Welcome to Sustain youn Vitality, the podcast that gives you a nurturing kick in the ass so you can take action.

Every day to feel better, not older.

Your lifestyle holds the power to change.

How you feel, and no matter your age or health issues, you are in the driver's seat.

I'm your host, Zoa Connor, Functional wellness guide at Zen and Vitality with Zoa and retreat leader at Intentional Vitality Retreats.

I'm here to help you figure out how to lower your stress, increase your energy, put yourself into a healing state.

Boost your drive and pleasure in life, prevent disease, and feel the best that.

You ever have with no regrets later.

Let's go.

When I work with clients so that they can feel better, not older.

We work with the seven fundamentals of functional wellness.

One of those fundamental principles is nervous system regulation.

This is a whole field unto itself, oftentimes made use of and focused on by somatic practitioners.

For our purposes, though, let's talk about the nervous system and whether you're in a stress state or an unstressed state, whether you're in a active growth state or a healing state, whether you're in a state where you can digest or a state where you can't.

Resilience in the nervous system regulation department means you can be in both, and you automatically switch back and forth between the two states, as is appropriate, throughout the day, the week, the month, month, the year, and your life.

Sleep is a time to be in a healing state.

Daytime is a time to be in an active growth state.

When you exercise and work on strength, building or growing a body, you want to be in a growth state, an active state, where you're making these changes, the hormonal signals for them, the chemical signals for them.

But in order to actually grow, you need to be in a healing state.

So the weightlifting or the activity that you're doing creates the reason to make a change.

But then the actual change happens while you sleep, while you heal, while you're in that growth state.

So your active growth state is your sympathetic side of your nervous system.

The stress response.

Exercise is a beneficial stress.

It creates all kinds of changes to your blood flow, your energy usage, your hormone state, even your brain.

And that stress has a purpose to create a positive change.

Not all stresses are positive.

Many of today's modern stresses are detracting because they don't go away.

Back in the days of cave women, your stress response would be activated by an animal attack or a neighboring tribe attack or getting lost.

And so your body would respond to those problems in A way that would keep you safe and alive.

If you hurt yourself while running away from a saber toothed tiger, your adrenaline response would stop you from feeling pain.

Your heartbeat, your breathing pattern, your eyesight, your memory, your thought activity through your different parts of your brain were all intended on keeping you alive.

Getting away to be safe.

When you're in a stress state, there's no reason to digest.

You are busy staying alive.

When you're in a stress state, there's no ability to reproduce or activate your fertility because you're not safe enough to be able to make a baby and to protect that baby.

When you're in a stress state, you're not thinking creatively, you're not able to find new solutions to problems, you're not able to make changes to your habits.

The stress is detracting from the things that you may want to be doing.

When you're in a calm parasympathetic state, I.e.

the state of healing and digesting and connecting to people and cleansing the brain and growing the body.

Your parasympathetic state is your resting state.

So you should be in a stressful state when you wake up.

The stress hormones, your cortisol, is what wakes you up to get you out of bed in the morning.

But your parasympathetic side activates as the sun goes down and the day starts to end and you're getting ready for sleep.

When you can't fall asleep because your brain is active and your body is still in a nervous system state, which is stress, you're not going to be able to calm down, relax, shift your breathing, shift your focus and be able to sleep.

The regulation between these two is important.

You need to be able to keep yourself alive and have your stress state response kick in to keep you alive.

And then you need to stop that response and return to a healing state.

Animals in the wild spend most of their time in this calming, healing, digestive, parasympathetic state.

Let's think about the glorious lioness.

The lioness spends a lot of her time lounging, resting in the sun, playing with her babies, hanging out with her lioness friends, but on demand.

When she's hungry, when she needs to protect her babies, she will get up and she will run and she will fight and she will protect her stress response.

But then she returns to eating and laying and enjoying life.

So your inner lioness, is she mostly fighting off problems?

Is she mostly racing and never stopping to calm down?

Is she able to digest and enjoy her meal and play with her babies and hang out with her lioness friends.

If you cannot get your stress response to raise, then you're going to have a trouble staying alive, staying safe, feeling energized, feeling good, feeling capable in the world.

If you can't turn that stress response off and return to your parasympathetic side, then you're going to have a hard time sleeping and digesting and feeling good and thinking creatively and feeling sexual and all these things that make life worth living.

Stress response keeps you alive.

Your parasympathetic side keeps you wanting to stay alive.

So how do you spend your days mostly in a state of active or in a state of growth and healing?

Do you spend your nights in a calm, restful state or do you wake up and toss and turn and feel tired when you wake up and are still in pain?

If you're not switching back and forth on a day to day basis, hour to hour basis, minute to minute basis, then we can tell.

Through your heart rate variability, through the quality of your sleep, through the quality of your digestion, through the quality of your muscle growth, through your appetite, through your mood, and so many more metrics and symptoms and measurements, you want to be resilient.

You want to be adaptable.

That is what keeps you feeling better, not older.

Remember that Nervous system regulation is just one part of the seven fundamentals of Functional Wellness.

I look forward to being able to help you with your nervous system regulation.

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The Sustain your Vitality Podcast is a gift from Zen and Vitality with Zoa LLC and Intentional Vitality Retreats based in the State of Maryland, usa.

All the podcast things planning, recording, editing, producing have all been done by me, Zoa Connor, PhD.

Even though you can call me doctor, I'm not a medical professional and your safety is your responsibility.

By listening to this podcast and understanding that any movement, nutrition, lifestyle or health protocol is discussed, you are agreeing to take full responsibility for your actions.

Zen and Vitality with Zoa are not responsible for any injuries or issues that may occur.

This podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only and is not a substitute for personalized medical, wellness, nutrition, lifestyle or movement and fitness advice.

Always practice any fitness or movement related activities in a safe environment.

I make no claims about the effectiveness of the techniques or protocols discussed for you or any specific results that you may achieve I recommend you consult with your healthcare professional before changing your diet, exercise routine or healthcare plan.

Zenin Vitality, Ysoa and the guests of this podcast are not liable for any injuries or health problems that may arise from following the information presented.