Week 2: Regulation

Beyond the Surface: 
Finding Your Safe Harbor


Welcome to Week 2. If one more person tells you to "just take a bubble bath," it might feel like they don’t truly see the weight you are carrying. As someone who walks this path with you, I know that for survivors, "relaxing" isn't always simple—sometimes, sitting still can actually feel more anxious than staying busy.

This week, we aren't talking about luxuries. We are talking about Nervous System Regulation. This is the vital, "in-the-trenches" work of teaching your body that the danger is in the past and you are safe in the present.

The Lesson: Restoration as Reclaiming Self-care isn't about "escaping" your life; it’s about coming home to yourself. When we’ve been through trauma, our bodies often stay in "Survival Mode"—high alert, heart racing, or completely shut down.
We are focusing on "Safety Anchors"—tiny, 1-minute windows where we use our senses to ground ourselves in the now.

Whether it’s feeling the cool air on your skin, the weight of your feet on the floor, or a moment of intentional silence, these aren't just "boring tasks." They are the building blocks of a life where you finally feel settled in your own skin.

*Lesson WOrksheets*

Gathering Your Tools
Healing isn’t a test, and there is no "right way" to do this work. Below, you will find two resources designed to help you practice reclaiming your voice in the quiet moments of your day.

These are for your eyes only. If you find that sitting down with a pen feels heavy or overwhelming today, please give yourself permission to simply read them over or skip them entirely. Listening to your body’s need for space is, in itself, a powerful act of Agency.

The Power of Agency Practice: A gentle guide to help you identify the "Micro-Choices" available to you right now, even when the world feels loud.
The "Safe Enough" Reflection: A space to acknowledge where you have been and to honor the strength it took to get to today.
Your Weekly Read

This week's book is Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, by Emily and Amelia Nagoski. There's a reason this book has almost 5 starts out of more than 8,800 reviews on Amazon, and why it's a GoodReads Choice Award Nominee.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “This book is a gift! I’ve been practicing their strategies, and it’s a total game changer.”—Brené Brown, PhD, author of Dare to Lead

“A primer on how to stop letting the world dictate how you live and what we think of ourselves, Burnout is essential reading [and] . . . excels in its intersectionality.”—Bustle

This groundbreaking book explains why women experience burnout differently than men—and provides a roadmap to minimizing stress, managing emotions, and living more joyfully.

Your Weekly Pod

This week's pod is one of my absolute favorites by Glennon Doyle and her crew over at We Can Do Hard Things. It is also the podcast episode I share most frequently with clients, and I've found that it resonates deeply with almost everyone who listens to it. There is a lesson in this resonance, which is that women have an almost universal experience of being overburdened by the invisible/emotional labor required to maintain a family and home. And that, friends, is not a good thing. 

OVERWHELM: Is our exhaustion a sign that we’re CareTicking time bombs?

In the episode you'll discover:
1. How the constant to-do list ticker looping in Amanda's brain makes her feel like a dormant volcano.

2. The job description we've somehow accepted for motherhood—and whether self-abandonment is a job requirement.

3. The way gender expectations even creep into Glennon and Abby's marriage.

4. How to know whether your partner is a co-builder or an assistant.

5. How to make the invisible load of caretaking visible—and potentially bearable.  
Your Weekly Jam

Enjoy this playlist designed just for you!

The vibe of this week's playlist is "restorative and calm," with a goal of  regulating the nervous system and slowing down.

  • Lovely Day – Bill Withers
  • Put Your Records On – Corinne Bailey Rae
  • Sunflower – Post Malone & Swae Lee
  • Breathin – Ariana Grande
  • Weightless – Marconi Union (The ultimate clinical relaxation track)
  • Banana Pancakes – Jack Johnson
  • Comes Love – Ella Fitzgerald
  • Holocene – Bon Iver
  • Sunrise – Norah Jones
  • Good Days – SZA