CategoriesSelf-Care & Wellness

Back to Balance: Resetting Your Routine (Without Burning Out)

By
Back to Balance Resetting Your Routine

Resetting your routine after summer’s indulgences and dizzying delights means finding the right balance. Just enough structure, a few new healthy habits, and a renewed focus on rest and recovery.

But before you dive into goals and routines, it’s important to reset your nervous system to help your body and mind know when to stress and when to rest. After all, fall isn’t just about getting back on track, it’s also the lead-up to the holidays, bringing a fresh wave of seasonal stressors.

The goal isn’t perfection. It’s about making a real, flexible effort to feel your best and move into fall with more ease. Here’s a step-by-step plan to help you make it happen.

Step #1: Reset Your Nervous System Before Resetting Your Routine

Your nervous system plays a bigger role in your daily rhythm than most people realize. It manages the constant toggle between stress and calm — the body’s “fight or flight” and “rest and digest” states. When it’s working well, you feel focused, calm, and resilient.

But after a summer of late nights, travel, and overstimulation, these transitions can get thrown off, leaving you stuck in stress mode. That’s why your fall reset starts here, with restoring nervous system balance.

  • Catch Your Breath

Breathing is more powerful than we often realize. Beyond supplying oxygen to every cell, it plays a central role in regulating the nervous system. When stress takes over, intentional breathwork can bring the body back into balance. That’s why we often emphasize diaphragmatic breathing — slow, deep, belly breaths that help activate the body’s relaxation response and quiet the stress response.1

  • Reboot with Mindfulness

Mindfulness, the practice of being fully present without judgment, is another powerful tool for nervous system balance. Mindful meditation, in particular, helps us tune into subtle signs of stress or misalignment.2 This awareness is key to regaining control of the autonomic nervous system. When combined with breathwork, mindfulness can help reset the nervous system and promote a greater sense of calm and clarity.

  • Turn to Truvaga

Truvaga products focus on the vagus nerve, the body’s longest cranial nerve and a key player in your rest-and-digest response. Our handheld vagus nerve stimulators are designed to gently activate this nerve, helping shift your body out of stress mode and into a state of calm. It’s a safe, effective, and easy way to support your nervous system reset, and a powerful companion to breathwork and mindfulness. [Learn more about how Truvaga works.]

Step 2: Rebuild Energy-Driven Routines to Enhance Fall Wellness

Summer can be energizing in the moment, but draining in the long run. From late nights to back-to-back plans (and maybe a little dehydration), it’s easy to enter fall feeling off balance. The good news? Fall is the perfect time to rebuild routines that restore your energy instead of depleting it. Here are two areas to focus on:

  • See the Light
     As daylight hours shorten, your exposure to natural light decreases, and that can disrupt your circadian rhythm, the internal clock that governs sleep, mood, and energy.3 This shift can leave you feeling sluggish and low. To counteract it, prioritize light: start your day with a walk outside, move tasks near a window when possible, or consider using a light therapy lamp to mimic morning sunlight. A little light can go a long way in restoring energy and regulating your rhythm.

  • Return to Foundational Wellness
    Fall is a great time to reconnect with wellness basics, the building blocks that help you feel balanced and resilient. This includes prioritizing sleep, managing stress, eating nourishing foods, and nurturing healthy relationships. Together, these habits help restore depleted energy and build a strong foundation for the season ahead.4

Step 3: Start Small and Stack Habits

Building a better routine isn’t about a total overhaul; it’s about small, sustainable changes that add up over time. Instead of trying to drop every “bad” habit and replace it with perfect ones, focus on what’s already working. Then, build from there.

That’s the idea behind habit stacking, a technique made popular by James Clear in Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones.5 The concept is simple: pair a new, positive habit with one that’s already part of your daily routine. Over time, this stack becomes second nature.

How Habit Stacking Works:

  • List your current habits
  • Identify the new habits you want to build
  • Find natural connections to “stack” them together
  • If it sticks, keep going
  • If it doesn’t, try attaching a small reward

Real-World Example:

✅ You already brush your teeth every morning and night
➕ You want to use Truvaga twice daily — two minutes in the morning, two minutes in the evening
🔁 Stack it: Use Truvaga right after brushing your teeth
🌬️ Once that becomes second nature, add 60 seconds of breathwork
🎉 If motivation lags, build in a small reward

The key? Don’t rush. Start with one habit, let it stick, and give yourself time. Studies show it can take anywhere from 18 to 200 days to fully integrate a new habit, so be kind to yourself and focus on consistency, not perfection.6

Step 4: Prioritize Rest and Recovery

Rest isn’t a reward, it’s a requirement for well-being. As you reset your routine, building in time for rest and recovery is just as important as adding movement or structure. And what rest looks like can vary from person to person, all forms are valid, and all are valuable.

For anyone getting back into a consistent fitness or training regimen, rest days are essential. They’re not just for muscle recovery; they help keep your nervous system from staying stuck in stress mode, which can take a toll on your long-term health.7

But you don’t need to be an athlete to benefit. Whether you’re catching up on sleep or simply trying to feel more restored, small intentional shifts can make a big difference.

  • The Power of Naps
    A short nap, just 20 to 30 minutes, can boost your energy, sharpen your focus, improve your mood, and even enhance performance, both mentally and physically.8 The key is consistency and timing: keep naps short and avoid sleeping too late in the day to prevent disruptions to your circadian rhythm. If you’re feeling sluggish or sleep-deprived, making naps a regular part of your routine can be a simple but effective way to restore balance.
  • Microbreaks Matter, Too
    No time for a nap? Even the smallest pause can help. Microbreaks,  as short as 30 seconds, can reduce stress, increase productivity, and reset your focus.9 Dim your screen, close your eyes for a moment, step outside for fresh air, or simply sit in silence. These short, intentional breaks give your nervous system a chance to recalibrate, and sometimes, that’s all you need.

Step 5: Finding Balance Through Creating a Flexible Structure

Think of resetting your routine like riding a mechanical bull; if you stay too rigid, you’ll get thrown off. But if you stay flexible and adjust as you go, you’re more likely to stay grounded. Building structure into your fall wellness plan is important, but giving yourself room to adapt is what makes it sustainable.

Flexibility isn’t about slacking off, it’s about staying calm in the face of change, shifting priorities when needed, and responding thoughtfully rather than reactively.10 The more adaptable your routine, the more likely it is to stick.

You don’t need to be hyper-disciplined to make real progress. These gentle structure-support tools can help you stay consistent, without the pressure:

  •  Habitica: A free app that turns your routine into a game. Earn rewards as you complete tasks, build habits, and reach goals.
  • Pomodoro Technique: An app that uses 25-minute focus blocks followed by short breaks to boost productivity without burnout.12
  • Gratitude Journaling: Reflecting on what’s working (and what’s not) keeps your mindset positive and helps reduce stress. Try daily prompts or free-write what you’re thankful for.

Now You’re Ready to Reset

It may sound like semantics, but there’s a reason we’ve focused on resetting your routine, not restarting it. Fall wellness isn’t about wiping the slate clean. It’s about clearing what’s no longer serving you and building on what already is.

Whether your reset is a subtle shift or a bigger change, the key is to approach it with awareness, intention, and a little grace. Take it one step at a time. Small, steady changes are what lead to lasting balance.

So where do you begin? Maybe it’s simply carving out two minutes for yourself. Truvaga can help you get started.

SHOP TRUVAGA

References:

  1. Parasympathetic Breathing Exercises: What They Are and How to Do Them. (n.d.). BetterUp. https://www.betterup.com/blog/parasympathetic-breathing-exercises
  2. How Does Mindful Meditation Work? (n.d.). University of Utah Health. https://medicine.utah.edu/students/wellness/what-is-wellness/mindful-meditation/how-does-it-work
  3. Embrace the Seasonal Shift with a Focus on Mental Wellness. (n.d.). ThinkHealthcare. https://thinkhealthcare.org/embrace-the-seasonal-shift-with-a-focus-on-mental-wellness/
  4. Foundational Health: What It Is and How to Build It. (n.d.). Health Designs. https://www.healthdesigns.net/foundational-health-lifestyle/
  5. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. (n.d.). James Clear. https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits
  6. Habit Stacking: How to Build New Habits by Piggybacking on Old Ones. (2022, December 5). Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/habit-stacking
  7. Rest and Recovery for Athletes: Key to Physiological and Psychological Well-being. (2022, September 15). UCHealth Today.https://www.uchealth.org/today/rest-and-recovery-for-athletes-physiological-psychological-well-being/
  8. Napping: Do’s and Don’ts for Healthy Adults. (2022, May 17). Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/napping/art-20048319
  9. Designing Rest & Recovery Into Your Workday. (2023, April 19). LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/designing-rest-recovery-your-workday-clare-kumar-audhd-hsp–p9tzc/
  10. How to Increase Adaptability: Tips to Become More Flexible. (n.d.). BetterUp. https://www.betterup.com/blog/how-to-increase-adaptability
  11. Habitica: Gamify Your Life and Build Better Habits. (n.d.). Habitica. https://habitica.com/static/home
  12. The Pomodoro Technique: Boost Your Productivity in 25-Minute Intervals. (n.d.). Todoist. https://www.todoist.com/productivity-methods/pomodoro-technique
  1.