Reclaiming Energy: The E.A.S.E. Method for Nervous System Healing

Persistent fatigue despite doing everything "right" often stems from an overtaxed nervous system rather than physical exhaustion. 

The vagus nerve, focused solely on survival, diverts energy to keeping us alive when it perceives even subtle threats in our environment.

Listen to methods that help put the vagus nerve back into "rest and restore" mode. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Fatigue Beyond Physical Exhaustion
• 1:40 The E.A.S.E. Method Introduction
• 4:01 Exhale Intentionally - Breath Reset
• 5:21 Acknowledge Mental Clutter's Energy Drain
• 6:28 Soothe Your Inner Critic
• 7:35 Emotion Needs to Move
• 8:57 My Personal 2 PM Slump Solutions
• 11:11 Closing Thoughts and Reminder

Transcript

Emily Feist: 0:00

I was taking the supplements, sleeping most of the night, and still by 2 pm I was crashing hard, not sleepy, tired hard, but like that soul tired hard where you just can't shake it off. This, literally, has happened to me before and it just didn't make sense. Turns out, I didn't need more caffeine. I needed to reset the one system that nobody was talking about the nervous system. Welcome to it. Starts at Vagus, where modern health meets modern day, living through the eyes of a massage therapist and that's me.

Emily Feist: 0:37

I'm Emily, and I am a neuromuscular massage therapist that helps people relax their mind and their muscles, and I'm here to guide you through the philosophy of the vagus nerve. It's the body's ultimate key to calm, connection and overall well-being. So if you have stress, anxiety and have that burnout, feeling that you're just stuck, you're in the right place. Take a deep breath in, settle down and let's explore how we can use our nervous system to support our bodies. Let's dive in. So let's get real. Yes, sleep and nutrition matter, but if you're doing the right things and you're still dragging, we need to look a little deeper, because fatigue isn't always physical. Sometimes it's emotional or mental or wait for it nervous system based. Here's what I mean. Your nervous system, especially your vagus nerve, has one job to keep you alive, not thriving, not crushing it, just alive. So if your system thinks that the world is a little unsafe, even if it's just caused by juggling your three kids, two deadlines and one anxiety spiral, it will quietly reroute your energy into survival mode. So no wonder you're tired. This also means that your beautiful creative brain, your digestion, your motivation, even your pleasure, all of it gets benched and put in the back seat because it's not the first priority. So let's talk about a few of those reasons, how that just creeps in subtly and just a few little things do drain our energy. So let me talk about some of these sound familiar to you.

Emily Feist: 2:33

You've got the constant decision making, so you kind of have like that mental ping pong, talking yourself out of those spiraling thoughts, most of the Feeling like you're on all the time. You're on at work, at home, even if you're alone, holding back tears because you don't have the time to fall apart, or smiling through burnout because everyone counts on you. Now, taking those possibilities, we multiply them by 365. Because that's how often we can have these thoughts. We don't take a break. It's just that constant feeling, day after day after day, and if you're lucky, some of that might come off during a getaway vacation. But even then you're still pooped out. That is not just exhaustion, that's an emotional suppression, chronic vigilance and even your nervous system waving that white flag saying I am giving up.

Emily Feist: 3:37

Now what to do? If you're wondering how to get your energy to come back for the long term without guilting yourself into doing that 5 and workout routine and other extremes, try this ease method that is E-A-S-E Ease method. Let's start with the first E, and that is exhale intentionally. Breath is your reset button. A long, slow exhale activates your vagus nerve, shifting you out of that fight or flight mode and into that rest and restore mode. And if you only take one thing away from today, it's this your exhale is your secret portal to calm. It tells your vagus nerve, hey, we're safe now, and safety that's what allows energy to return back. So let's talk about some tools for this Humming or singing that will directly help your vagus nerve to relax and restore. We can inhale for four seconds and exhale for eight seconds, and we can even include some things. So we can include some gentle rocking. So if you have like a rocking chair and then do that while you're breathing in for four seconds and out seconds. You can combine these two to figure out your perfect way, how you like to relax and reset. So let's go ahead and practice this. Let's go ahead and take a big breath in and let that sigh. That sigh feels really good. Right, it's the exhale part. It's allowing us to breathe everything out so it doesn't stay stuck inside.

Emily Feist: 5:20

Now on to the A. We want to acknowledge the open that mental clutter causes energy links. And keeping open tabs all day, from adding radishes to the grocery store to trying to remember where you parked All of that drains our cognitive resources. And your brain isn't meant to hold in everything. It's meant to process and prioritize. But when you feel like everything is urgent, nothing gets done and you stay in that foggy, stuck state. To help with this, you can do a morning brain dump All those first thoughts that you get into your head when you first wake up. Just jot them out. My favorite way is also to do a voice note, when I can just talk into my phone and it just records everything for me. That way I can just let all of it out without worrying about writing it down fast enough. You can also do the two minute task rule. So if it takes two minutes or less, do it now. Just cross it off and be done with it.

Emily Feist: 6:27

Now on to S. S is soothe your inner critic. Mental exhaustion often stems from what's going on, all those thoughts inside your head, not just what's happening in your life, but that processing it and chronic self-judgment triggers anxiety and perfectionism and it just creates that loop keeping the nervous system in survival mode and you can't heal in a space where you're constantly berated and your energy won't return if it thinks that you'll use it to criticize yourself. Here's how to overcome that. Do some inner voice check-ins, Think about would I say this to a close friend of mine. If not, it shouldn't be stuck in your head. You can also rewrite the script. So instead of thinking I'm so far behind, just think I'm allowed to slow down to do this. Well, you can even talk to yourself. You can tell yourself thank you for keeping me safe, we are safe, we're fine and now we can move on. And it'll help train your brain when everything is just fine, instead of being on and scanning everything.

Emily Feist: 7:34

Now. The last E emotion needs to move. Suppressed emotions are energy hoarders to move. Suppressed emotions are energy hoarders. When we suppress our sadness, anger, fear, we use up massive energy just to keep that lid on. But when we include movement and expression and release that and make space for life to return, your emotions aren't the problem. The problem is when we let it bottle up inside and we don't let it out. So think of tears, shaking, laughter, journaling, if you like to write it all out. All of that eases up the pressure release valves in our emotions and it keeps us from breaking down. So the next time you need to move to get out some emotions, you can literally just shake it out, move, dance in your kitchen. I love dancing in my kitchen. Got the songs on makes my kids laugh, I laugh and it just allows me to use up that energy. You can also cry in a safe space. Crying is very healthy and so if you need to release that emotion, just go find your favorite spot and let it all out. Don't worry about what you look like, just grab some Kleenexes and let it go.

Emily Feist: 8:52

Now here's what I do when I am in that 2 pm slump. First, I reset my nervous system. I know that if I just take a few moments to relax my nervous system. Everything goes better. It is the foundation to move forward. So, as previously stated, I like to move, I like to wiggle, I like to sing. All of those help me reset it and if I feel really stuck I will do a vagus nerve exercise. Next I dump my mental tabs. I like to use the voice notes on my phone. It helps me a lot. It helps me be able to speak all the thoughts instead of writing them down. It's just what works best for me. And then later I also use sticky notes. I use many, many sticky notes. I really like them. They just really help me like jot that idea down, set it, forget it, come back to it later.

Emily Feist: 9:56

After doing that mental dump, I drink water. I know that water helps everything. It helps everything in the body, whether it's helping me think clearer or nourishing my muscles, my nervous system, your fascia, your lymph. Everything works better when you're hydrated. So I figure, if I am having a hard time, I might as well grab a glass of water.

Emily Feist: 10:21

Last but not least, to get me out of that 2pm slump, I like to do something fun. Every Sunday last year I spent moments doing an art craft. I was trying to teach myself how to draw or paint. It was just something that I wanted myself to grow, because I had never really explored creativity that well in that way, and so that is one way that I do try to do something that is fun, because art can be done anywhere. It can be fast, it can be a quick doodle, or it can be slow and take your time and just explore the different colors. So that is one way that I like to use fun to get me out of that slump. It's energizing for me.

Emily Feist: 11:07

Here's what I want you to remember today you're not failing. Your energy is wise and it's trying to protect you, but now it's your time to reclaim it.

Emily Feist: 11:18

Thank you for spending part of your day with me. Remember to soothe your nervous system and reclaim who you are. Thanks for listening to. It Starts at Vagus. New episodes are released every Tuesday. If you like this episode, go ahead and subscribe so that you get notifications every time something new is released and I can then know that you are interested in these topics about the Vegas nerve. Until next time, remember wellness starts at Vagus.