# 7 Micro Habits to Regulate Depression or Trauma (Shutdown Response)

## Метаданные

- **Канал:** Therapy in a Nutshell
- **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM7b-_YpK0s
- **Дата:** 07.05.2026
- **Длительность:** 13:32
- **Просмотры:** 38,599
- **Источник:** https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/51577

## Описание

Micro-habits to activate your nervous system and move out of dorsal vagal shutdown. Trauma-informed tools to reduce depression and climb the polyvagal ladder.

Learn the skills to Regulate your Emotions, including "Change your Brain" join the membership: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/membership
Insomnia Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiUrrIiqidTWdplSnedICFAMlMN-8ikae
Healing Beam of Light: https://youtu.be/iB5simoqvm8

If you’re feeling shut down, stuck in depression, or trapped in a trauma freeze response — this video is for you. In this Therapy in a Nutshell episode, Emma McAdam, LMFT, teaches 9 tiny “micro-habits” you can use to activate your nervous system, move out of dorsal vagal shutdown, and climb the polyvagal ladder toward safety, connection, and motivation again.
When trauma or chronic stress overwhelms us, the nervous system can get stuck in survival mode — either the sympathetic “fight or flight” state or the dorsal vagal “freeze / collapse” stat

## Транскрипт

### Understanding Your Nervous System’s Polyvagal Ladder []

Hello friends, today we're going to explore nine more tiny things you can do today that can help you get unstuck from depression freeze or a shutdown trauma response. You'll learn quick practices to feel safer and more energized. Let's jump in. Okay, first thing I want you to do is blink your eyes. Now open them. Slowly look around the room you're in. Move your eyes from side to side. Okay, start to move your head around. Look up. Look left. Look right. Okay. What do you see in your room? Maybe name it out loud. When you're stuck in shutdown, your gaze often gets stuck in this rigid tunnel vision or it gets kind of blurry. Slowly looking around the room and moving your head a little, noticing colors or shapes, it sends this message to your brain that I'm safe enough here in my environment. And this exercise helps us move up the polyvagal ladder by increasing our sense of safety. The next activity will help us get activated. Okay, you've probably heard that slow deep breathing can be good for you. And that's true, especially if you're stuck in the anxious state. Slow breathing can send a message to your nervous system that you're safe. But if you're stuck in dorsal vagal state, we want to do the opposite. So go ahead and take some short quick inhales, like this. — [sighs] — Pretend that you're a bunny sniffing a flower.

### 1. Blink and look around [1:41]

flower. Three to four quick sniffs can help send a message to wake up, get moving, and get activated. If you can do this with an actual flower, that scent can also help activate your nervous system. And you can do this right before a difficult task or just as part of your morning routine to get more activated. So, — [sighs] — Okay, here's another tiny thing to try. Change your environment to make it more stimulating. Now, when we're stuck in depression, we often try to think our way out of it, but this usually gets us stuck in a cycle of more ruminating, self-criticism, and just getting more stuck. So, let's switch things up to send a new message to your brain. This might look like opening the windows, turning on the lights, cleaning one area, sitting outside instead of inside, or you just switch up your work environment and go to a coffee shop, or a bookstore, or a library to work, or

### 2. Take fast breaths [2:33]

not work, to like actually rest and recharge. Mother nature has the best environments for our nervous system. Tons of studies have shown that nature is soothing for the brain and body. So, green therapy, blue therapy, even just watching a nature documentary can help. It sends messages of safety or danger to our primitive brain, so you use your environment to your advantage to get activated. And just change your scene and see how it impacts your mood. Okay, one of my wise followers told me, "Move a muscle, move a thought. " We aren't just minds, and we often can't think our way out of a shutdown state. We need a physical change to do that. And that takes us to our next habit. Move your body. Now, you probably don't want to hear this, but exercise is

### 3. Change your environment [3:21]

literally one of the best treatments for depression and trauma, but it does not have to be CrossFit. So, stay with me here. Your window of tolerance is the range of activities that you can do. Now, they're going to stretch you and possibly put you a little bit out of your comfort zone, but they're really going to help you. Now, for some people, this might look like exercising for hours or running every day, but for others, this might look like simply clapping your hands while sitting up in bed. So, here's what you need to know. Physical exercise is one of the most powerful tools for improving mental health because movement directly influences your brain and your nervous system. When you move your body, whether it's through walking, stretching, dancing, or lifting weights, it releases endorphins and other feel-good neurotransmitters including endocannabinoids that boost mood and reduce anxiety and depression. Exercise also helps regulate stress hormones like cortisol. It helps improve sleep quality. It decreases inflammation and it strengthens your sense of agency by reminding you that you can take action to influence how you feel. It helps your nervous system believe that it's capable. Now, over time consistent movement literally rewires the brain for

### 4. Move your body when you’re stuck in depression [4:33]

better emotional regulation and resilience. That makes it easier to handle life's challenges. If you'd like to learn more about simple challenges you can make that can powerfully improve your mental health, check out my online course change your brain. It's part of my membership which includes nine other courses and a weekly live Q& A. You can learn more at the link in the description. So, check that out. Okay, back to exercise. What's the best kind of exercise for depression? Well, it's whichever one you'll actually do. In addition to that, research shows that certain types are especially effective. So, aerobic exercise, anything that gets you breathing hard like brisk walking or jogging or swimming has the strongest evidence for improving mood. And there's a good evidence that doing 30 minutes of moderate activity three to five times a week can significantly reduce depression symptoms as much as medication. And the other thing that I thought was really cool is that this study that I'm popping up on screen right now — found that dancing was one of the best ways to do it. So, go dance. Ultimately, the goal is not intensity. It's just regular enjoyable movement that helps you reconnect with your body and regulate your nervous system and remind you that you can take action even when your brain says that you can't. Now, if talking about exercise might make you feel overwhelmed or depressed, let's use your window of tolerance to really dial in some movement that will actually work for you. Any kind of movement like gentle tai chi, yoga, walking are all great. I love doing outside activities. Then you get the bonus of being out in nature and getting exercise. I like active chores like chopping wood or weeding the garden, but I also heard a great story about a woman who couldn't like due to health problems she could not leave her bed. So, she watched Richard Simmons and clapped to his dancing. Over time she got healthier both physically and mentally, was eventually able to get out of bed and actually do some of the aerobics. So, long story short, be gentle with yourself and do just a tiny bit of exercise each day. All right, number five, connect with other people. We Americans live in this hyper-individualistic society. The messaging we constantly get is that self-help and self-care are the most important tools for mental health, but that's not how our nervous system works. Our nervous system actually depends on people to regulate. We need co-regulation to soothe or activate in a sustainable way. You need to be around people. So, please reach out or put yourself in situations where you're going to be around good people. Here are some of the best, most soothing and activating types of connection for your nervous system. Laughing, hugging, eye contact, talking, just being in a loved one's physical presence. I really believe that most of us need to take action to make this happen and that might look like scheduling a recurring lunch date or making a plan with friends to take turns in each other's gardens or even just something like volunteering at a school or nursing home. These can all help us get more of that eye contact and person-to-person interaction that tells our nervous system, "Oh, I'm actually safe. I can actually connect with people. I've got people who have my back. " And it sends that message of safety to your nervous system. Next two habits seem like they contradict each other, but bear with me. They are to cut out a few things and bravely face a few

### 5. Connect with other people [7:49]

things. So, number six is to cut some stress from your life. What are some of the really stressful things that you can just take a break from? And I don't mean like maybe not permanently, but you need some room on your plate to be able to take the time your body needs to heal. Usually we get stuck in dorsal vagal when we're burned out and overwhelmed. So, to heal, we need to create space to do that. So, can you decrease your stress by 5%? Maybe just by 1%? Maybe this looks like turning down an opportunity at work or allowing yourself to not be perfect in some areas like parenting or cleanliness. The goal here is to give yourself some margin, some mental resources to face the problems in your life. And that takes us to number seven. Hopefully, by resting and exercising you're building up a little bit more energy. And that stretches your capacity. It adds to your resources so that you can do one hard thing every day. So, pick one challenge to face, whether it's cleaning out that drawer, or going to therapy, or setting that boundary. Use a buttload of positive self-talk and surround yourself with positive people and just say like I can do hard things. Like let's go. Or even

### 6. Cut some stress from your life [9:02]

something like oh, it's a good day to have a panic attack. Like bring it on. It's a good day to get anxious. Let's go do the thing. Right? And it this might seem counterintuitive, but you actually strengthen your sense of safety when you leave your comfort zone and challenge yourself to get into the growth zone. And this is the other interesting thing about the polyvagal ladder is that you can't usually jump from dorsal vagal right to the ventral vagal the safe and calm. Usually we have to go through the activated state or the anxious state in order to get there. Like we might have to make a huge to-do list of all the things, and that might make us feel really anxious. And then we just pick one of the things to do, and we take action on that, and that can help us move out of this dorsal vagal state into ventral vagal, going through anxiety. Okay, number eight. Sometimes our body

### 7. Stretch your window of tolerance [9:53]

slips into shutdown or depression because it's simply run out of energy. You're so sleep deprived, nutrient deprived, dehydrated, or worn out that your body has decided to force you into a waking hibernation by slowing everything down, including your mood. And as a side note, in the dorsal vagal state, they can actually physiologically measure this. Like, your blood pressure decreases, your heart rate decreases, your breathing slows, your metabolism slows, right? So, your body's trying to force you into this conservation state to replenish your resources. So, one of the ways that we can support ourselves and improve our health is by taking time to restore our body's physical resources. Now, I'm just going to mention a few ways to do this. Nourish your body. So, that means check for nutrient deficiencies. There have been multiple studies showing that nutrient deficiencies make people less resilient and more likely to develop mood disorders like depression. One study even showed that for people who had just survived an earthquake in New Zealand, the group that were provided with a high-quality multivitamin were more resilient to stress and less likely to develop PTSD than the group without a multivitamin. So, what does this mean, right? Nourish your body. When possible, eat a lot of healthy plants with bright colors. Talk with your doctor about getting checked for nutrient deficiencies. A lot of people with

### 8. Eat well and stay hydrated [11:10]

depression are vitamin D deficient. A lot of people are magnesium deficient, and they lack other essential amino acids. There's even a recent study showing that people with anxiety have 8% less choline than people without anxiety. And choline can be found in a lot of plants, beans, legumes, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and eggs. Eating more healthy foods is probably really important. I know it's hard to do. Start with a multivitamin maybe. Talk with your doctor. Okay, here's another one. Drink water. You do not need to go overboard here. I'm not really a huge fan of these plans where it's like drink a gallon of water a day. That just makes you pee more. But, make sure to drink enough water to be well hydrated cuz when you're dehydrated, your body interprets that as a threat. Okay, number nine. Improve the quality of your sleep. Depression, anxiety, ADHD, and a bunch of other mental health conditions are closely related to poor sleep quality. And improving your sleep is a powerful way to improve your mood. I've got a playlist on this with a lot of ideas around managing insomnia, but there are some basic steps you can take. Get rid of caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, other drugs. Use good sleep hygiene. Don't nap during the day. Don't use your bed for work or other stressful things. Create a soothing nighttime environment. And have a consistent wake-up time each day. If you're struggling with insomnia or poor sleep quality, there's some more advanced things you can do to work on that. From doing a sleep study to CBTI. Like there really are some good treatment options. So, what I would say is don't settle for poor sleep quality. You can help your brain and body by making sleep a priority. Lastly, a little bonus. One of my favorite little meditation is called healing beam of light. If you feel cold, stuck, frozen, or depressed, it can help to visualize the sun rising and the beams of light gently warming you. You let the light energize you starting at your head and moving down to your toes. I made a little recording of this video. So, check out the link in the description for early access. There you have it. Nine micro habits that can help you with depression — or a shutdown trauma response. Don't feel like you have to do them all. Just

### 9. Improve the quality of your sleep [13:11]

add in one or two each day and watch as you get a little more energy, little more flexibility, and you feel a little bit more calm and capable. Thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate you. Please take care. — Mhm.