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Here, you'll find insights and practical tips designed to support your journey and help you make the most of every step forward.

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Breathe Your Way To Balance
Michele Venema Michele Venema

Breathe Your Way To Balance

There is a powerful connection between the breath and the nervous system. While breathing is an automatic function of the body, we can bring conscious awareness to it. What does “conscious” mean? Simply that we are aware of our breath and intentionally focused on it. By doing so, we can control the breath. The breath itself can be a practice—an anchor that grounds us into the body and helps us find calm when our nervous system is alarmed.

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Why is Stress not “Just Stress?”
Stuart Venema Stuart Venema

Why is Stress not “Just Stress?”

For years, I attributed my physical tension, urgency, and exhaustion to the demanding life of a nurse, not realizing these were signs of anxiety and a nervous system stuck in survival mode. Through my own healing journey, I discovered the transformative power of understanding and nurturing the nervous system—a journey that now shapes my work as a Nurse Psychotherapist and Emotional Freedom Techniques Practitioner. This journey has shown me that stress is often the body's way of signaling deeper needs and past hurts, waiting to be acknowledged. Healing begins when we shift from dismissing these signals to learning from them."

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"Understanding Suicidal Thoughts: Leading with Compassion"
Stuart Venema Stuart Venema

"Understanding Suicidal Thoughts: Leading with Compassion"

"Explore compassionate insights into understanding suicidal thoughts. Learn how depression, emotional pain, and the nervous system's alarm response contribute to these thoughts, and discover the importance of empathy and support in addressing them."

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My story with anxiety - what the…. freeze??
Michele Venema Michele Venema

My story with anxiety - what the…. freeze??

"Discover my personal journey with anxiety and the freeze response. Learn how unresolved stress impacts your nervous system and explore effective tools for healing and self-regulation."

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How I Discovered The Power of Nurturing The Nervous System In Healing Anxiety (Part 1)
Michele Venema Michele Venema

How I Discovered The Power of Nurturing The Nervous System In Healing Anxiety (Part 1)

I thought I had it all figured out. I was meditating daily, practicing mindfulness, and reading spiritual teachers like Eckhart Tolle and Deepak Chopra. I believed in the mind-body connection and had adopted a spiritual perspective of love and oneness — a far cry from the religion I was raised with. And I was a Nurse. How could I possibly have been heading for a nervous system breakdown?

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