Chronic illness, emotional stress, and why the nervous system still needs recovery after joyful experiences
This has been a week of ups and downs…
We had some great weather, and I managed to get 95% off my greenhouse shopping done for my amazing deck garden. Each year, I plant tomatoes, peppers and a variety of herbs on my deck with some flowers and some “experiments”. This year’s experiments are 4 varieties of squash… and it is going to take some doing to get those to grow up and over the glass railing.
But this is my happy place.
I love the feel of my hands in the soil, and the smell of basil, rosemary thyme and mint all blended together. Not to mention a riot of colourful pots and flowers, if I can fit them in.
Bear in mind, my deck is on the 3rd floor of a condo. It’s not like when I had a back yard and the deck could “expand into the grass or sidewalks!”
This past week reminded me again that our bodies can experience beauty and stress at the exact same time.
Even while I was enjoying sunshine, gardening, and finally getting outside again after winter, life shifted very quickly.
Some bad news came. Two family members ended up in the hospital emergency within a few hours of each other. Then both were admitted and both will have lengthy stays.
And honestly, this is where I think many of us living with chronic illness get confused sometimes.
We think stress only counts if something feels obviously terrible, traumatic, or overwhelming in the moment. But the nervous system responds to far more than we realize.
Recently, I’ve had the excitement of travel, which felt like it involved a million decisions about wardrobe in a different climate, figuring out food options, and then the typical… “What do I want to see?” Even just a different environment, without all those decisions, takes emotional energy and depletes the body’s total resources. And when you add the vacation excitement to the shift of being at home, and then complicate that with emotional concern and uncertainty… you are simply using up every energy resource at the same time.
When the nervous system shifts into a heightened state for too long, healing often becomes secondary. The brain starts prioritizing protection and survival instead. Stress hormones rise, the body stays more alert, and recovery becomes harder.
This is one reason so many people with chronic illness crash after busy seasons, emotional weeks, travel, or major life events, even when those experiences were positive ones.
I think this is also why intentional nervous system support matters so much. If we come back from a vacation, or even a fun event, and slip right back into regular life thinking that we need to perform at the same level we did when we left, we are headed for disaster. All shifts and changes on our bodies are read as a “stressor”. So the best course of action for me is to slowly find my groove again. I ended all my days early, I made lists of ONLY the absolutely necessary tasks, I took time to lie flat and rest, and on sunny days, I was in that chair in the corner on the deck just simply seeking sun and quiet.
I also believe God designed our bodies with wisdom. Stress responses are not weakness or failure. They are often protective responses from a body trying to carry more than it comfortably can.
And honestly, I think many of us need more compassion for ourselves in those moments.
The goal is not eliminating stress completely. That’s probably impossible. The goal is learning how to support the nervous system while life is still happening around us.
This is also why calming the nervous system has become such an important part of my healing.
If this is something you’re learning too, I created a simple free resource called The Daily Calm Practice: A 3-Minute Faith + Breath Reset.
It’s a very gentle practice designed to help the body and mind slow down, reset, and reconnect with God’s peace in the middle of real life.