7 Micro Habits to Escape the Freeze Response - Polyvagal Tools for Depression & Burnout

Therapy in a Nutshell

Therapy in a Nutshell -Emma McAdam

Mental Health, Education, Health & Fitness:mental Health, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 658 Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

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Summary

7 micro habits to escape the freeze response, climb the polyvagal ladder, boost energy, heal burnout, and get unstuck from dorsal vagal shutdown and depression. Learn the skills to Regulate your Emotions, join the membership: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/membership If you feel sluggish, numb, depressed, or burnt out, your nervous system might be stuck in the freeze response. In this video, I’ll teach you 7 tiny habits that activate energy, restore safety, and help your body move up the polyvagal ladder. These simple, science-backed steps help you feel more alive, more motivated, and more like yourself again. Looking for affordable online counseling? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional from the comfort of your own home. Try it now for 10% off your first month: https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com Support my mission on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/therapyinanutshell Sign up for my newsletter: https://www.therapyinanutshell.com Check out my favorite self-help books: https://kit.co/TherapyinaNutshell/best-self-help-books Therapy in a Nutshell and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health. In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger Institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life's direction. And deeper than all of that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ orients my personal worldview and sense of security, peace, hope, and love https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/believe If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services. Copyright Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to another episode of the Therapy in a Nutshell podcast. I'm Emma McAdam and I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist.
0:07.0	And this podcast is all about taking the life-changing, but usually kind of complicated topics of therapy and boiling them down into simple, easy-to-understand concepts that you can use in your daily life.
0:18.6	If you find today's episode as helpful to you,
0:20.9	please pass it on to someone else who could benefit from it as well. Each podcast
0:24.5	episode comes from a corresponding video you can find on the Therapy in a Nutshell YouTube
0:28.6	channel. Also, these podcasts are educational and don't replace the advice or direction you may
0:33.4	be receiving from a therapist or other health professionals. Now please enjoy the episode.
0:38.3	What if you're stuck in the freeze response or the shutdown state? This is pretty common after going through trauma.
0:44.3	Or what if you feel sluggish or exhausted or burnt out or depressed? Maybe your limbs just feel heavy or you can't get yourself motivated.
0:55.0	How can you regulate your emotions and get yourself moving?
0:59.0	In this video, we're going to learn seven micro-habits you can do to get unstuck, to move up the polyvagal ladder, and to start to feel more alive, more energetic, more hopeful, and more happy. Let's go.
1:15.6	Hello everyone. Before we jump into the seven micro-habits, first you've got to understand the polyvagal ladder
1:23.6	to know how these micro-habits are gonna help you you. So our nervous system has three main states.
1:30.3	The ventral vagal state is where you feel safe and connected. You are flexibly able to get energized, but also able to rest.
1:39.3	Now the second state is the sympathetic state. This is where we're more anxious, activated, stressed, or fearful.
1:46.0	And the third state is called the dorsal vagal state. It's where our brain and body are so overwhelmed that we shut down both mentally and physically.
1:55.0	When you're here, you might feel depressed, burnt out, exhausted, hopeless, frozen, or unmotivated. Now usually this state is triggered
2:03.6	by intense trauma, chronic stress, or overwhelming situations. And even if you can't identify
2:09.6	like a big trauma in your life, it could be something like your mind cranking out negative
2:14.4	thoughts over and over for years that can trigger the dorsal vagal shutdown state.
2:20.3	It's like your nervous system is saying, I can't overcome this, so I might as well stop trying and conserve my energy.
2:27.3	And when you're in this state, there's actually physiological changes that happen.
	...

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