Dr Sarah Warley

We were talking about it earlier.

You can lock in, you can hyper-focus, you can really get something done, but you can't change and get the next thing done.

I mean, I was listening to a little girl that was super smart and she was doing an exam and she was told...

spend the time on the one you don't know as well, the question you don't know as well.

So she spent all the exam focusing on that.

She knew the answers to the other ones, but she didn't even get to answer them because she couldn't transition from the one that she was on, right?

So terrible frustration from that and letting people down that everyone gets angry with you because you didn't deliver what you say you were going to deliver.

And I think also just invisible effort that people on the outside don't see.

So the moment that it's happening, the dysregulation, or do you mean overall in terms of how you can help it?

Gosh, in the moment.

I mean, the thing is, when it gets to being a momentary thing, I mean, the ideal is you head it off at the pass and you do the work required to figure out what your main drivers are so you don't get in that position.

But when you do get in that position, there are very few things you can do to...

Go from that fight or flight panic mode into a calming one.

I mean, you probably know them already.

Breathing is one of the main ones.

Box breathing or, you know, breathing in for four, breathing out for six or eight and having a little hold between those.

That definitely works.

You know, people talk about things like binaural beats music as being something else that can help stimulate the vagus nerve and calm the system.

When you really dig into the research on that, it's a little mixed.

And I'm not convinced it's better than listening to any other kind of relaxing music.