Wellness Inspired Podcast

Why Your Nervous System Is the Missing Link to Habits That Stick

• Sheri Davidson • Episode 89

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Every January, we try to change our habits with motivation, discipline, and good intentions, and still feel frustrated when things fall apart. In this episode, we explore why habit change isn’t a willpower problem at all, but a nervous system one, and how supporting your physiology can make consistency feel lighter and more sustainable.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

  • Why habits feel emotional — and why that doesn’t mean you’re failing
  • How stress and nervous system overload interfere with follow-through
  • What nervous system regulation actually changes in real life (and in the clinic)
  • Simple, realistic ways to support your nervous system without adding pressure

If this episode resonated, send me a DM and share one small habit you’re supporting this season — I’d love to hear what you’re noticing.

“Habit collapse isn’t a character flaw — it’s a capacity issue.”

➡️ Nailed It! What Failure Can Teach Us About Real Wellness: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1806187/episodes/18052500-nailed-it-what-failure-can-teach-us-about-real-wellness.mp3?download=true

🌿Want to add a little more ease and energy to your day? Grab my free guide: The Daily Wellness Spark—5 simple micro-habits to help you feel more grounded and alive. Download it at wellnessinspiredpodcast.com 

🌿 Want wellness habits that actually last? Grab The Make It Stick Kit — a 5-day audio bundle designed to help you stay consistent without pressure or perfection. Build habits that fit your real life and feel good doing it. 

➡️ Download here:  Make It Stick Kit

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome back to another episode of the Wellness Inspired Podcast, a place where you can find inspiration, motivation, and empowerment in the pursuit of a wellness lifestyle. I'm your host, Sherry Davidson. I'm a certified wellness coach, acupuncturist, trailrunner, and former interior designer in Houston, Texas. And I am deeply passionate about health and well-being. And as always, I'm here with my co-host Finn. And if you're new to the podcast, Finn is my Terrier Mix Rescue dog, trailrunner, and loyal companion. He is also a therapy dog and greeter at Element 5 Acupuncture and Wellness. And here we are, the end of 2025, heading into 2026. It's the time we start talking about reinventing ourselves. Every January, we set wellness goals to lose 10 pounds, eat better, sleep better, and move more. But what if wellness wasn't about reinventing yourself every January? What if it's about understanding what your body is actually wired to do? And today we're talking about something I wish more people knew before they set a single resolution. Your nervous system is the missing link in habit change. Not motivation, not discipline, not a fresh planner or a color-coded routine. Your body, your physiology shapes how your habits show up. Are you ready? I'm super excited about this one. So uh yeah, let's dive in. Every December, we're fed the same message: new year, new you, and definitely new habits. But when those habits start slipping in February, most people don't say, my nervous system was overloaded. They just don't say it. They say, I failed, I lack discipline, I'm just not consistent. But here's the truth habit collapse isn't a character flaw. It's a capacity issue. When your nervous system is stressed, your prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain that handles planning, decision making, and follow-through, has fewer available resources. The amygdala, your threat detector, becomes much louder. Your body shifts towards protection and not personal development. But you've never heard this before. So this is why new habits feel emotional resistance, avoidance, dread, guilt. These aren't personality traits, they're stress responses wearing human language costumes. Your nervous system isn't sabotaging you, it's protecting you. I see this every single week in my acupuncture practice. People come in carrying pressure, running hot, holding tension. And in Chinese medicine, we call this liver chi stagnation. You know, that pent-up feeling that keeps everything just tight inside. Acupuncture regulates the nervous system. It creates movement and internal ease again. This allows the autonomic nervous system to shift from sympathetic activation, that's that's your fight or flight, into parasympathetic, which is the rest and digest or restoration. The following week, they come back and they say the line, I never get tired of hearing. You know, my situation didn't change, but I responded differently. That sentence is everything. Their workload didn't disappear, their family stress didn't evaporate, their circumstances didn't magically soften, but their system did. Their reaction shifted, their inner tension let go, their capacity expanded. This is the heart of nervous system work. We don't change your entire life in one session. We change how your body meets your life. And when the internal state changes, habits become physically easier to sustain. So let's do this tiny reset together. Um, so unless you're driving, I want you to place one hand on your belly and the other hand on your chest, your heart, whichever one is most comfortable for you. Sometimes I feel like my chest is better, kind of all the same area, but I want you to soften your shoulders. This is my favorite uh breath work, and I do it multiple times throughout the day. Um, okay, so soften your shoulders, and I want you to inhale uh through your nose for four. So inhale for four, hold for two, exhale for six. Okay, again, we're gonna inhale for four, hold for two, exhale for six. And one more time, we're gonna inhale for four, hold for two, exhale for six. That longer exhale activates your parasympathetic nervous system, the rest and restore branch. You just shifted your physiology in under 30 seconds. This is the body's version of opening the door for habit change. I promise you. That's why I do this one throughout my day. It's super easy. You can do it in 30 seconds. I do it in the morning, I do it sometimes drinking my coffee, I do it when I'm at the clinic, I do it on the way home, I do it at night in the bed. Like I love this breath work. Um, and again, 30 seconds is all it takes. Just a little micro habit that you can get into. Okay, let's move on. So I want to get into uh kind of the the part most habit frameworks leave out because most habit advice talks about cues, routines, rewards, environment systems, and accountability. And all of these matter. Habit formation is truly multifaceted. So I want to be very clear here. Nervous system regulation is foundational, but it's not the whole picture. Some people really do need clearer systems, some need social support, some need structure or accountability, some need better environmental design so habits become a default. But here's where things break down. Under chronic stress, your brain reroutes energy away from long-term planning. Your prefrontal cortex goes slightly offline, your amygdala becomes louder, and your allostatic load, your cumulative stress burden rises. So this means your body becomes more reactive and less flexible. And I will tell you, no habit tracker can override biology. But, and this is important, this does not mean you must be perfectly regulated before you're allowed to change anything. That would just create a new form of pressure. I can already hear it. Now I have to manage my stress so I can manage my habits, so I can manage my life. No, thank you. We're not optimizing ourselves into exhaustion here. Instead, think of your nervous system support as something you build alongside habits, not before them. Just enough softness, just enough capacity, just enough safety, not perfection. Now, let me say this clearly because I think this is where a lot of nervous system talk can get confusing. This doesn't mean you stop having goals. I have desires, things I want professionally and personally, ways I want to grow, feel, and show up in the world. That doesn't make me undisciplined or ungrounded. It makes me human. And I'm guessing you have desires too. The work isn't to erase those, it's to make sure your goals are rooted in the truth instead of pressure. Because here's what I've learned, both as a coach and someone who has lived this, there's a difference between what you think you should want and what you actually want. The difference between goals that light you up and goals that weigh you down. A difference between I need to fix myself and I'm ready to support myself. When you reflect first, when you check in with your nervous system and ask what it can actually hold your goal shift, they become less about performing and more about feeling, less about proving and more about nourishing, and less about keeping up and more about showing up. You still want things, you just want things that actually fit your real life. And that's the kind of goal that lasts because it's built on self-trust and not self-criticism. And it actually doesn't take much to calm your nervous system. And I think this is the part that surprises most people. You don't need a full wellness routine to calm your system. Believe it or not, tiny shifts make a measurable difference. Your body responds quickly to small inputs like two to three deep breaths, like we did in the beginning. Five to ten minutes of mindfulness or meditation, gentle rhythmic movement. You can sway, you can dance, stepping outside for natural light. We know nature heals, or grounding touch. Oh, Ben's speaking up. He doesn't do that very often. I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but it has been shown that 10 minutes of mindfulness can increase parasympathetic activity and reduce neurothreat responses. You can also do acupuncture. Acupuncture is great at regulating the nervous system. I think I regulate everyone's nervous system when they walk through the door, and I think probably most acupuncturists do, even if they don't talk about it. But I do enjoy talking about it because, again, I think it's foundational. There are also some great supplements that can support your nervous system. I have a lot of Chinese herbal formulas that support the nervous system. Um, but you know, stuff that you can get over the counter, magnesium. I've been using magnesium for probably 15 years. Magnesium helps uh muscles relax and support supports calmness. There are also omega-3s, they support brain and nervous system health. Uh, there are GABA precursors like L-theanine and B vitamins. They help the brain make calming neurotransmitters. And we can't forget about the gut. Gut health plays a huge role because the microbiome influences serotonin and GABA production. These are key players in emotional regulation and resilience. So, as you can see, regulation doesn't need to be dramatic. It's often as simple as a pause, a breath, a moment. So let's talk about the new year. Let's just have a gentle reframe for the coming year of 2026 when you sit down to think about what the new year holds for you. Instead of asking, what habits do I want? ask, what does my nervous system need right now? And the answers are usually very human. Better sleep, slower mornings, one grounded practice, less rushing, more breath, fewer commitments, and the permission to be a person, not a machine. When your physiology supports you, habits become choice, not battles. Before we start to wrap things up here, I want to give you one small practice to test. This is the microcapacity check-in. Before starting any habit, pause and ask, do I have the capacity for this right now? Your body will answer before your brain does. If the answer is yes, beautiful. If the answer is no, choose the smallest available version. Have you guys ever heard of the concept of uh the Japanese concept kaizen? Well, it fits so well right here because it is the idea that tiny consistent improvements create meaningful change over time. And I'm gonna do an episode on that later on. I love this concept because what it means is that you don't force transformation, you accumulate it. Not through pressure and not through perfection. Just small steps your nervous system can actually sustain. When you practice wellness in this way, you're not forcing transformation, you're accumulating it. And the reason why I love this so much is because it meets people where it meets most people where they are, right? I understand the big goals, the big accomplishments, the fireworks, but they're great. And when we accomplish them, it's amazing. That's not where most of us are most of our life. Most of us just need to simply regulate our nervous system so we can hold who we want to be. So if you take one thing from today, let it be this habits aren't built from force, they're built from physiology. When your nervous system feels supported, not perfect, just supported, consistency becomes possible. Structure feels lighter, discipline feels more natural, and change becomes something you can sustain. Small, simple, regulated, human. And that's how habits stick. So I'd love to hear your reflections. What's one small nervous system support habit you want to anchor into your life in 2026? Send me a DM on Instagram or LinkedIn. I'm in both of those places. I'm also on Pinterest. I genuinely would love to hear from you. And if you missed last month's episode, inspired by Neldit, the Netflix series, it pairs beautifully with this one. I'll put the link in the show notes. Um, although it is just, I think, one or two episodes back, so it shouldn't be too hard to find. So anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful new year. Happy holidays. Uh, I hope you get to spend it with family. I hope you stay warm wherever you are. I'm in Texas, so um, we don't have two terrible winters. Uh, so yeah, hope you get to cozy up by a fireplace. Usually this time I talk about hoogah, uh, but this year we're kind of switching it up a little bit. So happy holidays, happy new year, and I am super excited to see what 2026 has in store for all of us. So until next time, take a breath, take it slow, and take care of your nervous system. It's doing more for your habits than you realize. If you like what you hear, please subscribe to the podcast and share with your family and friends. You can also give me a rating and review wherever you listen to your podcast. It helps others find me as well. To get updates on new episodes and wellness inspiration in your inbox, please join the wellness inspired community. Go to the wellness inspired podcast.com to sign up. I'll put the link to the website in the show notes so you can click and join. Also, there's a Facebook community at the Wellness Inspired, and you can follow me on Instagram at wellness underscore inspired. If you're in the Houston area or just visiting and interested in our services, acupuncture, herbal medicine, cupping, zinshiatsu, or dry needling therapy, contact us. You can find out more on our website at element5om.com. That's element5thenumber5om.com. And again, I'll put the link in the show notes. If you're interested in health and wellness coaching, we can connect in the clinic or on Zoom. Reach out to us and we'll get you on the schedule. And as always, I would love to hear your feedback. I am dedicated to bringing you great content that is inspiring and informative with an artsy fun edgy spin. Thank you so much for listening. We'll meet here again next time. And remember, never stop exploring, learning, loving, and being you. Bye.