Latest / Unlocking The Paradigm Portal / Be the Lighthouse, Not the Storm | How to Stay Steady When Everything Feels Unstable
Transcript
- 0:00Hey everybody, welcome back to unlocking the Paradigm Portal.
- 0:03My name is Sarah. So before we go anywhere today,
- 0:07I want to name what a lot of people are feeling right now.
- 0:11If your body's feeling tense, if there's fear sitting low in your
- 0:14stomach or hell, anywhere in your body.
- 0:17If you feel unsettled in a way that you can't quite explain,
- 0:20that makes sense. People are dealing with very
- 0:24real instability at the moment. Financial pressure, political
- 0:29uncertainty, global conflict, health scares, family stress,
- 0:32loss. This isn't imagined and I am not
- 0:36here to minimize that. And I am not here to dive into
- 0:40the nitty gritty of all of that. I am here to talk about let's
- 0:45stop pretending everything is fine and notice how all of this
- 0:49instability is impacting you physically.
- 0:53So when the storm is real, you don't need denial.
- 0:57You need something solid to Orient to, You need a
- 1:00lighthouse. You don't, you're not going to
- 1:03be able to stop the storm even if you wanted to, and you can't
- 1:07calm the ocean. But to remind you where stable
- 1:11ground still exists, that is crucial.
- 1:14And today we're talking about how to become that stability for
- 1:17yourself even while the storm is still happening.
- 1:22Because fear is not philosophical.
- 1:24It is physiological. It is physical.
- 1:28It shows up in your chest tightening, your jaw clenching,
- 1:31not getting any sleep, your patients getting shorter, and
- 1:36your nervous system is wired to scan for threats.
- 1:39And right now, there's a lot to scan.
- 1:41So if you feel activated or distracted or overwhelmed, you
- 1:46are not weak. Your body is doing exactly what
- 1:49it was built to do. But constant activation creates
- 1:54a new problem. It makes you feel like there's
- 1:56nowhere safe to land, and that is utterly exhausting.
- 2:01And you don't need the whole world to calm down, to create
- 2:04one place where your system can exhale.
- 2:07Because the lighthouse, it doesn't stop the storm.
- 2:10It doesn't control the ocean. It doesn't argue with the waves.
- 2:12It doesn't pretend the danger isn't real.
- 2:15It just stands solid, rooted, predictable.
- 2:20Its job is orientation and it tells ships you're not lost.
- 2:24There is still something here. And being the lighthouse is not
- 2:29being in a place of denial. It's regulated presence and it's
- 2:33saying this is hard and I am still here.
- 2:37So with the lighthouse to become that, you need an anchor, right?
- 2:43And that this is the most important part that most people
- 2:46miss is that the lighthouse works because it's anchored.
- 2:49It's rooted and it's deep in rock and it's unmoving beneath
- 2:54the surface. That's why they are so
- 2:57resilient. And your anchors, your personal
- 3:00anchors, are the things that keep you from getting swept
- 3:03away. So your breath can be an anchor
- 3:07and your feet on the floor can be an anchor.
- 3:09And routine can be an anchor, or a steady conversation can be an
- 3:13anchor. And anchors are not dramatic,
- 3:16they are consistent. And consistency is what teaches
- 3:20your nervous system that not everything is chaos.
- 3:24So you don't need to feel calm all day.
- 3:27That's not realistic. But what you need are micro
- 3:31moments of steadiness. Think 30 seconds of slow
- 3:35breathing. One walk around the block
- 3:38turning off notifications on your phone for one hour.
- 3:42Just disconnect from technology just for a little bit or make
- 3:48one clear decision. Instead of spiraling through 10
- 3:51possibilities, pick the easiest one that's a place to start.
- 3:56And each time you do that, you reinforce safety pathways in
- 3:59your brain. You literally are creating new
- 4:02neural pathways of processing and looking at things
- 4:07differently and reprogramming the way that you interact with
- 4:11the world and how you see it. And you're not escaping reality.
- 4:15You're increasing your capacity to face it because capacity is
- 4:20power. So let's do everything we can to
- 4:24expand our capacity right now. We really need it right now and
- 4:30that requires regulating yourself.
- 4:32And when you regulate yourself, you change the emotional field
- 4:35around you and children can feel it, partners can feel it,
- 4:39friends can feel it, clients, Co workers can feel it.
- 4:43You don't have to fix everything to be powerful.
- 4:47You just have to be steady enough that you're not
- 4:50amplifying the panic. That's leadership.
- 4:53That's quiet leadership. It's strong leadership, it's
- 4:57lighthouse leadership, and it's becoming the light in the storm,
- 5:02becoming that lighthouse. And just so you know, you can be
- 5:07scared and steady at the same time, and you can acknowledge
- 5:12instability without collapsing into it because resilience.
- 5:17It isn't the absence of fear, it's the ability to return to
- 5:21center after activation. So just return and then return
- 5:26again. And when you get knocked off
- 5:28course again, return again. And that repetition, that's what
- 5:33builds strength. So today, just try this.
- 5:36Before you consume the world, stabilize yourself.
- 5:40Drink water before you scroll. Your body needs hydration.
- 5:44You're probably dehydrated like most of us in the world.
- 5:48Step outside before the headlines, like even if you just
- 5:53go outside your front door and take a deep breath of fresh air,
- 5:58do it before you open up the news.
- 6:01Move your body before you read comments on anything.
- 6:06And and I don't mean move in like, you know, some big
- 6:09exercise style fashion. If you do that amazing.
- 6:13But even just stand up and stretch just to connect back to
- 6:18what you're physically feeling in that moment.
- 6:20And that's how you begin to create your internal baseline
- 6:23first. Then once you've got that
- 6:27stability, then engage. Because otherwise you're letting
- 6:30the chaos that is everywhere set your nervous system for the day.
- 6:35And I'm sorry, but when everything else is completely,
- 6:38I'm not sorry. When everything else is
- 6:40completely out of control, are you going to let the chaos
- 6:44control you? No, get your grounding, get your
- 6:47bearings and then you're ready for it because even in
- 6:51instability, you are allowed to create safety in small ways that
- 6:57you are able to. You can't always change the
- 7:00chaos. You can't.
- 7:02There's a lot of things you can't do anything about or if
- 7:06there, if you can do something, it might take time.
- 7:09And that's why just for today, baby steps make little small
- 7:14pockets of steadiness that matter, that make a difference.
- 7:17Take a warm shower, drink a quiet cup of coffee in the
- 7:21morning, or have a structured plan for the day that might give
- 7:25you a feeling of control over your day.
- 7:28Or have a conversation with someone who's really grounded
- 7:32that isn't amplifying that existing chaos.
- 7:36And these are not luxuries. They are protective factors.
- 7:40They are you taking care of yourself.
- 7:43And remember, you don't have to deny reality to be strong.
- 7:48You just keep coming back to yourself again and again and
- 7:52again. Even in the storm.
- 7:55You can become the place that you land.
- 7:57You can become the lighthouse. And it's not because the storm
- 8:01disappears, but because you choose to stand.
- 8:05So thank you for joining me this morning.
- 8:10For today, just build 1 moment of stability, then another.
- 8:13That's how your safety grows. So if you like this content, you
- 8:17know all the things like share, subscribe, and I will be back
- 8:22Wednesday morning for the next installment of this theme.
- 8:27And then don't forget Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday at 9:00 PM is
- 8:30the Light in the Dark series that is intended to be soft and
- 8:33soothing. And then Sundays are longer deep
- 8:36dives. So let me know if there's
- 8:40anything that you would like to dive into in the comments and I
- 8:43will be back on Wednesday. I hope you have a beautiful,
- 8:48stable day.