Episode 55

full
Published on:

30th May 2022

055: How You May Be Hijacked By Your Nervous System with Michelle Powell

The pressure of everyday life can become unreasonable at times. The effect of this can have us operating from our fight or flight response. In this episode, we’ll unpack the impact of the nervous system on our well-being with Michelle Powell. Michelle is a world-renowned trauma and wellness expert, and a regular guest on The Happy Nurse Podcast. She shares her knowledge of how the nervous system influences thoughts, actions, and responses, and how It’s important for to create a strategy that can help regulate our inner self. If we’re aware of the impacts of the nervous system, we learn how to navigate its activation and quickly return to homeostasis. Michelle reveals the methods she uses to manage stressful situations, how to recenter focus, and bring us back to a grounded space. TOPICS WE DISCUSSED INCLUDE: Why we need to talk about the nervous system (03:46) Recognising our default fight or flight reactions (05:30) Regulating our inner voice (12:25) What can you do when your nervous system is activated (17:05) A good relationship with ourselves matters (18:25) Strategies that can help recenter and reground (21:00) The power of breath-work (26:35) Therapeutic zone of breathing (29:10) The significance of 5-5 and 468 breathing techniques (35:05) CONNECT WITH MICHELLE POWELL https://themichellepowell.com.au/  Connect with Michelle on Facebook and Instagram Subscribe to Michelle’s YouTube channel here.  Grab a copy of Michelle’s book The Mastery of Wellness. CONNECT WITH ELAINA MULLERY HappyNurse.com.au Connect with me on Instagram and Facebook Connect with me on LinkedIn Subscribe to my Youtube channel For more information got to: happynurse.com.au/podcast/
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About the Podcast

The Happy Nurse
Winner — APAC Insider Australian Enterprise Awards 2024 | Most Empowering Self Care Provider for Nurses. Burnout, compassion fatigue, and stress are rising in healthcare. This podcast exists to change that — one practical, honest conversation at a time.
Nurses are the backbone of the health system — always there to care for a stranger as if they were one of their own, forsaking precious moments with their own families to ensure others' loved ones are in good hands.
Compassion fatigue, stress, and burnout are rising across healthcare. Self care has never been more important — or more overlooked.
Elaina Mullery McDonald RN has 25 years of clinical nursing experience, a Postgraduate Certificate in Psychology, and a Master of Business Psychology in progress. She is a certified NLP Practitioner, hypnotherapist, and mindfulness practitioner — and the founder and host of The Happy Nurse podcast. Having experienced burnout firsthand, she is passionate about equipping nurses with practical, evidence-informed strategies to protect their wellbeing and sustain the career they worked so hard for.

About your host

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Elaina Mullery


Elaina Mullery RN has spent 25 years working across some of nursing's most demanding clinical environments — orthopaedic trauma, operating theatre, endoscopy, recovery, and day surgery. She knows firsthand what it feels like to run on empty, and it's that lived experience of burnout that drives everything she does.
Elaina holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Psychology and is completing a Master of Business Psychology at Edith Cowan University. She is a certified NLP Practitioner, hypnotherapist, and mindfulness practitioner, and has developed the 3R Framework — an original evidence-based methodology for building sustainable human performance at individual, team, and organisational level.
Through The Happy Nurse podcast, her online courses, and her white paper No Margin for Error, Elaina is on a mission to change the way healthcare treats its most valuable resource — the people who show up every day to care for others.