Morning Vibe Care for a Healthier Stress Response

This quick and simple morning routine is designed to help you recalibrate, regulate, and optimize your autonomic nervous system. Our autonomic nervous system consists of our Sympathetic (fight or flight) and Parasympathetic (rest and digest) Nervous Systems.

Ideally, we should be able to move between those 2 states efficiently and effectively so that we appropriately respond to stressors, and then appropriately recover once the “threat” is neutralized. The problem is that our daily lives lend themselves to chronic mild stress, which results in our Sympathetic Nervous System getting stuck in overdrive. This results in sleep disturbances, inflammation, and difficulty regulating emotions.

Here are a few simple things you can do in the morning to get yourself started on the right foot and prime your nervous system to be better able to balance stress and recovery.

1. Drop some O.G. TONIC:

Adaptogens like ashwagandha help you adapt to stress so that you don’t get crushed by it. Their primary goal is to help you restore and maintain homeostasis, your body’s ideal state of balance. Stress is always trying to push us off-center and screw with our mind-body balance. The job of adaptogens like ashwagandha and CBD is to strengthen our inner forces against the effects of outside forces.

In other words, it makes us more resilient to stress. In fact, ashwagandha has been proven to lower cortisol levels! The role of CBD, and the endocannabinoid system as a whole, is to help us maintain a stable internal environment despite an ever-changing external environment. Now you see why CBD and ashwagandha are a match made in heaven, right?

CBD & ashwagandha both provide an all-natural, non-toxic, and effective way to:

• • Lower cortisol 
  • Regulate serotonin and GABA levels (neurotransmitters that affect mood, sleep, anxiety)
  • Create systemic balance and restore homeostasis
  • Defend against the negative effects of chronic stress
  • Boost immune function 
  • Increase focus, endurance, and mental clarity.

2. Touch (cold) Grass!

Grounding, or earthing, is the practice of connecting to the Earth’s electrical energy. Some studies suggest that grounding may have benefits such as reduced inflammation, improved blood flow, reduced stress, improved mood, increased energy levels and stronger immune function. Bare feet on the grass is always a good idea, but add in the cold morning dew & you also benefit from some extra vagus nerve stimulation (like cold plunge or contrast shower *lite*).

Cold exposure is a great way to stimulate your Vagus Nerve. And that is important because your Vagus Nerve is your Autonomic Nervous System’s superhighway. The tone and condition of your Vagus Nerve dictates what is going on in what we like to call your physiological soup… and that physiological soup dictates our mood, inflammation, energy, ability to process information, etc.

Other ways to stimulate your vagus nerve include humming or singing (a real good OMMMMMM chant!), deep breathing, exercise / physical activity, and LAUGHING! So, like, you can literally sing, laugh, skip, and frolic your way to less stress and anxiety. If that’s not a golden life hack then I don’t know what is!

3. Straight shot of sunshine

Starting your day with exposure to sunlight for at least 10 minutes (even if it is through a window), can be really beneficial. You not only get a little boost of Vitamin D – which is essential for good moods and good health – but it also helps to recalibrate your circadian rhythm. That means it helps balance your sleep/wake cycle and cortisol levels so that you are more awake during the day and more sleepy at night… just as the universe intended!