Oct 9, 2026 · 55 min
Small glimmers can make stress more flexible
Calm Your Nervous System: Simple Daily Practices for When You're Wired, Hangry, or Too Busy to Rest | Nadia Narain & Katia Narain Phillips
The episode reframes nervous-system regulation as building capacity to move through stress, rather than pursuing constant calm.
- 1Glimmers—small experiences of safety, connection, and beauty—can build resilience instead of merely suppressing stress.
- 2Simple body-based practices, from shaking to widening the visual field, can interrupt protective patterns in everyday life.
- 3Rest includes nourishment, boundaries, creativity, and enjoyable activity, while self-reparenting replaces harshness with responsive care.
Don't miss
Nadia guides a glimmer check-in, asking listeners to recall a pleasant experience and notice how safety registers in the body.
The brief
Nadia Narain and Katia Narain Phillips introduce glimmers as bodily experiences of safety that counter the nervous system’s bias toward detecting threat.
The guests argue that resilience grows through repeated contact with connection, nature, pets, beauty, and ordinary pleasures—not by forcing constant calm.
Their practical toolkit includes recalling a glimmer, releasing jaw tension, shaking off excess energy, and widening the visual field to signal safety.
The conversation extends regulation into daily life: slow chores, nourishing meals, a less rigid home, different forms of rest, and manageable boundaries.
Self-reparenting provides the episode’s governing idea: meet hunger, overwhelm, and exhaustion with the patience and support usually offered to a child.
Books & mentions
Some links are affiliate links — PodLume may earn a commission if you buy.
