7 Ways to Regulate Your Nervous System and Boost Your Mindset

Welcome to episode 139 of Dawn of a New Era with myself, Dawn McGruer. And as you know, on this podcast, we are passionate about all things to do with mindset, motivation, mental fitness, and we incorporate everything to do with your health and your wellness and happiness. Because as founders, as entrepreneurs, we need to make sure that we protect the most valuable asset in our business, which is us. But so often we go to the bottom of the pile, and so many people that I talk to who are running their businesses, who are absolutely excelling in what they do, they are always putting themselves last.

And what tends to happen there is that we don't realize, because we're in the thick of it, the suffering or the impact that we're putting on our body. And one of the things that we really need to protect and harness each and every day is our nervous systems. Now, this is something that really, really became paramount and very prevalent in my life as soon as I started using the Whoop wristband. Now, if you've not heard of it before, you may be familiar with things like your Garmin, your Apple Watches, things like that.

Now, what Whoop does is it's quite different. It's the most different type of wellness assessing app I've ever used. And the reason for that is that, yes, it's looking at things like your sleep performance. Yes, it's looking at your activity.

But what I love about it is it's monitoring your recovery. So it's taking a whole health and wellness assessment, and it's working out the strain that you can put on your body. So it will calculate a guesstimate of how far you can push yourself. Now, this has changed the way that I move, not necessarily exercise, but if it's saying that, you know, my— My recovery was around 83 to, say, 97%.

Then I'm in an ultimate performance state. It means that I can really push myself. And even at the end of the day, if I haven't quite hit the target, just by doing some light exercises, going for a walk with the dog, or just going on for my treadmill for like 10 minutes, I've hit the strain. Now, this is the one tool that I've used to really regulate my nervous system, and there has been nothing else comparable, honestly.

And I'm not affiliated with Whoop in any way, but I just love the way that it's actually looking at things that mean that I know how I feel, and it's recognizing that too. The problem with the Apple Watch I had was that some days I would wake up and I would just feel drained, and then I would try and push on. I'd do, you know, two Pilates classes, and then I'd walk the dogs, and, you know, that might be one, two, or three times a day, and I'd just keep pushing. But that was actually the worst thing I could have done because I wasn't allowing my body to repair and recover.

So if I'm thinking about where my nervous system is, it has to be ready to handle this stress. And if my body is in balance, then I'm absolutely in the right place to achieve my fitness goals. So when I have woken and I've not felt good, it basically reflects that on my recovery. Now, the recovery is to do with things like your hydration, your food.

It's looking at your heart rate variability, resting heart rate, and your respiratory rate, all of these factors. But it definitely is in sync. If I wake up and I feel good, I can see it on my recovery, and those are the days that I push myself. On the days that I'm not feeling great for whatever reason, maybe I've not slept enough, or I'm not being hydrated enough, or something just hasn't felt in sync.

One of the things that I feel that it's picked up amazingly well is digestive issues. So for me, often I have struggled with finding the right prebiotics, probiotics. I was on antibiotics for almost three years before I had my left kidney out. One of the things that I really noticed is that how my body processes food and drink.

So a step forward to that was doing the Zoe app, and I found a huge shift in terms of the types of foods I was supposed to be eating. So I was doing PT three times a week, killing myself, and I felt sick. I mean, sick to the core. And I should have been feeling my best, and I definitely did not feel like my nervous system was great.

It wasn't boosting my mindset because I was killing myself working out, weight wasn't shifting, I felt absolutely knackered at the end of the day, I couldn't function, and I was following this diet plan rigidly that I'd been given, only to find out that doing the Zoe app that those food combinations are the worst thing for me. Now that I know the things I should be eating as a vegetarian, and it's coming up in my app with all of my green meals, and I eat exactly what my body is craving, which I probably should have listened to, not a PT, then that has transformed it. But still, I do struggle with digestion and just getting that balance in play. Now, obviously, really consciously looking at my hydration per day and the days that I've been taking electrolytes, and the ones that I'm using are Ancient Brave, which I absolutely love.

They're natural and they're derived from coconut. So they taste amazing, and they really hydrate in a healthy way. I feel like I'm putting goodness into my body. So I really started to think about when I feel thirsty, to think about electrolytes, to thinking about in my morning having my AC1, boosting all of my amazing green nutrients and things like that.

I've also started taking ashwagandha, anti-inflammatory, and that has helped me so much in my nervous system and my sleeping. I'm also taking a magnesium supplement before I go to bed with a chamomile tea, which has been great because I feel like I've now got this sleep routine. I'm sleeping longer. I'm really monitoring it, and I'm listening to my body.

Now, you don't need a Whoop app. We all know when we feel not right, but it has consciously reset and reprogrammed how I operate. Now, we go through the, you know, each and every day, 95% of, you know, what we're doing and saying or thinking and all our actions are not in our control. It's in our subconscious.

So this has allowed me to really consciously lean into proactively regulating my nervous system and boosting my mindset. So I've incorporated a couple of things that I use in my 30-day growth challenge, and when I developed the app, the 30 days were all around things that I was already doing. So I've tried to balance these to see the impact, and honestly, I knew that they impacted my motivation. I knew they impacted my mindset, but just how much that they have reprogrammed my subconscious, but also regulated my entire nervous system and the way that I feel.

So one of the things that I do is I practice deep breathing techniques like diaphragmatic breathing or the 4-7-8 method to activate your parasympathetic nervous system. Now, your parasympathetic nervous system promotes your relaxation. So... When I'm doing this, it's very difficult for me not to feel very calm, and it definitely starts to bring my day down a notch.

So the perfect time for the deep breathing exercise is actually for me when I finish work. Number two is mindfulness and meditation, and engaging in these mindfulness practices or meditation to really calm my mind, reduce stress, and enhance, like, my overall mental clarity. So where I'm at there is I actually find that doing this around about midday has more of an impact because it slows me down, and then I consciously tune into what I've got left to do for the day. Now, physical activity, so regular exercise, be it yoga, reformer Pilates, walking, or any form of cardio, it really does reduce stress hormones, and it releases endorphins, so this improves your mood.

For me, the best time I've seen my body recognize exercise as a positive is in the morning, and also doing something in the evening when I finish work, like having a balance there has been quite nice. Mornings definitely my go-to, but a couple of times a week, just maybe like six o'clock, doing something like reformer and then coming back and having dinner and then going in the hot tub and just getting into those routines and just making time for things. And this is something that we tell ourselves all the time, like we don't have time. We do have time.

We just have to actually diarize it as an important factor, because if there was something that you needed to do in your business, you would jot it down, you would make a record, you would consciously make that happen, and we have to do this because honestly, when you are running on full pelt, you don't realize where your nervous system is. And for me, I just easily just lean into speed of doing things, and then I get caught up. I have to really push myself back to start recognizing exactly how I'm feeling, because when I go on holiday, I used to get really ill because I'd be on full pelt and then I'd relax, and my body would be like, What the hell is going on? And everything was just not regulated.

Everything was totally out of sync, and it would take me like three to five days to actually get into it. And if I was only going away for seven to ten, I wasn't really feeling

Not my optimum. So I start now just to think about, you know, holidays are one thing, but our nervous system needs to be in regulation all the time. You know, we need rest, we need relaxation, and we need rejuvenating all the way through, not just on holiday. So building it in as a daily project and task has been absolutely revolutionary for me.

Now, number four is my health and my nutrition side of things. So eating a balanced diet filled with whole foods, including fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and healthy fats to support optimal brain function and nervous system health. Like, I was cutting things out that I really needed. I wasn't eating avocado, one of my favorite things.

And it is such a good food for me. And every person's body is different. And this is why when I did the Zoe app, it really changed my thinking of things like, Oh, I can't have that. That's not good for me.

Oh, that's got lots of fat in it. Good fats and no sugars, you know, that's kind of where things need to be. But I had such a low blood pressure, and my sugar levels just kept dipping because I wasn't combining fats and proteins and sugars in the right way. So when I started to change the way I was eating, instantly, within a day, I felt brand new.

And this is the game changer. We are conditioned that certain things are bad. If you are creating food from natural products, it's very difficult to eat badly. And this is what I've just opened up for myself, that I can eat anything as long as it's not processed food, and try and steer away from processed food as much as possible.

I mean, it's not always, you know, and that's life. But trying to make sure that my diet is clean, and it's, for me, it's the portion sizes. You know, I was, like, making big vats of food, feeding me and my partner, and, you know, I was just eating. And now I have a little plate that I bought myself from Amazon, actually, chops up little compartments so I can put my carbs, my fats, my proteins in, and then I'm not going to overeat on portions.

And again, I don't feel hungry. I feel so much better. I feel lighter. I feel leaner.

My weight is coming back down to where it's supposed to be, because after having viral pneumonia a couple of years ago, I was on steroids on and off, and it took a long time for the water to clear on my lung. So having things like steroids, it's not good for your body, and it's definitely not good for your hormones. And coupled with the fact that at 45, I'm probably, you know, in some sort of peri, if not menopause. So my hormones are changing.

So this is why every single person, man, woman, whatever, like, has to be thinking, My goodness, like... Like, this is my body. It doesn't matter, like, what age or stage you are or who you are. We all need to lean into this.

Now, number five is adequate sleep. So ensuring that you get seven to eight hours of quality sleep each night. So this seven to eight hours is a really good guide, and good sleep hygiene practices can help your body and mind recover and function properly. So when I'm looking at my Whoop app and I'm seeing recovery, it's taking into, like, how my body is actually recovering.

Has it had enough food? Has it had the right food? Has it had enough hydration? Is it getting enough sleep?

Like, have I moved? Have I exercised? You know, all of these things aid it. And when I've had a good day, I know my recovery is good.

And when I read on Whoop, it has like a little coach on there, and it says what your averages are and then what the averages are for Whoop users. It said the average recovery was 58%. I thought that was quite low. Mine is now coming out anywhere between sort of like 85 and 95.

You know, sometimes it does drop if I haven't done the right things and I haven't, you know, made time for myself. But that is another conscious alarm signal for me to go, Right, Dawn, stop. What are you doing? Let's get everything back in regulation and start a new day.

So if I can keep it at those levels, I feel amazing. I'm operating on full cylinders. My performance in terms of my brain, productivity, efficiency, mindset, everything is in flow, and my mojo is great. So number six is about social connections, and I really feel this is a big part of it.

Spending time with friends or family or engaging in social activities to foster this sense of belonging and emotional support, which can definitely alleviate stress. But again, it's a booster. So, you know, for me, I just started playing paddle, and I've only played it once, but I've really enjoyed it. So now I'm like, Right, okay, let's go and play that.

Today, funnily enough, I've just played crazy golf, and doing more activities that are physical but social, so that it's not always coming into, like, eating or drinking. And because I'm not drinking at the moment as much, I may be having a couple of glasses of wine here and there. I really want to find things that don't rely on that. And yes, I can go out and not drink, but I don't always want to be thinking, right, that's my go-to.

There are other things in life. So doing things like trapeze yoga has been quite good fun to try. And, you know, trying obviously different sports and things, and just rejoining the gym. I do reformer Pilates, so I've been trying out different classes there.

And I think the thing is, is there is something to be said about this whole community feel, doing something socially. You feel good, you know, when you've done it, and then you can sit down and have like a little social drink afterwards or whatever. Even like walking the dog, we have this amazing route around a forest, and then we end up and we have like a nice little peppermint tea in the pub. The dogs have a little rest, and then we set off again.

These are all practices that, you know, really do bring joy and enrichment into your day. And last but not least, number seven, practicing gratitude. So keeping a gratitude journal or just taking a few moments each day to reflect on positive experiences and, you know, things that you're thankful for to build this positive mindset or to boost or grow a more positive mindset. So all of these combined, you know, when you implement these sorts of practices, they can significantly enhance your wellbeing and help regulate your nervous system really effectively.

So my wish is that you try and lean into how your body is feeling and listen, listen to it, and then think about how well are you nourishing your mind and your body and your soul? How well are you hydrating? Are you moving enough? Are you getting out and about?

Are you mixing with people? And just even recognizing some things that bring you joy or some things or days that, you know, you've maybe not done practices and you don't feel as good, and really thinking, well, if I did this one thing, I could feel better tomorrow. So it's all about small steps and to find out more about the Growth Coach. Challenge, just head on over to dawnmcgruer.

com. If you click on the app, you will see that there's a 30-day program, and it's an amazing price. It is under £100 for the 30 days of videos. Now, we see participants who do the Growth Challenge boost their performance, both physically and mentally, and their, you know, efficiency and effectiveness at work by, you know, a minimum of 20%.

That's huge. You know, imagine just feeling 20% better, or gaining 20% more time, or boosting your business by 20% through more efficient practices and processes. So it has definitely helped, and, you know, just even think about if you did seven days, what differences that would bring to your body. So good luck and have an amazing week, and I hope you enjoyed today's episode.

Thank you for listening to Dawn of a New Era podcast, and feel free checklist to find out how to boost your business for growth, profit and success, and join our community. Go to dawnmcgruer.com.