Learning to Recognise the Early Signals of Stress

Most of us are taught to solve problems with our minds.

Think it through.
Analyse the situation.
Push through and keep going.

But the body often knows something is wrong long before the mind catches up.

We experience the world BODY first, not MIND first.

Long before burnout.
Long before emotional overwhelm.
Long before we consciously recognise stress.

Our nervous system is constantly communicating with us through subtle physical signals.

The problem is that many of us have learned to ignore those signals.

Over time, this disconnect between the mind and body can make stress build quietly in the background - until the body eventually demands attention.

Learning to recognise these signals is one of the most powerful steps in nervous system awareness and stress prevention.

I hear this all the time from people I work with:

"I keep hearing about nervous system regulation… but I don’t actually understand what it means."

Maybe you’ve heard the phrases too:

• regulate your nervous system

• fight or flight

• somatic practices

• trauma-informed wellbeing

• vagus nerve activation

But no one has ever really explained what the nervous system actually is, or why it matters so much for stress, burnout, and emotional wellbeing.

So this is a very simple guide.

No medical jargon.
No complicated biology.

Just the basics of how your body and mind work together to keep you safe.

So many people ask me to explain to them what the Nervous System is, like as if they know nothing - a “nervous system for dummies” explanation.

I think it’s shocking that this isn’t taught to young kids in school, to doctors, mental health practitioners, and really anyone interacting with… I dunno - other humans!?

It’s basic human life, and we don’t know about it, no wonder so many of us are crumbling - we’re simply not equipped to know how to manage ourselves, interpret our own behaviours and translate anyone around us.

We talk a lot about stress.

Stress at work.
Stress in leadership.
Stress in relationships.
Stress in modern life.

But very rarely do we talk about the system in the body that is actually processing all of that stress in the first place.

There was a season where I genuinely thought something was wrong with me.

I felt disconnected. Flat. Tired in a way sleep didn’t fix.
I’d get heart palpitations, or butterflies in my stomach for no apparent reason.
I would shut down emotionally randomly out of the blue.
My mind was busy, but my body felt miles away.
I couldn’t always feel joy properly — but I also couldn’t fully access sadness or rest either.

So once I started talking therapy I told my therapist I thought I was dissociated.
And honestly? In some ways, I absolutely was.

But what I didn’t realise at the time was this:
My nervous system had been stuck in survival mode for so long that I’d never learned how to listen to my body.

Helping everyone else rest taught me how little I was listening to my own body.

A few years ago, my work was all about creating calm, restful homes for other people. I helped clients from all walks of life — leaders of companies, kibbutz dwellers, friends, and family. My job was to help them feel rest and peace at home, through beauty, organisation, redesigning layouts, and choosing aesthetics that supported calm.

And I was so good at it! It made me happy.

Except… It wasn’t proving peace and calm for myself. I painted every inch of my home, curated every detail, and was intentional about every choice — all while my family grew around me.

I thought I was resting. Weekends off. Screen-free evenings. Holidays… sometimes. But I never felt restored. My energy stayed low. My mind constantly buzzed. My body remained tense. I didn’t realise it, but my nervous system was running on overdrive — and all the “rest” in the world couldn’t fix it.

It took hitting burnout to notice.

Welcome to a space on the internet where you can say it out loud:
life is hard, and you’re exhausted.

Maybe you’re not sleeping properly, but you’re getting just enough rest to function. Or maybe you spend all week looking forward to the weekend - to the rest you hope will reset you - only to find you can’t switch off. Or perhaps you’ve reached the point where you know you’re burnt out, but you genuinely can’t see a way out.