Do you ever feel stressed and overwhelmed out of nowhere? Like you did everything right, you slept, ate and did your workout but you still feel like you're running on empty? The answer is that you might be stuck in fight-or-flight and you might not even know it. Here are 3 subtle signs your neural system is running in survival mode. (Do you experience one, two or all three?) 1. You always need to stay busy Stillness feels unsafe. If you're constantly doing something such as talking on the phone, working, cleaning, planning or multitasking then your neural system has probably learned to equate rest with danger. 2. You always need background noise Silence feels threatening when your body is stuck in survival. Music, tv or podcasts become a way to avoid your own thoughts which allows the subconscious patterns quietly running your life without you being aware of them. 3. You can't swallow 3 times in a row Weird one, but true. When you're in fight-or-flight, your vagus nerve shuts down, digestion slows and saliva dries up which makes it hard to swallow even when you're not "nervous". So what do you do? This week I recommend that you do the following: - Take 10 slow belly breaths with extra-long exhales (inhale 4 counts, exhale 6–8) - Try humming when you feel overwhelmed  - Gentle movement like shaking out your arms and legs for about 1-2 minutes  These aren't just calming tricks. They're direct signals to your neural system that you're safe. Let's stop surviving and start thriving 🤍 Drop a comment if you're going to try any of these - I want to know which one 👇 Much love, Neda

For most of my life, paying for something felt like a small loss. Even when it was something I needed or something I wanted. The moment money left my wallet, there was this quiet little flinch. Like something was being taken from me. A little feeling of guilt if I am being honest. I didn't even notice I was doing it. It was so automatic. So natural in how I related to money. And then I started paying attention to what that flinch was actually doing to my body. That tightening in my stomach. That feeling of anxiety every time I checked my bank account or swiped my card. My neural system was learning, over and over again, that money spending means threat and danger. Like I don’t know the next time more money will come into my bank account. So I tried something small. I started saying "thank you" when I spent money. Not in a forced, fake-it-till-you-make-it way. Just genuinely pausing for a second and redirecting - thank you for the food. Thank you for the roof over my head. Thank you for the support, the service, the experience, whatever it just gave me. Because here's the thing: money isn't leaving you. It's circulating. It's doing exactly what it's supposed to do. It's moving through your life and giving you something in return. When you treat it like loss, your body stays in scarcity. When you treat it like circulation, something starts to shift - not just mentally, but physically. Your neural system stops sounding the alarm every time you spend. You stop white-knuckling your relationship with money. It's such a small thing. I almost didn't share it because it sounds almost too simple. But the simple stuff is usually where the deepest reprogramming happens. Because you're doing it constantly. Every purchase is a rep. Every transaction is a chance to either reinforce the old story or start writing a new one. Try it this week. Next time you pay for something, pause and say thank you. Not because you have to, but because you get to. And start paying attention to what shifts but also how your body feels.

Most people think audacity is a personality trait. But it's actually a physiological state. When your neural system is dysregulated, you tiptoe, overthink, shrink yourself and wait for the "right moment" that never comes. Not because you don't want more but because your body doesn't feel safe expanding. And the sneakiest way dysregulation shows up? Your brain locks onto “worst case scenarios”. Every single time. It scans for what could go wrong, who might reject you, why it probably won't work out. That's not you being realistic. That's your survival system running the show. So what would it actually mean to have the audacity to expect the best? Not hope for it. Not cautiously wish for it. You don't hope the sun is going to rise tomorrow, you just KNOW it will. That's the energy! That level of quiet certainty about your own life and what's coming for you. Because when your baseline becomes safety: Your prefrontal cortex comes online → you make decisions from clarity, not fearYour vagus nerve signals safety → you stop catastrophizing and start trustingYour self-worth stops negotiating → you move like someone who deserves good thingsYour energy becomes congruent → best case scenario stops feeling naive and starts feeling inevitable Audacity isn't a personality some people are born with. It's what becomes available to you when your neural system stops treating life and the unknown like a threat. The most radical thing you can do right now is decide that things are going to work out and actually mean it in your body, not just your head. That's the work for this week. That's neural system regulation. That's where real audacity lives. What area of your life is asking you to expect the best right now? Tell me below 👇 Much love, Neda

Sometimes in life I feel like I'm taking one step forward and two steps back. And honestly? For a long time, I thought that meant I was doing something wrong or I didn’t do enough. But here's what I now understand - and what I want to offer you this week: That feeling isn't failure. It's actually a sign that your nervous system is doing exactly what it's supposed to do. When we begin to heal, the body starts releasing stored patterns. Old emotions surface. Old fears get louder. The very things you thought you'd moved past come back up but not to punish you, but to be seen and felt. To finally move through. I've had so many moments where tears came out of nowhere, or an old memory resurfaced - a wound I thought I'd already healed. And yet, there it was again.This doesn't mean something is wrong or that you are doing it wrong. This means that your body finally is feeling safe enough to let these emotions surface. Neuroscience calls this integration. The window of tolerance expands, and suddenly you can feel things you previously had to suppress just to function. It can feel like regression. But it's actually an expansion. So if you've been in that "one step forward, two steps back" energy lately; here's a somatic tool to work with when it gets heavy: The next time you feel like you're falling backwards, pause. Place both hands on your heart. Take three slow breaths. Inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth. And say to yourself, out loud if you can: "This is not collapse. This is completion." Let your body hear it. Not just your mind. The healing isn't happening despite the chaos. It's happening through it. Share in the comments if you can relate to this. Much love, Neda

I used to think that if I was still healing, something was wrong with me. Like happiness and healing couldn't coexist. But the truth is that some of the most joyful people you know have been through a lot. They just stopped letting their past run the show. Here's what actually changed things for me: I realized my nervous system had been wired for danger since I was a kid because that's what it learned to do to keep me safe. And once I understood that, I stopped fighting myself. I started working with my body instead of against it. That's the whole game! Not toxic positivity, not pretending everything is fine. But genuinely rewiring how you respond to life so that triggering moments don't pull you under. Your past shaped you. It doesn't have to define what's possible for you now. So this week, I invite you to try this: When something triggers you - before you react, before your thoughts start to spiral I want you to cross your arms and place your hands over your collarbones and begin tapping gently. Left, right, left, right. Slow and steady. This is butterfly tapping. And it's one of my favorite tools because you can do it anywhere, in any moment. What's happening when you do this is actually really beautiful. The alternating taps are sending bilateral signals to both sides of your brain. This is the same mechanism used in trauma therapy and it tells your nervous system: I am here. I am safe. I don't have to go into survival mode right now. You're not bypassing the feeling. You're just creating enough space between the trigger and your response so that you get to decide what happens next. That space is where your power lives. The more you come back to this, the less grip those moments have over you. That's not pretending everything is fine. It is becoming the captain of your own ship. Let me know in the comments what comes up for you when you do this work, I love to hear about your experience. Much love, Neda