You too?

I’ve been hearing from so many clients that they’re burnt out, anxious, sad, angry, and confused.

Thanks to the Delta variant, gone is the ease and relief that you may have felt in early summer, as infection rates decreased in the U.S. where I’m based.

According to The Washington Post, these feelings are so prevalent that it even has a name now — Pandemic Flux Syndrome.

As a collective, we’ve been cycling between hyperarousal and hypoarousal.

Here’s a behind the scenes look at what happened to me recently.

About a week ago, my parents — who are in their early 80s and fully vaccinated — had a serious breakthrough COVID infection. One day, they tested positive and the next day, both of them were in serious condition.

As I tried to put together a quick plan to help them even though I live in another state, I noticed a few things.

I could feel my nervous system go from being in the Sweet Spot** into hyperarousal.

In my body, I noticed was that my heart was racing. I had a hard time catching my breath. My mouth was dry.

At the same time, my thinking felt like mush.

I couldn’t focus. I wasn’t able to make a plan about when to drive to where they lived to avoid commuter traffic. I’d bounce from packing underwear to scrubbing the toilet to checking the weather to see if I need to bring a raincoat.

It was a real challenge to get myself packed and in the car.

But once I was in the car for the 3-hour trip to their house, I started working on down-regulating my nervous system back into the Sweet Spot.**

STEP 1 :: Tending to my body

With one hand on my heart, I put the other hand on my hand and began to do square breathing.

After 10 minutes of that, my heart rate decreased.

STEP 2 :: Tending to my parts

Then I checked inside to help any of my parts that were scared.

I found a very young version of me afraid of not getting to where they lived in time to help. I assured this part that the adult me was on the way. I assured this part that she wasn’t alone and didn’t have to figure things out on her own.

She immediately softened.

I asked her if she wanted to stay close to me as I drove. She did, so I imagined putting her in my shirt pocket to rest and also look to see where I was on my journey to my parents’s house.

STEP 3 :: Getting support

I called some trusted family and friends to feel the social engagement of being safely held. As I let them support me, I could feel hyper-arousal decrease until I was back in the Sweet Spot.**

This behind-the-scenes look at how I tended to my own hyper-arousal is exactly what I help clients with.

** If you don’t know what these words means, click here for my masterclass on the nervous system.