Top 10 Signs Your Nervous System is Burnt Out

Does it feel like you’re constantly running on empty, even after a full night’s sleep? You aren’t alone. Life’s responsibilities and traumas can leave us stuck in survival mode, but there is a hopeful path back to balance.

In this episode, we uncover the top 10 signs of nervous system burnout—from brain fog and irritability to physical tension and digestive issues. We also dive deep into the transformative power of Neurofeedback, a passive brain-training tool that helps your nervous system self-regulate and heal without adding more to your to-do list.

Discover how you can move out of fight-or-flight and into a state of true rest. It’s time to reclaim your vitality and find your peace.

Find out how your nervous system is doing in our short quiz. 

How's My Nervous System Quiz I

Connect with us at Exalted Health

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Hello and welcome back to the Find Your Peace podcast. Today we're going to be talking about signs that your nervous system is in burnout and how neurofeedback can help. Life can be overwhelming sometimes for every one of us, right? Juggling responsibilities, deadlines, just adulting in general can be really hard and can constantly feel leave us feeling on edge and drained. Sometimes we had trauma in there, big life events in there, you know, moving, divorcing, getting married, chronic health issues, chronic health issues of a loved one. I'm at the stage now where, you know, I've lost both of my parents and people around me are losing their parents. Those are massive life events that can put you into nervous system overwhelm or burnout. But a lot of it also has to do with our daily life and our daily actions and behaviors and how we're thinking and the pace that we're moving. And so all of those compiled can cause some pretty uh extensive issues. So most people don't know the signs of nervous system dysregulation. These conversations are just starting to be had, but it really can affect your quality of life. And most people are, most of us are striving for balance. I remember years ago, people are like, you're never going to find balance. Life is always going to be crazy. And while externally life may always be a little bit hectic and overwhelming, we can get to a place where internally we're finding peace amongst the chaos of life that we can live in. I am living proof. I spent uh about 40 years of my life in nervous system overwhelm and anxiety and chronic health issues. And the Lord's really healed me from all of that. And it wasn't a short journey. It required a lot of inner healing, a lot of trauma healing in my body, a lot of rethinking my thoughts, action, behaviors, and just learning and applying the nervous system tools that I talk about on a regular basis. I still use all of the tools. I have not arrived at a place where my life is perfect and I never need these tools. I use them on a regular basis. I apply them to my life. I make sure that I am connected to the Lord. I don't have unforgiveness in my heart. If lies sneak in to my thoughts, action, behaviors, um, as soon as I recognize them, I repent of them. I turn them over to the Lord. But I also am very mindful of my body and how I'm holding stress and anxiety within my body. And so many of the tools are just so incredibly important for releasing all of those things. So we're going to talk about how you signs you might be in overwhelm. Nervous system burnout occurs when our body's stress response becomes overactive and stuck in that fight or flight response. Or what can happen is if we've been in that fight or flight response for too long, we go into shutdown or overwhelm, hypoarousal. All of those mean the same thing. The world would describe that as like a depressive type state, or maybe you've had yourself or known someone that just can't function no matter what they do. That's hypoarousal. That means that the nervous system is exhausted and it had to go into a place of rest. And it looks like they're not functioning. We can go into that for small amounts of time when we disassociate and we're scrolling on our phone or you know, out watching hours and hours of Netflix. Can be restorative, but living there forever in either one can be detrimental to our health and to the relationships around us. So our goal is to live from a place of peace and feeling grounded and present. Okay. So top 10 signs your nervous system is in burnout. Constant fatigue, even after a full night's sleep, you wake up feeling tired. This persistent lethargy could be your nervous system struggling to recover from overstimulation, or just the physical symptoms that can sometimes come along with this adrenal fatigue, a brain that just needs to be reset and restored. So many different reasons for that. At the core of it, it's nervous system dysregulation. Difficulty sleeping, difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep, or just sleeping fitfully throughout the night. Those are all signs of nervous system dysregulation. And now we all have nights where we don't sleep great. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about chronic issues and ongoing, or maybe for a season of life where you're super dysregulated. Heightened anxiety or irritability. If you find yourself anxious about small things, snapping at others without reason, uh, that's a sign that your nervous system is definitely stuck in overdrive. Brain fog or lack of focus, struggling to concentrate or do normal daily tasks or experiencing fruitful frequent forgetfulness are signs that your nervous system is not functioning the way that it was meant to. Digestive issues, constant stress can re can wreak havoc on that grain. That let me try that again. Digestive issues can wreak havoc on that gut brain connection. They're so deeply connected. Um, in one episode, I talk about how building that brain-body connection can help heal some gut issues. For years, I tried all these external gut health things, um, which are great things to do, improving my diet, adding bone broth, you know, reducing my stress, all of these things. But until my nervous system got regulated, I wasn't able to heal from that. Uh, chronic physical tension or pain. Um, we talk about headaches, we talk about jaw clenching, we talk about holding the shoulders up by the ears, uh, holding your hips or your pelvic floor really tight. Uh, these can all be signs of a nervous system that's dysregulated, especially when you try to release them and relax and let go, but they continue to feel like it's like you're fighting your own body to be able to release. Uh heightened sensitivity to noise or light. Uh, this will happen in my home. When anybody is overwhelmed or stressed, uh, we find each other snapping each other for any type of noise or things that are happening. Uh when your nervous system is overwhelmed, normal levels of sensory input like bright lights or noise actually feel unbearable because it feels like they're just banging on a nervous system that's already feeling really sensitive and overstimulated. Uh, prolonged emotional numbness. Feeling emotionally disconnected or indifferent for extended periods of time is another sign that your nervous system needs support, especially when you logically know that that's not healthy, but you can't bring yourself to make any changes. Mood swings are another big one. Um, this can have physical symptoms adjoining it, like hormones that are out of place, but it's a sign that your nervous system is dysregulated. Swinging from happiness to sadness or anger could suggest difficulty with an emotional regulation and a nervous system that needs health, right? Sometimes that's also a sign that you need some inner healing. Maybe there's a lie that you're believing about yourself, about your worth, uh, something along those lines. And all of those can be addressed with the somatic body work or the online healing sessions. A weakened immune system, frequent illness or slow recovery times are indication that your body is in chronic stress mode, weakening its natural defenses. Um, this is also something that I struggled with for a vast majority of my life, is that I would get every cough, flu, had stuffiness, no matter how diligent and healthy I was with my health, I still caught everything and my recovery time was terrible. Um, and I would I'm happy to report that that's not the case anymore. Not that I never get sick because it does happen to me occasionally, but my recovery time is much better and I don't get nearly as sick with every time. So, now how can neurofeedback restore balance? One of the reasons I love neurofeedback so much is because it's passive. Um, once you have hooked yourself up to the device, uh the the software does the work for you and it brings nervous system balance to that brain and that body. So many things when we're we're struggling with anything, spiritual, emotional, physical. Um, we go to a practitioner of some sort, and there's all these things that we have to do to get healthier, whether it's physical therapy or um, you know, adding exercises or whatever it is, there's all these things that we have to do and add in. When you're already overwhelmed and dysregulated, adding things to the to-do list can feel almost impossible. What I love about neurofeedback is yes, you do have to hook yourself up and you do have to do that. However, once you are hooked up to the device, it's passive. It does the work for you. It's going to provide that strengthening between that brain and that body and regulate that nervous system. In fact, when people are in hypo arousal in the bottom one, um, it is very hard to do the inner healing work, the body work, the heart work that I do. It's hard to do that because the energy is so, so low. It's hard to engage uh the brain and the conscious mind because they're they're hardly there. And so what I've found is neurofeedback is actually the quickest way to get somebody out of that hypo arousal. It's great for hyper-arousal too when we're in fight or flight. So, neurofeedback is a non-invasive brain training technology designed to help your brain self-regulate. I partner with a company called Neurooptimal, and it is a form of neurofeedback that mirrors your brain's activity back to itself in real time, allowing the brain to recognize and correct patterns of imbalance. So, in the simplest terms, if I were to go look in a mirror and see that, you know, maybe I had a smudge of dirt on my face or food on my face or hair all out of place, I can look in a mirror and I can know the changes that it needs to make. The brain training works the same way. It's correcting those small imbalances within the brain and the body and promoting regulation. So it works in real time. Um, I had a small incident the other day where I got into a little uh fender bender accident and I was a little dysregulated after that. That's never fun. I had my kids in the car and um I applied some of the tools that I had, but I had to go straight into a meeting, and so I didn't have a lot of time before that meeting. And so I hooked myself up to the neurofeedback and prayed before I did the session. And by the time that call was over, luckily it was a it was somebody I knew well on the call. Um, so they didn't mind I was doing neurofeedback at the same time, but I was completely regulated by the time I finished that call and was able to just return to my day like nothing happened. Okay, so key benefits of neurofeedback for nervous system burnout promotes relaxation. We've all been in a place in our life where we are so dysregulated that we felt like, oh my gosh, I cannot relax. I cannot let go. And this allows your brain to move out of that fight or flight space, guiding it towards a state of calm. Over time, the more you use neurofeedback, the better it works. This process can train your nervous system to maintain that more balanced state on its own, which can be hard to think your way there, which is why neurofeedback can be so great because it's like it's it's a workout for your brain. It's working your brain out. So just like we can work our physical bodies, we can work our brains. And so it gives that greater capacity to regulate and handle stress. Um, it supports better sleep through improved self-regulation and relaxation. Neurofeedback can reduce the overactivity, then it interrupts sleep cycles, making rest deeper and more restorative. And I will say, I have slept better than I have my whole life after adding neurofeedback. And that just supports whole body health, right? The more sleep we get, the more restorative it is, the better we function when we are awake. Number three, it sharpens focus. Many users notice improvement in attention, clarity, and mental performance as their brain becomes better in processing and managing sensory input. I will tell you, I have been a business owner for a very long time. And part of the business I hated the most was handling my CRM, the emails, all the background stuff because it just felt so overwhelming. And since implementing neurofeedback, I can handle that with much more ease and grace. And it doesn't feel so taxing on me. Number four, eases emotional dysregulation. Neurofeedback encourages emotional stability by teaching your brain to adapt and regulate itself, lowering the effects of mood swings or regular emotional responses. I will also say this one has been huge for me. I am bright smack in the age of perimenopause and have noticed that almost all of those types of symptoms have disappeared because I'm not dysregulated anymore. My hormones aren't going up and down anymore, and I don't feel like I have to fight those emotional dysregulated times. Um, and number five, improves physical symptoms. Physical tension, digestive issues, and sensitivity, sensitivity to sensory input often improve as your nervous system begins to stabilize through neurofeedback sessions. So those are some of the reasons that I love neurofeedback. Um, for me personally, I could go on and on about all of the benefits that I've seen, not only in myself, but in my family. Um, we are all a little neurospicy. We all had a little bit of sensory stuff, we all had a little bit of nervous system stuff going on. Um, mine was hardwired from the way that I was raised and just wasn't allowed to make a lot of mistakes without feeling um ashamed or feeling like I had to be perfect. There's so many things tied into that. There's some physical abuse, emotional abuse, uh, just a lot of things going on. And it has brought balance to my brain in a way that I've never experienced before. Uh, the rest of my family, we all have some ADHD type symptoms that it has really uh brought a lot of peace and and regulation to my family throughout that. Uh but my favorite thing is just the ability with this particular device, with this company that I have purchased my devices from, is that I can rent them out. Um it can be overwhelming when you are in a state of fight or flight to be going to a health practitioner's office, you know, three or four times a week to get your services. And so instead of doing that, I rent the devices out. I send them all over the US. Um, you take it into your home, you use it for 30 days. Uh, neurofeedback is something the more you use it, the better results results that you're gonna have. So they typically say a minimum of 12 to 20 sessions is where you're gonna see real tangible results. And everybody's a little bit different depending on how far you have to go, right? Like how where are you starting from? One of my family members uh started from a place where his executive functioning was very, very poor. And so 20 sessions probably wasn't gonna be enough. And I knew that, but everyone's different. Um, so what was it? 12 to 20 sessions is typical. So when you rent it out, you can use it for 30 sessions because you can use it uh what you can actually use it twice a day. Most people just use it once a day. So 30 to 60 sessions in a month's time. Um, and then the whole family is welcome to use it. The whole household within that um that it's operated with that neurofeedback is able to use it. So it saves quite a bit of money uh to do it that way. So if that's something that interests you, please feel free to reach out. Neurofeedback has changed my life, it's changed my family's life, it's changed so many of my clients' lives because it is passive and it is a great way to just move that needle forward in healing without having to do so much more. So um, if you are wondering where your nervous system is at, please go take that nervous system quiz. You can find it in the show notes here or join the group mentoring. We would love to have you just learning to apply a lot of these nervous system tools to your everyday life so you really can live in that peace that the Bible talks about nonstop. So blessings.