Hello friends and welcome back to Healing Is My Hobby and welcome to our Healing Lab segment where each month I test real life practices to see what actually supports emotional healing. Not perfectly, not as a test, but as an experiment. I'm Jessica Colarco,
licensed clinical social
a healing journey just like you.
For this month, we have been focused on staying regulated in a dysregulated world. And so for the healing lab, what I set out to do was a lot of things. I was really set on trying a lot of things because I'm sure I'm feeling just like you are feeling, completely dysregulated and my nervous system is all out of whack. So what I wanted to try was news fasting.
for 48 hours where I tracked my mood, anxiety, and productivity. An intentional social media boundary experiment. set out originally no news after 7 p.m. to limit my exposure of news in my morning routine to stop social media by 5 p.m.
Also, I wanted to look at polyvagal practices. I identified humming, nature walks, and gentle stretching with breathing.
I also incorporated a what's in my control journaling practice. And finally, I created a collective grief ritual where I would light a candle, engage in prayer or meditation, and then identify a values-based action. So let's get into it and see what worked, what didn't work, and how I felt and what I recommend for you. So let's start with the news fast. The challenge was to choose a 24, 48, or 72-hour news fast.
I chose 48 hours. And I want to be honest about something upfront. This was not a perfect or total fast. As a therapist, I can't completely disconnect from current events because they come into my sessions. My clients are processing what's happening in the world and I hold space for that. So instead of aiming for perfection this month, I got specific. So for me, what news meant was social media.
not reading my emails that I get daily
from the New York Times and the Daily Skimm and not listening to my morning NPR routine or NPR in the morning. And also, this is so funny, like how we can't keep news out of our lives, but my youngest child has a heart challenge where they're trying to promote CPR and funding for the American Heart Association. And so for him to earn badges, he needed to post something on social media and he doesn't have
social media, so I posted on Facebook and I was on Facebook for like 10 seconds and someone had posted an inflammatory message and so that was just kind of interesting how I could not keep away from it and then even talks with my husband who'd be like, did you hear this happen? Or someone would say, what do you think about this? So we are kind of entrenched ⁓ in the world today. We have such access to news and information that unless I kind of, I don't know, went out into the desert ⁓
with
no connection to anyone, think it's almost impossible to completely fast, but.
Here's what I was doing. I intentionally removed my normal inputs and what I noticed surprised me. Emotionally, it helped reduce feelings of helplessness, sadness, disappointment, disillusionment, and unrest. Physically, I did feel lighter. I did feel less tense. I felt more present and more connected with my loved ones. But that said, there were definitely moments of discomfort. I did feel strong urges to listen
to the news in the morning, that's my routine. I ask my smart speaker to play my morning routine. That's a part of what I do with social media, just because of my podcast and my clinical practice, I normally go on there to post reels and to engage with my audience. So I felt that pull to check and those urges are real.
But what helped me in those moments was a gentle reminder. And this reminder I had created for this month's newsletter. And it is, I can care deeply and still protect.
my peace. So I can care about what's happening. I can want to change what's happening. I can want to advocate, but that doesn't mean I need to be available 24 seven. I can take a moment to protect my peace. And my biggest takeaway kind of was just that the first day was harder than I expected. But by day two, my body felt quieter and the quiet was noticeable and meaningful. So I think what I want to do moving forward,
is continue, and I will get into that a little bit with my social media boundary, but continue more boundaries with social media because news has seeped into my algorithm and news is kind of everywhere, so really, really putting extra limits on my social media. But I do enjoy first thing in the morning.
maybe not literally first thing in the morning after being awake for about 20 to 30 minutes, just hearing a little update on the news and then leaving it at that. So I do think it is important, especially if you are really sensitive, if you're feeling dysregulated right now, to really kind of look at your exposure to news and how maybe you can limit that in some places to protect your peace.
Okay, my second experiment was the social media boundary. So at first, it was gonna be no news after 7 p.m., but I'm really like an early bird, so I start winding down early and I'm not really exposing myself to news late. So I realized that what felt most supportive was a little bit different. So.
I decided to limit my news to 10 minutes. So this is after the fast, right? That was a 48 hour fast. And then after that, this experiment was to limit my news to 10 minutes of NPR in the morning to stop any social media by 5pm. And I've already been setting social media boundaries because we focused ⁓ on healing as my hobby on social media in December. And we just talked about that so much on how it can wreak havoc on your nervous system.
felt more like a continuation of me being very mindful and intentional with my use of social media. And the impact is clear, right? I felt freer. My evenings felt slower, and at first that slowness, it was a little uncomfortable, but ultimately it did help with my sleep, my increased sense of calm, and reduced irritability. And
Reducing social media has been a really big deal for me and I'm really proud of myself because I think for so many of us we can doom scroll as you know last week's segment on Therapy as my cardio talked about doom scrolling and so I think it's very easy for us when I was doing all this research in December I had set a timer to just be on social media for five minutes to see what that felt like and it it felt like I was on there for like 10 seconds so it is such a time suck and I have other things I'm interested in other priorities and
values. know, replacing the habit is important though, right? So I didn't just go cold turkey and not do anything, but instead of scrolling, I read my book that I was currently reading, I spent time talking with my family, I did notice I have urges to check, but I didn't immediately act on them and that pause made a big difference.
Experiment three, polyvagal practices. For this experiment, I just chose one practice per day so I didn't feel overwhelmed with doing it all at once.
And let's kind of look at a simple explanation of what that means and what the vagus nerve is. So the vagus nerve is one of the main communication pathways between your brain and your body. You can think of it like a calming highway that runs from your brain stem down through your neck and into your chest and abdomen. Its job is to regulate things like your heart rate, breathing, digestion, and your sense of safety.
When the vagus nerve is activated, it sends the message, you're okay, you can rest, you don't need to stay on high alert right now. But when we're under chronic stress, like constant news, uncertainty, or emotional overload, the calming system doesn't get activated as often. Instead, the body stays stuck and fight or flight or shut down. I also love that because it helps explain the mind-gut connection.
when we are feeling maybe depressed or anxious, we can feel that in our gut. And it is vice versa. It is a symbiotic relationship where they're finding if you have poor gut health, poor microbiome, that can cause anxiety and depression. So there really is a strong relationship here.
So practices like humming, slow breathing, gentle movement, even splashing cold water on your face can stimulate the vagus nerve. I didn't do the cold splash of water on my face because I wear makeup and that would just, I would have mascara all over my face in between sessions and probably look a little crazy. But that stimulation tells your nervous system that it's safe enough to shift out of survival mode.
This is why something as simple as humming can feel surprisingly soothing, right? It's shifting you out of survival mode. You're not just distracting yourself. You're directly supporting the part of your nervous system that helps bring your body back into balance. So the options I rotated through were humming for 30 to 60 seconds, five to 10 minute nature walk, and gentle stretching with slow breath. What surprised me?
was how effective humming was. It was incredibly soothing and the most accessible practice for me. Humming stimulates the vagus nerve and sends a signal of safety to the nervous system and I could feel that almost immediately. I did not hum a tune, I just wanted a straight, so what I did was I would just go, mm.
a little bit what you do when you say in Yoga or something like that. I would do it and I would do it in the office between sessions sometimes I would do it in my car so easy to do it we can do that kind of anywhere and so and also if you hum a tune anything like that Again, I just love the accessibility of that
The nature walks were also calming to stay present. I listed what I was seeing colors shapes movement I'm really fortunate we have in Vegas where we kind of call it ⁓ the wash
Pitman Wash and my office is backed up to that and that is a trail. It's for, like if we have flooding and stuff, you we do get flooding in Vegas, flash floods, and so most of the time we're dry and so they've created those to kind of be like nature trails in the area or fields and stuff. And so anyway, my office backs up to the wash, which is a nice, beautiful trail. I always have a pair of sneakers in my office so that already is fairly accessible to me.
That helped anchor me in the moment and was really calming and nice to get fresh air.
Movement also mattered. Instead of saying, I'm going to go to yoga class. I'm going to watch a yoga video. I'm going to make this long yoga thing. I simply just stretched with my breath for a few minutes. And that made it realistic for my busy life. So just like standing.
touching my toes, hanging for a little bit, focusing on my breathing, sitting with my legs crossed, doing a little bit of stretching from side to side. That was very accessible for me. My takeaway.
from all of this was I didn't expect humming to help. And so it was surprisingly calming. We know research says that if we walk two times a week for 20 minutes, that helps reduce depression, it helps with managing anxiety. Obviously there's a huge correlation with yoga, helping people recovering and healing from PTSD and helping with anxiety. So that research is like I kinda knew that was gonna work, but the humming was really interesting.
Experiment four, what's in my control journaling. This practice came directly from the Collective Calm Toolkit, which was my February free download. If you sign up for the newsletter, you can still access that. And I did this daily for five minutes. I just took a page, kind of split it in half. On one side, I listed what was out of my control.
Examples, global events, other people's choices, the past, the future, how others think, feel, or behave. And on the other side, I named what was in my control, right? My breath and body, how I consume news and social media, my words, actions, boundaries, how I care for myself day to day, the values I choose to live by. And I ended each entry with one small doable action.
This practice helped me let go in a way I didn't expect and it also brought me back to the serenity prayer. So I thought I knew the serenity prayer, you know, where it says, God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change and the courage to change the things I can, the wisdom to know the difference, et cetera, et cetera.
So I thought I knew that prayer and that's what I kept thinking of, right? Is it's kind of like, accept what I can't change, courage to change the things I can. It kind of was spinning in my head. So I looked up the full prayer and I thought, wow, that is so powerful in today's climate. And so I want to share the full prayer with you because it really deeply supported me. God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.
courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference, living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardships as a pathway to peace, taking as he did this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it, trusting that he will make all things right if I surrender to his will, that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with him forever in the next.
What stood out to me was this idea of surrendering control. So for me, this wasn't about religion or being religious. It was about release. What is that about for you? Does this prayer resonate with you? What do you find interesting about it?
This daily practice of journaling and listing what was in and not in my control helped me live one day at a time and enjoy the moments I actually have. I do, I struggle with letting go. I often carry the illusion that I can control my day and that fuels anxiety. So naming what I couldn't control made it easier for me to focus and helped me release guilt and stop gripping so tightly. Now we get to experiment.
Five, the collective grief ritual. I just did this twice a week. This one was tender. When I could, I lit a candle. When I was in my office and couldn't, I played gentle music instead.
I took three slow breaths and named what I was grieving. I named one value I wanted to live by and I ended with a small aligned action. Some examples of aligned actions you might try are making a donation, setting a boundary, choosing rest, practicing kindness toward yourself or others,
stepping back from a polarizing conversation.
me, one action was setting a boundary with a polarizing person in my life. And I want to be honest, there wasn't an immediate release of heaviness, but the intention really mattered for me. Taking a moment mattered, and it brought clarity. This is a practice I want to keep. Naming grief feels heavy, but it also feels relieving.
What this healing lab reminded me is that not every tool works the same for every nervous system, and that's okay. Healing isn't about doing everything, it's about noticing what supports you and letting go of what doesn't. If you wanna try any of these practices yourself, the Collective Calm Toolkit is available through the newsletter. It's a gentle place to start, no pressure, no perfection, and you can get that by signing up for my newsletter at healingismyhobby.com.
If you wanna stay connected, you can visit me at healingismyhobby.com for resources and blog posts, or follow along on Instagram and YouTube at Healing Is My Hobby. For my clinical work, visit jessicacolarcolcsw.com or follow me at jessicacolarcolcsw Links are in the show notes. Thank you for being here and for experimenting alongside with me. And next week, we get into one of my favorite segments.
