It’s 9 p.m. and your phone pings. It’s an urgent message from your boss. You feel your heart rate spike. The dread spreads into the rest of your body, but you have to muscle through it. Karden Rabin, somatic nervous practitioner and co-author of The Secret Language of the Body calls this feeling “functional freeze.”
Functional freeze is a psychological and physiological response where the body and mind become stuck in a state of heightened alertness, unable to take action. “You have the brake and the gas on at the same time,” Rabin explains. “You’re actually stuck in a state of freeze, but you are overriding it and pushing forward. You think you’re pushing forward and just getting things done, [but] you don’t realize the amount of resistance or restriction that’s going on in the body.”
Pushing through that resistance massively slows down our productivity and also impacts our health. Unfortunately, we often encounter these moments of functional freeze in our daily lives. In fact, Rabin says that many people are in a state of functional freeze all the time.
The impact of functional freeze
Working through a state of functional freeze requires significant additional energy and willpower, leading to higher fatigue and reduced efficiency.
“Instead of resolving the freeze response, you are forcing past it, so you have to use additional energy, additional willpower, additional discipline, additional repression to keep going,” says Rabin. The impact on the body can manifest as shallow breathing, chest pain, tight shoulders, headaches and even gut issues.
Rabin points out that we may not even notice it in our daily lives: “Because our work culture supports us to be really intellectual and [use] our mental faculties, many of us lose our attunement to [the state of our bodies]. Most of us, during a workday, don’t realize that we’re breathing shallowly.”
Overcoming functional freeze in the moment
To counteract functional freeze, Kardin suggests techniques that help the body return to a more relaxed state. Breathwork is one such technique. Individuals can counteract the shallow breaths associated with stress and promote a sense of calm by focusing on deep, slow breathing.
Kardin says physical movements, like shaking limbs and tapping on the chest, can also effectively release tension.
“That restricted response, actually, believe it or not, wants to move out of us,” Kardin explains. “So, in the middle of your day… literally shaking out your hands, shaking out your legs, doing some hops or some jumping jacks and tapping… helps to undo that freeze.”
These simple actions stimulate the body’s natural stress-relief mechanisms, helping to dissipate the freeze response and restore a sense of normalcy. Similarly, vocalization techniques, such as humming or making sounds like “Voo,” stimulate the vagus nerve, which is crucial in regulating stress and promoting relaxation.
Transitioning in and out of productive time
Morning time is one of the most influential pockets of time in the day, and Rabin recommends starting the morning in a low-stress environment to create a foundation of calm to return to. While it may look different from person to person, Rabin says the goal is to create a morning routine that is pleasurable and leisurely, to put oneself in a mindful and embodied state. Personally, he takes a walk every morning to step into that state.
To create a life less impacted by functional freeze, Rabin emphasizes the importance of having solid boundaries between work and personal time. Specifically, he shares that there needs to be a transition between productive and non-productive time.
“The best thing you can do to move yourself out of functional freeze is to work on creating much stronger boundaries between what I simply call ‘productive time’ and ‘non-productive time,’” says Rabin. He explains that work can often bleed into our personal lives, and we often feel the need to make our personal time productive.
Rabin recommends doing something physical to help the brain and mind distinguish the transition from productive to non-productive time. The transition doesn’t have to take a lot of time, but it can involve going for a walk, doing a yoga session, or engaging in another type of mindful practice.
Pacing and presence
Another important concept that Rabin uses to reduce functional freeze are the two P’s: pacing and presence.
When it comes to pacing, Rabin likes to do 5% less at a 5% slower pace. He compares it to a balloon at 100% capacity versus 95% capacity. The balloon at 95% capacity won’t pop under the same pressure as it would if it were filled to its maximum capacity. This adjustment allows individuals to work more thoughtfully and reduces the feeling of being rushed, which ultimately helps to manage stress levels more effectively.
The idea of going slower fits hand in hand with Rabin’s second P—presence. This is all about focusing on being present in each task rather than multitasking or rushing.
“It is so much less stressful for your mind because when you’re thinking about a task that you need to do that you can’t complete at that moment, it creates functional freeze,” says Rabin.
By slowing down and creating stronger boundaries, your downtime is also more efficient. And having this downtime is crucial. Rabin compares it to Olympic athletes. In order to perform at their best, they have to take their recovery seriously.
“People don’t recognize the costs of functional freeze and… incur those costs later when they’re exhausted, burnt out, [need] to take a leave of absence, maybe [have] a medical illness or their work productivity really starts dropping,” says Rabin. “By tending to functional freeze as a form of [daily] self-care, you’re protecting yourself from a bigger downside loss if you burn out or get sick.”
Photo courtesy of Shark9208888/Shutterstock
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