What I’m Doing to Prep My Nervous System for Travel

[00:00:00] Hey there, and welcome to the Heal With Grace podcast.
[00:00:03] I'm your host, Grace Secker,
[00:00:05] and I'm a holistic licensed therapist
[00:00:07] and nervous system coach who believes
[00:00:09] that the chronic and often unseen symptoms
[00:00:13] you're living with are a sign of something deeper going on.
[00:00:16] A sign that your nervous system needs attention.
[00:00:19] In each episode, I'll share the science
[00:00:21] behind the most common chronic health disorders
[00:00:24] plus holistic tips using mental, physical,
[00:00:26] and spiritual practices.
[00:00:28] You'll hear what I've learned in my journey
[00:00:29] and the true stories from our trusted guests
[00:00:32] so you can feel less alone in your experience
[00:00:35] and give yourself grace no matter what you're going through.
[00:00:38] So without further ado, settle in and get cozy.
[00:00:41] It's time to Heal With Grace.
[00:00:42] Hello, hello, and welcome back
[00:00:44] to the Heal With Grace podcast.
[00:00:46] I have no plan for today's episode, y'all,
[00:00:48] which is not totally unlike me, but it is unlike me.
[00:00:52] I wanna talk to you about what I'm doing
[00:00:54] to prep my nervous system before I take a big trip.
[00:00:57] And y'all know I love travel
[00:00:58] and I've had my ups and downs with travel so much.
[00:01:02] So when it comes to being in pain or getting sick
[00:01:06] and my body really talking to me.
[00:01:07] And so what I've learned along the way
[00:01:10] is that I really take time and intention
[00:01:14] to set my nervous system up before I leave
[00:01:17] and also during it, you know,
[00:01:19] what are some tips and tricks that I do
[00:01:21] and then also especially when I come home,
[00:01:24] like what am I intentionally doing?
[00:01:26] So this is gonna be an episode
[00:01:28] of what I do, what I'm currently doing right now.
[00:01:31] I believe actually I'd leave a week from today.
[00:01:34] This episode will probably air while I'm traveling.
[00:01:37] If you wanna follow along, follow me on Instagram.
[00:01:40] It's gonna be a pretty exciting and beautiful trip.
[00:01:43] I'm really excited.
[00:01:44] At the same time, I'm anxious.
[00:01:46] I'm not gonna lie.
[00:01:47] I'm waking up at like 3 a.m., 4 a.m.
[00:01:50] and my mind is going off with like,
[00:01:52] what do I need or what am I missing, right?
[00:01:55] Like I'm gonna be gone for about three weeks.
[00:01:57] And so although I've done this plenty of times before,
[00:02:01] I mean, the anxiety never stops to be honest
[00:02:03] because there is a lot to do, right?
[00:02:04] I'm going out of the country.
[00:02:05] I'm going into a country that I need a lot of extra care
[00:02:09] and support and precautions to take
[00:02:11] and I own a business.
[00:02:13] What do I do with that?
[00:02:15] People don't talk enough about what it takes
[00:02:17] to go offline or take time off when you own a business.
[00:02:22] This is just gonna be a side tangent
[00:02:24] for all of my other therapists and coaches out there
[00:02:26] and any other business owners.
[00:02:28] I've had so many people tell me over the years,
[00:02:30] they're like, oh my gosh, you own your own business.
[00:02:32] That's so cool.
[00:02:33] You get to do whatever you want.
[00:02:34] Like you get to spend your time however you want.
[00:02:37] Y'all, it's not a cliche that like you see these reels,
[00:02:40] these videos of people that say,
[00:02:42] yeah, I quit my nine to five so I can work 24 seven
[00:02:45] or quit my nine to five to have more time
[00:02:48] to actually spend more time on a business.
[00:02:50] And that's true a lot of the times to be honest,
[00:02:53] I'm working on changing that,
[00:02:54] but it takes a lot of effort and energy
[00:02:58] to take time off from a business.
[00:03:00] I have to prep things in advance.
[00:03:01] I have to make sure things are continued to run smoothly
[00:03:05] and what happens when I need it and I'm not there, right?
[00:03:08] So there's just a lot that goes into it.
[00:03:10] All right, tangent over.
[00:03:12] My point being, it's not only that,
[00:03:13] but it's also just how I'm also prepping my mind
[00:03:16] and body for this trip.
[00:03:20] So what I usually do is I think about this time before
[00:03:23] maybe like a week or two before as my grounding period.
[00:03:28] So we wanna pad ourselves.
[00:03:31] I think of that.
[00:03:32] Like I wanna pad my nervous system with all the good stuff.
[00:03:36] So instead of speeding up and making myself really busy
[00:03:40] before I leave and being social and seeing people
[00:03:43] and doing extra work and all these things,
[00:03:47] sometimes you can't totally avoid all of it,
[00:03:49] but I am really being intentional this time
[00:03:52] about slowing down and releasing the expectations
[00:03:55] that I'm gonna get all these things done before I leave.
[00:03:58] It's just not realistic.
[00:04:00] I am not going to redo my guest room,
[00:04:04] which I literally sat on Amazon the other night
[00:04:07] looking at ways to update it
[00:04:09] because I'm having people stay at the house to watch Olly
[00:04:12] and there's a few things about the room
[00:04:13] that I just absolutely hate and I want them to be cozy.
[00:04:17] So does that need to happen?
[00:04:19] No.
[00:04:20] No, is it a nice to have?
[00:04:22] Yes.
[00:04:24] Things like that, right?
[00:04:25] Things that you just don't need to do
[00:04:28] that your mind wants to do to feel more in control.
[00:04:31] My mindset, what I'm really doing is being super intentional
[00:04:38] about how I'm treating myself.
[00:04:41] Whenever there's anxiety that comes up in the body
[00:04:43] and the nervous system goes in the stress response,
[00:04:45] it immediately affects your mindset.
[00:04:47] So your mindset goes into catastrophizing
[00:04:51] of know what's gonna happen, what am I doing?
[00:04:53] Like it wants to control because you might feel
[00:04:55] a little unsettled or out of control when you travel.
[00:04:59] That's pretty normal, right?
[00:05:00] Like you don't know what's gonna happen.
[00:05:02] You're gonna get out of your routine.
[00:05:04] You're in somewhere new.
[00:05:06] You just truly don't have control over your day to day
[00:05:09] at least as much as you think you might want to.
[00:05:12] And so when we don't feel like we have control
[00:05:15] which especially for us who are have neuroplastic symptoms
[00:05:18] we fit the quote unquote standard
[00:05:21] for people having more anxiety
[00:05:23] and wanting to feel more in control.
[00:05:25] Our mind wants to then take over controlling food,
[00:05:28] controlling exercise, controlling our environment,
[00:05:32] controlling our day, our routine, whatever it might be.
[00:05:35] So your mind's gonna go into all these places
[00:05:37] to try to fix something to feel better
[00:05:39] about being in this transition period
[00:05:41] of feeling ungrounded when you travel.
[00:05:44] Feeling uneasy because you don't know
[00:05:45] what's gonna happen.
[00:05:46] You might have plenty of experiences
[00:05:48] that you don't know what happened and things happened to you.
[00:05:50] I've had so many experiences of getting sick
[00:05:53] and being in pain and having so many flares
[00:05:55] whenever I travel because my nervous system is anxious.
[00:05:58] It's stressed.
[00:06:00] That being said, I love travel.
[00:06:03] I love it.
[00:06:04] And you might be like, why?
[00:06:05] Symptoms always pop up for you when you travel.
[00:06:08] Yeah, because I know why.
[00:06:09] I don't pay attention to them.
[00:06:11] I'm not like, oh, it's telling me
[00:06:13] that travel is not good for me.
[00:06:16] I don't believe that about travel.
[00:06:17] I believe that about other things.
[00:06:19] Like, I really don't like to subscribe to the idea
[00:06:22] that you just keep pushing through symptoms
[00:06:25] and you keep rewiring
[00:06:27] because sometimes symptoms are there
[00:06:29] to set a boundary for us.
[00:06:30] Sometimes they're there to say, hey, this is not okay.
[00:06:33] I truly believe that that's what was happening
[00:06:35] in my marriage, my past marriage.
[00:06:37] My symptoms were yelling at me like, hey,
[00:06:40] this isn't for you.
[00:06:41] Yes, there's nuance there.
[00:06:43] That's not the only reason my chronic pain and illness
[00:06:45] was at a 10.
[00:06:48] But I know that it was telling me
[00:06:50] I was living out of alignment in my life.
[00:06:54] When it comes to travel, I don't believe that.
[00:06:56] Now, the way that I travel, yeah, okay.
[00:06:59] Maybe in the past, meaning I packed a lot of things in.
[00:07:02] I didn't take the time before and after to resettle.
[00:07:05] I didn't take it slow.
[00:07:06] I literally, y'all, there was one time
[00:07:09] I went from, I can't believe I'm about to say this
[00:07:12] because it goes so against what I talk about.
[00:07:15] It goes so against like nervous system regulation
[00:07:18] and work and staying true to yourself.
[00:07:21] But, hey, we're human and I'm talking about this
[00:07:23] because I've had lived experience.
[00:07:25] But I went to a ayahuasca ceremony retreat in Costa Rica.
[00:07:32] And no joke, when it ended the next day,
[00:07:35] I go to the airport and I fly to Europe.
[00:07:39] Like what?
[00:07:41] That's the opposite definition of taking it slow
[00:07:44] and recovering after a plant ceremony retreat.
[00:07:47] Whenever I mentioned that to people,
[00:07:49] their automatic reaction was like, whoa.
[00:07:52] You know, they're like, whoa, why did you do that?
[00:07:54] You know, because everyone knows
[00:07:56] if you go through something like that,
[00:07:57] you need integration time.
[00:07:59] You need to take it slow.
[00:08:00] If you can, don't even work for a few days.
[00:08:03] Just integrate, let your body settle
[00:08:05] and come back into the world in reality.
[00:08:08] Nope, I just went straight to a plane
[00:08:10] and went to Europe and probably traveled for 24 hours
[00:08:13] and got to a new country and a new time zone
[00:08:15] and didn't sleep and it was a shit show.
[00:08:19] So my point being is that when you have something coming up
[00:08:24] and it may not be travel,
[00:08:25] it may be something else that you're nervous about
[00:08:27] that could signal to your nervous system
[00:08:30] that there's some unknown here.
[00:08:32] There's a place where you might feel out of control.
[00:08:34] Your mind and your body
[00:08:35] are gonna wanna take control in other ways.
[00:08:38] So it might start sending you symptoms
[00:08:40] or your mind might start trying to fix something
[00:08:42] or hyper fixate on something,
[00:08:44] whether that is food or work or exercise or a new treatment.
[00:08:49] When we are fixated something,
[00:08:51] meaning you're thinking about it when you wake up,
[00:08:53] you're thinking about it throughout the day,
[00:08:54] you're focused on it, you're trying to figure it out.
[00:08:57] That's a way to control what you're feeling
[00:09:00] underneath the surface, which is uneasiness.
[00:09:03] So when we do that or when that happens,
[00:09:07] I just really want you to be aware of that
[00:09:10] and that often happens when travel is upcoming.
[00:09:13] And so back to what I'm doing.
[00:09:16] What I'm doing is I am not packing my schedule.
[00:09:20] I'm giving myself time.
[00:09:23] I'm giving myself space to just live and be
[00:09:26] and not expecting myself to get a bunch of things
[00:09:28] done before I leave.
[00:09:31] I'm creating my packing list.
[00:09:34] I created it last week.
[00:09:35] Okay, so I guess that was like two weeks ahead.
[00:09:37] Tonight or tomorrow, I'm gonna do a packing first round.
[00:09:42] And then I'm going to figure out what I need
[00:09:45] or what I don't need.
[00:09:46] And I'm gonna take that day by day.
[00:09:48] I am not gonna work out hard.
[00:09:50] I'm taking it slow.
[00:09:51] I'll do my normal exercises and normal workouts,
[00:09:55] but I'm not gonna push it.
[00:09:56] I'm not gonna expect myself to do more than I ever do.
[00:09:58] And I'm probably gonna do lower weight.
[00:10:00] And I'll probably walk more than do high intensity cardio
[00:10:03] or exercise or anything like that
[00:10:05] because we don't wanna stress the body more, right?
[00:10:08] Anything that stresses the nervous system
[00:10:09] is anything physical, mental, emotional, spiritual.
[00:10:12] So on the physical level,
[00:10:14] I am literally just not packing my schedule.
[00:10:17] I'm also slowing down my workouts
[00:10:19] and I'm doing probably one or two less a week
[00:10:21] than I normally would.
[00:10:22] And I'm just walking a little bit more
[00:10:25] and being in the sunshine.
[00:10:26] On a mental level, I'm watching my controlling thoughts.
[00:10:30] I'm really looking at, okay, what am I anxious about?
[00:10:34] What am I fixating on?
[00:10:35] What are the things I'm thinking about
[00:10:36] when I wake up at 3 a.m.
[00:10:38] And I have a system for it because I do.
[00:10:40] Past few nights, that's what I've done.
[00:10:42] I've been waking up and my mind goes,
[00:10:44] oh, you gotta do this.
[00:10:45] Make sure you get that visa.
[00:10:46] Oh, you know, these things.
[00:10:47] And so I have a notepad next to my bed and I write it down
[00:10:50] so that it's out of my brain, onto the pad of paper
[00:10:52] and then I can do it the next day.
[00:10:54] I don't hyper fixate on that I'm not sleeping.
[00:10:57] I'm not letting those anxious thoughts
[00:10:59] and my sleep disturb me that much.
[00:11:03] Now my sleep isn't the best right now
[00:11:06] but I'm not thinking too much about it
[00:11:08] or making meaning of it.
[00:11:10] I'm just going with it.
[00:11:12] And when I'm tired throughout the day,
[00:11:14] instead of increasing my caffeine intake,
[00:11:16] I am breathing and I tell myself, hey, I see you.
[00:11:21] I can be tired.
[00:11:22] It's okay to be tired.
[00:11:24] We can do this tired.
[00:11:27] Honestly, even this podcast,
[00:11:28] I did that right before this podcast.
[00:11:30] I said, hey, we can show up tired
[00:11:33] and it's okay.
[00:11:34] Or say if I had a symptom right now,
[00:11:36] if I was in pain, I'd say,
[00:11:37] I can be in pain and also be in my day.
[00:11:40] Or I would switch that word from pain to sensation.
[00:11:43] I can have sensations and still be in my day, right?
[00:11:47] I'm just taking them, carrying them along with me,
[00:11:50] kind of with the energy of like, it doesn't matter.
[00:11:52] It is what it is, just like nonchalantly.
[00:11:55] That's the biggest part of this work.
[00:11:58] When you can be with your pain or illness symptoms
[00:12:01] in a nonchalant way, that is literally the way
[00:12:05] that people recover.
[00:12:06] And that is what I do when I've traveled in the past
[00:12:09] and I've had difficult things come up.
[00:12:11] So I'm gonna go into that in a second,
[00:12:12] but I wanna come back to,
[00:12:13] I talked about physically what I'm doing right now
[00:12:15] mentally, emotionally, I'm noticing.
[00:12:18] I'm not paying, I'm not giving my emotions
[00:12:20] too much meaning right now.
[00:12:22] I'm journaling.
[00:12:23] I'm doing journal speak right now
[00:12:24] and I'm journaling about what I'm afraid of
[00:12:27] or what I'm scared of.
[00:12:28] I'm journaling about some emotions
[00:12:30] that are coming up around a new project that I'm doing,
[00:12:32] some fear, some scarcity mindset.
[00:12:35] I'm doing my same practice,
[00:12:37] but I'm not giving a lot of meaning
[00:12:39] to some of the anxiety that's there.
[00:12:41] I'm not saying, oh no, I'm really anxious.
[00:12:44] Maybe I shouldn't do this.
[00:12:46] I'm just letting it be what it is.
[00:12:48] And then I'm padding myself.
[00:12:51] I'm watching some funny videos.
[00:12:52] I watched a really sweet, cute movie last night
[00:12:56] and I gave myself those emotions of,
[00:12:59] like I'm padding myself with slowness,
[00:13:01] with groundedness, with positive emotions
[00:13:04] and I'm laughing.
[00:13:06] I'm trying to implement more of those areas
[00:13:08] where I'm evoking certain emotional responses
[00:13:12] that signal to the brain, oh hey, haha, we're here
[00:13:15] or we're relaxed or hey, that's us, right?
[00:13:18] So instead of fixating so much on like
[00:13:20] what do I have to get done every single day,
[00:13:22] which I'm there, but I'm not letting that run my day.
[00:13:25] I'm also padding myself in my nervous system
[00:13:27] with all the feel good emotions, the cognitions,
[00:13:30] the mental health and the physical health.
[00:13:32] Spiritually, I am leaning into trust.
[00:13:36] Trust that whatever happens, I'll be able to help.
[00:13:39] I'll be able to navigate it.
[00:13:42] Trust that this is the right next step for me
[00:13:45] when it comes to travel or when it comes
[00:13:47] to this next thing that I'm doing, this next project.
[00:13:51] I'm leaning into trust because I know
[00:13:53] that I actually desire and want these things
[00:13:55] even though the anxiety is there.
[00:13:57] Okay, back to what I do, what you can do when symptoms flare.
[00:14:03] So there's been multiple times where I've been traveling
[00:14:06] where I have a big flare and this has been
[00:14:09] in when I call myself recovered.
[00:14:10] Like in the past year to two years,
[00:14:13] I've had some big travel experiences where when I'm home
[00:14:16] and in my normal life, I'm pretty good.
[00:14:18] Like I feel the best in my body these days
[00:14:22] that I probably ever have.
[00:14:24] But when I've traveled, I've had a couple big flares happen.
[00:14:27] And so instead of canceling my plans,
[00:14:32] changing my itinerary, feeling like I'm back at square one
[00:14:36] or questioning, why is this happening?
[00:14:37] What is going on?
[00:14:38] Oh my gosh, what's gonna happen?
[00:14:40] I'm in a different country.
[00:14:41] I'm not gonna get medical support, blah, blah, blah, blah.
[00:14:44] Right?
[00:14:45] Instead of that, I breathe, I know this is my brain.
[00:14:51] This is what it does and I move along with it.
[00:14:55] I take the symptoms with me.
[00:14:56] Sometimes I've had to change my plans
[00:14:58] because it's pretty intense.
[00:15:01] But again, it just is what it is.
[00:15:06] Hey, friends, it's Grace.
[00:15:08] If you feel like you've been doing all of the treatment
[00:15:10] protocols and all the different modalities to heal
[00:15:12] and you're still not feeling better
[00:15:14] and it's just kind of managing things,
[00:15:16] I'm here to talk to you for a second.
[00:15:18] So it's not because you're doing it wrong
[00:15:21] or you just haven't found the answer yet.
[00:15:23] It's truly because your nervous system and brain
[00:15:25] are still operating in protection mode.
[00:15:28] And your nervous system and brain,
[00:15:30] when it perceives danger, physical or emotional danger,
[00:15:34] and even just ongoing stress,
[00:15:36] it keeps your body on high alert.
[00:15:37] So none of those treatment modalities
[00:15:39] are actually going to stick or work
[00:15:41] until you work with the bottom line,
[00:15:43] which is your brain and nervous system.
[00:15:45] Because when you're in the danger mode state,
[00:15:47] your digestion, immune system, hormones,
[00:15:50] and pain signals all get affected.
[00:15:52] It's like trying to heal while the alarm bells
[00:15:55] are still ringing in the background.
[00:15:57] And that is why so many people get stuck.
[00:15:59] You can do all of the treatment things you want,
[00:16:02] but if your system isn't regulated,
[00:16:04] your body can't access its natural healing state.
[00:16:07] This is exactly why I created
[00:16:10] my four month signature program,
[00:16:12] the Mind Body Healing Method.
[00:16:14] It's a step by step process
[00:16:15] that helps you calm your system,
[00:16:17] rewire old stress patterns,
[00:16:19] and retrain your brain to feel safe again.
[00:16:21] So you can finally start to heal
[00:16:23] for good chronic pain and illness.
[00:16:25] This is a true recovery program, not just management.
[00:16:28] You'll get guided lessons,
[00:16:30] nervous system practices, live support,
[00:16:32] individual and group support,
[00:16:33] and a community that actually understands
[00:16:36] what you're going through.
[00:16:38] Enrollment is now open.
[00:16:39] So you can find the link below in the show notes
[00:16:42] or go to elevatetherapywellness.com
[00:16:45] slash Mind Body Healing Method
[00:16:47] because until your brain and body feel safe,
[00:16:49] no protocol or treatment plan will actually work.
[00:16:53] When your nervous system works,
[00:16:55] everything starts to heal.
[00:16:58] I travel a little bit differently now.
[00:17:00] It's not like I'm gone for a few days
[00:17:02] and have to pack a bunch of stuff in.
[00:17:03] I just hate doing that.
[00:17:04] So I travel for a while and I slow down.
[00:17:08] So if I have to just stay and hang in the hotel
[00:17:12] or Airbnb for the day or not do whatever we plan to do,
[00:17:17] like it's what it is.
[00:17:18] What's the big deal, right?
[00:17:20] It's truly not the end of the world.
[00:17:23] And I slow down and I take care of myself
[00:17:25] and I don't make my symptoms mean anything about me,
[00:17:29] about the trip, about whatever's going on.
[00:17:32] I'll journal, I'll feel the emotions that come up, right?
[00:17:35] But I just don't lean into it.
[00:17:37] I don't let it drive my life, my day, my travel.
[00:17:42] And that is how I get through it.
[00:17:44] And that's how you can get through any pain or flair
[00:17:47] or illness symptom that pops up.
[00:17:50] It's probably what I talk to the most with people.
[00:17:52] Every single day in a session
[00:17:54] in the mind-body healing method,
[00:17:55] we are talking about it all the time
[00:17:57] because people come in and they're like,
[00:17:59] I was doing better and now I'm not.
[00:18:01] And I don't know what this means
[00:18:02] and I don't know what to do.
[00:18:03] And every single time I say, hey, first and foremost,
[00:18:07] we're not giving meaning to it.
[00:18:09] Flares happen and it's completely normal.
[00:18:12] It's just your brain doing your brain thing, right?
[00:18:16] And then maybe we might go into, okay,
[00:18:18] is there a pattern here?
[00:18:19] Do we need to understand a part of you that's coming up
[00:18:21] or some emotion that's repressed?
[00:18:23] Like, we'll explore it.
[00:18:25] But I mean, I would say if there's anything
[00:18:27] I talk about the most, it is how to navigate a flare,
[00:18:30] how to navigate when symptoms pop up
[00:18:32] and you're in a lot of pain and you're freaking out.
[00:18:35] Cause I get it, I've been there so many times
[00:18:37] but I now know, I really do.
[00:18:40] I now know that I am, man, I'm like,
[00:18:44] I don't do that anymore.
[00:18:46] I have emotion.
[00:18:47] Maybe I get frustrated or sad or whatever it is,
[00:18:51] but I don't freak out and question,
[00:18:53] why is this happening?
[00:18:54] What's wrong?
[00:18:55] Because I just know that that's sometimes
[00:18:56] how my brain, my body protects me.
[00:18:59] It sends me some signals
[00:19:00] and I just have to keep reminding it
[00:19:02] that, hey, we got this, we're okay.
[00:19:03] Now, a few actual like contextual tips for when I travel,
[00:19:08] I always have hydration packets with me.
[00:19:13] If you know me, like if you've ever dated me,
[00:19:16] if you're in my family,
[00:19:17] you know Grace always has hydration packets.
[00:19:19] And this comes from probably me being
[00:19:22] on the hypermobility scale, past history with pots.
[00:19:26] Like, I just know that my body needs more hydration
[00:19:29] than probably the average person.
[00:19:31] I don't make it mean anything.
[00:19:32] It just is what it is.
[00:19:33] And we also know travel dehydrates you.
[00:19:36] So I just always have that on hand,
[00:19:37] even though it might mean I go to the bathroom a lot more.
[00:19:41] I don't really care.
[00:19:42] It just, again, it is what it is.
[00:19:44] And yeah, it's annoying to pee a bunch on a plane,
[00:19:47] but don't make anything of it.
[00:19:50] Don't freak out thinking
[00:19:51] that people are thinking anything of you
[00:19:52] because they're not focused on you,
[00:19:54] they're focused on themselves.
[00:19:57] I always have snacks with me.
[00:19:59] Always, always, always.
[00:20:00] We want to be fueled and nourished as we travel.
[00:20:04] When I get there, if I can,
[00:20:06] I always try to make sure this happens.
[00:20:08] Sometimes it might not happen,
[00:20:10] but most of the time it does.
[00:20:12] I get there, I settle into wherever I'm staying,
[00:20:16] I shower, I move my body,
[00:20:19] I just do like very gentle movements,
[00:20:20] and I go for a walk.
[00:20:22] I love getting out if I can, wherever I am, right?
[00:20:25] Maybe like on this next trip that I'm taking,
[00:20:27] I may not be able to do that,
[00:20:28] but I love getting outside
[00:20:30] and exploring the new area that I'm in
[00:20:32] because it basically reorganizes your brain
[00:20:35] to where you are.
[00:20:36] It grounds you, literally your feet ground
[00:20:38] into the new earth that you're on,
[00:20:40] and it re-oriented your whole system
[00:20:43] to, hey, this is where we are, we also like walking,
[00:20:46] this is what we're gonna do,
[00:20:47] and it settles that safety more so
[00:20:50] in your brain and your body.
[00:20:51] And it gives you a sense of grounding.
[00:20:55] So I try to always do that.
[00:20:56] Now, when things come up during travel, again,
[00:21:00] I just work with it, I go with it
[00:21:01] and I don't let it overtake me.
[00:21:03] Things always do.
[00:21:05] Travel is a metaphor so much
[00:21:07] for our own healing journey in life
[00:21:09] because it activates different things in us,
[00:21:11] different parts of us, maybe with your partner,
[00:21:14] it activates a certain fight that you always have
[00:21:16] or like a disagreement.
[00:21:17] Within you, it probably activates that feeling insecure
[00:21:21] or maybe unsure or lack of control.
[00:21:24] Instead of saying, well, it activates those parts of me,
[00:21:27] so I'm not gonna do it, let's just be with those parts.
[00:21:31] That's the one thing, I think, too.
[00:21:33] If I could say two things about this journey
[00:21:35] is that the better you can respond
[00:21:37] to your symptoms and your illness,
[00:21:39] the less that it will overtake you
[00:21:41] and over time it will help you recover.
[00:21:43] And then also, too, retrain our bodies
[00:21:47] and regulate our nervous systems.
[00:21:48] We have to actually sometimes be in the activation.
[00:21:51] So if you're always avoiding things
[00:21:53] that create more, that increase pain or illness,
[00:21:57] then you're actually not gonna be able to rewire them.
[00:22:01] So if travel activates you and I'm not saying push,
[00:22:05] don't, do not push yourself.
[00:22:06] Again, sometimes our symptoms are telling us something,
[00:22:10] telling us that something's not right.
[00:22:12] And to figure out what that is, it takes practice.
[00:22:15] It just does, it takes practice and time.
[00:22:17] But I think that the biggest thing here
[00:22:18] is that I don't want you to avoid everything
[00:22:20] that brings on symptoms.
[00:22:22] We need to retrain the association.
[00:22:25] So for me, I've been working on retraining
[00:22:27] my brain and body's association with traveling,
[00:22:29] with being out of my norm, with being out of control.
[00:22:32] Because I don't wanna live a life
[00:22:34] that I'm fearful of being out of control
[00:22:37] or not knowing what's gonna happen.
[00:22:40] Cause that's life, y'all.
[00:22:42] Life is unknown and full of possibilities.
[00:22:48] So in my opinion, at least,
[00:22:50] I wanna know what those possibilities are.
[00:22:52] And I don't really want my fear and anxiety
[00:22:56] to keep me from those.
[00:22:58] So that's what I'm working on when I travel.
[00:23:00] Nothing crazy deep or anything, you know?
[00:23:04] And then when I get home, I always, I was just talking,
[00:23:09] I'm actually to my partner about this
[00:23:10] because we were thinking about changing our flights.
[00:23:14] And I was like, you know, in the past I would have said,
[00:23:16] oh, okay, yeah, it's better points, better mileage.
[00:23:19] And, you know, it'll essentially cheaper, right?
[00:23:21] To take that and it'll just be, it's a better flight plan.
[00:23:26] And the past I would have just done that,
[00:23:28] even though it messed up,
[00:23:29] even though it would have encroached on my system
[00:23:32] of calming down and regulating
[00:23:35] and giving myself space and time to recover when I come home.
[00:23:38] Because I do need time.
[00:23:40] Even if jet lag is a little more mind body,
[00:23:42] which I'll talk about that in a second actually,
[00:23:44] it's something I'm learning.
[00:23:46] We still need, at least I do,
[00:23:49] especially coming back from a totally different time zone.
[00:23:52] I need time to recover.
[00:23:56] I know myself now and I need a minimum of a few days.
[00:23:59] So I will get home and then I'll have at least a couple
[00:24:02] of days where I could just get back into my life,
[00:24:04] get my routine going, catch up on some work stuff.
[00:24:07] And then I will start seeing clients on day three
[00:24:10] or so because I don't wanna be
[00:24:12] in a dysregulated crappy tired state
[00:24:14] when I'm actually supporting and helping people.
[00:24:17] And so always give yourself time.
[00:24:19] Give yourself time, don't expect yourself
[00:24:20] to just jump right back into life.
[00:24:23] And so my point being is that
[00:24:24] we were talking about switching our flight
[00:24:25] and I was like, you know what, I just,
[00:24:28] I don't wanna dismiss myself again.
[00:24:31] I don't wanna dismiss the boundaries that I set.
[00:24:33] And I wanna stick with the original plan we had.
[00:24:37] I'm proud of myself for that.
[00:24:38] Cause again, in the past I would have people pleased
[00:24:39] and been like, yeah, it's fine.
[00:24:41] Now, this last thing I will mention,
[00:24:43] I'll talk about another time
[00:24:44] because I'm still navigating it.
[00:24:46] So I used to get really frustrated with jet lag
[00:24:49] because when I came home, it always affected me so much.
[00:24:53] I mean, y'all, I would go into the depths
[00:24:56] of the freaking soul journey Earth for like a week
[00:25:00] when I came back from travel.
[00:25:01] And I was like, God, it's just the sleep.
[00:25:03] It's just the jet lag.
[00:25:04] It's killing me.
[00:25:06] And then a very wise new friend of mine reminded me.
[00:25:10] He was like, you know, jet lag is pretty much mind body.
[00:25:14] Like we kind of know that now.
[00:25:15] Meaning that it is more neuroplastic.
[00:25:17] Like there's not something physically wrong with me.
[00:25:19] It's more like mental and emotional state.
[00:25:23] And you could probably see the libel go off over my head.
[00:25:27] I was like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, okay.
[00:25:30] So I'm working with that now
[00:25:33] because it also makes sense.
[00:25:34] So when I go somewhere, when I leave my home
[00:25:37] when I go to another place,
[00:25:39] y'all jet lag doesn't affect me.
[00:25:42] I mean, I'm not perfect.
[00:25:43] Like for a night or two, right?
[00:25:44] For usually about two, two to three nights,
[00:25:47] I won't have consistent sleep.
[00:25:49] I'll have kind of broken sleep and I'll be tired.
[00:25:52] And leading up to bedtime, I'll have like a headache
[00:25:55] but it's not that bad.
[00:25:56] And usually the rest of the day, I'm great.
[00:25:59] I'm fine.
[00:26:00] I'm excited.
[00:26:00] I love in life.
[00:26:02] So it doesn't really affect me.
[00:26:04] But when I come home, yeah.
[00:26:07] It's like a whole other level
[00:26:08] which just goes to show
[00:26:10] that jet lag isn't the physical response.
[00:26:13] It is much more of belief system, mental, emotional,
[00:26:16] like what's going on, right?
[00:26:17] What is it about my life
[00:26:19] that I'm not wanting to come back to?
[00:26:20] Or what is it that I'm holding on to?
[00:26:22] Or like what's happening there underneath the surface
[00:26:25] that's making my brain go into threat mode
[00:26:29] when it comes to jet lag?
[00:26:31] So stay tuned.
[00:26:32] I'll talk more about that when I come back next month
[00:26:35] and work with the mind body approach to jet lag.
[00:26:39] Until then, I hope this was helpful.
[00:26:41] And if you wanna follow along with me on this journey,
[00:26:44] follow me on Instagram, I'll be posting about the travel
[00:26:46] and I'll share more about the update on jet lag.
[00:26:50] And until then, keep healing with grace
[00:26:53] and I'll talk to you next week.