake at night.
• difficulty processing new information through a productive lens.
• unproductively or obsessively rehashing the past and worrying about the future.
• sensory overload / easily over-stimulated.

body. (non-exhaustive)

• tightness in the chest
• feeling like you can't take a deep breath.
• tension in the neck and jaw.
• energy roller coaster. up and down.
• headaches.

high-tension stress is caused by countless imbalances. from work-life hustle without rest to ongoing relationship drama, the non-stop overthinking of a high-performance brain, the over-trained athlete without rest and much more. for many, high-tension stress builds slowly as the grind of life pushes and pushes without stress management practices and products that support adaptation. in the early stages of high-tension stress, it can feel like you're getting a lot done while you're "riding the cortisol high". make no mistake, this is an unsustainable sprint for the vast majority. regardless of how this tension builds, the outcomes are similar.

when high-energy stress goes on for an extended period of time, energy and resources are increasingly allocated to sympathetic activity. this takes energy and resources away from reparative, analytical, proactive and growth processes of the parasympathetic state. as this maladaptive resource allocation continues, fundamentals of health, performance and wellbeing start to fall apart. energy and mood become unstable. the mind is less capable of taking on new challenges and processing new information through a productive lens. overall adaptability suffers. if high-tension stress is not brought down, the mind-body is likely to crash. when it does, energy, motivation, and mood all drop, and the force that moves life forward, fizzles. the goal is to get ahead of the crash. in general, it's easier to bring high-tension down than bring energy, mood and motivation up.

if you're carrying the mental and physical manifestations of high-tension stress, our approach is to slow the RPMs before a crash. this turns the sprint into a marathon. some clients don't like the sound of "slowing down", but the goal is not sedation. the goal is to slow down so the mind can process information holistically and the body can relax the energy-draining tension. by doing so, there is more bandwidth and energy available to take on new challenges, process information through a productive lens and strengthen the physical body. all with a higher level of resilience. oftentimes, when the mind slows down and the body relaxes, thoughts and decisions are smoother and more defined. perspective shifts to view priorities more objectively and functionally.

mind. (non-exhaustive)

• decreased energy and motivation.
• under-stimulated by things that you would expect to be exciting.
• unhealthy procrastination. avoiding responsibilities.
• priorities become increasingly short sighted.  difficulty prioritizing tasks and goals.
• difficulty with objectivity. responses are more emotional.
• mental fog. thoughts are "fuzzy" or moving through molasses.
• difficulty connecting to the present. the mind drifts somewhere else.

body. (non-exhaustive)

• fatigue.

low energy manifestations of stress can feel like you're moving through molasses or living in a dark hole. it's not always this dramatic, but most clients with fatigue-dominated stress feel like it's "difficult to get going". fatigue-dominated stress can result from "burning out" when chronic high-tension stress "crashes" into fatigue. some people struggle with fatigue-dominated stress from the get-go.