Tags: fatigue, prescribe nature, survival mode
You can’t calm the storm, so stop trying. What you can do is calm yourself. The storm will pass.” —Timber Hawkeye
Hi, guys. Welcome to today’s live video. My name is Chris Lindsay. Today I wanted to cover seven ways you know if you’re in survival mode. I’m just going to jump straight into it. These are basically signals from your body or things that you could pick up on. If you’re experiencing one or more, then that’s a good chance that your body’s getting run down and you’re in a state of chronic stress or survival mode. Your body’s trying to fight-or-flight and trying to keep going and get through.
Number one, it takes all your energy just to get through the day. If you’re finding you’re having to stimulate yourself with caffeine, multiple cups of that a day; coffee, tea, whatever your choice is. there’s a good chance you could be in chronic stress. Which leads to fatigue and low energy levels.
Number two, if you find you’re always on the go and taking no breaks. Of course this is not ideal. You’re pushing your body to the limit and not taking any downtime. Chronic stress can lead to your brain struggling to relax and recover. As a result, you might experience racing thoughts, tension or anxiety when you take a moment. which is not pleasant for anyone. You keep pushing forward as your body struggles to get through each day. You struggle to wind down when you do get to the end of the day, which leads me to number three. That’s not sleeping properly.
If you’re constantly going throughout the day and just feeling hyped up. Constant feeling stressed out and struggling to get through the day. Spinning plates or whatever it might be. When you do finally line down to sleep, it can take you longer to fall asleep. And the quality of sleep you actually do get when you finally do fall asleep can be impacted as well. Especially deep sleep which is the portion of sleep where your body repairs itself, recovers and recuperates. You can wake up in the morning even after having seven or eight hours of sleep and you just feel, not great, tired and you can’t believe it, it’s other day has dawned and you’re just not ready for it. That’s not getting enough sleep.
Number four is constantly getting ill. When you’re that state of survival mode or chronic stress, your body is run-down and one of the things that gets impacted is our immune system. When that gets impacted from constant stress in your body and constant fight-or-flight scenario, the immune system basically gets shut off a lot of the time. That’s one of the things that gets energy and resources are sent elsewhere. The result is it makes you more vulnerable to getting ill. If there’s any bugs or germs already in your system or the environment, you’re more susceptible to catching them. I know personally myself when I’m run down, I get cold sores. For me that’s a good signal that I’m over exercising, not getting enough sleep and I need to basically take some time out. That’s constantly being ill.
Number five is constantly craving sugary foods. When you’re running down from lack of sleep and you’re ill and not feeling great, our bodies naturally crave high energy foods, sugary foods which give you that burst of energy. This our body striving to keep going, as we’re constantly pushing it. Unfortunately, sugary foods lead to a spike in energy and then ultimately we get that sugar crash. We’ve got this constant cycle of spike and crash as we’re trying to eat chocolate, take caffeine or whatever it might be just to keep our energy levels up and keep ourselves going. Which again is not sustainable.
Number six is not feeling any joy. When we’re in a state of chronic stress, levels of serotonin and dopamine in your body basically gets depleted. These are key chemicals for mood, energy and motivation. If you’re feeling depressed, down or in a low mood. Not feeling joy or happy. That’s a good sign that your body’s run-down and you’re struggling to just keep going.
Number seven, the final one. Is you can’t think straight and you’re starting to make poor decisions. When you are in a state of fight-or-flight, survival mode or chronic stress. Tthe amygdala takes over, which is our emotional or fear center from our higher thinking part of our brains, the thinking center. When the amygdala takes over, it’s making decisions based on emotions, fear, anxiety, whatever might be driving you at that moment and that leads to poor, short term decisions. Things like, you might start eating poorly, eating something quick and easy, fatty foods, high energy foods as I’ve mentioned already, sugary foods. Instead of going to the gym, if you’re feeling lethargic you might be inclined to just stay in on the sofa and watch Netflix or browse social media. You’re feeling stuck, overwhelmed, not motivated or energized to want to break out of it.
I think with these set of examples, the common thing is fatigue. Chronic stress or survival mode can lead to you feeling fatigued, lacking energy, run down, low mood, making poor decisions and leads to spiraling down and struggling to get through each day.
You need to find something, some anchor or something to enable you to get stability and unwind all of the stress and things that have been building up over days or weeks. What I’ve covered are examples of what to look out for which might suggestion that you are in survival mode or stress is becoming chronic.
As I mentioned in previous videos, I don’t want to leave this video with negatives, how do you start to break out of this spiral of chronic stress?
You need start looking after yourself. Take time out, rest and recover. I know if you’re stressed to the eyeballs we struggle to stop. Our brains are just an overdrive. As I’ve already talked it’s just getting out into nature, putting your trainers on, going out for a walk around the block, just spending time out there, walk by a river, through the trees, whatever it might be, allow yourself to be able to wind down and separate yourself from whatever is stimulating or triggering your stress. Mindfulness and meditation before you sleep. Allowing your body to wind down so when you do finally lie down to sleep you actually get to sleep quickly and the quality of your sleep will actually be better.
Taking those few little steps just to start to break the cycle of stress, anxiety and the survival mode. Getting out for walks, meditation, mindfulness. In some coming videos, I will go into more detail about how to manage survival mode, how do you get out of it, how to stop this constant cycle. If you watched my earlier videos, I talked about sleep, walking, prescribing yourself nature as well. I’m just going to finish up there for this week. If you got any questions or anything about what I covered, then please ask away and leave comments. I’m more than happy to answer any of them. I look forward to talking to you soon.
Jim Rohn puts it best. “Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines practiced daily.” Are you ready to take your life to the next level? To start moving in a new direction? I would love nothing more that to see you go from stuck to succeeding; from surviving to thriving.
“Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines practiced daily.” ~ Jim Rohn
I have created a seven (7) day challenge, for you. It introduces one new discipline I practice everyday.
“Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become.” ~ Jim Rohn
Seven days will not change your destination, but if you commit to getting up everyday determined to get from the day and not just through it, you can change the direction of your life in seven short days.
“You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.” ~ Jim Rohn
Ready?