0:15

Welcome to The Drummer and the Great

0:17

Mountain, a

0:18

podcast where we share effective tips

0:21

and practices for working with adults ADD,

0:23

ADHD in a natural

0:25

effective way without the use of medications.

0:29

Each episode join me, your host, Batman Saram,

0:31

along with the author of the drummer in the Great Mountain,

0:34

Michael Joseph Ferguson. Join

0:36

Michael and myself in an interactive discussion

0:39

of sharing our stories as we journey together

0:42

in transforming what can be the gift of

0:44

being what we call hunter types.

0:47

This podcast is intended to be your audio companion

0:49

to the book written by Michael, who

0:52

joins me each episode where we both will

0:54

strive to foster dialogue, give

0:56

you our personal insights and

0:58

share both of our experiences on this similar

1:01

path that we are all on. Our

1:03

intention and hope is that along with the book this

1:06

podcast gives you an additional perspective

1:08

as you listen to us delve deeper into each chapter

1:11

of the book to give you even more tools

1:13

to go along with what it is that you are

1:15

reading. Visit us at drummerandthegreatmountain.com

1:18

to purchase the book and

1:20

look for more tools, tips, and updates

1:23

as well as giving us feedback on this podcast.

1:27

Join our growing global community of

1:29

creative types, entrepreneurs and

1:31

out of the box thinkers on our shared

1:33

journey. Welcome to

1:36

the Drummer in the Great Mountain podcast.

1:41

Welcome everyone.

1:52

Thanks for tuning in. I'm

1:54

your host Michael Joseph Ferguson. How are you

1:56

all doing? Happy springtime.

1:59

I hope you're taking good. care yourselves. In

2:01

today's episode we are going to be talking about

2:04

honoring your unique nervous

2:06

system and the importance

2:08

of self-care. So here's

2:11

the deal, many of us have not taken the

2:13

time to bring awareness to

2:15

what specifically our nervous

2:17

system needs in order to function

2:20

optimally. And we also need to

2:22

be aware of what we can handle and what we can't

2:24

handle. So we tend to compare ourselves to

2:26

other people who aren't wired the way we're

2:28

wired and

2:30

so we can pile on a lot more than

2:32

we can actually handle and because

2:34

of this we find ourselves constantly dysregulated,

2:37

overwhelmed, and just not

2:39

functioning at our optimum. However

2:42

in many situations we have much more

2:44

choice and control than we realize.

2:47

So in this episode we'll discuss self-care

2:50

strategies to keep your nervous system

2:52

calm so you can think more clearly

2:55

and be more productive. Okay,

2:57

I've also created a free self-care

3:00

worksheet. It's a PDF. You can download

3:02

that at drummerinthegreatmountain.com

3:06

forward slash episode 98. I

3:09

will also leave the link in the description

3:11

of this episode. So that's something that can

3:13

take some of these concepts that we're talking about today

3:16

and then bring them into your day to

3:18

day, your weekly or monthly schedule.

3:21

Okay, let's start by specifically

3:23

defining the challenges. What are we talking

3:25

about here? So many of us

3:28

have a tendency to judge ourselves against

3:30

other people. Surprise. Everybody

3:34

does that. But we tend to do it a bit more

3:36

and we think to ourselves,

3:38

well, they can handle this, so I should

3:41

be able to handle it. So I'm going to push myself harder

3:44

to catch up, to get my need

3:46

for respect met. I'm gonna be respected

3:48

and I'm gonna push really hard.

3:50

And this can be a total

3:53

disaster because our nervous

3:56

systems tend to be far more

3:58

sensitive than other.

4:00

people and it take, they take

4:02

a greater amount of care for

4:04

us to function optimally. It's

4:07

not that we're broken. It's our nervous

4:09

system is, is, I would say designed

4:11

is maybe one way to look at it, but our

4:13

nervous system functions in a very specific

4:16

way. And if we're able to take care

4:18

of ourselves, then we can get into those superpowers

4:21

that we have in terms of creativity and out

4:23

of the box thinking, all of the things

4:25

that we're really good at, If we are

4:27

constantly stressed and overwhelmed,

4:30

we're always playing catch-up. So we

4:33

often bring this on ourselves by taking

4:35

on too much or not setting

4:37

boundaries. It's usually those two things.

4:40

So that's the challenge. The

4:42

solution is accepting

4:45

that we have a much more subtle

4:47

and sensitive nervous system. We need

4:49

to bring attention to what we need

4:51

to keep us calm and stable,

4:54

and that we are responsible to take

4:56

care of our nervous system. No one else, no

4:59

one else can intuit or figure

5:01

out what we need. We need to start paying

5:03

attention to what works for us, what

5:06

calms us down, what keeps us stable,

5:09

and make sure that those things are on our

5:11

schedule on a daily,

5:12

weekly, and monthly basis.

5:15

Okay, so I've been coaching since 2007,

5:17

so I've been working

5:19

with all of you in some capacity

5:21

since 2007. And I've lived

5:23

with my own nervous system my whole life. So

5:26

the one thing that I've heard over and

5:28

over again is that many clients have gotten

5:32

very close, if not dropped

5:35

into full nervous breakdown because

5:38

they didn't realize that they

5:40

need to monitor their nervous system

5:43

and plan accordingly. They just

5:45

thought that if I could just push through and prove

5:47

myself, I'll be fine. And usually it creeps

5:49

up on them. Instead of them taking care

5:52

of themselves along the way, Now

5:54

they're crashed, their family's concerned about

5:56

them. Everything's really messy

5:58

because they. thought they could

6:01

handle more than they could.

6:03

And so this pushing through is

6:06

almost never a good idea. If

6:08

you have a sensitive nervous system, pushing through does

6:10

not work. So this

6:12

has come up over and over again. And then there's

6:15

a thought of like, well, I'm broken. So I usually, the

6:17

next part of that conversation is, yeah, this happened.

6:20

I was pushing and pushing. I crashed. And

6:22

here was all the stuff that happened after

6:24

that. And

6:27

I'm just broken. It's clearly like

6:29

I just need to figure out something else. I got

6:31

it. And so part of it is just

6:33

not accepting the fact that

6:36

they're human, but they have a very specific

6:38

nervous system. If you get to that place

6:40

fully deep down inside you, you

6:42

go, okay,

6:44

I am like this.

6:46

This may not change. I may always

6:49

be this sensitive and that's

6:51

okay. How do I work with it? If you

6:53

can get to that place, you're, you're

6:55

smooth sailing. Cause then there's a lot you can do. If

6:58

you still think, oh, you know what, if I could just

7:00

push a little harder, you're just, you're

7:02

going to crash. Eventually, it's

7:04

just going to catch up with you.

7:06

And I've got the scars to prove

7:08

this. I'm speaking from personal experience as well.

7:11

So to start breaking this down a bit, it's

7:13

important to recognize that our over-creative

7:16

brain can overwhelm us. Our

7:18

brains are idea-generating machines.

7:21

We can often overwhelm ourselves with

7:23

too many things that we want. And

7:26

it's important for us to take stock of what

7:28

is feasible

7:30

to do and how much we can personally

7:32

handle in a given day, a given

7:34

week, a given month.

7:36

And embracing our limitations

7:38

and planning accordingly makes us

7:40

far more effective as

7:42

well as far more respected by the people

7:45

around us. So our brains

7:47

can overwhelm us, but we can also

7:49

overwhelm ourselves by people-pleasing,

7:52

or saying yes to too many things. So

7:54

that's all coming from us. all

7:56

coming. We're making these decisions and

7:58

we're setting things into motion. by not setting

8:01

boundaries, by saying yes to too many things. Again,

8:03

we've talked about this many times on this podcast.

8:06

And so because of that, if you don't catch those

8:09

things and you're still taking care of yourself through

8:12

self-care, you still need

8:14

to, you got to do both. You've got to manage your

8:16

own creativity. You've got to manage

8:19

what you're saying yes to. And

8:21

then taking time to ask

8:23

yourself, now what else do I need to

8:26

calm my nervous system to keep myself

8:28

level so I can be

8:30

optimally functional as I go

8:32

through my day-to-day life.

8:34

So how do we do this? How do we tune

8:36

ourselves into our nervous system so

8:39

that we can find out

8:41

what specifically it needs

8:44

so that it can stay calm,

8:46

well rested, and

8:48

not in a space of

8:50

fight or flight, not in a space of overwhelm.

8:53

How do we do that? It starts

8:55

by slowing down. It starts

8:58

by taking more time quietly

9:01

tuning into yourselves, tuning into your

9:03

body and paying attention to

9:05

what it needs. So your physical body

9:08

is always in the present moment, as we've said many

9:10

times on this podcast. It's always

9:12

there in the present moment. And

9:15

When we're out of our heads and into

9:17

our physical bodies, we are able

9:20

to tune into what our nervous system needs

9:22

as well. So just taking that

9:24

time in your schedule to do

9:26

some physical movement,

9:27

meditation, anything

9:30

that brings you body awareness

9:32

can be very helpful in tuning into

9:35

what your nervous system needs.

9:37

And it can be helpful to look back at your

9:39

life and ask yourself, when were

9:41

those times where you felt most

9:44

stable,

9:45

balanced, nourished, calm.

9:49

What was going on? Take a moment and reflect

9:51

back and just say, pick a time

9:53

when you felt most alive,

9:56

most connected to yourself. What was

9:58

going on? What was this?

10:00

the structure of your life at that time? Were

10:02

you spending more time with friends? Were you exercising

10:05

more? What was going on that

10:07

gave you that sense of, ah, I'm feeling really

10:09

good. Now, for some of you who've been listening to this

10:11

podcast, I hear from a lot of you saying, now

10:14

is the time because you've actually taken things

10:16

from what we've talked about and it's really helped

10:19

you get to that place. So if that's the

10:21

case, then it's just a matter of continually

10:23

stretching to like, what else can I do? do,

10:26

how do I even make myself even more optimized?

10:28

So I really feel good

10:30

waking up in the morning. I'm excited

10:32

to start the day versus just feeling completely

10:34

overwhelmed. So when you think

10:36

back, again, ask yourself what was going on,

10:39

what were you doing, what kind of community

10:41

support was there for you in terms of friends, what

10:44

was your stress level, what was going on

10:47

in terms of how much work you

10:49

had to do. Some of you were functioning

10:51

really well and getting a done, but maybe

10:53

you were exercising more, maybe there's other things

10:56

that were going on that as you reflect

10:58

back go, oh, you know what, that's what those

11:00

things were also there for me as well. And

11:02

so if you're feeling more isolated, more like

11:06

way more things on top of you right now, then

11:08

that's a signal that, okay, you need to

11:10

start saying no, start pulling

11:13

back, start taking care of

11:15

yourself physically and emotionally

11:17

so that you can get back to a place where

11:19

you felt, oh yeah, I feel much more alive.

11:22

So the point is to think back or see if you can

11:24

reference a point where you feel felt really

11:26

good and then say okay how do I

11:28

recreate that again? How do I get back to

11:31

that? So this is where the worksheet comes in.

11:33

So I want to encourage you to download the

11:35

PDF that we created for you, the self-care

11:37

worksheet. So you can go to drummerandthegreatmountain.com

11:40

forward slash episode 98 or

11:42

just click the link in the description and I want you

11:44

to go through and fill out those

11:47

top three areas. So look

11:49

at the ideas for self-care

11:51

on the bottom. Those are points

11:53

that you can reference, but I want to encourage you to come

11:55

up with your own as well, especially as

11:57

you think back to things that have been very

12:00

nourishing to you. And I want you to start

12:02

with the daily column.

12:04

Fill that out. What are some things you can do on

12:06

a daily basis that can calm

12:08

your nervous system down, then

12:10

move on to weekly and

12:12

then move on to monthly and monthly is rough.

12:15

So you don't, it doesn't have to be exactly every

12:17

single month, but just think of that as the longer term

12:20

strategies for you to calm your

12:22

nervous system. How do you optimally

12:24

take care of your nervous system? If

12:27

you spend the time to do this, I

12:29

predict your days are going to be

12:31

far more effective. You're

12:34

going to be far more functional and there

12:36

may be like an interim period where people

12:39

around you are like, whoa, okay, wait, we're

12:41

expecting you to just do things when we ask

12:44

you to do them. And when you say no, this

12:46

is kind of strange for us because we're not used to you saying

12:49

no or setting a boundary. So don't

12:51

be surprised if you start to set boundaries,

12:54

the people around you are a little taken aback,

12:56

but don't let that throw you off.

12:59

Keep pushing through. See where you

13:01

can carve out those times

13:04

for self-care, for yourself, and

13:06

then give it, say, a week or two weeks,

13:08

three weeks, and then look back and go, how

13:10

did those weeks go? When I started

13:12

to do these things, did it make

13:15

a difference? And part of this is recognizing

13:17

what you need. what is your specific

13:20

nervous system need to calm itself

13:22

down? It's going to be different than me and different

13:24

than other people you know, for yourself.

13:26

And the only way you're going to look

13:29

back and see whether or not this works

13:31

is by you taking the time to experiment,

13:35

put a different couple of different things on your schedule and

13:37

say, well, how did I do? Did that feel better

13:39

for me? Did that really calm me down? Was

13:41

I more functional the next day? Let

13:44

the effectiveness tell you what works

13:46

and what doesn't. Okay. So don't just

13:48

take my word for it and go, well, I

13:50

went to a yoga class and it didn't really work and I wasn't

13:52

really calm and I felt kind of awkward. Okay,

13:55

then don't do that. What else can you

13:57

do? What else can you put on your schedule that

13:59

really helped. you feel calm.

14:02

And again, I want to put like it's in your

14:04

hands. You are responsible

14:07

for your own nervous system. No one else.

14:09

So take the time to do this and I predict

14:12

your life will get better very

14:15

quickly because if you're not doing

14:17

these things, chances are you're constantly stressed out.

14:20

So if you're just taking the time to go, okay,

14:22

once every two weeks I'm gonna get a massage. I

14:25

never get massages, but wow,

14:27

okay, I'm gonna try it out. I mean that

14:29

alone could be a huge difference. Or I'm just going to

14:31

take baths in the evening, every evening

14:33

before bed, I'm going to take a warm bath and just for

14:35

like 20 minutes, test some

14:38

things out to see what your nervous system

14:40

says. Yes, that's

14:42

what I was needing. And the

14:45

other result will be, you may

14:47

think a lot clear. You may have a lot more energy. You may

14:49

feel more inspired because the thing

14:51

that's causing you suffering is your

14:53

nervous system. So when you take care

14:55

of it, it actually will move work

14:58

in your favor. So the thing that's actually causing

15:00

you the most suffering is your own nervous

15:02

system. And once you recognize

15:05

that, and the more you can feed it what

15:07

it really needs, it could

15:09

be life changing. I've watched it be

15:11

life changing. So I

15:14

hope that was helpful. I hope that's a really good

15:16

springtime episode for you to

15:18

kick things off. So as you're moving in through

15:21

spring and into summer, you've really dialed

15:23

in some practices that really help you

15:25

be functional, clear,

15:28

inspired, happy, and

15:31

that you can also spread that to the people

15:33

around you. Because often when we start taking care of

15:35

ourselves, it inspires people around

15:37

us to do the same thing.

15:39

So I hope that was helpful and

15:41

until next time, be

15:43

well. Thanks

15:45

for joining us. If you'd like to learn

15:48

more about the book, The Drummer and the Great

15:50

Mountain, visit DrummerAndTheGreatMountain.com.

15:54

To join us on social media, click the

15:56

links at the top of the homepage. Help

15:59

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16:17

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16:28

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