5 Habits for a More Regulated 2025

As we close out the year, this episode focuses on 5 foundational habits for a more regulated 2025: sleep, movement, nutrition, stress management, and community. These habits are simple yet powerful tools for creating a foundation of nervous system health and emotional well-being.

Inside this episode, I share why these pillars matter, how to approach them, and why starting small is the key to lasting change.

Three Takeaways:

1. Focus on the Foundations of Health. Sleep, movement, nutrition, stress management, and community support your nervous system and overall healing.
2. Start Small and Build Gradually. Sustainable change happens with small, intentional shifts over time.
3. Healing Happens in Community. Connection and belonging are essential for nervous system regulation and resilience.

If you’re ready to take these habits deeper, I’d love to invite you to join my membership, RISE, where we’ll focus on these habits together—one at a time—throughout the year.

Looking for more personalized support?

• Book a FREE consultation for RESTORE, our 1:1 anxiety & depression coaching program.
• Join me inside RISE, a mental health membership and nervous system healing space.
• Order my book, Healing Through the Vagus Nerve today!

*Want me to talk about something specific on the podcast? Let me know HERE.

Website: https://www.riseaswe.com/podcast

Email: amanda@riseaswe.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amandaontherise/

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Transcript

0:00  
Amanda, welcome to regulate and rewire an anxiety and depression podcast where we discuss the things I wish someone would have taught me earlier in my healing journey. I'm your host, Amanda Armstrong, and I'll be sharing my steps, my missteps, client experiences and tangible research based tools to help you regulate your nervous system, rewire your mind and reclaim your life. Thanks for being here. Now, let's dive in. 

Hi everyone. Welcome back. Happy New Year's Eve. Today, we are going to talk about five pillars of well being, five habits for a more regulated 2025, but first I want to share just how special it was for me to see so many of you on Sunday at my new year's eve circle event. Some of you have been joining me for five years running, and many of many of you, it was your first year, and it just means so much to me that you are here, that you were there. It has been such an amazing thing to watch this podcast and my community grow over the last couple years. The funny thing is, is that I'm not very much of a podcast listener myself. My husband laughed when I told him a couple years ago. I was like, I I'm gonna start a podcast. He's just like, do you even listen to podcasts? I was like, no, no, but I started this podcast. I've shared this before, but out of sheer frustration at the time limits on Instagram content, I am a teacher. I am an educator at heart, and I hated that everything I was able to offer on those platforms was fragmented into these 92nd videos or these small carousel posts, and really that's that's why I'm here, because I don't think anybody should have to pay for this information. I don't think you should have to join mine or anybody else's course or membership to learn about how your physiology impacts your psychology. I don't think it's realistic for you to go to grad school to learn what I've learned, to spend the 10s of 1000s of dollars and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours that I have combing through peer reviewed literature and books and being in mentorships, I have a gift. I'll toot my own horn a little bit for taking incredibly complex topics and conversations and turning them into educational resources that can be accessible to almost anybody, no matter where you are on your healing journey. And that's what I hope this resource is, and has been for you, to help you make sense of your symptoms. I am almost teary eyed as I think about it, the messages that I have gotten in the last few months of people sharing with me the difference that this podcast has made in their lives and in their healing, the ways that it has put hope back in to their healing journey, to help them see that. Oh, maybe I'm not broken. Maybe I can. There's also some frustration I get of like, why has nobody told me this? And I love that this is here and available and open to anybody. What people join my programs for is not to get information, but to get support and implementation. I actually had a discovery called just last week with a woman who shared she was like, I've been listening for months. I bought your book. I've done every worksheet, and it has helped me immensely, but I am as far as I can get on my own. The people who work with us, especially those who've listened to my podcast, are those of you who are six months into the podcast, and this is all really helpful information, but you're struggling to figure out how to implement it in your life, how to identify the tools or the practices or the structure or the strategy that's the best fit for you. Mental Health looks different for everyone, and so will what helps you heal. And this woman is going to be our first one on one coaching client for 2025 which feels really exciting. We have spent the last few months making some really extensive, beautiful revisions and updates to our signature healing course. And this is my forever open invitation for you to join me in one of my programs if you're feeling called to it, and my promise to you that if you have questions, if you want to know a little bit more about payment plans, or what it includes, or if it's going to be the right fit for you. Book a discovery call, send me an email. My promise is that it is always going to be a pressure free experience to get your questions answered and determine if this is the right next step for your healing journey. But anyways, the bottom line is, I am happy that you are here. And as we close out this year, I want to talk about five foundational habits for a more regulated year, habits that can have a profound impact on your nervous system, on your mental health and your overall well being. I did a similar podcast last year about 12 habits that. You could take to make it your most regulated year. And I'm realizing that that's way too many things to ask somebody who is already overwhelmed and struggling with anxiety and depression to do. And so we have boiled it down. I have boiled it down to five this year. And like I've said so many times, if you are not living well, you shouldn't expect to feel well. If you are under sleeping, over stress, lack community or nourishment, let alone have unhealed trauma under the surface, then activation or shut down in your nervous system. It's not a disorder. It is physiological order. That is what your mind body system is supposed to do. It is a healthy response to unhealthy circumstances. And while the exact road to a more regulated nervous system looks different for everybody, there are some foundational pillars of well being that apply to every single human being. And five of these non negotiable pillars of well being are sleep, movement, nutrition, stress management and community. These also happen to be the five pillars, or the five habits for regulated living that we are going to be focusing on as a community this year inside the membership. Now, before I offer more context on these simple ways to make 2025 a more regulated year, I want to revisit a conversation we had about this time on the podcast last year about focusing on regulation over resolutions in this new year, every January, so many of us feel pressure to set big goals, to overhaul our lives or our habits, but the reality Is that traditional resolutions often don't work. Studies show that most people abandon them within weeks, and this isn't because we lack discipline or motivation because we suck. It's because behavior changes inherently difficult. Our brains are wired for efficiency, which means they naturally resist change, especially big, abrupt changes, and without the right tools or support or context, it is so easy for us to revert back to old patterns, but it can be additionally frustrating, because you've gotten this new awareness, you've set this new intention, and oftentimes reverting back into these old patterns comes with an extra layer of shame or guilt or self criticism. And so my invitation is, instead of setting lofty resolutions, I want to encourage you to focus on small like laughably small and simple shifts towards regulation when your nervous system is more regulated, you will have more capacity to make changes. But right now you are here. You are listening to a podcast like this, likely because you're not thriving. Something feels harder than it should in your life. Right now you identify as struggling with anxiety or depression, we need to be honest that our capacity is lacking and to meet our self compassionately in that so well throw out lofty resolutions. This is the year of tiny habits, of small, simple shifts towards more regulation, knowing that positive life changes lead to positive brain changes, and then those positive brain changes make it easier to make more positive life changes. We install tiny shifts, and then we optimize them over time. That is the way that our brains rewire. And the five habits that I am going to share with you, they're not complicated. They're not groundbreaking. You've all heard them before, but they are foundational. Far too often we are diagnosing and we are treating mental health without considering general health, and if you are not hitting the minimum standard of care that your biology requires, you should be in survival mode. And while a considerable part of healing for many people includes some form of deeper work, deeper beliefs or mindset or thought work, deeper trauma healing work, but if there is not also a consideration given to the basics of wellness, your capacity for rewiring, your capacity for that deeper healing work is and will be stunted.

And so these foundations of health support your nervous system. They nurture your nature of being a human being to create the conditions for deeper healing to even be possible. I often refer to these as habits of more regulated living, and we've talked about these a lot on the podcast this year. It is a big focus inside the membership as well to step into more regulated living together. Now this past year inside the membership, we had a monthly due that was partly prefaced and inspired by this podcast last year, which was the 12 habits for more regulated life, and then 12 months in a year. And so this past year inside the membership, we focused each month on a new aspect of regulated living together as a community. And while that went well enough, what I learned, what our team learned, was that most of our members, and even us in our busy lives, we needed more time with each of these to really establish lasting change. Just as soon as we were settling into a new, tiny habit. It was a new month, and we were changing our focus, and it felt like we were just an inch deep, but a mile wide when it came to regulated living. And I want this year to be about deeper support inside the membership. And so a huge emphasis is not just on teaching you about healing anxiety and depression through a nervous system lens, but in helping you to actually do so as a community, supporting each other in changing the way that we live our daily life. And so the way that we're going to do it better, we're going to do it differently, is this year, instead of monthly dues, it'll be quarterly dues. And so instead of one month for 12 different shifts, we are going to spend three full months focusing on just four simple pillars of health throughout the year. This conversation today is to remind you of these simple pillars and to invite you into a moment of reflection about what each of these might look like for you and whether you choose to join us inside the membership or not, to know that these matter. What shift Do you want to make, which one of these categories do you want to pick, and what tiny habit do you want to try to establish, what support do you need to make that happen? And as always, open invitation. We're here if this feels like the place you want to be. But as I introduce you to each of these habits, take a moment to hear some of the suggestions. Again, none of this information is going to be novel to you, but I'm inviting you for a moment of self reflection, self confrontation, sometimes, to say, Okay, where am I? Honestly, in comparison to the minimum standard that is this biological truth. So number one is sleep. Sleep is the cornerstone of nervous system, regulation of mental health, of physical health. Sleep is the number one thing that impacts every other biological, psychological physiological system within you. It is essential for brain health, emotional resilience, immune system, physical recovery. Poor sleep disrupts every system in the body, making it harder to handle stress or to stay regulated throughout your life. And some really simple tips for improving sleep, focus again on small adjustments. Number One could be to set a consistent bedtime and wake up time, even on the weekends, that's a big ask, and this doesn't need to be anything you do perfectly, but our body and brain need consistency. So what can you do to even just be a little bit more consistent? What can you do to create a little bit more of a calming nighttime routine? Dim the lights, read a book, get off your phone, listen to calming music. Can you make some improvements to your sleep environment? You want it as dark as possible, cool and as quiet as possible. The minimum standard of sleep is an average of eight hours most of the nights of your life. And there are going to be very real contraindications to this. You could be a young parent. You could work night shifts. There are adjustments, but to the best of your ability, what elements can you control? We want to control the controllables, and then let go some of the rest. When you prioritize sleep, you are giving your body and your mind the foundation that it needs to heal and to thrive, and so taking a moment to just pause and reflect and be honest, how's my sleep hygiene? If it's great and you're crushing it awesome, celebrate that. If it's not, is there a small step you could take to better support yourself in this area and inside the membership, we have a big quarterly workshop where we go through the course and the worksheets together and really help them deepen their nervous system regulation work. And then also part of that workshop is introducing and workshopping and helping everybody walk away from that call with their tiny habit, their small 1% shift to work on over the next few months. The next is movement. Movement and exercise is another really effective way to support your nervous system. It helps to regulate stress, it boosts mood, it improves your brain function, regular physical activity, even gentle movement, stretching, walking, moving your body more acts as a reset button for. Or your body, and the key is to find movement that feels accessible. So if you're not moving hardly at all right now start small, five minute walk, light, stretch dance to your favorite song, and over time, you can build towards more regular or intentional exercise. But it doesn't have to look any particular way to be beneficial. There are so many people, so many researchers out there who have tried to determine, like, the exact dose or type of movement that is better for anxiety or depression or mental health or physical well being, and what the pattern I see over and over and over again is, what are you going to do consistently our body needs strength training, some kind of resistance training. Our body needs some kind of cardiovascular training. Our body needs some mobility that can come in a million different flavors, a million different ways. And there's some newer research coming out that actually shows that dance and whatever parts of the brain light up with dance, even if it's just you in your bedroom to your favorite song, show some additional improvements in mental health, then more formal, traditional exercise. But what are you doing to walk more to spend more time outside, to exercise? And one of the things that we offer inside the membership, for those of you who don't know, I spent over a decade as a personal trainer in the corporate wellness space. Outside spaces, I have a extensive library of filmed 27 minute workouts, and so every single month inside the membership, you get a new set of daily regulation practices and daily workouts that can be done at home. So if you know that you have a goal or intention to do more consistent movement or exercise, but you don't know where to start, that's also something that I want to make as easy as possible with those resources to utilize. But the minimum standard here, 10,000 steps a day, most of you listening, I'm gonna guess are not hitting that I because I have been quite sedentary updating our signature healing course, and a lot it has taken effort on a lot of days for me to hit that. Other days I exceed it more naturally. I've got two tiny humans that I chase all day long, but 10,000 steps a day is a really great place to start, and when you have more just movement in your life, what does it look like to establish more consistent exercise, movement that pushes your body, that builds capacity, that allows your body in a controlled and chosen environment to activate a stress response? Your heart beats faster, your breath rate comes up, and then see that it's within your control to also settle that stress response in our body that creates a more resilient system. This third pillar is nutrition. What you eat has a direct impact on how you feel. There is an undeniable connection to balanced blood sugar and mental health symptoms. Are you eating nutrient dense meals? Do you have regular eating patterns? All of this can reduce your physiological stress, and an easy place to start here is to focus on breakfast. This is the place we start for so many of our clients. So if you get kind and compassionate but honest that nutrition is not an area of wellness where you are thriving, start with breakfast. Aim for a high protein breakfast within that first hour or so of waking Can you pair protein with fiber, rich foods with a fruit or whole grain, something that's going to keep your blood sugar steady? This is going to help you focus better at work or at school. It's going to help you have better emotional regulation with your family and overall, choosing to nourish your body in a way that honors your needs and supports healing from the inside out.

So taking a moment to reflect Is this the focus? I don't want you to try to change all of these right now. I want you for you to figure out which one of these categories you might think is either the most accessible for you to shift right now or is going to have the biggest impact for you. So if nutrition is that, where do you want to start? What do you want to do? And the fourth pillar is stress management. Stress in modern day life is unavoidable, but chronic stress, long term stress doesn't have to be and the difference lies in how we manage it. Do we have a set of tools for navigating stress? Do we know how our nervous system works enough to navigate our nervous system with choice and agency to help it complete stress cycles and recover more quickly? And stress management really lies at the heart. Part of healing, you are never going to be able to heal if your stressors constantly and chronically overload and outweigh your capacity. And so what I just shared with you, those are our four quarterly focuses. Q1, is going to be sleep for three months, we'll shift into movement, nutrition and then stress management. And my hope is that those of you who opt in are members, who stay in our membership for a full year next December, turn and look back on their daily life, and it looks different. It feels different. They are more mentally healthy because they are more healthy. They are more mentally well because they are living better. They are more regulated, because they have established a new baseline standard of habits that facilitate more regulation, and then the fifth pillar, because the title of this is five, the fifth pillar is community, and this doesn't have its own quarter of focus, because community gets incorporated into everything that we do inside this membership. Humans are hard wired for connection. Healing is not something that we are meant to do in isolation. Connection with others provides a sense of safety and belonging that directly supports a more regulated nervous system, whether it's laughter or shared experiences or simply feeling seen. Community is such a vital part of our well being. You are invited into my community, into our community, and if you don't choose to be in this space, then what community can you step into? Where do you feel safe and seen and supported, and some other ways, is if you're feeling disconnected. Other small steps you could take is to just reach out to somebody you trust, find somebody that you're going to text or call once a week, couple times a month just to check in. Can you join a group or an activity that interests you? You spend time with people who make you feel safe and valued. Your community doesn't have to be large or perfect, it just has to feel meaningful and supportive for you, and so the key to integrating these habits into your life is to start small, choose one habit to focus on at a time, break it down into manageable steps that fit your current capacity, and then when that habit becomes part of your routine, you can layer in the next one or the next level of that habit. There's a worksheet that we have in our program. It's called a habit ladder at the bottom. You put where you are at the top, your goal, and then you put about three to 15 micro steps to get you from where you are to where you'd ideally like to be. We install really tiny habits and we optimize them over time. And if you're looking for extra support in establishing these shifts, these change, if you're ready to make 2025, a year of intentional, regulated living, I would love to support you in either restore, which is our one on one coaching program that supports you in identifying the tools and the shifts that are the most impactful for your unique healing. This is a program that gives you a framework for strategic healing. It is our most intimate and hand held coaching program, or I'd love to see you inside the rise membership, the details, the links to book discovery calls, all of that can always be found in the show notes. But these five habits, sleep, movement, nutrition, stress management, community, are simple. You've heard them before, but they are powerful. They create a foundation for healing and for helping your nervous system feel safer and more supported and therefore more regulated. The state of your nervous system determines the story of your life. Now the three takeaways from today to help set you up for your most regulated year, our number one focus on the five foundations of health that we mentioned here. These are the building blocks of nervous system regulation. Number two is to start small and build gradually. Big sudden changes are hard for the brain to sustain. Big sudden changes can also read as threatening to your nervous system, just reinforcing your need to stay stuck in states of activation or shut down. So instead of overhauling everything at once, small, manageable shifts and takeaway number three is that healing happens best in community regulation and healing. Are not meant to happen in isolation. We were never meant to live as fragmented as most of us do in our daily life. Connection with others, whether it's through shared experiences, safe spaces or supportive relationships, it provides the safety and belonging that fosters nervous system health and well being. All right, friends, that is it for today. Have fun tonight. Celebrate New Year's Eve in the way that best serves you. If you weren't able to make it to my new year's eve circle live, I've sent out a replay, maybe consider hitting play on that this evening, and just thank you for spending time with me, for being here. I'm so excited to have another year with all of you here on the podcast inside the membership. We have so many exciting updates coming. Stay tuned. This year is coming with the integration of blood work for all of our one on one coaching clients. And as an add on option for our membership, we are going to start to be able to accept HSA and FSA for our one on one coaching program I probably around May will have a brand new website and a whole bunch of just optimization and updating. And beautiful things are happening in this space. And there is always an invitation for you to join us. All right, take care, sending so much hope and healing your way. Thanks for listening to another episode of The regulate and rewire podcast. If you enjoyed what you heard today, please subscribe and leave a five star review to help us get these powerful tools out to even more people who need them. And if you yourself are looking for more personalized support and applying what you've learned today, consider joining me inside rise my monthly mental health membership and nervous system healing space, or apply for our one on one anxiety and depression coaching program, restore. I've shared a link for more information to both in the show notes. Again, thanks so much for being here, and I'll see you next time you

Transcribed by https://otter.ai