Living A Full Life

Your Nervous System Craves Safety in a World That Never Stops

• Full Life Chiropractic • Season 3 • Episode 26

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The alarm bells are ringing. Everywhere I look, I'm seeing patients more stressed than at any point since the height of the COVID pandemic. But this time, it's different—instead of fear of the unknown, we're facing a perfect storm of economic uncertainty, health anxiety, work-life chaos, parenting challenges, and global unrest all at once. As a practitioner seeing hundreds of people each week, the pattern is unmistakable and concerning.

Your nervous system wasn't designed for constant crisis mode. This chronic state of alert is wreaking havoc on our bodies in ways many don't fully comprehend. When cortisol stays elevated long-term, it weakens your immune system, destroys your digestion and sleep quality, increases inflammation around your heart, and literally shrinks areas of your brain responsible for memory and decision-making. The ripple effects extend beyond your own health to impact your relationships, family dynamics, and entire communities.

The good news? Practical, science-backed solutions exist to help your body manage these unprecedented stressors. In this episode, I break down specific techniques you can implement immediately, from box breathing (the 4-4-4-4 method) that directly calms your prefrontal cortex to strategic digital detoxes and movement "snacks" throughout your day. I also explain why creating a "home culture of calm" might be your most powerful defense against the stress epidemic, and how understanding your nervous system's primitive wiring helps you give it what it truly craves—safety.

Remember this fundamental truth: your body cannot heal while in a stress state. While we can't eliminate the stressors of 2025, we can dramatically improve how our bodies respond to them. Try these evidence-based strategies, share them with your loved ones, and join our upcoming "Unwind" stress workshop if you're in the Tampa area. Your nervous system—and everyone around you—will thank you.

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Speaker 1:

Hey everyone, I'm Dr Enrico Del Toro and welcome to another episode of Living a Full Life this week. What's weighing us down and how to stay healthy through it? It's the stressed out edition of 2025. I mean, we've talked a lot about stress over the two years that this podcast has been going on and I feel like you can't talk enough about it. It's around us all the time. It's physical, it's chemical, it's emotional. It's around us all the time. It's physical, it's chemical, it's emotional. It's around us every single time and it's one of the biggest health threats that we face on a day-to-day basis. It's chronic stress. So I've seen more stressed out patients lately than I think ever I mean since covid, maybe in 2020, when everyone was apprehensive and unweary of what's going on.

Speaker 1:

That was a different type of stressary of what's going on. That was a different type of stress, and now it's just. People are just. The stress is just piling up from all different dynamics financial, economical, relationship. I feel like there's more divorce happening right now than I can remember. There's a lot going on and it's taking a toll on our health. It's taking a toll on our relationships. It's taking a toll on our families. It's taking a toll on our relationships. It's taking a toll on our families, it's taking a toll on our communities, and it's time to speak up, get loud, motivate in the right way. In the world that we live in, with so many influencers online, it's almost diluted to being numb, to actually influencing anyone and it's things like these good podcasts, good interviews, good resources, good information that helps people feel confident about what they're doing and make steps to move in the right direction when it comes to their health. So that's what today is going to be all about.

Speaker 1:

What's stressing us out in 2025? What is going on in the world that's really stressing us out and, as a practitioner that sees hundreds of people a week, I mean we get some volume. We get to see people. Sometimes we see people twice a week, sometimes we see them once a week, sometimes we see people once a month. So, to see hundreds of people have conversations each and every week, you start to put your thumb down on things and start to say, well, hang on, there's a tendency going on here. Then I get to talk to my peers that work in all corners of the earth and the country itself and ask them hey, are you having this out in Washington state. Is this happening? They're like, yeah, same thing here. I'm like holy smokes, so let's talk about it.

Speaker 1:

The top things affecting people right now is economic uncertainty. Wherever you are in your finances, wherever you are in your career and your life and making money, economic uncertainty is really hurting people right now. They just don't know what's going to come up next week. I mean, the administration that has been elected is volatile. Let's keep it at that. And we just don't know what's going on. Inflation just keeps going up. It's crazy. The cost of life has gone up since 2021. We've seen record inflation in some things 21% and other things 35%, some things 50%. So when they tell you there's been 4% inflation, I can't believe that Housing debt is skyrocketing. So we have a financial stress, and finance is energy, and finance is how we exchange service and energy for the things that we need each day for food services, mortgages, rents. Everything revolves around money. So that's a huge stress point.

Speaker 1:

Health and anxiety. Lots of stuff, virus surges, media overload, conflicting info. Since COVID, we've had more scares about the next COVID-esque type virus that's going to come out. We've got random viruses. We've got long COVID syndrome that people are now dealing with since 2020, when this was all going around COVID vaccine, long COVID syndromes, lots of things going on. A lot of people did get the vaccine, a lot of people did get COVID, a lot of people got the natural virus and now we're left with that stress, work-life imbalance, with the hybrid work model, and then go home for two weeks and flatten the curve to now. Well, now you've got to come back to work and guess what? This government sector is going to be laid off and fired and we're going to cut here.

Speaker 1:

That's a lot of stress. We've got work-life imbalance, we've got burnout. We're caregiving to our ill family members. That's stressful. Parenting stress. There's academic pressure and tech addiction right now with our students and our kids, and that tech addiction is really putting more pressure on the academic, pursual of focus, behavioral issues, mindfulness, gratitude in our children and that's a lot of feedback I get from the parents raising kids today.

Speaker 1:

And then global unrest Holy smokes. There's been this many wars at the same time before. There's a lot going on Travel planes I mean there's been. It's a weird year, isn't it? So I thought we'd take some time and go over this and review it and kind of build a village and a community together and know that we're all here together, we're all thinking the same things, we're all in our different boats, but we're all in the same ocean together, right? So the weather and the turbulence and the jet streams and the flows affect us all. It's a cool quote I read the other day. You know, it's no wonder we're feeling overwhelmed.

Speaker 1:

Our nervous systems were not built for constant alert and crisis mode. And I read that. I'm like man. That is so true. Our nervous systems are not built for constant alerts and crisis mode. It's built to adapt to certain crises at certain time and alerts, but it's not built to be in a chronic state of chronic stress. And that's what we need to talk about how chronic stress makes you sick, and that's the whole point of this podcast.

Speaker 1:

You know, cortisol, long-term, whether it's high or low, has drastic effects on the entire hormonal cascade. It weakens our immune system. To be cortisol spiked, it wrecks our digestion and our sleep. It increases inflammation around the heart and our autoimmunity. It shrinks areas of the brain responsible for memory or in the prefrontal cortex that affect our memory and decision-making. So then we become irrational, then we become tempered, then we become moody and our response becomes very stress-induced, very stress-rebounded over time, and chronic stress does that to us. It alters our mood, our behavior, our daily habits and it trickles down and affects everyone around you. If you're a father, a mother, a kid, it affects your family. Then it can spread out and affect your community, your peers, your coworkers, wherever your place of work is, and it has a trickle down effect into our communities and the more and more people that are stressed, the more and more trickle down effect that we have.

Speaker 1:

So if I'm wrong, you know, send me an email, say I don't know what you're talking about. These are the greatest two years I've lived ever. Uh, then I'll scratch my head and wonder what rock you just came out of. But that that's great. Uh, but let me know what's going on. So here's the, here's the tips that you know.

Speaker 1:

We try and make these podcasts quick. You digest them, you get some information, you get a little bit of inspiration and you get, most importantly, something to think about or to do to move your health needle in the right direction. Health is not an objective thing, it's not a number. Health is something you preserve. You're either well or you're ill, and you move along that spectrum day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year in your life, and if the needle starts moving towards illness, you need to do everything you can to push that needle back towards wellness and that's your job. Is the balance to maintain health. It's the homeostasis of the body and let's move into the homeostasis of the nervous system, of sympathetic versus parasympathetic.

Speaker 1:

There's some quick ways to de-stress and I recommend doing these almost every day if you can. Box breathing, another way. We talked about breath and breathing before, but let's give you some specific ways to do this Box breathing or the 4-4-4-4 method or the 4-7-8 method, whichever one you want to look up online. Look up the box breathing method, where you take a deep breath in and you take four seconds to pull that in and you wait four seconds and then you breathe it out for four seconds and then you wait for four seconds and then you continue that cycle again. Slowing down your breath has a direct effect on the prefrontal cortex, calming down the effects of that hyperactive stress area of the brain which relays a proper vagal tone back to the body and can help maintain breath, respiration, cardiac rhythm and the gut, and these things can help you feel better immediately the gut and these things can help you feel better immediately. Pretty cool stuff to just use your breath and slow it down and expand the diaphragm and expand the lungs and then slowly breathe it back out.

Speaker 1:

Try that Even right now, as you're listening to this podcast. Do four seconds of a big depth, deep breath in four seconds of holding, breathe it all out nice and slow, with a four count in your head, and then hold an empty lung for one, two, three, four, good job. And then repeat, and you do this four times, seven times, eight times. It doesn't take that much time and you don't have to do it that long. Um, and please don't pass out. There you go. That's the only the only thing to watch out for.

Speaker 1:

Uh, digital detox. I highly recommend this, especially for kids. I give the kids a three hour window before bedtime, but for everyone that the rule is one hour of off screens before bed, no light staring at the eye, and that screens mean everything televisions, ipads, phones no light directly into the eye. So as soon as the sun sets and it starts to become dark, you have to give yourself an hour, before you go to sleep, of just a complete digital detox, nothing being downloaded in your brain, no light, no audio, no visual stimulation. And you'll see, as you continue this, night in and night out in consecutive days, how you just feel more relaxed because you're detaching yourself and unplugging yourself from the chaotic world of media to being in yourself, in your own skin and realizing how peaceful your life really is. You're just a body in space, getting a chance to experience life in the time that you're given here on earth, and once you get back to those roots, nothing else really matters. So that's the whole point of that. But really, the science for the one hour detox is really just giving yourself a chance to calm down the brain and get a better night's sleep.

Speaker 1:

And then movement, snacks, 10 minute walks two to three times a day, just breaking up with your daily routine and just going for a 10 minute walk. If it's indoors, it's indoors. If it's in a building, it's in a building. If it's outside, it's outside. That's fine. But just 10 minute walks two to three times a day where you just break up your day, that's a great thing to do too. Cold exposure versus light stretching. So we've all heard of the cold plunges, the cold exposures, the cold baths, the cold showers and then some light stretching. This has a great effect again, calming down the cardiovascular system into a normal rhythm, which is fantastic. And then natural supplements you can use for stress are, you know, adaptogens, magnesium, l-theanine? These are all great things to maybe look at to see if they could help you with stress.

Speaker 1:

The body can't heal in a stress state. Remember that. So we have to do these things. You have to do these things to manage stress, so that you can heal. You know, I've kept this very simple and as the years are going by, we're getting more detailed into these conversations, which is great, I mean that's. I think that's where it needs to go. I thought keeping it simple and be like hey, you need to sleep, you need to eat fruits and vegetables and you need to exercise and you'll have a good life, and I thought everyone would just start doing it. But then a lot of questions come up. They're like I'm not feeling any better, I'm not doing this, I'm not doing that. It's because the body cannot heal in a stress state. And even though most things can't be reversed when it comes to stress because the stress is there for a legitimate reason for most of us we can do these little things to help us mitigate the stress response and how our bodies adapt to it.

Speaker 1:

Another tip is creating a home culture of calm, and it's the only place in the universe where you have perpetual safety is in your home, and making it a tranquil space can be a long-term goal for you. You're not going to turn this into a tranquil space overnight, but getting back to tranquility means making your home not only a place where you sleep and eat, but a place of a true haven of safety, which means you create a tranquil ambience that you're not only happy to be in, but also a place where you can heal. This doesn't mean feng shui, art and painted walls and you know decorations and furniture. What it does mean is creating an ambiance of tranquility for your nervous system, for your body. This is what we want to do. Doesn't sound wishy-washy? Just listen out here for a second. What we want to do is create an environment where our nervous systems can respond in a healthy way. And here's some tips Dimming the lights in the evening Again, reducing light.

Speaker 1:

We've got to think about our ancestors before electricity, before modern plumbing, before all the modern stuff that we had. When the sun came up in the morning, they could see and they'd start to work, and when the sun started to go down at night, they prepared to go back into their homes. There's a reason for that. You can't see at night. You can't do much when you can't see. So dimming those lights tells our nervous system it's time to wind down. If the sun's going down outside, we have all the lights on on the inside. Think of it like going to you know, I go to the Tampa Bay Lightning games. All the time Thousands of lights are on. It's 9.30 at night, pitch black outside, but inside it's like you don't know whether it's 2 o'clock in the afternoon or 2 o'clock in the morning, and that really throws off our nervous system because it doesn't really follow the circadian rhythm of the day. So by controlling lights in your own home, you can control your own circadian rhythms and your family's. By dimming the lights it's pretty cool Little trick there, families. By dimming the lights it's pretty cool Little trick there.

Speaker 1:

Using calming music or complete silence at dinner is a great tip too. Our family does. That. Turns off the TV, complete quiet. And if we want to talk to one another, that's a great way to unwind and recap the day and talk about the wins and the things that we're grateful for Journaling or gratitude routine that you can teach your kids or do yourself or even with your spouse. Journaling is a great way to get your thoughts on paper. It's almost like getting them out of your body and onto something else, which is a great way to de-stress. There's other things too aromatherapy, nighttime tea habits you can get into chamomiles and herbal teas and then understanding that what your nervous system wants and craves is safety. That's what your nervous system truly wants.

Speaker 1:

It doesn't know what you know, and what I mean by that is your nervous system is a primal thing that was given to you and it works on the original programming systems of this computer. It doesn't have all the updates over the years. It doesn't have Windows XP, windows 7, windows 10, windows 11. It doesn't have all the operating system updates. It's on its primal. There are no updates on its primal software, and the primal software knows nothing about the outside world. As far as technology material, plastic stuff, cars, yada, yada, yada All it knows is we need food from the ground and from animals to eat and digest and a safe place to rest at night so that we don't get eaten by other things. That's really how our nervous systems are designed so the primitive stress is. Safety is to be away from the threats, away from our predators, which, you know. Being a human and being on the top of the food chain is nice, but still there's bigger things than us that can get out there and get us, and that's it. That's the primal way of thinking when it comes to our nervous system craves safety. Remember that that's the motto of today's podcast Our nervous system craves safety.

Speaker 1:

So if you're in the Tampa Bay area, we're here for you. If you're not and you're listening from afar, it's great. We're still here for you via digital email. You can ask questions in any way. We can help support you through supplements or things that we can do of what we can do, and we also starting a workshop series because of the growth of the podcast, having it and bringing back inside, workshops where people can actually get together. Maybe we'll save them or record them and post them virtually for everyone to enjoy.

Speaker 1:

But if you're in the Tampa area, we're starting off with a program of physical, mental, emotional and we're going to cycle through that all the time. So coming up is something called Unwind and it's a stress workshop. That's going to be next week, may 15th, at 6.30 pm in Tampa here at our Full Life Chiropractic office. If you guys want to come by and you're listening to the podcast and it's not past May 15th, you're more than welcome to come to it. Stay in the loop on these things on our website and you'll see all of our events moving forward, or online on our social media. Even better, it gets updated live. We're there and keep tuned that way as well, in tune, dated live. We're there and keep tuned that way as well, in tune, and then you can see some of the follow-ups that we do there as well. Thanks for tuning in this week.

Speaker 1:

Remember, stress is pretty much the ultimate disease maker in the body. So the things that you can do are some of the tips that we talked about in this podcast. Take them home, try them, bring them to your family, get the kids on board, get the spouse on board and if someone is suffering from you know elusive stress in the moment, hold their hand, tell them you know it's all going to be okay and there are some things that they can do to help themselves in the meantime, temporarily, to help their nervous systems accommodate to the stress, because we can't change the outside stressors that are affecting us, but what we can do is help our nervous system regulate as best as we can. Stay well, stay healthy. Have a great week.

People on this episode

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Dr. Enrico Dolcecore

Host
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Dr. Christine Hafer

Co-host
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Dr. Crystal Corona

Co-host