In this Three Thoughts for Thursday episode, I share a simple and accessible way to recognize the nervous system state you’re operating from in your business and how to move between states more mindfully.Using Green Zone, Red Zone, and Blue Zone as an orienting framework, we explore what flow actually feels like, why shutdown and urgency aren’t personal failures, and how each nervous system state can be either nourishing or costly depending on the context.

This isn’t a clinical or diagnostic conversation, and it’s not a strict lesson in polyvagal theory. It’s a practical, real-world approach for business owners who want to make decisions with more awareness and less self-judgment.The goal isn’t to control your nervous system.It’s to recognize where you are and choose your next move with intention instead of habit.

Visit the Be More Business Podcast Resource page for January: https://bemorebusiness.com/episodes/building-positive-habits-for-momentum/

Welcome to three Thoughts for Thursday, where wisdom meets momentum.

Here's Kimberly Beer, entrepreneurial, wise woman and cyber sorceress to share three sparks to challenge how you think, create, and lead.

In my three thoughts today, I want to give you a way to recognize the nervous system state you're in and then be able to consciously and mindfully choose if you want to facilitate movement into a different state.

Not going to give you the false hope that I have some magic wand that can help you shift the gear from one state to another, but I am going to give you some techniques and ideas about how you can recognize what state you're in and then how you can utilize tools and techniques to create a different state or move into a different state.

So we're going to do this kind of through the lens of polyvagal theory.

Although I want to be really, really clear, I'm not going to stick to straight polyvagal theory here.

If that's something that interests you and this episode intrigues you and you don't know about polyvagal theory, please, by all means, go do some research.

But I want to keep this more accessible for someone who isn't necessarily interested in polyvagal theory, but simply wants to be more in tune with their nervous system state and with how they can facilitate moving through the different states when it is useful in both life and business.

Now, we're going to do this by using red zones, green zones, and blue zones.

So I want to give you a little bit of a background so as we move through this episode, you have a good understanding.

So green zone is the flow state.

It's the state where we are in the most balance and we're moving easily in flow.

I think we can all maybe take a moment and tune into what flow feels like for us.

It'll feel a little different for everybody.

Red zone, on the other hand, is when our flight system, our fight system kicks in.

It's that I have to be in action and I have to be in movement and.

And a lot of times we can recognize this as anxiety and nervousness.

So it's that really heightened state that we can get into.

Then the blue zone is the more shutdown state.

It is the going within.

It's the kind of stuck in your particular situation state.

So each of us experience those states and evolutionarily, if that's a word, evolutionarily, we have access to all three of them.

What goes on around us many times will help dictate where we naturally move into.

But ideally, our most balanced state is the flow State.

So let's start there by understanding what that is, and then we'll move into the other two states and talk about them.

So in the green zone, we are regulated, available in flow, many times in perfect presence.

So we're very in the moment, so to speak.

Very gestalt, if we want to put it that way.

It feels like being present, responsive, not rushed, focused without being forceful.

Decisions feel easy and proportional.

They don't feel urgent or overtaxing.

In business, this looks like being able to write and speak clearly, to have conversations with your clients that are mutual, and to problem solve without spiraling.

Wow.

How many of us would like to have that one in our life?

Right?

When people enter the green state, they do so many times through familiar routines, through doing work that they're practiced at, and inside of environments that feel safe and predictable.

Because safe and predictable does not really bring up the other two states either shutdown or anxiety, right?

Safe and predictable means that we don't have to worry about shifting into those states so we can stay in the green zone.

Ways that you can.

When you recognize you are in a red zone, or you're moving into a red zone, or you're moving into a blue zone, or you want to facilitate moving into the green zone, here are some things you can do to get there.

Do something that is familiar, something that you have practiced a lot that helps you find the flow.

It helps your nervous system attach to the state that you really desire to be in.

When you desire to be in the green state, doing things that feel very safe and easy is great.

If you can narrow things down to a singular task, sometimes that helps.

Orienting yourself to the environment that you're in also helps.

Now, I'm not saying that you have to go sit for 20 minutes in meditation in the room that you want to be in the green state in.

What I'm saying is just take three breaths and orient yourself, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and then move forward.

That creates that safe environment and predictable environment.

The other thing I want to offer you is that ask yourself, what is the next.

And this is the key word doable thing on my to do list in flow.

When you want to be in flow, you do not want to be in something that causes you to have anxiety.

You want the doable thing, the thing that is easy, the thing that will facilitate that transfer into the green state.

Then try the harder thing, because now you're in the state and it's easier to maintain a state than it is to change states.

The key point about our green state is that it is not constant bliss.

It is capacity and flow.

And although we're going to strive to be in this state the majority of the time, it is not 100% achievable.

All the time shit is going to happen and it's going to kick you into a red state or a blue state.

All right, so now let's talk about red and blue.

And we're going to start with blue.

And I want to say that there's two expressions to this blue state.

And this is where I'm probably deviating a little bit from polyvagal theory.

But there's two expressions in both the red and the blue states.

One of them is a costly expression, and one of them is a more nourishing expression.

Expression.

So when blue is nourishing, it's rest and integration.

When it is costly, it is freeze and shut down.

So I hope that makes sense to you in understanding that even these states, which happen in a different place in our nervous system, they can have a positive effect.

They're there because we evolved to have them there for a reason.

And so I'm going to call that the nourishing state.

Then there's times we get stuck there and it becomes a very costly state.

And in the case of blue, rest and integration is the nourishing balance of that state.

And freeze and shut down is the costly one.

In business, when you are in the costly part of the blue zone, you're avoiding your inbox.

You're procrastinating things that feel heavy.

It's not out of rebellion.

It is because they don't feel doable.

Hence why we want the doable thing.

In the green state, we go blank in meetings, don't have anything to add to the meeting, and wanting to disappear rather than make decisions.

It happens a lot to business owners.

And again, we can't be in the green state 100% of the time, no matter what the commercials tell us.

All right?

It just doesn't happen that way.

What I want you to take away from that particular conversation is blue isn't laziness.

It's conservation.

And there are times when you need to access that conservation to keep yourself safe and healthy.

That's why the blue state exists.

So mindful exits out of this would be adding something that feels safe and protective.

For some people that might be drinking a warm cup of tea or sitting in the sunlight or touching grass, or maybe even just as simple as covering up with a blanket at your desk that helps you ease into the relaxation and Then ease out into flow.

Gentle movement also helps you move out of the stuck frozen of blue stage and more into the flow type of a stage.

So gentle movement could mean yoga, it could mean going for a walk, it could mean standing up at your desk and doing a nice stretch.

Also, when you're in the blue state, lower the damn bar.

It is okay to lower the bar if in the morning you had things on your list that feel heavy that you're trying to procrastinate.

Maybe today isn't their day.

Okay, there are times that maybe you can't follow that.

But I'm going to guess if you really look hard, there are times when you can just lower the bar and say, you know what?

I'm going to let this slide until I get in a better state with more capacity.

So blue doesn't respond to pressure, it responds to safety.

And that's why trying to force your way through something that you're procrastinating rather than trying to understand what is underneath the procrastination never works.

All right, now let's talk about red.

Red is mobilized energy.

And again, it has two ways of expressing itself on the nourishing or what we perceive as nourishing.

I'm going to tag it with that because this has a cultural aspect for us.

It's productive, it's creative.

It is crisis response and being able to make all of the right decisions at the right time under tremendous pressure.

On the costly side, it's urgency addiction.

It's not being able to work unless you are in that state.

Oh boy, does that one sound familiar.

I'm looking at myself right in the camera right now for understanding that I have created that in my business and my life.

It's also creative surges that completely drain you that you have to go all the way into the blue zone to be able to move yourself out of it is crisis and anxiety driven decision making.

In business, it looks like doing everything at once, fixing problems that aren't yours, or difficulty stopping even when you are exhausted.

So some ways that you can exit this stage state and enter another is to simply slow down your body.

Take a minute, take a sit.

I do my recalibrations, which I talked about in the Monday episode with the interview with Kelsey Webb.

That's how I kick myself out of the red zone and kick myself into the green zone where I can do things more in flow.

Taking a long exhale just simply brings things down a notch.

Also, naming what is actually urgent and what just feels urgent, naming what really does need to be focused on next.

Awareness is curative.

I keep going back to Fritz Pearls and the awareness is curative.

So just getting aware and curious.

Red isn't a wrong state to be in.

It is a necessary state on occasion, and you always want to be able to access it in a way that you're not afraid of it.

But it isn't sustainable all of the time, so we do have to keep that in mind.

So the goal here isn't to control your nervous system.

Your goal is to recognize the state you're in and then choose your next move with awareness instead of habit.

I hope you have enjoyed this episode.

I will see you in the next one.

Thank you for listening to the Be More Business podcast, where wisdom and innovation merge to create a business that supports the life you want to live.

For more resources, courses and inspiration, visit Be more business dot com.