✨ Free Resource: Download my guide, 100 Practices That Can Increase Your Access to Rest & Renewal — filled with simple, doable ways to rest your body, mind, and spirit.

These are small, easy to incorporate practices for eight kinds of rest — from physical and emotional to creative and communal and more.

👉 Grab your free copy here! (regulatedrelationships.kit.com/rest)

Feeling tired yet never truly restored is not a personal failure; it’s your nervous system doing its best to protect you. We unpack how trauma and challending life experiences reshape the body’s priorities, keeping you in survival cycles that block deep rest. Using Polyvagal Theory as a guide, we walk through the three core states—ventral vagal safety, sympathetic fight or flight, and dorsal shutdown—and show how a loss of flexibility can make stillness feel dangerous instead of soothing.

You’ll learn how neuroception, the body’s subconscious threat-detection system, constantly weighs cues of safety and danger. When danger outweighs safety, rest becomes inaccessible, no matter how early you go to bed. We draw a clear line between shutdown and restoration, explaining why doomscrolling until you pass out isn’t rest and why “just relax” often backfires. If you’ve lived in a loop of daytime overdrive and nighttime collapse, or if depression has felt like being stuck in molasses, this conversation offers a compassionate map that makes sense of your experience.

Subscribe for weekly insights, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review to help others find the show. Then tell us: what’s one cue of safety you can add today?

- If you and your partner are ready to co-create the roadmap to the relationship of your dreams, join us for the next in-person "Getting the Love You Want" Weekend Couples Retreat!

For support in how to have deeper connections and better communication in the relationships that matter most in your life, follow the host, Trish Sanders on Instagram , Bluesky or LinkedIn.

✨ Free Resource: Download my guide, 100 Practices That Can Increase Your Access to Rest & Renewal — filled with simple, doable ways to rest your body, mind, and spirit.

These are small, easy to incorporate practices for eight kinds of rest — from physical and emotional to creative and communal and more.

👉 Grab your free copy here! (regulatedrelationships.kit.com/rest)

Ever feel like your days are all gas, no brakes—then you crash at night and call it “rest,” only to wake up just as tired? I’ve lived that loop. Today I open the toolbox that finally helped me break it: practical, accessible ways to restore your energy by working with your nervous system, not against it. No spa days, no perfection—just small, doable shifts that add up.

We start by naming the hustle–crash cycle through a nervous system lens—how sympathetic drive keeps you pushing and dorsal shutdown masquerades as rest—and why real recovery starts with safety signals. From there, I walk through eight types of rest with concrete, everyday examples: physical rest with sleep masks, cat naps without guilt, and calmer mornings; emotional rest through better boundaries and self-compassion; mental rest via asking for help, delegating, or bartering support; and social rest by choosing people who nourish rather than deplete. You’ll also hear restorative practices you can do in minutes—slow breaths and soft sighs, grounding barefoot on grass, letting the sun warm your face—as well as creative rest that values process over product so your inner critic can finally take a seat.

We round it out with sensory resets like a subtle lavender ceramic diffuser, bass you can feel in your chest, and “spa showers” that change your state without adding time. Community and ancestral rest play a role too: group breathwork, restorative yoga, and the surprising power of shared quiet to co-regulate when you can’t do it alone. If sleep is elusive or life is loud, this episode gives you a menu of options so you can pick what fits your reality. There’s also a free guide with 100 rest and renewal practices to spark ideas and help you start small.

Ready to feel replenished instead of just “done”? Press play, download the free resource above and then tell me: what’s one small step toward rest you’ll take today? If the conversation resonates, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs a gentler path back to themselves.

- If you and your partner are ready to co-create the roadmap to the relationship of your dreams, join us for the next in-person "Getting the Love You Want" Weekend Couples Retreat!

For support in how to have deeper connections and better communication in the relationships that matter most in your life, follow the host, Trish Sanders on Instagram , Bluesky or LinkedIn.

What if the most transformative part of a “conscious life” isn’t the serene moments—but the messy ones where you feel flooded, triggered, and ready to explode? I share a raw, real story about a birthday plan gone sideways, how a sold-out ticket spiraled into rage and self-blame, and the small, steady thread that kept me from making the night worse: a ventral narrator offering compassion and gentle reminders through a more grounded lens.

We break down the nervous system in practical terms—ventral regulation, sympathetic fight-or-flight, dorsal shutdown—and why blended states matter when life hits hard. You’ll hear how I moved from “I failed my kid,” and blaming my partner for the failing, to being in a place (within less than 24 hours!) where I felt grounded enough to connect and repair with my husband. I'll also share the surprising insight that sometimes calm reassurance doesn’t soothe an activated body. Matching a bit of the other person’s energy—naming the sting, acknowledging the frustration—can build connection faster than jumping straight to zen. We talk about how having that ventral narrator, who can offer far kinder self-talk than the hopeless dorsal dweller part that can get swept up in self-blame, can transform a moment of dysregulated reactivity, and how to ask for the support you actually need in the heat of the moment.

If parenting guilt, partner dynamics, or inner critics tend to hijack your evenings, this conversation offers a map: notice the state you’re in, name the unmet need, and choose a tiny next step. Conscious living isn’t about perfection; it’s about shortening the distance between rupture and repair, savoring gratitude alongside growth, and trusting that you can learn in real time by deeply attuning to yourself.

If this resonated, follow the show, leave a review, and share it with someone who could use a gentler way through big feelings. And before you go, try one simple experiment today: take one step—any size, any direction—toward the life you want.

- If you and your partner are ready to co-create the roadmap to the relationship of your dreams, join us for the next in-person "Getting the Love You Want" Weekend Couples Retreat!

For support in how to have deeper connections and better communication in the relationships that matter most in your life, follow the host, Trish Sanders on Instagram , Bluesky or LinkedIn.