BONUS - Nervous System Recovery: Why It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better

AUDIO for Weekly Recharge Newsletter - Want to hear more? Subscribe here

When you spend years in grind mode, you’re trained to believe that “healing” should make everything instantly feel better. Spoiler: it usually doesn’t.

In this episode of Hustle Rebels, part of my Weekly Recharge Newsletter, I share a very real gut-healing story from after my intestinal and back surgeries. My digestive system was wrecked from heavy antibiotics, I finally committed to an all-natural gut protocol… and everything got worse. Think 3am hot-knife pain and full “I’m dying” energy, not a relaxing wellness retreat.

I use that story as a metaphor for what happens when high-functioning, overachieving humans (hi, us) finally start doing emotional and identity work:

• Why things can feel more intense once you stop living on autopilot
• How your nervous system protests when you stop performing the old version of yourself
• The difference between actually spiraling vs. finally integrating
• Simple “debridement protocol” tools to support your body so you don’t burn your life down in the process

If you’re questioning the cost of your hustle, in the middle of a “healing makes me feel worse” phase, or trying to rebuild a life that actually works for your nervous system, this one’s for you.

I also share how you can go deeper with my Burn the Blueprint: Masterclass and 4-week self-paced course if you’re ready for more structure and support.

Enroll - Burn the Blueprint: Masterclass

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Core Message
• 0:20 Gut-Healing Story Turns Chaotic
• 1:52 Pain As A Sign Of Clearing
• 3:14 Identity Work And The Messy Middle
• 5:13 Integration Over Hype
• 5:17 The Debridement Protocol Options
• 7:00 Microproof Reps And Examples
• 8:25 No Decisions While Activated

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome back. I'm Renee, founder of Wayward Wellness Coaching, and this is your audio version of the Wednesday weekly recharge newsletter. If things feel worse since you started healing, it doesn't mean you're broken. It might mean it's finally working, and we need to talk about that messy middle phase. So the things that we're going to cover this week are the gut healing story that turned into a 3 a.m. I'm dying moment, why emotional and identity work can flare things up the same way, how to tell the difference between spiraling versus integrating, and a simple debrement protocol to keep your nervous system grounded while you're clearing old patterns. If this email lands around lunchtime, just know I'm intentionally keeping this story PG. Because while I'm a paramedic and can watch brains scattered on the curb and still finish my chicken salad with cukes and grapes, I'm fully aware that I'm not the standard model and you shouldn't have to be. Here's the version you can read while eating lunch. After my intestinal and back surgeries, plus being forced on a truly heroic amount of antibiotics. My digestive system was absolutely tanked. So I finally pulled the trigger on healing my gut with an all-natural company I had been following for a while, which is called Silverfern. For anyone that's curious, no affiliates, just a pure tried and true recommendation. One would think that once you start a healing journey, things would begin to look up, right? Sure, you might hit some bumps along the road, but nothing catastrophic, of course. Right? Nope, absolutely not. Because then, what happened next was something I never would have expected. The worst digestive issues. I am talking 3 a.m. hot butter knife pain sliding into your side. The kind that makes you reconsider every life choice you've ever made and maybe text God, like, hey, um, quick question. Four days. So I reached out to the company like, either something is wrong with your product or my body is reacting poorly. And their response, translated into my language, was basically, nope, that is normal, especially when your system is really fucked up. You're not broken, you're just clearing house. And recommended to dial it down a bit. Now they didn't say it like that, but that's absolutely what they meant. And it hit me. Sometimes the first sign something is working is that it gets louder before it gets quieter. Because healing isn't always a gentle exhale into a sunbeam. Sometimes healing is a debrisment. Now, if you've ever seen a wound get cleaned out, you know it isn't pretty. It can look worse mid-process. Angry, inflamed, reactive, but leaving the junk in there doesn't make it heal, makes it fester. Now, why am I telling you this? Whether you were in the masterclass or not. Recently I ran a three-day burn the blueprint masterclass on identity, conditioning, and burnout. Some of you were there live, a lot of you weren't, but this applies to all of you. Whenever you start doing this kind of work, whether it's inside a program with me, in therapy, through books, journaling, or just brutally honest self-reflection, there's usually a phase that nobody advertises because people want to dress it up and make it look pretty. But healing isn't cotton candy, sunshine, and rainbows. It's wrestling with who you are now when you look in the mirror and don't recognize that person anymore. It's pushing through physical therapy during recoveries, your muscles shaking, knowing that those same muscles used to be so strong, but now can barely lift your body weight. It's speaking your truth with a shaky voice because you're finally standing up for yourself, but questioning the consequences of maintaining the boundaries that your nervous system has craved for so long. It's asking for more money because you know your worth, but then ruminating on whether it was too much and if you truly deserved it. The part where it feels worse before it feels better. You might feel raw, wired, tired, emotional, irritable, flat. You might feel like you cracked something open and now you just can't unsee it. That doesn't mean you're regressing. That doesn't mean it didn't work. That means your nervous system is adjusting to the fact that the old identity isn't driving anymore. When you stop performing the version of you that kept everyone comfortable, your system can protest. Not because the new you is wrong, it's because the old you was familiar. And familiar can feel like security, even when it was quietly wrecking you. So this week isn't about hype, it's about integration. And here's this week's debrement protocol. And I want you to pick two. Here's the first choice: the 90-second downshift for when your brain starts time traveling. I want you to put your feet on the floor, unclench your jaw, drop your shoulders, inhale normally, and exhale longer than you would inhale. Now do this six times. It's boring, but it's effective. Do it anyway. Second option: a containment journal. Because spiraling isn't processing. I want you to set a timer for eight minutes. Write down the chaos in your brain. Do a complete brain dump, everything that's on your mind. Then stop. You are teaching your system we can feel this without living here. Here's your third option. One microproof rep. Pick one tiny action that matches the identity that you're building. One boundary, one honest sentence, one aligned choice. Not a reinvention. One rep. Here are some examples from the master class. You can make a statement such as these. I'm allowed to be direct and have boundaries without being cruel. I'm allowed rest without earning it. I'm allowed to get recognition I deserve for the work I put in. I'm allowed to be supported and ask for help when I need it. Option number four, no decisions while activated. If you're wired, feeling tight, feeling a little gloomy or emotionally loud, don't make any identity decisions, no emotional decisions. Make body-based decisions. Decisions such as drinking more water, eating a healthy source of food, go for a walk, put some movement into the day, take a nice shower, maybe even get some sleep. Then reassess. Here's one question to sit with this week. What am I clearing out right now that I used to call it's just who I am? Because who you are, what you call who you are, isn't the same thing as what you learn to do to be accepted. And if things feel a little louder this week, good, because that means you touch something real. And if you want to go deeper with this, if you're curious about what we did inside the three-day burn the blueprint masterclass, I've got the full thing set up as a private YouTube course. Right now it's free. Honestly, I can't promise that it will be free forever. I also cannot promise that the next time I run it live, it'll be free either. If you want access to the replays, I want you to hit reply and just say masterclass. You don't have to have a long email. Just reply the word masterclass and I'll send you the link. And if this email is hitting something deep and you already know that you want more than just a few newsletters and one masterclass to hold all of this, my four week self paced course, Burn the Blueprint, is where we do the actual rebuild. Not become a better version of you, but by coming home to the real one. Thanks for joining again this week. And as always, share this with a friend so that they can stay regulated just like you. See you guys next week.