Rewiring Your Nervous System to Feel Joy, Even in the Chaos

Summer chaos can be a threat to our nervous system—how do we unwind the coil of anxiety, the mental load, and the weight of expectations that tell us we must hold it all together?

Welcome to Grounded & Wild: Our 8-Week Summer Series

This is the first in our series together for the summer, where you might find recalibration—an exhale for the overwhelm, a place you can come for respite and renewal amidst the chaos of it all through grounding and connection.

Summer gets busy, so you are welcome to drop in anytime—wherever you are at and whatever you are facing.

Click here to join (just $5 a month—or $10 to be a part of the whole series this summer).

Wishing you love and light, no matter where your journey takes you this season,

Alice Wild

P.S. Reading in the app? Substack makes upgrading a little tricky—just tap the link above, open it in your browser (not the app), log in, and you’ll be all set.

Summer joy was easier when we were younger—at least, in some ways.

The hot, sticky days were tantalizing invitations to freedom—lingering at the mall with friends, licking ice cream faster than the drips, breathing in air that wasn’t from within a stagnant classroom.

There was a sparkle in the eye of a youthful summer, a sense that life was wide open and meant to be savored, even if it was a denial of so many other things.

But now?

We’re grown. We no longer deny the suffering we were taught to excuse in our youth and we now carry burdens our younger selves couldn’t have fathomed.

We see the dawn of summer through a different lens—one that’s often clouded with so many things—among them are schedules, obligations, and a fatigue that feels like it never fully lifts.

Memorial Day weekend just passed here in the U.S.—and for many of us, it was not all rainbows and butterflies. And not just because of what that day represents—which is deep enough. I remember two attempts at classic Memorial Day outings in our married, adult-with-kids life—and both left me overstimulated, overwhelmed, and vowing never again.

Because as women, and especially as survivors, summer can feel less like a carefree adventure and more like another season of expectations waiting for additional failure and pain.

The travel, the noise, the constant doing.

So how do we find joy in the chaos? Is this even an option?

How do we receive goodness when we’ve been taught to stay braced for the next wave of doing, fixing, or caretaking?

You’re allowed to feel pain and overwhelm this summer—not “sweeping it under the rug” to maintain the peace

We have a BIG trip coming up at the end of this week—one we have been saving up to go on for years. It means so much. It’s a return to a place we once called home, holding some of the most precious memories in my lifetime. It’s feels like a sabbatical. A retreat to return to the sacred and see what life might have in store for us. We are feeling the pull of change. Should we move back? An impossible idea.

So many feelings arise when I think of the days ticking off the calendar down to “travel day”. I feel the bubble of complete anxiety in my chest.

My husband on the other hand, cup of coffee in hand this morning, smiled with exclamation, “I am finding myself more and more excited for this trip!”

I tamped my coffee, set the timer and found my lips forming a tight line—holding back the feelings like a swirling dam, the outside crisp and clean. Eventually I was brave enough to reply quietly, “I am finding myself more and more anxious for this trip—”