Sophie Haslett For Daily Mail Australia
Updated March 20, 2023 14:55, March 20, 2023 15:35
- Lauren Hoag shared 3 things she does to de-stress when she’s busy
- Box breathing, eye presses, and arm and leg squeezes are recommended to calm you down
A domineering lawyer who struggled with severe burnout after losing his father in a car accident revealed three simple exercises everyone should do when feeling stressed.
Lauren Hoag, 34, from Melbourne, was working as a junior attorney in 2011 when her father died suddenly in an accident.
Working long legal hours while helping her mother shrink her business, combined with grieving for her father, left Lauren feeling like she was barely coping.
She recalled losing her hair, not being able to sleep, losing 10 kg and feeling constantly anxious and exhausted.
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After Lauren quit her job and spent thousands of dollars searching for answers, she eventually realized she had symptoms of nervous system dysregulation.
By regulating the nervous system, it is involved in maintaining homeostasis, accessing restorative sleep, reducing inflammation, and controlling memory, auditory processing, learning, and sensory processing.
Recent clips shared on InstagramLauren reveals that when she feels stressed, unfounded, anxious, or just wants to relax, she does three things to “relax the body and down-regulate the nervous system.” bottom.
“Doing these over time has made me very resilient to challenges and calm as a cucumber in situations that have been stressful in the past,” Lauren said.
The first exercise is a simple “arm and leg squeeze”.
This is exactly what it sounds like and requires you to squeeze your arm and leg muscles with repetitive movements.
“To further introspection, pay close attention to the physical sensations of your body,” says Lauren.
The second exercise is the eye press. Place your hands over your eyes and take a few deep breaths, inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.
The reason this is good for your body is that you can force yourself to close your eyes and focus on your breathing.
It is essentially a form of diaphragmatic breathing and is known to lower stress levels, lower blood pressure, and regulate other vital bodily processes.
Finally, Lauren recommends trying box breathing.
Box breathing, also known as square breathing, is a deep breathing technique that helps slow your breathing.
Count to four to distract yourself, calm your nervous system, and reduce stress in your body.
To try box breathing, sit with your back supported in a comfortable chair, put your feet on the floor, close your eyes, and inhale through your nose for a count of four, feeling the air entering your lungs.
Then slowly hold your breath for a count to 4, without constricting your mouth or nose, slowly exhale for 4 seconds and repeat.
Aim to repeat this at least three times.
Hundreds of people who watched Lauren’s video immediately thanked her for sharing her advice.
“It was so calming to look at! I love all of these things. I especially like the eye press for a quick reset on a stressful day,” wrote one person.
‘good. thank you. We need it,” added another.
A third wrote, “I’m completely unaware of the fact that I’m actually regulating my nervous system, so I always do this intuitively.”
Lauren previously told FEMAIL that she spent thousands of dollars trying to figure out what was wrong with her.
“After my father passed away, I started experiencing symptoms that I know were symptoms of nervous system dysregulation,” Lauren told FEMAIL.
“I was having intestinal problems, chronic anxiety and struggling to switch off. I had severe brain fog and near-constant pain. It was a rule, I didn’t know what to do.
“I hired psychologists, life coaches, healers, kinesiologists, business coaches, acupuncturists, naturopaths and even Peruvian shamans to help me,” Lauren said.
“I tried meditation apps, mindset coaching, EFT, hypnosis, EMDR, you name it. I experienced some results, but things still didn’t feel right in me.
Lauren said that no matter how much she searched, she couldn’t find the answer.
That was until 2020, when she was first introduced to nervous system regulation as a concept.
“I was introduced to it and things finally started to click for me,” she said.
“I realized that I had no mindset problems and nothing was wrong. Years of stress had put my nervous system out of alignment and I was going into overdrive. ”
“We found that 80% of the nerves in the body are afferents, meaning they travel from the body to the brain,” says Lauren.
“Only 20% of the nerves go down to the body. means.
Lauren and her scientist and tech entrepreneur husband began digging deeper into the idea of nervous system modulation, which led to the development of their Neurofit app. It is designed to help people regulate their nervous system every day.
“I want people to realize that their nervous system is key to overcoming stress and burnout,” Lauren said.
“There are physical exercises to support your daily life and habits you can follow to feel better in no time.”
Within months of launching Neurofit, the app is already a huge success.
According to Lauren, the average user reported a 54% reduction in stress in just seven days, and 96% of users experienced stress and dysregulation within five minutes of performing neurological fitness exercises. I feel relieved.
Thousands of people have downloaded our app and we’re already seeing great results.
“A healthy nervous system is resilient to internal and external stressors and has a profound impact on how we behave and how we experience the world around us,” Lauren said.
“A healthy nervous system goes from a negative nervous system state of the sympathetic (fight or flight) state, a dorsal vagus (shut and freeze) state and an overwhelmed state to a more positive of the ventral vagus (read and digest) state. It can quickly shift to the state of play and rest.
Without a strong neurological fitness baseline, people are much more susceptible to chronic stress, burnout, anxiety, health problems, and emotional dysregulation, says Lauren.
“Our nervous system is a reflection of the people around us. When you see someone exhausted, it’s healthy and acceptable to distance yourself from them and set clear boundaries.” It can be done,” Lauren said.
