By Sophie Haslett For Daily Mail Australia 2:55 PM 20 Mar 2023, updated 3:35 PM 20 Mar 2023
Loren Hogue shared the three things she does to relieve stress when she’s busy. She recommends box breathing, eye presses, and arm and leg presses to calm down
A successful lawyer who struggled with severe burnout after losing her father in a car accident shared the three simple exercises everyone should do when they’re stressed.
Loren Hogue, 34, from Melbourne, was working as a junior barrister in 2011 when her father died unexpectedly in the accident.
The combination of long legal hours, helping her mother run her business, and grieving for her father left Loren feeling unable to cope.
She recalled that her hair was falling out, she couldn’t sleep, she lost 10 kg and was anxious and exhausted all the time.
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A successful lawyer who struggled with severe burnout after losing her father in a car accident shared the three simple exercises everyone should do when they’re stressed (Loren Hogue pictured).
After quitting her job and spending thousands of dollars searching for answers, Loren eventually discovered that she had the symptoms of a dysfunctional nervous system.
Regulating the nervous system allows you to maintain homeostasis, access restful sleep, reduce inflammation, and is involved in memory, auditory processing, learning, control of sensory processing, and more.
In a recent clip shared to Instagram, Loren revealed that she does three things to “relax her body and down-regulate her nervous system” when she’s feeling stressed, ungrounded, anxious, or just wants to unwind.
“Doing this over time has made me really resilient to challenges and cool as a cucumber in circumstances that would have stressed me out in the past,” Loren said.
Loren (pictured) revealed there are three things she does to “relax her body and down-regulate her nervous system” when she’s feeling stressed, ungrounded, anxious, or just trying to calm down. Loren (pictured) revealed that there are three things she does to “relax her body and down-regulate her nervous system” when she’s feeling stressed, ungrounded, anxious, or just wants to shut down box breathing: The Facts
* Box breathing is a powerful yet simple relaxation technique that aims to bring breathing back to its normal rhythm after a stressful experience. It can help clear the mind, relax the body, and improve focus.
Box breathing is a powerful yet simple relaxation technique that aims to bring breathing back to its normal rhythm after a stressful experience
* To attempt box breathing, a person should:
– Sit with your back on a comfortable chair and your feet on the floor
– close your eyes and breathe in through your nose while slowly counting to four and feeling the air enter your lungs
– Hold your breath while slowly counting to four and try not to pinch your mouth or nose.
– Exhale slowly for four seconds
– Repeat steps one to three at least three times
* Box breathing has a number of benefits as it reduces physical stress symptoms in the body, positively affects emotions and mental well-being, and increases mental clarity, energy and focus. It is also said to improve future responses to stress.
Source: Medical News Today
Many of the exercises are essentially a form of diaphragmatic breathing, which is known to lower your stress levels, lower your blood pressure, and regulate other critical body processes (pictured). Many of the exercises are essentially a form of diaphragmatic breathing known to lower your stress levels, lower your blood pressure and regulate other critical body processes (pictured)
The first exercise is a simple “arm and leg press.”
This is exactly what it sounds like and requires you to squeeze the muscles on your arms and legs in repetitive motions.
“Pay close attention to the physical sensations in the body to further enhance introspection,” Loren said.
The second exercise is an eye press, which requires you to place your hands over your eyes and take several deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth.
The reason this is so good for you is that it forces you to close your eyes and really helps you focus on your breath.
It’s essentially a form of diaphragmatic breathing known to lower your stress levels, lower your blood pressure, and regulate other critical body processes.
Finally, Loren recommends that you try box breathing.
Box breathing, also called square breathing, is a deep breathing technique that can help you slow your breathing.
It works by distracting your mind while you count to four, calming your nervous system and relieving stress in your body.
To attempt box breathing, a person should: Sit with their back propped up in a comfortable chair and their feet on the floor, close their eyes, and then breathe in through their nose while counting to four and feeling the air fill their lungs.
Next, have them hold their breath while slowly counting to four, trying not to pinch their mouth or nose shut, then exhale slowly for four seconds and repeat.
The goal is to repeat this at least three times.
Previously, Loren (pictured) told FEMAIL that she spent thousands of dollars trying to figure out what was wrong with her before discovering her nervous system was dysregulated
Hundreds of people who saw Loren’s video were quick to thank her for sharing her advice.
“That was so comforting to watch! love all these I especially like eye squeezes for a quick reset on stressful days,” one person wrote.
‘Great thank you. Need this,” added another.
A third wrote: “I do this intuitively all the time without realizing I’m actually regulating my nervous system.”
“I’ve hired psychologists, life coaches, healers, kinesiologists, business coaches, acupuncturists, naturopaths and even shamans in Peru to help me,” Loren said (pictured with her partner).
Previously, Loren told FEMAIL that she spent thousands of dollars trying to figure out what was wrong with her.
“After my father died, I began to experience the symptoms of a dysregulated nervous system that I know to be symptoms today,” Loren told FEMAIL.
“I had gut issues, chronic anxiety and trouble switching off. I had severe brain fog and almost constant pain. I was irritable and emotionally erratic. I did not know, what I should do.
“I have hired psychologists, life coaches, healers, kinesiologists, business coaches, acupuncturists, naturopaths and even shamans in Peru to help me,” Loren said.
“I’ve tried everything from meditation apps, mindset coaching, EFT, hypnosis, EMDR – you name it. I experienced some results but things still didn’t feel right inside me.
BEFORE: A successful lawyer who has struggled with severe burnout after losing her father in a car accident has revealed the 11 things she gave up to improve her health. AFTER: A successful lawyer who struggled with severe burnout after losing her father in a car accident has revealed the 11 things she gave up to transform her health
Loren said that no matter how hard she looked, she just couldn’t seem to find an answer.
That was until 2020 when she was first introduced to the concept of nervous system regulation.
“I was introduced to it and finally it started to click for me,” she said.
“I realized that I didn’t have a mindset problem and there was nothing wrong with me. I just had a dysregulated nervous system that had gone into overdrive after years of stress.”
Loren added, “It turns out that 80 percent of the nerves in the body are afferent nerves, meaning they run up from the body to the brain.
Warning signs of a dysregulated nervous system
● bowel problems
● Hair and weight loss
● Chronic anxiety and difficulty switching off
● insomnia
● Unexplained tiredness and lethargy
● Heavy brain fog
● Chronic pain
● Emotional irregularity and irritability
“Only 20 percent of the nerves go down to the body. This means we need to use the body and embodiment practices to treat burnout and stress, not mindset work.”
Loren and her husband, a scientist and tech entrepreneur, started digging deeper into the idea of regulating the nervous system, which led them to develop their Neurofit app, designed to help people regulate their nervous system on a daily basis.
“I want people to realize that the nervous system is the key to overcoming stress and burnout,” Loren said.
“There are body-based exercises that people can do daily to help them and habits that people can implement to make them feel better almost instantly.”
Within a few months of launching Neurofit, the app was already a huge success.
Loren said the average user reported 54 percent less stress within just seven days, while feeling 96 percent less stressed and dysregulated within five minutes of the neurological fitness exercises.
Thousands of people have downloaded the app and are already seeing great results.
“A healthy nervous system is resilient to internal and external stressors and significantly affects our behavior and perception of the world around us,” Loren said.
“A healthy nervous system can transition rapidly from the negative states of the sympathetic state (fight or flight), dorsal vagal state (shutting down and freezing), and overwhelmed state to the more positive states of ventral vagal state (reading and digesting). Game State and Hibernate State.’
Without a strong baseline of neurological fitness, Loren said, people are much more susceptible to chronic stress and burnout, anxiety, health problems, and emotional dysregulation.
“Our nervous system reflects the people around us. When you find a person feeling drained, it’s healthy and acceptable to step away from them and set a clear boundary,” Loren said.
