I recall the stress, and at times, excitement of pulling all-nighters in college and miraculously producing the needed results for the class. Then I jumped hard-core into self-care like increasing my focus on sleep hygiene to try to “catch-up” (which science proves humans actually can’t do) in order to function the rest of the week.

I recall walk-running through office hallways the minute a customer or boss declared a “fire drill”. My mind-racing and body temperature rising with each step — the “emergency” sending me into action to put out the imaginary flames with the jittery energy following me home and lasting into the next day.

It amazes me how much I let those scenarios trigger me to the point of my sympathetic nervous system engaging so fully that unhealthy stress lingered and manifested into physical illness. Sometimes my “fight-flight-freeze” response skipped over the first options and right into “freeze” making it impossible to find a solution and move a problem forward to resolution.

Stress, in-and-of-itself, is not always a bad thing. At times, as in the examples above, it simply turns you on and brings you to a place of intense creativity, productivity, and problem solving.

It’s when you start to live more in stress than not…when you’re not able to regulate and come back into your window of tolerance when encountering stressors that it can be a problem.

If stress works for you, by all means continue creating from that place.

It’s your jam!

If stress doesn’t work for you, maybe ask yourself if there’s another way to create?

Would creating from your window of tolerance and calm feel better?

I asked myself that question three years ago when I was continually living and working in internal and external chaos and couldn’t healthfully sustain.

Now I create in life and work from the “chill” – I feel better. I am more creative. I get more done. I have more energy. I am more confident. I have healthier relationships. I simply enjoy my days and life more.

I find when I spend more time with my parasympathetic nervous system engaged — within my window of tolerance — I access levels of intuition, creativity, innovation, and efficiency like I never have before.

How do you want to create?