SECTION 2: Why Nervous Systems Matter At Work

“Your nervous system is at work in every meeting, email, and performance review, whether you notice it or not.”

Anecdote: When the System Finally Spoke Up

In the previous section, I shared the story of having my role eliminated just days before my 50th birthday, at a time when my nervous system was already uneasy about that milestone. On paper, it was a career event. In my body, it was a breaking point. In the weeks that followed, I realized that the layoff did not create my dysregulation. It revealed it. My nervous system had been signaling for a long time:

• Sunday dread starting before lunch.
• Jaw tension and shallow breathing on back-to-back days on “Teams” calls.
• Brain fog that made simple decisions feel heavy halfway through the week.

None of that was a “mindset problem.” It was my nervous system keeping the score of years of pressure, responsibility, and constant change. 

“What looks like ‘not trying hard enough’ on the surface is often a nervous system that has been trying too hard for too long.”

This next section is about that underlying story. Not just for me, but for you, your team, and your workplace.

Pivot: From “Try Harder” To “What Is My Body Telling Me?”

We are used to talking about performance, engagement, productivity, and culture. We build dashboards to monitor them. Yet the system that makes any of this possible is often invisible in those conversations. Your nervous system is essentially your body’s operating system. It decides:

• How clearly you think
• How patient you are in conflict
• How creative you feel
• Whether feedback feels like growth or threat.

When you ignore this system, the default prescription becomes “try harder.” When you understand it, you can start asking better questions:

• What state am I in right now?
• What is my system trying to protect me from?
• What support does it need so I can show up the way I intend?

That is the heart of this section.