Growing your Capacity for Stress

What if your nervous system doesn’t need another heroic overhaul, just a kinder plan? We explore how to grow your capacity for stress with small, steady additions that your body can trust. Instead of chasing quick fixes, we look at habits that reliably shift you into a healing state and keep you there more often.

We start by reframing winter as a season for reflection rather than force. That mindset change makes room for one practical rule: choose a tiny 30-day habit that proves to your subconscious you’re consistent. From there, we unpack the “plate of stress” and why two people with the same symptom can heal at very different speeds. History, inputs, and daily rhythms shape recovery, so the goal becomes simple: increase stress releasers until they outnumber your stressors.

You’ll hear concrete ways to do that right away. Joyful, rotational movement that feels like play rather than punishment. Creative hobbies that make you lose track of time and create a felt sense of safety. Nature rituals that downshift your system fast—barefoot moments, tree touch, sky checks, and slow walks under green canopies. We also talk about stacking benefits: move with a friend outdoors to combine social safety, motion, and light for a bigger effect.

Skilled support can accelerate progress, so we highlight options like chiropractic, osteopathy, cranial sacral therapy, massage, acupuncture, and thoughtful strength or yoga guidance. Concerts, retreats, and family activities count too when they spark awe, connection, and joy. Throughout, we return to a powerful reframe: pain is a message, not a verdict. Listen for the lesson, then act small and steady until your baseline changes.

If this resonates, share the episode with someone you care about, subscribe for more body-led tools, and leave a review so others can find their way back to themselves. Your nervous system can learn to expect relief, play, and presence—and that changes everything.

Transcript

Reconnecting With Your Body

Naomi Mills 0:01

Welcome to You Are the Answer, the podcast that helps you reconnect with the most powerful healer you know, your own body. I'm Naomi Mills, chiropractor, healthcare professional, and believer in the natural intelligence within us all. In this podcast, I explore what it means to trust your body, decode its signals, and take ownership of your well-being without quick fixes or health fads. Whether you're just beginning your journey or deep in transformation, I'm here to guide you back to the truth. You are not broken. You are the answer.

The Plate Of Stress Explained

Naomi Mills 0:59

Traditionally, in our culture, it will be a time when maybe you're thinking about some of the changes that you want to make in the next calendar year in your life and in your health. Maybe you're reflecting back on the year that's been. And I will say this is a great time for reflection because energetically in wintering that's what we're supposed to be doing, is turning in, but not the best time for action. Nevertheless, I'm going to talk to you today about all of the things that you can start to think about adding into your life to increase that capacity for holding stress.

Why Similar Symptoms Heal Differently

Naomi Mills 1:43

So in one of our very first episodes, I talked about your plate of stress, how much physical, chemical, and emotional stressors you have been collecting and carrying since your birth, actually. And the honest truth is when I have two people come into my practice, and let's say they're both 25 and they've got lower back pain, we'll make it really simple. One person might be really, really struggling and in lots and lots of pain, and the other one might not be. One will get much faster, much quicker than the other. And the differences that I find in why people present as they do and how they heal is always found in the history of their central nervous system and in the lifestyle they're leading today. Because when you have too much stress and not enough stress release, this is when it starts getting expressed in the body, either through illness, sickness, and pain, or through an inability to adapt and heal and overcome. So today, this is important stuff because it's kind of, we've had a look at where some of our issues might be coming from, and it's literally step one of what you might want to begin thinking about doing.

Start Small For Lasting Change

Naomi Mills 3:03

And the reason I say it like that is if you leap in too quickly and plan too much and try and rewrite your life overnight, which is the temptation for a lot of us at New Year, or it's what's been taught to us culturally, you are more than likely setting yourself up for failure. And one of the tips that I give in the You Are the Answer book that really worked for me was this idea of doing something super simple for 30 days, setting yourself up for success, something very small and achievable that's still a step in the right direction. Because when you do that, you are teaching your subconscious that you are consistent and you are reliable and that you are able to make sustainable change. And then you can just over time increase the changes that you're making, but you've already trained yourself to show up and to be consistent. I actually want to share with you at this point a poem, actually, by the poet and philosopher Rumi, which is a great favorite of mine. And if you ever come to one of my in-person or online events, I love sharing stories and poetry.

Rumi’s I Am Your Cure

Listening To Pain As Guidance

Naomi Mills 4:22

But I thought this one was very interesting for the podcast. I happened to randomly open the page on it just yesterday, and it's called I Am Your Cure. I am your cure. Be patient with pain. I am your friend. Don't look elsewhere in vain. Even if you lose, don't say you've lost. Be happy with the race, since I am your prize. And I guess I want to share this before we go into all of the actions you can take to help ground your nervous system and regulate yourself better by taking a moment to appreciate any pain, any problems, whether it's poor hormone regulation or bad sleep or difficulty focusing, being in a state of stress. It also is a gift and a friend because it is your body expressly showing you that what it needs is something other than what you're giving it. And today we're going to look at what some of those things might be. But not in such a way as to reject or push away the signals that your body is giving you, but to honour the silver lining of being unwell in any way, shape, or form is okay, there's a message here. What's the lesson that I need to learn so that this doesn't happen again, so that I can build resilience and strength and health for the future?

Movement As Somatic Release

Naomi Mills 5:59

So we're going to have a look at some of those options just now. Thinking back to the plate of health analogy, and if you don't know what I'm talking about, simply visualize a plate with loads and loads of food on it, which represents the both the historical and the everyday physical, chemical, and emotional things that you're holding. So everything that happens at home, at work, sitting, any trips, slips, falls, junk food that you're putting into your body, alcohol, just all of the things that your body is constantly being asked to deal with. Remembering, of course, that your body and brain that make up the central nervous system really also make the filter through which you see your life. And the goal today is to start thinking about what is something that I could think about introducing that is going to make my ability to hold all of this stress because a lot of it is either happened in the past or can't be magicked away o

Joy, Play, And Creative Hobbies

Naomi Mills 7:07

vernight. What can I do to allow myself to hold on to that better? Now, what happens all the time because we are humans is when you get stressed and busy and tired, this is the cosmic joke, we tend to stop doing the things I want to talk about today. I'm not going to give you a big list. I want to talk about the types of activities that you really want to be prioritizing when it comes to regulating your nervous system. So these are movement, enjoyable movement. So it might be going to the gym, it might be doing yoga, it might also be putting on a daft song in the kitchen on your own with a friend or with your children and dancing. It might be putting on some in like some crazy kind of music and breathing and somatically allowing your body to wiggle and move in a way that feels like it's working out its kinks and whatever doing whatever it is that it wants to do.

Naomi Mills 8:10

Movement is a key part of being a human, of somatic release, of letting emotions and physical things flow through the body, and we're just not designed to be still. But it can look like anything. It can be cycling, it can be playing tennis, it can be absolutely anything where you are not just stuck in that fixed flexion, extension, forward and back motion. We really want some motion that has rotation in it, that has kind of dynamic movement so that your body can move on all of its planes.

Nature As Nervous System Medicine

Naomi Mills 8:51

Another great stress releaser is anything that feels joyful or like play. So where you lose track of time and you just become lost in the moment. Because you'll see where I'm going with this. I like to, you know, kill two birds with one stone. I will always encourage you to pick activities that do more than one thing. So don't exercise in a way that feels like punishment or uncomfortable or a should. Find a way of moving, dancing, swimming, whatever, that feels joyful, that doesn't feel like a chore. What's great for your nervous system is somewhere that feels creative and safe. So we're also including hobbies here.

Naomi Mills 9:35

Because what happens when we get stressed? We cancel the cinema trip with the friends, we don't make it to the gym, we don't go for that massage or go to the class that we'd booked. We certainly don't think about sitting down and colouring or sewing or painting or jigsawing. And yet all of these things have within them that magic of grounding your nervous system, either because they're fun, because they're physical, because they make us feel safe, they make us be in the moment and forget perhaps whatever it is that our brain is calling us to worry and stress about.

Naomi Mills 10:13

And I know you know this stuff. We've all heard this stuff, but I guess what you don't often hear in your very heart and soul, what you don't take to heart is that important. And it's really that simple. There is no magic secret that somebody hasn't told you yet. I get this a lot when it comes to exercise in particular, but a lot of the time you will see influencers or famous people or people trying to basically grab your attention online by doing something wacky and strange because that is what garners attention. But it's not necessarily what that person is doing or has done to build that physique. So the things that we're asking you to think about today are very simple and they don't have to cost money, but they do take commitment, consistency, and a little bit of self-reflection.

Naomi Mills 11:11

So we've got the things you would think about things that are creative, things that are fun, things that involve movement. Nature is a huge one for me. Nature is already designed to bring us back into the present moment, to calm us, to make us feel like we're connected to something bigger than ourselves, which really does help you have that feeling of it's not all happening only to me. So it could be walking, it can be barefoot walking, just standing, grounding yourself on the floor. You can admire a flower, you can touch a tree, you can pet an animal.

Support From Practitioners And Events

Naomi Mills 11:49

Anything that comes across as mindfulness, that works too. So when we're thinking about creating a bigger plate, a bigger container for holding the stresses, these are all things that are designed to de-escalate the nervous system, bring it back into this parasympathetic healing state. I've talked so far about things you can mostly do for yourself or at home. There's obviously a big swathe of professionals that can help you, either through body work. So it might be something like chiropractic or osteopathy or cranial sacral therapy or massage. It could also be things like Reiki or aromatherapy or acupuncture, it could be a personal trainer, a nutritionist, people from outside of your realm of expertise that all have different ways of tapping into your nervous system.

Make Releasers Outweigh Stressors

Naomi Mills 12:53

Retreats and events based around the nervous system will also be really, really valuable here too. It can also be booking a concert ticket to see your favorite band, or doing a family type festival or a family activity. Can you see how easy it is in many ways to come up with these solutions? But then you match that with your daily diary and your habits. And if I'm honest, where you've been willing to invest your money in the past, and suddenly you're not doing any of these things because we're being taken away into these stressful situations and not prioritizing the more quote fun and relaxing things, which are not treats or just to be there when we've got to time or we can afford it, they're actually completely essential to maintaining our health and well-being as we move through life.

Naomi Mills 13:57

And as Rumi has so eloquently put it in his poem, whatever it is your body is expressing to you or your mind is expressing to you, that's the prize from your race. And so how fast are you running right now? How hard are you going? How much are you pushing versus pulling in all that you need to move forward so that you are almost like being pushed by this beautiful wind of vibrancy from behind rather than dragging yourself forward or being dragged. The key difference between the two, I find, is where you are able to consciously create a lifestyle that has more stress releasers than it does stressors.

Let Change Percolate And Flow

Naomi Mills 14:56

Of course, then you get to be a bit clever by prioritizing and picking activities that maybe involve more than one of the elements we talked about today. They're fun and social and moving and this and that, as many good things as you can possibly get that will bring your nervous system into a state of healing and ease and peace, which is what we all deserve. So for this end of 2025, I will wish you much peace and just allow what we've talked about today to percolate in your subconscious.

Share, Review, And Resources

Naomi Mills 15:40

You don't need to immediately commit plans and Google opportunities, but just allow a few days or weeks, allow yourself to move into this next year with your subconscious now alerted to the fact that you need more fun, joy, presence, connection in your life. You may need somebody to physically work with your body to help that to happen. And you are going to allow yourself to be open to those opportunities because your subconscious will now ping them up to your conscious mind when they arise, and you can have a lot of fun doing this.

Naomi Mills 16:25

Thank you for joining me on You Are the Answer. If today's episode sparks something in you, share it with someone you care about and leave a review to help others find their way back to their body too. For more tools, inspiration, and resources to support your journey, head to www.uareanswer.co.uk. And until next time, stay connected, stay curious, and remember, you are the answer, and you're always happy.