Summary
Dr. Stephen Cabral shares three daily "anchor" practices for resetting the nervous system and calming fight-or-flight at morning, midday, and evening. He explains how to identify what genuinely relaxes you using HRV monitoring or simple self-assessment, and walks through his own routine of quiet mornings, midday resets, and evening wind-down rituals.
Key Points
- Anchor your day with three nervous-system resets: a quiet morning practice, a midday pause, and an evening wind-down ritual.
- Use HRV monitoring to objectively test which activities (walking, breathing, meditation) actually shift you into parasympathetic mode.
- The morning anchor should happen before checking your phone or email to prevent an immediate cortisol spike.
- A midday reset of even 5-10 minutes of breathwork or walking prevents the afternoon sympathetic nervous system buildup.
- Evening wind-down should begin 60-90 minutes before bed with dimmed lights and no stimulating content.
- Consistency with these anchors matters more than duration -- 5 minutes daily beats 30 minutes once a week.
Key Moments
Three daily anchors to reset the nervous system and calm fight-or-flight
Dr. Cabral recommends three daily 10-15 minute anchor practices at morning, midday, and evening to calm the fight-or-flight response and bring high performers back to center.
"they reset the nervous system And sometimes that is what enables us to get to that next level is the calming of fighter flight."
Using HRV monitoring to identify what truly relaxes you
Cabral suggests wearing a heart rate strap monitor and using a free HRV app to objectively measure which activities double your HRV, confirming they genuinely relax your nervous system rather than just feeling relaxing.
"any activity that it causes your heart rate variability to go up by at least 50 to 100% that means basically doubling your HRV is something that adds is rel"
Why not everyone responds to the same relaxation modality
Dr. Cabral shares that popular relaxation methods like Epsom salt baths may not work for everyone. The key is finding what genuinely calms your individual nervous system rather than following generic advice.
"for me, you could tell me and I want to have before bed to do an up some salt bath and that is an incredibly relaxation based and great healing modality For me, not so much"
