I want to add something: child trauma and repressed emotions bring a lot of stress to the nervous system. Some people need to connect the pieces of their inner child and polyvagal exercises are not enough. Read Gabor Mate: when the body says no.
You are absolutely correct. you really have to work on mindset, childhood trauma, self talk vs thoughts, certain beliefs, and being able to use the polyvagal tools. If you miss one then healing progress will be hindered. I love Gabor mate stuff.
I was brought up with the idea that we do now show emotions to others, everyone has their own problems. I had no trauma as a child but being vulnerable feels so uncomfortable if you’ve suppressed emotions all your life.
@@kylian-iOS I think "trauma" can sound like a heavy word. Trauma when young really is anytime you believe your parents disconnected from you because of your "fault". Im latino and my father didnt show me loving emotions, it was seen as a weakness and I felt that had to be true for me. Once I got older I realized the was wrong. When you cant share your emotions it's because you dont believe you are "safe" do so. Thanks for your comment Kylian.
Clear and easy to understand explanation to managing nervous system activation. Thanks, Rob, for helping everyone. Sorry to hear about your bikes. I love my bikes, and I’d be pretty bummed. I’d need a double decker sandwich to manage that!
Thank you for your kind words. And it did suck, specifically they took a bike I bought a few months prior that took months to hunt down, because they dont make that bike frame anymore. It hurt but grateful nothing worse happened.
Roberto, What were the symptoms you experienced after exercising? I'm dealing with a hyperstimulated nervous system. If i work out to intensely my nerves flair up. I feel like the voltage in my body goes up after working out. Sometimes a light workout relieves these symptoms.
Sounds very reasonable; I think this is the solution combined with LifeWithKyle's approach, where before doing the exercises, you tune into the situation and the fears, and you perceive and accept the heart palpitations and all the symptoms that arise. This way, you signal to your nervous system: hey, everything is okay. Don't resist the symptoms and sensations but rather accept them like an army of 1,000 soldiers running towards you-embrace them without reacting fearfully or panicking! I have been affected by long COVID since June 2023. In the past month, I managed to walk 10,000 steps several days a week and always at least 5,000. I was able to go shopping, etc. Unfortunately, I experienced a severe setback due to tonsillitis. My problem is that I've already been sick 10 times this year with fever, body aches, etc., and I can't quite tell if it's my nervous system (long COVID) or if I'm really sick, like with tonsillitis, or if it's a bacterial infection, for example. But as presented in the video, this is definitely the solution, including the approach of evaluating the situation differently as I had already written.
Appreciate sharing your experience. My approach is a little different BUT I believe everyone has to accommodate and create their own approach to healing. Almost all of my clients that I have worked with created their own techniques and routine, but the foundation is the same.
I’ve never seen someone put all these ideas into such a clear and actionable framework. The idea of “nervous system retraining sandwich”-assisted exposure therapy makes a lot of sense to me, and resonates with my experience. People always say not to be afraid of symptoms. Which honestly can just produce anxiety around having anxiety about symptoms! I like how you provide an actionable alternative: to embrace graded exposure to triggers as opportunities to advance healing, not threats to your healing. I agree that, when you’re feeling a bit better, the thought of more symptoms feels scary and something to avoid at all costs. But reframing it as an opportunity to keep healing really helps! I used to see having to quickly do some nervous system calming exersizes after a trigger as a sort of defeat, a sign I wasn’t healing. But I like the idea of planning ahead and embracing the sandwich!
David thank you for your lovely comment 🙏 Give it a try and let me know how it goes. Triggers are not defeats, just signals from the NS that it believe it is in danger. I think many under estimate the power of deep slow breathing, laughing yoga, yoga, positive visualization to calm the nervous system. "Calm" really just means signal to the NS that it is safe. Just like you can induce a panic attack through negative ruminating thoughts, breathing shallow and quickly, you can can induce calmness through the opposite behavior. Do not let your symptoms dictate your mood. Meaning if you have tons of symptoms, dont listen to your brain fog (host of other symptoms) and instead "force" yourself to do the breathing. Keep in mind the NS wants to shut you down due to believing you are not safe. So waiting to "feel" like you want to do the symptoms wont work. Hope this helps.
@@Roberto-Escobar I hear your Roberto and therefore I left it for 6 months, I truly hear your message and agree… BUT my friend…. I’m just curious how if I put my Oximeter on 10 people (which I’ve actually done more) and they’re all 98-100% and I’m sitting constantly between 92-96% - I guess my question is could our broken nervous system be responsible as bottom line is lower oxygen sats mean symptoms it’s very simple. And despite making huge gains from Mind body polyvagal theory my body can’t account for low oxygen! Maybe il hire you for personal work
I've already used your advise from the reddit post and I've seen progress in the gym, although I can only do a few sets and I still get symptoms/flare-up if I try to workout for more than 3 days in a row, but anyway results are results and I'm very thankful. You were the only one I could find that gave specific advice regarding exercise when anyone else was like "pacing-pacing-pacing-whatever...". The only thing I'd like to ask is how you made you selection of polyvagal exercises. There are so many out there that it's confusing and I'm not sure what is working and what not. e.g. I tried your Disney suggestion and I'm not sure that I can feel some difference in my nervous system (although I religiously use it when I lift, probably for psychological reasons). Thanks again for the work you're doing for all of us, who are trying to find the end of the tunnel!
Most people use the word pacing. I dont believe in the effectiveness of pacing. Pacing is just working within the capacity of your nervous system. The question is how do you increase your capacity? And this is one method. Pick 3 that you really enjoy and made you feel "better". And repeat this 3 over and over and over again. I experimented ALOT during my recovery phase. I think thats why I have alot of "wisdom" because I purposely experimented with many exercises and made myself crash and just kept learning. Disney is great...disney is not a true polyvagal exercise. BUT it helps calm you down and bring joy. It's a great foundational tool to use. BREATHING is NUMBER 1. BREATHING is king. Specifically breathing slow and deeply. But it takes a lot of self discipline. because it's BORING. very boring. If I told you that you have to do slow deep breathing one hour every day straight....most people would NOT do it. Thats what I did and many of the people I worked with. A big reason many dont do it also is because they are not 100% convinced that it will work so they dont bother. Thats the beauty of experimenting. I wanted to heal so bad I was willing to try EVERYTHING. hope that helps.
@@Roberto-Escobar Thanks my brother. Breathwork was the first thing I discover to be immensely helpful in my recovery journey. It's criminally underrated and I also used it to regulate my insomnia and sleep apnea with great results. At least after all this ordeal I'll be wiser regarding my limits and how to properly take care of my body.
Thank you, thank you so so much..these other people on here won’t give the steps to do after a certain pain bc they want you to pay. So sad especially for us out of work for three yrs now. You are saving lives..bless you.
I don't believe charging for simple information is a good approach. I think having a course is great. I am personally creating a course now but most of the information is free on my UA-cam. The course is just organizing and getting specific exercises (journaling) and questions to reflect deeply on certain aspects of healing. I personally healed from free UA-cam courses.
OK, so just a recap can you please confirm that this is a viable strategy Before doing the exercise, take some time to relax, close your eyes and do deep breathing with an exhale that is longer than the inhale and visualize the exercise being beneficial, and also visualize a time in your life where you have felt strong and confident and pleasant and combined that with the visualization of exercising . You can also do other poly vagal exercises, like laughing in the mirror or listening to Disney music. Performed the exercise with as calm and positive positive and attitude as you can Repeat step one with the breathing visualization and Disney music and laughing in the mirror Repeat over the days and weeks so that you’re nervous system will become desensitized and associate safety with the particular exercise I’m assuming that this must be paired with a healthy belief in recovery, self-love, and the patient acceptance of the current situation to avoid the emotions of fear, anger, and hatred. Is this all correct? I honestly understand all of the concepts I think pretty well, but I still feel like I am stuck in negative emotions and apathy. I really don’t have anything to do all day because all of my hobbies were literally physical based in sports the gym, exercise, and yoga. I am now so bored and quite honestly sad and depressed all day spite, trying to be patient and understanding and practice self-love. has been many months and I have fallen into bad habits watching adult content online much more than I should. It’s impossible not to feel sad about this for me. I can’t trick my brain. Because of not being able to stay in the state of self-love and optimism, my belief or recovery is not very strong because everybody says that you have to have self-love and embrace joy, but I honestly haven’t been able to. In the back of my head I feel like there’s a possibility that like a lot of the other people I might be stuck with this for a very, very long time and deep down. I don’t think it’s worth even exist thing if that’s true and this is the most, difficult part for me. If anyone else has made it through this type of problem or situation, please let me know what to do, if there is hope, please share the hope. I am very, very far from having a positive mentality if that means that I’m stuck with this forever, it’s hard for me to want to continue. Please someone shed some light on if there is still hope out of this.
You’re not stuck forever. It just feels that way when you’re in a sensitized nervous system state. If you can’t access the gratitude/positivity yet, imo you first need to start with learning/embracing acceptance. Accept how you feel without fighting it or adding doom and gloom to it. Accept your symptoms and accept the apathy, even the depression. Not adding the fuel to it. Acceptance enables your body to start healing on its own because you’re not constantly throwing negativity onto it making yourself more sensitized each day. All we are dealing with here is severe sensitization (Covid was just the trigger). Listen to Claire Weekes book, Freedom from nervous suffering. She explains it very well and the key to begin to get out of it is acceptance. Then, whenever you feel a little bit better you’ll be able to access the positivity and gratitude easier, and do those things as well. Snowball effect
This is a great summary. love it! looks good to me. There could be more to unravel but if everything else is good then this is great. Apathy is normal. It's part of shut down phase. Apathy is dissociation. If you are depressed all I would ask myself why? what makes you depressed. You are depressed because of two things. yours thoughts and hormones. Hormones are out of whack due to nervous system dysfunction so dont focus on that. You cant control that except by doing PV exercises. Thoughts you could work with. Yeah you need to strengthen your mindset. Read Amy Morin book 13 things mentally strong people dont do. Work on those things. Mentally you are weak...and that is okay. LC will wreck your mindset. Gotta pick yourself up and time to learn how to get stronger. Her books gives you the way.
@@Roberto-Escobar thanks man. You prob dont remember but we talked on the phone once way back in the end of 2022, maybe beginning of 2023, dont remember. I'm pretty much completely fine now, except still stuck on the exercise thing (its just fear). This polyvagal sandwich concept really resonates with me though and is what i'm going to do when i try to get back into running/gym/tennis. As most probably do - i get discouraged when symptoms come back when i push my body again, but just need to eat a few more polyvagal sandwiches and accept that this is the process. haha
Excellent explanation 🤩 I only wished you slowed down your speech 😉 Normally I switch off videos where the person speaks too fast because it is too stressful to listen to 😬
Thank you! I had no idea how fast I was speaking until edit time came, I was passionate about this topic. Don't be afraid to use the playback speed button on UA-cam player. sorry lolol
@@kaykay6618 just confirmed with my wife she did speed it up to 1.15X speed. She thought I was talking too slow. She said she won't be doing that anymore to following videos due to complaints
Oh, so thats why it worked at 0.75 for me 😅 Thanks for the video! You're right, when you reach 80/90 % you start avoiding symptoms at all costs - just being glad to have reached the level of a somewhat normal life. I think that's where I am now. Time for a good sandwich and a bit more courage I guess ;)
Im wondering if you have any guidelines for a daily routine for early recovery. I need some structure to commit to. E.g. 10 min laughter, 2x 20 min breathing or whatever, script . What would you include in a day ?
I'll tell you exactly what I did. EVERY SINGLE DAY, without failure. At first I had to work my way up to it. so be very compassionate towards yourself. Just do your best everyday. 20 min breathing, 20 min yoga in the morning. Laughing yoga in the shower . mid day 20 min breathing, take some time to listen to christian music and sing lyrics and just enjoy it. Before bed I would do 20 min breathing, 20 min yoga. People I have coached have done more than me to heal. Some have spent 1 hour doing breathing in the AM and another hour before bed. It's important to do teh exercises enough to the point where you get slight relief. because thats where belief comes in.
@@theshilhuette8964 Yes I would do 478 if it feels easier. Keep in mind due to dysregulated NS your chest may feel tight at first or even feel off rhythm. Make adjustments to breathing intervals as you see fit. It should feel easy. You will notice if you keep doing for several minutes the breathing feels easier, you feel like you can exhale longer, and you have a rhythm. That is a sign that your NS is letting go of stress and is settling in. Sometimes it can take many sessions to get there. But trust the process. You are doing great ❤
Its like that for many people because its a hormonal explosion event. Once you start reducing symptoms in your normal everyday to day life, symptoms during said event will reduce and will one day not appear.
Rob, I have been followed your channel for a while, I did purposely experiment your theory to walk more beyond my limits to increase my nerve capacities and now I have crash......feeling extreme tired and pots......I am worried if I can get recovered from this crash 😞 would love to hear your suggestions
Absolutely you can recover. You are worried because you are afraid of your symptoms. DOnt be afraid of them. The best to lose fear of them if by doing the polyvagal exercises until you feel improvement. You have to prove to yourself this works by doing that work. Only do exercise once you are symptoms free and functional in your normal day to day life. If you are bed bound I would not recommend exercises. if you are triggered by going to work or grocery store I would not work out. BTW POTS hands down the worst symptoms. None of these things cause permanent damage. me and many others are proof of that. But you are believing whatever thoughts you are having when feeling symptoms. Dont believe them. You would be believing a lie. Hope that helps.
@@Roberto-Escobar thank you a lot Rob, my baseline from May until now has been improved from 2k o 6k steps a day after I followed your theory that purposely walked a bit more, then doing polyvagal exercises, it worked for me...However, I think Iast Thursday I did 10k steps, which triggered extreme tiredness and POTS, my heart rate is very high.... That is why I dont know if this time Polyvagal exercises would work for me because of the symptoms....
@@Roberto-Escobar I over did because I was not feeling tired on that day, also had doctor's appointment and I didn't monitor my steps closely, then the next day and afterwards I feel "the crash" coming back...
How can you simply and exclusively define Long covid as a dysregulated nervous system when researchers haven't narrowed it down to even one mechanism e.g. viral persistence, auto immune condition, etc.? And what about Vx injury which is common but rarely talked about and presents identical symptoms to long covid? Is that simply just a dysregulated nervous system as well?
Thats how personally define it from my own personal healing journey. If you believe you can't heal due to spike proteins or jabs.....then it will be true for you. I am not here to convince people otherwise. Those that believe they can heal due to hundreds of stories found online.......then I am there for them. Wish you the best my friend. ❤️
no. They had expenses devises to measure EEG and I just didnt see how it could help. Once I learned polyvagal theory I stopped using all monitoring devices because I realized it just "stressed" be more and made me more hyper vigilant.
@@amdeichgescheitert5779I totally get the confusion. So you don't want to put expectation in your life. You don't want those stressor u have no control over. But when it comes to doing the Polyvagal exercises you need to be strict about it. Why? Because your nervous system is in shut down phase and is giving you symptoms that prevent you from ever feeling like you want to do these exercises. It's hard to do the breathing or laughing yoga when all you feel is extreme fatigue, brain fog, and dizzy. It will be rare that you will feel like doing these exercises. And if you do it only when you feel like it, you won't heal. You need to keep a strict routine. Also being flexible and not hard on self when you feel like u fall short. For example ur plan is 10 min breathing but u fall asleep 5 min in, it's okay, laugh and try again another time. Be proud of yourself that you did 5 min. But try again, and again, and again until u can do the 10 and then increase time. During the time in between do things u enjoy, laugh, sing, whatever you have capacity but purposefully "playing" is important. Hope that makes sense.
It makes sense. But it wasn’t just a hint that even when we learn about the toxicity a being a type a person. In the end to a certain degree we will use some of the habits for good but without the self harming perfectionism
@@amdeichgescheitert5779 the key difference is self compassion. Very big different when being Type A is very self abusive. How do we know which one we are being towards ourselves? Two things. Listen to your self talk. Or be aware of your emotions. Shame or guilt or feel helpless comes from self abusive talk. Feel relaxed, happy, joyful, comes from a self compassionate self talk.
What about fatigue that lasts for a long time (ie days) after the stimulating activity? Do you just keep doing polyvagal exercises until it goes away? Or do you just do one round and then do the activity again the next day with the fatigue still present?
This is probably the hardest part. People feel symptoms and they "obey" their symptoms. For example fatigue=stay on couch. If you have fatigue all the time then you are in the very beginning of this journey. I would have a routine every single day and do VERY LITTLE until symptoms leave. So if you have fatigue everyday upon waking up, set up a routine and follow it no matter how you feel. AM- Deep breathing 20min, yoga 20 min, laughing yoga 10 min. Repeat around noon. Repeat before bed. Even if I fell asleep My goal was to increase time from 5 min to 6 minutes. First time I did the deep breathing I feel asleep before my 5 minute timer. I also didn't beat myself up for "falling short". I was. happy I was able to do one minute and I tried again later.
You dont have to. The problem with emotional trauma is not the trauma itself, it's the belief you integrate with your self. Example would be, Due to childhood trauma I believe I have to be perfect. SO as an adult and trying to heal you are rushing to get back to work, you want to heal FAST, you need this down NOW. Your desire to be perfect is causing your nervous system to "STRESS" and wont allow you to heal. So it's only when your emotional trauma is getting in the way of healing that it becomes a problem. The idea of healing emotional trauma is impossible. BUT I think processing, understanding our emotional traumas is important for our emotional and nervous system health.
I have a different issue that I'd personally describe as long medical negligence, (terrible symtoms that went on for 4 1/2 years before an eventual surgery, still plagued with aches and fatigue post surgery/recovery), I wonder if this would work for me too
It's worth giving a shot. There are different names for dysautonomia. If there is no Xray or MRI scan showing physical damage then I would give it a shot.
This is brilliant. I'm going to try this technique to get back to running. I have worked my way up to one hour per day of zone 2 exercise (with some zone 3) on the bike, rowing machine or elliptical but I simply cannot go for a run without feeling awful, despite the fact that my heart rate is lower when jogging on the treadmill (running outside is even worse) compared to my elliptical exercise which is mostly comfortable for me. Running was my thing prior to covid. Even if I'd slack on running for weeks or months I could still go out and jog a couple miles without crazy symptoms. Now just barely jogging on the treadmill makes me feel awful. It's so weird. I can also work a 12 hour shift on my feet with over 20,000 steps and be relatively ok but I can't do 5 minutes on the treadmill.
It's amazing how weird the nervous system works. If I put a squat rack on my neck and squat (even if it's just the bar) my nervous system will send brain fog my way lol. Let me know how the sandwich goes
@@Roberto-Escobar I've worked my way up to 20 continuous minutes of treadmill running, mostly symptom free. For me this proves that it really is mind-body rather than purely biomedical. It's almost like a gradual exposure exercise for me. I've been doing deep breathing and Buteyko breathing before and after. My goal is to eventually do longer runs outdoors but I'm absolutely thrilled with this much progress so far.
Im getting through this man! Ive been so afraid of my symptoms..afraid of running, afraid of driving. afraid of so much crap. I have a date tomorrow and I am sure its going to throw my nervous system over the top but Im going to stick to these exercises and buckle down.
So for this date tomorrow, that is your trigger, I would set 30-60 minutes before hand (because it a date and I assume you will be very nervous) doing a mix of the Polyvagal exercises. Listen to Disney or music that is calming but "happy", cant just be calming meditation music. When you are on your date, be observant of your breathing ( you will notice it may be shallow or you might start holding your breath), and taking nice slow, easy, deep breaths during the date. Smile alot (it signals to your nervous system you are safe). And expect symptoms to return. Have a mental plan "If I feel X symptom, I will remind myself, YOUR NAME am I safe" and take deep breaths. SLOW AND DEEP breaths. When you get home don't just throw yourself on your bed or couch. You may have delayed PEM. Do 30 minutes of polyvagal exercises. Hope this works. Keep us updated.
@@Roberto-Escobar appreciate the free game man! Ohh it’s definitely a trigger haha I was feeling horrible until I did the exercises so I know my nervous system is trying to stop me. I will definitely update.
@@santeenl yes wife sped it up to 1.15X in edit because she said I sounded too slow. We tried to upload slower video on our channel but UA-cam flagged it so we had to take it down. future videos wont be sped up 🤣
@@Roberto-Escobar bro, did you go back to being a nurse on your feet all day rushing around? I ask becasue I wonder if I could go back to being a plumber when I’m better
@@CharlieRascal I did not go back to a job I hated. I changed jobs that is alot less stressful and more aligned to my values. Living life with integrity is very important. So if you like plumbing you wont have issues. Doing things you hate causes a stress nervous system. I dont want to get into it but it gets very therapyish if that makes sense.
@@Roberto-Escobar thanks Rob. Makes perfect sense. I hated plumbing and retrained as a graphic designer just before I became unwell so I’d rather do that. But I asked as AI is going to take over the industry for sure
I want to add something: child trauma and repressed emotions bring a lot of stress to the nervous system. Some people need to connect the pieces of their inner child and polyvagal exercises are not enough. Read Gabor Mate: when the body says no.
You are absolutely correct. you really have to work on mindset, childhood trauma, self talk vs thoughts, certain beliefs, and being able to use the polyvagal tools. If you miss one then healing progress will be hindered. I love Gabor mate stuff.
I was brought up with the idea that we do now show emotions to others, everyone has their own problems. I had no trauma as a child but being vulnerable feels so uncomfortable if you’ve suppressed emotions all your life.
@@kylian-iOS I think "trauma" can sound like a heavy word. Trauma when young really is anytime you believe your parents disconnected from you because of your "fault". Im latino and my father didnt show me loving emotions, it was seen as a weakness and I felt that had to be true for me. Once I got older I realized the was wrong. When you cant share your emotions it's because you dont believe you are "safe" do so. Thanks for your comment Kylian.
@@Roberto-Escobarthis 100%!!!
Agreed! Main driver for me.
Clear and easy to understand explanation to managing nervous system activation. Thanks, Rob, for helping everyone. Sorry to hear about your bikes. I love my bikes, and I’d be pretty bummed. I’d need a double decker sandwich to manage that!
Thank you for your kind words. And it did suck, specifically they took a bike I bought a few months prior that took months to hunt down, because they dont make that bike frame anymore. It hurt but grateful nothing worse happened.
Thank you. This is perfect for where i am. Walking for exened periods, and adding hiking/backpacking which adds symptoms. Will sandwich and expand.
You're very welcome Doug. Let me know how it goes.
Roberto, What were the symptoms you experienced after exercising? I'm dealing with a hyperstimulated nervous system. If i work out to intensely my nerves flair up. I feel like the voltage in my body goes up after working out. Sometimes a light workout relieves these symptoms.
I had a plethora of symptoms. My symptoms dont matter. All our symptoms can vary. Regardless of the symptoms the approach is the same.
Sounds very reasonable; I think this is the solution combined with LifeWithKyle's approach, where before doing the exercises, you tune into the situation and the fears, and you perceive and accept the heart palpitations and all the symptoms that arise. This way, you signal to your nervous system: hey, everything is okay. Don't resist the symptoms and sensations but rather accept them like an army of 1,000 soldiers running towards you-embrace them without reacting fearfully or panicking!
I have been affected by long COVID since June 2023. In the past month, I managed to walk 10,000 steps several days a week and always at least 5,000. I was able to go shopping, etc. Unfortunately, I experienced a severe setback due to tonsillitis. My problem is that I've already been sick 10 times this year with fever, body aches, etc., and I can't quite tell if it's my nervous system (long COVID) or if I'm really sick, like with tonsillitis, or if it's a bacterial infection, for example.
But as presented in the video, this is definitely the solution, including the approach of evaluating the situation differently as I had already written.
Appreciate sharing your experience. My approach is a little different BUT I believe everyone has to accommodate and create their own approach to healing. Almost all of my clients that I have worked with created their own techniques and routine, but the foundation is the same.
I’ve never seen someone put all these ideas into such a clear and actionable framework. The idea of “nervous system retraining sandwich”-assisted exposure therapy makes a lot of sense to me, and resonates with my experience.
People always say not to be afraid of symptoms. Which honestly can just produce anxiety around having anxiety about symptoms! I like how you provide an actionable alternative: to embrace graded exposure to triggers as opportunities to advance healing, not threats to your healing.
I agree that, when you’re feeling a bit better, the thought of more symptoms feels scary and something to avoid at all costs. But reframing it as an opportunity to keep healing really helps!
I used to see having to quickly do some nervous system calming exersizes after a trigger as a sort of defeat, a sign I wasn’t healing. But I like the idea of planning ahead and embracing the sandwich!
David thank you for your lovely comment 🙏 Give it a try and let me know how it goes. Triggers are not defeats, just signals from the NS that it believe it is in danger. I think many under estimate the power of deep slow breathing, laughing yoga, yoga, positive visualization to calm the nervous system. "Calm" really just means signal to the NS that it is safe. Just like you can induce a panic attack through negative ruminating thoughts, breathing shallow and quickly, you can can induce calmness through the opposite behavior. Do not let your symptoms dictate your mood. Meaning if you have tons of symptoms, dont listen to your brain fog (host of other symptoms) and instead "force" yourself to do the breathing. Keep in mind the NS wants to shut you down due to believing you are not safe. So waiting to "feel" like you want to do the symptoms wont work. Hope this helps.
@@Roberto-Escobar Yeah, I feel like a big breakthrough for me on my journey was learning to separate symptoms from my mood/motivation!
Here’s what I’m wondering… how can my oxygen sat still be 96% on avg vs normal test subjects / family members around me 99%+ every time
DOnt monitor. creates anxiety and fear.
@@Roberto-Escobar I hear your Roberto and therefore I left it for 6 months, I truly hear your message and agree… BUT my friend…. I’m just curious how if I put my Oximeter on 10 people (which I’ve actually done more) and they’re all 98-100% and I’m sitting constantly between 92-96% - I guess my question is could our broken nervous system be responsible as bottom line is lower oxygen sats mean symptoms it’s very simple. And despite making huge gains from Mind body polyvagal theory my body can’t account for low oxygen! Maybe il hire you for personal work
Thank you Roberto🙌🏻
And thank you wife(don't know her name). Your reminders are very valuable❤
Thank you so much ❤️ Elena, she loves the thank you's
I've already used your advise from the reddit post and I've seen progress in the gym, although I can only do a few sets and I still get symptoms/flare-up if I try to workout for more than 3 days in a row, but anyway results are results and I'm very thankful. You were the only one I could find that gave specific advice regarding exercise when anyone else was like "pacing-pacing-pacing-whatever...". The only thing I'd like to ask is how you made you selection of polyvagal exercises. There are so many out there that it's confusing and I'm not sure what is working and what not. e.g. I tried your Disney suggestion and I'm not sure that I can feel some difference in my nervous system (although I religiously use it when I lift, probably for psychological reasons). Thanks again for the work you're doing for all of us, who are trying to find the end of the tunnel!
Most people use the word pacing. I dont believe in the effectiveness of pacing. Pacing is just working within the capacity of your nervous system. The question is how do you increase your capacity? And this is one method. Pick 3 that you really enjoy and made you feel "better". And repeat this 3 over and over and over again. I experimented ALOT during my recovery phase. I think thats why I have alot of "wisdom" because I purposely experimented with many exercises and made myself crash and just kept learning. Disney is great...disney is not a true polyvagal exercise. BUT it helps calm you down and bring joy. It's a great foundational tool to use. BREATHING is NUMBER 1. BREATHING is king. Specifically breathing slow and deeply. But it takes a lot of self discipline. because it's BORING. very boring. If I told you that you have to do slow deep breathing one hour every day straight....most people would NOT do it. Thats what I did and many of the people I worked with. A big reason many dont do it also is because they are not 100% convinced that it will work so they dont bother. Thats the beauty of experimenting. I wanted to heal so bad I was willing to try EVERYTHING. hope that helps.
@@Roberto-Escobar Thanks my brother. Breathwork was the first thing I discover to be immensely helpful in my recovery journey. It's criminally underrated and I also used it to regulate my insomnia and sleep apnea with great results. At least after all this ordeal I'll be wiser regarding my limits and how to properly take care of my body.
Thank you, thank you so so much..these other people on here won’t give the steps to do after a certain pain bc they want you to pay. So sad especially for us out of work for three yrs now. You are saving lives..bless you.
I don't believe charging for simple information is a good approach. I think having a course is great. I am personally creating a course now but most of the information is free on my UA-cam. The course is just organizing and getting specific exercises (journaling) and questions to reflect deeply on certain aspects of healing. I personally healed from free UA-cam courses.
OK, so just a recap can you please confirm that this is a viable strategy
Before doing the exercise, take some time to relax, close your eyes and do deep breathing with an exhale that is longer than the inhale and visualize the exercise being beneficial, and also visualize a time in your life where you have felt strong and confident and pleasant and combined that with the visualization of exercising . You can also do other poly vagal exercises, like laughing in the mirror or listening to Disney music.
Performed the exercise with as calm and positive positive and attitude as you can
Repeat step one with the breathing visualization and Disney music and laughing in the mirror
Repeat over the days and weeks so that you’re nervous system will become desensitized and associate safety with the particular exercise
I’m assuming that this must be paired with a healthy belief in recovery, self-love, and the patient acceptance of the current situation to avoid the emotions of fear, anger, and hatred.
Is this all correct?
I honestly understand all of the concepts I think pretty well, but I still feel like I am stuck in negative emotions and apathy. I really don’t have anything to do all day because all of my hobbies were literally physical based in sports the gym, exercise, and yoga. I am now so bored and quite honestly sad and depressed all day spite, trying to be patient and understanding and practice self-love. has been many months and I have fallen into bad habits watching adult content online much more than I should. It’s impossible not to feel sad about this for me. I can’t trick my brain.
Because of not being able to stay in the state of self-love and optimism, my belief or recovery is not very strong because everybody says that you have to have self-love and embrace joy, but I honestly haven’t been able to. In the back of my head I feel like there’s a possibility that like a lot of the other people I might be stuck with this for a very, very long time and deep down. I don’t think it’s worth even exist thing if that’s true and this is the most, difficult part for me.
If anyone else has made it through this type of problem or situation, please let me know what to do, if there is hope, please share the hope. I am very, very far from having a positive mentality if that means that I’m stuck with this forever, it’s hard for me to want to continue. Please someone shed some light on if there is still hope out of this.
You’re not stuck forever. It just feels that way when you’re in a sensitized nervous system state. If you can’t access the gratitude/positivity yet, imo you first need to start with learning/embracing acceptance. Accept how you feel without fighting it or adding doom and gloom to it. Accept your symptoms and accept the apathy, even the depression. Not adding the fuel to it. Acceptance enables your body to start healing on its own because you’re not constantly throwing negativity onto it making yourself more sensitized each day. All we are dealing with here is severe sensitization (Covid was just the trigger). Listen to Claire Weekes book, Freedom from nervous suffering. She explains it very well and the key to begin to get out of it is acceptance. Then, whenever you feel a little bit better you’ll be able to access the positivity and gratitude easier, and do those things as well. Snowball effect
This is a great summary. love it! looks good to me. There could be more to unravel but if everything else is good then this is great. Apathy is normal. It's part of shut down phase. Apathy is dissociation. If you are depressed all I would ask myself why? what makes you depressed. You are depressed because of two things. yours thoughts and hormones. Hormones are out of whack due to nervous system dysfunction so dont focus on that. You cant control that except by doing PV exercises. Thoughts you could work with. Yeah you need to strengthen your mindset. Read Amy Morin book 13 things mentally strong people dont do. Work on those things. Mentally you are weak...and that is okay. LC will wreck your mindset. Gotta pick yourself up and time to learn how to get stronger. Her books gives you the way.
Totally agree with what John says here. thank you for your comment and for giving guidance to others. much love my friend ❤️
@@Roberto-Escobar thanks man. You prob dont remember but we talked on the phone once way back in the end of 2022, maybe beginning of 2023, dont remember. I'm pretty much completely fine now, except still stuck on the exercise thing (its just fear). This polyvagal sandwich concept really resonates with me though and is what i'm going to do when i try to get back into running/gym/tennis. As most probably do - i get discouraged when symptoms come back when i push my body again, but just need to eat a few more polyvagal sandwiches and accept that this is the process. haha
Excellent explanation 🤩
I only wished you slowed down your speech 😉 Normally I switch off videos where the person speaks too fast because it is too stressful to listen to 😬
Thank you! I had no idea how fast I was speaking until edit time came, I was passionate about this topic. Don't be afraid to use the playback speed button on UA-cam player. sorry lolol
The video was sped up during editing.
@@kaykay6618 just confirmed with my wife she did speed it up to 1.15X speed. She thought I was talking too slow. She said she won't be doing that anymore to following videos due to complaints
Oh, so thats why it worked at 0.75 for me 😅 Thanks for the video! You're right, when you reach 80/90 % you start avoiding symptoms at all costs - just being glad to have reached the level of a somewhat normal life. I think that's where I am now. Time for a good sandwich and a bit more courage I guess ;)
Im wondering if you have any guidelines for a daily routine for early recovery. I need some structure to commit to. E.g. 10 min laughter, 2x 20 min breathing or whatever, script . What would you include in a day ?
I'll tell you exactly what I did. EVERY SINGLE DAY, without failure. At first I had to work my way up to it. so be very compassionate towards yourself. Just do your best everyday. 20 min breathing, 20 min yoga in the morning. Laughing yoga in the shower . mid day 20 min breathing, take some time to listen to christian music and sing lyrics and just enjoy it. Before bed I would do 20 min breathing, 20 min yoga. People I have coached have done more than me to heal. Some have spent 1 hour doing breathing in the AM and another hour before bed. It's important to do teh exercises enough to the point where you get slight relief. because thats where belief comes in.
@@theshilhuette8964 Yes I would do 478 if it feels easier. Keep in mind due to dysregulated NS your chest may feel tight at first or even feel off rhythm. Make adjustments to breathing intervals as you see fit. It should feel easy. You will notice if you keep doing for several minutes the breathing feels easier, you feel like you can exhale longer, and you have a rhythm. That is a sign that your NS is letting go of stress and is settling in. Sometimes it can take many sessions to get there. But trust the process. You are doing great ❤
Having sex blows my symptoms out of the water, what a bummer this crap is!
Its like that for many people because its a hormonal explosion event. Once you start reducing symptoms in your normal everyday to day life, symptoms during said event will reduce and will one day not appear.
Rob, I have been followed your channel for a while, I did purposely experiment your theory to walk more beyond my limits to increase my nerve capacities and now I have crash......feeling extreme tired and pots......I am worried if I can get recovered from this crash 😞 would love to hear your suggestions
Absolutely you can recover. You are worried because you are afraid of your symptoms. DOnt be afraid of them. The best to lose fear of them if by doing the polyvagal exercises until you feel improvement. You have to prove to yourself this works by doing that work. Only do exercise once you are symptoms free and functional in your normal day to day life. If you are bed bound I would not recommend exercises. if you are triggered by going to work or grocery store I would not work out. BTW POTS hands down the worst symptoms. None of these things cause permanent damage. me and many others are proof of that. But you are believing whatever thoughts you are having when feeling symptoms. Dont believe them. You would be believing a lie. Hope that helps.
@@Roberto-Escobar thank you a lot Rob, my baseline from May until now has been improved from 2k o 6k steps a day after I followed your theory that purposely walked a bit more, then doing polyvagal exercises, it worked for me...However, I think Iast Thursday I did 10k steps, which triggered extreme tiredness and POTS, my heart rate is very high.... That is why I dont know if this time Polyvagal exercises would work for me because of the symptoms....
@@智姐带你看世界why are you trying to get to 10k steps ?
@@Roberto-Escobar I over did because I was not feeling tired on that day, also had doctor's appointment and I didn't monitor my steps closely, then the next day and afterwards I feel "the crash" coming back...
@@智姐带你看世界 why are you monitoring steps in the first place? Why over do it on good days?
How can you simply and exclusively define Long covid as a dysregulated nervous system when researchers haven't narrowed it down to even one mechanism e.g. viral persistence, auto immune condition, etc.? And what about Vx injury which is common but rarely talked about and presents identical symptoms to long covid? Is that simply just a dysregulated nervous system as well?
Thats how personally define it from my own personal healing journey. If you believe you can't heal due to spike proteins or jabs.....then it will be true for you. I am not here to convince people otherwise. Those that believe they can heal due to hundreds of stories found online.......then I am there for them. Wish you the best my friend. ❤️
I’m back running but still can’t lift weights, I will try the sandwich. Thank you!
Please do and let me know how it goes
did you check brain activity with electroencephalogram when you were at your worst and maybe also when you were feeling better?
no. They had expenses devises to measure EEG and I just didnt see how it could help. Once I learned polyvagal theory I stopped using all monitoring devices because I realized it just "stressed" be more and made me more hyper vigilant.
But is this method not another flavor of self centered perfectionism and self optimization without leaving out stored trauma?
Polyvagal sandwich ?
I mean it’s sounds more like a strict training plan than relaxation. In your older videos it’s sounds much more relaxed
@@amdeichgescheitert5779I totally get the confusion. So you don't want to put expectation in your life. You don't want those stressor u have no control over. But when it comes to doing the Polyvagal exercises you need to be strict about it. Why? Because your nervous system is in shut down phase and is giving you symptoms that prevent you from ever feeling like you want to do these exercises. It's hard to do the breathing or laughing yoga when all you feel is extreme fatigue, brain fog, and dizzy. It will be rare that you will feel like doing these exercises. And if you do it only when you feel like it, you won't heal. You need to keep a strict routine. Also being flexible and not hard on self when you feel like u fall short. For example ur plan is 10 min breathing but u fall asleep 5 min in, it's okay, laugh and try again another time. Be proud of yourself that you did 5 min. But try again, and again, and again until u can do the 10 and then increase time. During the time in between do things u enjoy, laugh, sing, whatever you have capacity but purposefully "playing" is important. Hope that makes sense.
It makes sense. But it wasn’t just a hint that even when we learn about the toxicity a being a type a person. In the end to a certain degree we will use some of the habits for good but without the self harming perfectionism
@@amdeichgescheitert5779 the key difference is self compassion. Very big different when being Type A is very self abusive. How do we know which one we are being towards ourselves? Two things. Listen to your self talk. Or be aware of your emotions. Shame or guilt or feel helpless comes from self abusive talk. Feel relaxed, happy, joyful, comes from a self compassionate self talk.
What about fatigue that lasts for a long time (ie days) after the stimulating activity? Do you just keep doing polyvagal exercises until it goes away? Or do you just do one round and then do the activity again the next day with the fatigue still present?
This is probably the hardest part. People feel symptoms and they "obey" their symptoms. For example fatigue=stay on couch. If you have fatigue all the time then you are in the very beginning of this journey. I would have a routine every single day and do VERY LITTLE until symptoms leave. So if you have fatigue everyday upon waking up, set up a routine and follow it no matter how you feel. AM- Deep breathing 20min, yoga 20 min, laughing yoga 10 min. Repeat around noon. Repeat before bed. Even if I fell asleep My goal was to increase time from 5 min to 6 minutes. First time I did the deep breathing I feel asleep before my 5 minute timer. I also didn't beat myself up for "falling short". I was. happy I was able to do one minute and I tried again later.
Do you heal emotional trauma first ?
You dont have to. The problem with emotional trauma is not the trauma itself, it's the belief you integrate with your self. Example would be, Due to childhood trauma I believe I have to be perfect. SO as an adult and trying to heal you are rushing to get back to work, you want to heal FAST, you need this down NOW. Your desire to be perfect is causing your nervous system to "STRESS" and wont allow you to heal. So it's only when your emotional trauma is getting in the way of healing that it becomes a problem. The idea of healing emotional trauma is impossible. BUT I think processing, understanding our emotional traumas is important for our emotional and nervous system health.
@@Roberto-Escobar excellent. Thankyou.
Thank you and elena. Going back to driving the next i really want my nervous system to learn.
YESSS!!!! You got this!!! Im cheering you on. Keep us updated.
Thank you Rob. Another amazing video.
I have tried this sandwich technique for Bike riding x
IT WORKS. im now up to 6 miles symptom free.
AND thank you to your beautiful wife who is an earth angel just like you. x
That is amazing to hear Nikki! Keep going! ❤️ you have always been one of my biggest supporters 🥰
I have a different issue that I'd personally describe as long medical negligence, (terrible symtoms that went on for 4 1/2 years before an eventual surgery, still plagued with aches and fatigue post surgery/recovery), I wonder if this would work for me too
It's worth giving a shot. There are different names for dysautonomia. If there is no Xray or MRI scan showing physical damage then I would give it a shot.
@@Roberto-Escobar Thank you 🥰
Will this work with Pots Covid and have increased heart rate with palpitations?
I have LC and POTS and helped me heal.
This is brilliant. I'm going to try this technique to get back to running. I have worked my way up to one hour per day of zone 2 exercise (with some zone 3) on the bike, rowing machine or elliptical but I simply cannot go for a run without feeling awful, despite the fact that my heart rate is lower when jogging on the treadmill (running outside is even worse) compared to my elliptical exercise which is mostly comfortable for me. Running was my thing prior to covid. Even if I'd slack on running for weeks or months I could still go out and jog a couple miles without crazy symptoms. Now just barely jogging on the treadmill makes me feel awful. It's so weird. I can also work a 12 hour shift on my feet with over 20,000 steps and be relatively ok but I can't do 5 minutes on the treadmill.
It's amazing how weird the nervous system works. If I put a squat rack on my neck and squat (even if it's just the bar) my nervous system will send brain fog my way lol. Let me know how the sandwich goes
@@Roberto-Escobar I've worked my way up to 20 continuous minutes of treadmill running, mostly symptom free. For me this proves that it really is mind-body rather than purely biomedical. It's almost like a gradual exposure exercise for me. I've been doing deep breathing and Buteyko breathing before and after. My goal is to eventually do longer runs outdoors but I'm absolutely thrilled with this much progress so far.
Im getting through this man! Ive been so afraid of my symptoms..afraid of running, afraid of driving. afraid of so much crap. I have a date tomorrow and I am sure its going to throw my nervous system over the top but Im going to stick to these exercises and buckle down.
So for this date tomorrow, that is your trigger, I would set 30-60 minutes before hand (because it a date and I assume you will be very nervous) doing a mix of the Polyvagal exercises. Listen to Disney or music that is calming but "happy", cant just be calming meditation music. When you are on your date, be observant of your breathing ( you will notice it may be shallow or you might start holding your breath), and taking nice slow, easy, deep breaths during the date. Smile alot (it signals to your nervous system you are safe). And expect symptoms to return. Have a mental plan "If I feel X symptom, I will remind myself, YOUR NAME am I safe" and take deep breaths. SLOW AND DEEP breaths. When you get home don't just throw yourself on your bed or couch. You may have delayed PEM. Do 30 minutes of polyvagal exercises. Hope this works. Keep us updated.
@@Roberto-Escobar appreciate the free game man! Ohh it’s definitely a trigger haha I was feeling horrible until I did the exercises so I know my nervous system is trying to stop me. I will definitely update.
@@davonervin Anytime brotha!
Thank you Robert and wife
You are very welcome!
Your wife and you are helping a lot of people out there. Great work!
thank you so much ❤️
Thank you to wife also ❤ great job !
thank you! ❤️❤️
Going to implement this technique. Thank god for you and your wife.🙏🏽
Glad to help. Keep us updated
Thanks so much for helping people get back to movement!
The tools you’re providing here are so generous.
Any time!❤️ Thank you for your kind comments
Can you talk a bit slower?
LOL I will do my best next time to speak slower. I had no script in this video and spoke out of passion.
@@Roberto-Escobari played it at 0,75x speed and it sounds good, did you speed it up? 😂
@@santeenl yes wife sped it up to 1.15X in edit because she said I sounded too slow. We tried to upload slower video on our channel but UA-cam flagged it so we had to take it down. future videos wont be sped up 🤣
🎯🎯
hope it helped!
Great video. Thanks for sharing
Thanks for watching!
@@Roberto-Escobar bro, did you go back to being a nurse on your feet all day rushing around? I ask becasue I wonder if I could go back to being a plumber when I’m better
@@CharlieRascal I did not go back to a job I hated. I changed jobs that is alot less stressful and more aligned to my values. Living life with integrity is very important. So if you like plumbing you wont have issues. Doing things you hate causes a stress nervous system. I dont want to get into it but it gets very therapyish if that makes sense.
@@Roberto-Escobar thanks Rob. Makes perfect sense. I hated plumbing and retrained as a graphic designer just before I became unwell so I’d rather do that. But I asked as AI is going to take over the industry for sure
Thank you and god bless you🙏🏽
You are so welcome