What I’ve Learned in 2022

What a year, 2022! I’ve learned and experienced so many things this past year. What stands out for me the most is understanding and balancing my nervous system.

In early February, I was rushing to get to my studio for a photo shoot. I was leaving from my hair blowout, rushing to arrive in time. I noticed the stress I was feeling: I was driving unsafely and worrying about keeping my photographer waiting (and how rude). I could feel a tightness in my upper back making its’ way up to both sides of my neck.

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I remember thinking, “What am I doing? Why am I rushing from one thing to the next? WHY?”

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I have worked on understanding these questions and why I feel so stressed at times. What I’ve come to realize is that it’s related to my upbringing and our societal expectations. As it’s been said, it was caught, not taught.

I grew up in a 6-person family, which had several activities going on at the same time. Each of the 4 kids in my family had so many sports/dance practices that my parents were often running us around in the evenings. We were often at least 10 minutes late and running from one thing to the next. I don’t know how my parents did this–especially since they were both working full-time. My adoring mother was working so hard and doing the best she could, but was often at least 10-15 minutes. Was I doing this too?

Seeking help to heal from the inside out

I sought help from my therapist Pauline Kaplan (Kaplan Health & Wellness), my chiropractor Kim Berkus at Network Spinal Chiropractor and Ed Snyder (my Shamanic Practitioner) at Vibrational Medicine.

All of these healers helped me learn and slowly change my relationship with my nervous system. I realize that healing is a process and I continue to use these techniques to bring balance to my nervous system.

New behaviors leading to change:

I realized I needed to make changes in the way I interacted with the world. Once I took time to reflect on my behaviors and habits, I started making the following changes to my life:

• Stop overscheduling

• Add an extra half hour to get from point A to B

• If running late, call or text person

• Relax, take deep breathes

• Reaffirm to myself that I’m doing ‘the best I can’

• Reduce the amount of commitments in a single day, week, month

• Analyze my calendar to forecast how I may feel during each day with commitments (will I feel too overwhelmed and racing around?) If so, reschedule the day to reduce commitments.

Physical changes to balance my nervous system

I also realized I could benefit from devoting time to my physical self. Here’s a few of the ways I needed to put my body first in order to balance my nervous system:

• Attend weekly appointments to relax and gain body awareness of stress with my gentle chiropractor, Kim. The regular sessions have helped me become aware of where I’m holding tension while teaching my nervous system how to relax and balance. 

• Every 3 weeks, I attend a session with Ed. He’s helped me realize that “everything is source Energy” and there are just “different aspects of Source Energy”.  We are ALL Source Energy in the physical plane. There’s so much more to us than we see on our physical/dense plane of our bodies. We are co-creators of our experience on this planet and we can do so much to help manifest our life experiences.

One of the things that really helps me relax, reduce stress, and helps me become aware of my body in the present moment is OSEA Vagus Nerve Oil. I have been using this for years and am OBSESSED. I  keep a bottle next to my bed, on my nightstand in in my car (which I apply often) and in my clinic to help my Beauties relax. Get yours here.

It’s a journey . . .

We are all at different stages in our journeys to balance. As much as I wish it could, it doesn’t come overnight. I’m wishing each of you the best in your journey to health and balance in 2023. As always, if you have questions, please know you can always reach out. I’m happy to help in any way that I can.

Kisses,

Krissy