Returning to Myself: The Quiet Work of Nervous System Healing

There’s a kind of tiredness that sleep doesn’t fix. A quiet buzz beneath the skin, a breath you can’t quite exhale. Lately, I’ve been noticing that I’m not just physically exhausted—I’m systemically overwhelmed. Like my body has been holding its breath for years.

And the truth is: it has.

I’m learning now that this isn’t just anxiety. It’s not just stress. It’s the echo of survival mode—years of pushing through, holding it together, showing up, smiling, managing, and absorbing. My nervous system has been doing everything it can to protect me, and now it’s tired.

I’m not broken.
But I am being called back to wholeness.

For the first time, I’m not trying to fix myself. I’m listening. I’m giving space to the trembling. I’m giving softness to the parts of me that never got to rest. I’m choosing to build a relationship with my body, not just use it as a vehicle to “get through the day.”

This is sacred work.
It is small.
It is slow.
And it is enough.

I’m not doing it perfectly. Some days I forget. Some days I still try to outrun the stillness. But more and more, I’m learning to breathe on purpose. To notice where I am. To whisper, “You’re safe now,” to my chest. To recognize when joy shows up—no matter how brief—and let it sit beside me without guilt.

Nervous system healing isn’t glamorous.
It doesn’t happen on the surface.
It’s an internal unfolding—a return to truth.

If you’re here too, beginning this work… I see you.
Let’s not rush this. Let’s not demand that it look like progress.
Let’s just promise to return—again and again—to ourselves.

This is the new practice:
Safety. Slowness. Self-trust.
We’re not just surviving anymore.
We’re rebuilding a home inside our bodies.

Guidance is where I feel the most safe, when I feel I can guide myself into this trust. Download the Nervous System Healing Guide

 Be Great,
   Stephanie

The Missed Moment — When Emotions Jump Before We Notice

 

Sometimes I jump emotions.

I don’t mean mood swings — I mean I feel the scale of it all, back to back, wave after wave. One second I’m hopeful, then I’m tight with pressure. And it’s wild because the shift isn’t the problem. It’s the missing. The moment I don’t notice what I’m feeling. That’s where I lose the ground beneath me.

Noticing your emotions — that’s the missing piece. That’s the bridge.
We’re told you can shift from sadness to joy, but no one tells you how fast it can happen if you’re present enough to recognize the emotion as it’s forming.

I’ve been in this pressure ball lately.
It feels like being born again — the squeezing, the heart racing, the urgency of life happening to you, through you, for you — and you want to be ready. You have to be ready. The pressure says, "What’s coming? What are you calling in? What are you allowing?"

I want all the good things. I want everything I’ve worked for to flow to me.

But I also know that the way I feel determines how those things show up — or don’t.
And I’ve been focusing so hard on staying in alignment, staying faithful, even when it hurts.

Yesterday, my daughter almost missed her dance clinic.
She lives for this. It would’ve broken her heart. And for a split second, that nearly crushed me.
Not because I want to give her everything — but because I know what it feels like as a little Black girl to love something deeply and not have access to it.

People say “That’s resilience. That’s teaching her the real world.”
But I don’t want my daughter’s resilience to be born out of lack.
I want her to grow into her power from a place of fullness.

So I reached out to the universe — to God — raw, open, desperate for a miracle.
I made a GoFundMe. I didn’t want to ask for money, didn’t even share it wide because I didn’t want people thinking I was just trying to sell my book. But the truth is — yes, I do want you to buy my book. I am proud of it. Because I know who I am and where I’m going. And I know the intention behind every word I’ve written.

I’ve zigzagged my way through so many fireballs in this life — dodging shame, insecurity, burnout, fear — just to arrive at a point where I can say:

I don’t need saving. I need alignment.
I need God. I need Source. I need me.

And I’m practicing that presence.
Even when it feels like I’m unraveling. Even when I’m on my cycle and emotions get louder than logic. Even when the only place I find clarity is in silence.

I’m studying myself.
I’m my own case study.

And somehow, my daughter did get back into Dance.
I don’t know how. It wasn’t anything I orchestrated.
It was God. It was the universe.

It did it.
He made a way.
She gets all the glory.

I am humbled.
I am held.
And I am reminded that faith, even when tested, is never wasted.

So for everyone who wanted to help, who thought about us, who loves my daughter and my children — I see you. I thank you. Your energy carried us. And I hope this blog helps carry you, too.

Because every time I slow down and notice,
I find me again.

And I hope you’ll find you, too.

Through this experience, a worksheet was created. I use this to assist in noticing. Implement this into a daily routine, and in moments of spiraling, when the world is going too fast, and you need to slow yours down. Download the Noticing Practice Worksheet

 Be Great,
   Stephanie

Worry.

 

Why worry? “Don’t worry, be happy.” Okay how? Think about all the good things in your life, oh okay….YEARS LATER…All you do is think about the good in your life, you think this that the other stuff too, no, I just am focusing on being happy, no you need to change, person starts focusing on the things others’ wants them to. Cycle continues. In psychology, rumination typically involves overthinking about past events, problems, and/or concerns. We do this until the Cognitive preoccupation with potential of these past events, problems and/or concerns are constantly on our minds. Our minds are constantly on the past event, problem, and concern. We cannot think of it any other way. But if we were to focus on the good, where would that take us?

 Be Great,

   Stephanie

Love.

 

This word will have everyone scratching their damn head. WTF does this look like. My honest answer, after years and years, it looks like presence. It looks like an awareness that you are here and I am here, we are in this moment right now together. No one else, your connection to you and my connection to me comes together for a spark of something that no one can describe. What is that? What does that look like? The very understanding that I revere in the you that is you. The heartfelt kiss, or the laugh that melts pain away. To realize that in the moment of being in love, there is no other for which you would search. Because you are my now. I revere in myself when the memory of you comes, then I cannot even see you because I feel it so.

 

Be Great,

   Stephanie

Trust.

 

Accountability, Vulnerability, Harmony, Cooperation, Sharing and Appreciation. To be in a space where these principles are realized in every moment of time. How do you do it with so much going on, in the world, better yet in the mind? You open your heart to understanding more, you feel for yourself. You understand. If chemistry is energy, where does the energy go, how is it leaving you, in fear and doubt or with love and joy? Notice these things and trust every essence that fills you. Love with all the vulnerabilities you can stand for now and allow the flow of life’s experiences to come and teach you. Moment by Moment. Trust encompasses love like no other. To trust the very intuition of oneself to be able to feel the truest love of them all. To trust that the good you see in someone is a glimpse of their soul calling and them answering. To be part of that growth, to watch the one soul in the world that you know found you and you found it, is one of the greatest joys life can experience. I love you to the ends of the earth, to every situation that my soul encompasses, I will know that through you I saw myself with more clarity, and harmony, cooperation, sharing and reverence for Life.
 

Be Great,
   Stephanie