How a simple routine can reduce your stress and increase your performance

It turns out that developing a healthy routine could reduce stress by 32% and increase performance by 23%, studies show.

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“When the nervous system is balanced and the body is rested, we can clearly feel what we need. In this state, we never choose passivity as a form of avoidance.” explain for “The Truth” somatic psychotherapist Roxana Serghe. Passivity, she says, only occurs when we're tired, overworked, or have been operating too long in “productivity” mode, with no room for small pleasures or resources.

A regulated nervous system has a natural tendency toward action: curiosity, exploration, presence. “Being gentle with yourself is not about giving up action, but about choosing actions that match your actual capacity at that moment”points out Roxana Serghe. From here a set of basic, less commercial practices emerge: constant sleep, a suitable environment for rest, avoidance of stimulants in the evening, gentle movement to relieve tension, balanced diet with sufficient protein intake. They are minimal interventions that lay the foundations for homeostasis, that internal balance without which vitality remains just theory, she adds.

Essential practices for balance and vitality

According to him, in Somatic Experiencing, “resources” are the antidote to passivity: small sources of pleasure and re-centering that temper the “I have to do” logic. Without them, the to-do list becomes an engine of exhaustion. “We wake up in the morning not for a list of 20 tasks, but for a massage, a good dinner, a concert, an hour of play with the child or pet,” explains Roxana Serghe. Because the body operates with a finite amount of psychic energy, and how we invest it determines whether we feel connected or drained.

The same mechanism, explained by the psychotherapist, surprisingly also appears in the spontaneous conversations of users on Reddit, in the r/SelfImprovement community.

Specifically, in a post that has garnered hundreds of comments, someone writes: “Exercise your reflex to say yes to things that support real life. It is much more difficult to say no to yourself than yes. Instead of saying no to drugs, lust, greed and laziness, you can start practicing saying yes to things that change your life for the better (…) Yes to walking, yes to time spent with pets, yes to the books you keep putting off, yes to physical training, yes to a balanced meal”.

“Ditch all the documentation and planning and podcasts and journals and cold baths and tools and trackers. Get to work! There will never be a perfect time. You already know what to do. Do it!,” another user thinks. An idea, moreover, similar to the one described by Roxana Serghe from a somatic angle: the regulated body does not get stuck in overthinking.

Relational hygiene as a self-care strategy

At the same time, another user says that, after a period of chronic fatigue, he is in the sixth week of a six-month program with a strict structure: strength training three times a week, cardio twice a week, cognitive-behavioral therapy one hour a day, emotional intelligence classes, cold showers, no caffeine, no phone in the bedroom, no processed food, no TV, no alcohol, no social media. He says that two seemingly small decisions, such as giving up coffee and removing the phone from the bedroom, changed the quality of his sleep and, by implication, his energy level for exercise and recovery.

On the social side, another user talks about relational hygiene as a self-care practice: “I love my friends, but some of them tend to be very disorganized and have a lot of chaos in their lives. I've definitely distanced myself from them over the years, which has helped me a lot personally.”

Someone else opines: “I believe in the middle ground. If you know your own values, outside influences shouldn't sway you too much.”