Please Calm Down.

Holistic nurse and author, Tracie Braylock, helps us learn radical relaxation.

“You are not your diagnosis. A diagnosis is the process of identifying the nature of a disease, illness, or condition that explains the signs and symptoms. Therefore a diagnosis offers information that can be used to make decisions about your next steps, including beneficial pathways you can take toward healing as you continue living. A diagnosis gives you the opportunity to find the root cause of whatever you’re facing and work to return your body and being to homeostasis, that state of balance in your body. A diagnosis is not who you are.”

—Tracie Braylock, Radical Relaxation: Releasing the Stress You Were Never Meant to Carry

What is Homeostasis?

A picture is worth a thousand words; this one says it all. Homeostasis is feeling like little Eva Grace in her mama's arms. Candace had been gone for about five hours — the longest she’d ever left Eva. Eva got so excited when she returned, and Jose caught the grand reunion on camera. Eva shows us how it feels to be seen, known, heard, and, most importantly, loved. Her body is in complete homeostasis. I’d say this is radical relaxation in living color. What do you think?

In 13 years of private practice, my greatest desire was to help my clients find their way to homeostasis and return quickly when faced with a triggering or upsetting event. We aim to return to homeostasis and live from a place of radical relaxation.

What is the Relaxation Response?

“The relaxation response is the opposite of fight, flight, freeze, and fawn—the various reactions associated with the stress response. It’s characterized by a decrease in heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure, metabolism, and brain activity. Because the brain operates with less strain when we’re in a relaxed state, it becomes more efficient in its activity. This results in alertness, attention, and the decision-making functions of the brain and changes in gene activity opposite those associated with stress. An increase in relaxation decreases inflammation throughout the body.”

—Tracie Braylock

My time with Tracie this week left me in a state of high alert.

She added to the internal conversation I’ve been having with myself and left me with even more evidence that I best learn how to move through my life from a place of radical relaxation.